Of course that made Nate wonder what Ramsey’s ulterior motive was with this whole fake dating thing. Sure, getting Nate’s teammates and Wes off their backs was appealing, but this was a lot to do just to make that happen.
“Why are you even suggesting this?” Nate asked bluntly.
The corner of Ramsey’s mouth quirked up. Nate wished the memory of kissing it was hazier, but it was crystal clear still.
“You worried about me?” Ramsey asked.
“Maybe I’m worried aboutme.”
Nate was aware Ramsey had deliberately not answered the question, but he’d be stupid to assume he could make Ramsey, of all people, tell him something he didn’t want to.
Maybe Ramsey refused to admit it, even to himself.
“Don’t try to convince me you’re an asshole, Nathaniel. I won’t believe you.”
“Even though I’ve been a dick to you a bunch of times?” Nate asked archly.
But Ramsey just shrugged. “Maybe I deserved it. Some of it, anyway.”
That wasn’t right either, though. Ramsey had told him the score before Nate had ever kissed him. And when he’d done it, he’d embraced Ramsey with eyes wide open. He’dhopedsomething else would happen, sure, and he’d begun to believe that maybe it might, before they’d walked into the kitchen together. But who was to say that hadn’t been Nate’s wishful thinking overflowing?
“You told me the truth that night.”
Ramsey gazed at him. Nate was mesmerized, in spite of himself. In spite of definitely knowing better. But then, that was the whole idea now, wasn’t it? He wassupposedto be mesmerized. Admittedly, not when they were alone, necessarily, but they’d need to practice, right, in order to pull this off?
“Yeah,” Ramsey admitted.
“And I laughed at you.”
“I especially liked the bit where you called me Willy Nylander’s dog walker.”
He couldn’t mean that. “You don’t mean that.”
“Hey, maybeyouaren’t aware, but I know how much Willy spoils those dogs.”
It was still humiliating, when Nate thought about it. “You just let me go on and on, digging myself into a deeper hole.”
Between one blink and the next, Ramsey was suddenly in his space, hands up on his shoulders, gazing up in Nate’s eyes. His own glinted with amusement. Before, Nate would’ve shucked him off in a hot second, because they weren’t doing this any longer, but now he guessed . . .well, they were practicing right? That had to be what Ramsey was doing, because he didn’t do anything without a purpose.
“Hey, listen, if I was actually offended, I wouldn’t have suggested we hook up that night,” Ramsey said.
He was tall, but Nate was taller, and Nate couldn’t help the perverse enjoyment of seeing Ramsey gaze up at him like this.
Hewasbeautiful, especially like this. But it was funny, because his beauty, while an undeniable, constant, insistent reminder, wasn’t what kept Nate fascinated by him.
It was all those tall, slippery, impossible to climb, impossible to demolish walls, and how every once in awhile they’d shift just enough for Nate to get a glimpse of what might be behind them.
“What, you have a kink for people who laugh at you?”
Ramsey’s pink tongue flicked out, wetting the bottom of his even pinker lip. Ten out of ten times, Nate was sure that was one of the most effective tools in his not-inconsiderable arsenal. And yeah it worked on Nate too, even as he fought against succumbing to the weaponized gesture.
“You think you were laughing at me, Nathaniel?”
“Well, yeah. What doyouthink I was doing?”
“Come on. We were laughing together.” Ramsey shot him a look like he couldn’t believe he had to explain this.
“You really believe that.”
