Carly jumped to her feet. "You know, this isn�t really a good time for me. I�m supposed to meet the contractor for the club . . ."
"Sit down." Jason�s tone left no room for argument.
Play innocent, Carly reminded herself. "Is something wrong?"
Jason nearly smiled. Oh, she was good. If he didn�t know her as well as he did he would�ve been fooled. Too bad she wasn�t looking him straight in the eye . . . that tell tale sign always had a tendency to give her away when she knew she was in trouble. "What happened last night?" he asked calmly. A little too calmly, Carly thought.
What to do, she frantically thought. Oh, yes! When innocence doesn�t work . . . try outrage. She took a deep breath. "I was going to ask you that same question. What the hell were you doing hanging all over Brenda last night?"
He shook his head. Didn�t she know she was just getting herself in deeper? It was time to shoot straight. "Carly, I know you set us up. What I want to know is . . . why did you do it?" Jason paused. He could see the gears in her mind working hard trying to come up with something. "The truth, Carly."
She was drawing a blank. She had to stall. "What exactly is it that you want to know?"
Patience, Jason reminded himself, patience. He be damned if Carly and Brenda weren�t more alike than they thought. "Okay, we�ll start with how did you get us to the cottage?"
Outrage again. "Oh, so you automatically assume it was me?!"
"Carly."
She threw herself down on the couch and stared straight ahead. "I mixed a few sleeping pills in the spaghetti sauce." She sighed, deciding she�d better get it all out now so he could rant and rave at her. "Then when you and Brenda passed out, I had Johnny help me get you guys in the car and out to the cottage." Sonny was already furious enough at her, so she decided to keep him out of this. Maybe he�d be grateful enough to stop Jason from killing her. "He got you guys upstairs. Jase, I swear I made him wait outside while I got your clothes off!" Jason�s eyes widened with an incredulous look. "What? I kept my eyes closed! You don�t really think I want to see Brenda naked, do you?" She shuddered at the thought.
"Explain the hickey on Brenda�s neck."
Carly couldn�t hide her smile at that. She was actually proud of that one . . . it made her plan look authentic. After a look at her friend, she quickly wiped the grin off her face. He didn�t look amused. "Brenda bruises easily." she shrugged. She decided to leave out the fact that pinching the other woman had given her a small bit of satisfaction.
Jason stood looking at Carly in awe. She amazed him, she really did. He wasn�t sure wanted to know why she had gone to all this trouble. And he was pretty sure he wouldn�t understand her logic if she tried to explain it to him. He thought back to a few months ago when he�d told her she needed to get a hobby and he hoped to hell that this wasn�t it.
Carly studied him for a minute before speaking. "Jason, look . . . I know things are bad for you right now because of the whole Courtney thing and that�s part of the reason I did this. I know you don�t want to hurt her, but she�ll get over you a lot quicker if she thinks that your marriage turned into a real one. It�s the easiest way." she said softly. Courtney? He�d forgotten all about Courtney with everything that was going on. "I just thought, you know, if you can put off the annulment a little while longer . . . and I guess that�s why I called Jax. If he thinks you�re sleeping with Brenda, he�s not going to be so pushy about the marriage ending."
Jason shook his head and astonished her by laughing. "Man, you should�ve seen the look on Jax�s face." Suddenly he remembered the way Brenda�s hand felt on his bare chest. Brenda! She was still at the cottage and by his guess, not happy. "Even if I decided not to kill you for the stunt you�ve pulled, what makes you think that Brenda won�t? She�s sitting there at the cottage right now, staring at the hickey on her neck thinking we had sex . . . when she finds out what you�ve done . . ." he shook his head again.
Carly took a deep breath . . . "Who says she has to know?"