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Olympia
My supposed new boyfriend ignored me on the drive to the event—something fancy for the label—and has ignored me since arriving. After introducing me to the rest of the guys, who I, of course, know from my online stalking of Cole, I was left with their women. At first, it was awkward, but I’m used to awkward. I can fill blank spaces like a pro, so that’s what I did.
Wrenlee and Nevaeh were the first to warm up to me, but after explaining that I had every intention of going to school in the fall to hopefully take an active role in the company my great grandfather started, and handed down to his daughter, my grandmother, whom I loved dearly and miss with a pain that is excruciating, Candace started coming around, too. I think she was mostly worried I was here with Cole—Tav—everyone in this new life he leads calls him Tav—I think Candace worried I was here for his money.
In a way, that is true. Broke as I am, it’s not like I can fork any massive bills. But I will be able to pay him back when my inheritance comes in.
Until then, I’m kind of at his mercy when it comes to the life I live, and the things I have. As it is, I need to buy a car with the little money I’d been able to pull from my cards to fluff my personal, secret account.
Even before I’d known where I’d run, I’d been stashing money in my getaway account.
I’d been unhappy for so long, dreaming of escape.
A big presence appears at my back, and I know instantly by the scent of spices and shaved wood that it’s him. Trying not to stiffen, I ignore the way the hairs rise on my body as Wrenlee stops talking about her twins long enough to give me wide eyeballs and shifty brows.
She can’t possibly be trying to be covert. If she is, I’m never taking her on any mission to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes. She’d oust us all.
Slowly, I turn to face my fake boyfriend, who is doing a real damn crappy job of acting the part and smile sweetly up at him. “Hey, you.”
He bends low until I feel hot breath whisper across the shell of my ear. Goosebumps rise on my flesh and a shiver snakes through my body as my breath catches in my lungs. My response to this man is anything but fake.
“The cameras have arrived.” His breath on my flesh might be warm, but the words he says fill me with ice. Still, I’m nothing if not excellent at acting.
I’ve been doing it for years.
So, I lean into him, placing my hands on his chest as I tip my head back to look up at him, pushing all the past adoration I’ve ever felt for this man into my eyes as I peer up at him. “Should we dance?”
He swallows hard before he gives me a single nod. Then his big hands are on my waist, and he’s tugging me in close. My breath catches and warmth spills into my cheeks that I don’t bother trying to hide. It’ll make this show we’re putting on look more real, anyway.
Still, as he tugs me onto the floor with a twirl practiced in another life—definitely not a rockstar’s life—Cole spins me around the dance floor before he settles in the center, like he wants to be seen with me. I suppose, by the way he dips his head and smiles affectionately at me, he does. In response, I let the blush I feel tint my cheeks deeper as I smile shyly up at him.
His hand on my waist pulses as his fingertips dig in just enough to have air escaping from my lungs in a rush. I hate that I love how it feels to be here in his arms. I’ve had this fantasy so many times in my life, it’s pathetic. What’s more pathetic, is that in order to have this, to experience this, I had to blackmail him.
Gosh, don’t think about that, Olympia. Thinking about the reality I’m living, is surely going to wipe the glow of an infatuated woman from my face, replacing it with something sour and telling.
Cole pulls me tighter into his chest until my front is pressing against his as the song switches to something slower. My heart rate kicks up a notch, as the warmth of his body seeps through our clothes and into my skin. Around the back of his neck, my fingers curl over the short line of his buzzed hair. The dark in his eyes darkens as he watches me. Studies me. I fight my shiver as I let my eyes drift closed, praying he can’t feel the thundering of my heart against his chest.
When he drops his head and I feel the warmth of his breath against my temple, my silly heart flutters like this is real.
“You’re good at this.”
“I’ve had a lifetime of practice.”
“Of playing the men you’re meant to be closest to?”
“Of playing everyone.” I pull back to lock his eyes with my own. “But I’m not playing you, Cole. You know the terms of this deal. I’m only filling them.”
He grunts a response, but I do notice how he pulls me close again to devour the space I put between us.
After a long moment of silence, I feel his mouth by my temple. “I think you might be the best actress I’ve ever seen, Pipsqueak. Because you might even fool me in the end of this.”
That flutter in my heart turns to a full-out flip. It’s not a nice flip, either. It’s the kind of flip that precedes a quick sink.
I hate how he thinks I’m out to dupe him.
I hate how his feelings for me are crafted around his hate for her.
I let my fingers toy with the short hair at the back of his neck as I tip my head back to gaze in what I hope looks like adoration up at him. “Truce?”
