Page 76 of Fake It For Him

“Like hell, you will,” I objected immediately. “That car is my baby. It’s my⁠—”

“Stop being such a guy.” She took my arm, led me to the passenger door, opened it, and held out her palm. “Nothing is going to happen to your baby. You’ll be right next to me. Besides, I can’t exactly fix you up on the sidewalk and you’re in no shape to drive.”

I cursed under my breath some more as I dug into my pocket and fished out the damn keys. “Fine, but stay under the speed limit and keep a five-car following distance.”

“A sure way to get in an accident,” she muttered, waiting for me to sit my ass down before she shut the door and walked around to the steering wheel.

I got comfortable, leaning my head back as I held the sweet-scented fabric against my nose. She checked out the dashboard from the driver’s side and suddenly grinned. Nerves rippled through me. Her tears were gone, replaced by definite glee as she pressed the button to start the engine.

“I’m sorry you got hurt,” she said sincerely, running her fingers lightly across the steering wheel. “I can’t say I’m sorry that it’s giving me an excuse to drive this thing, though.”

“Straight home,” I muttered, but at the same time, it was a bit of thrill that she was as taken by my car as I was. “No speeding.”

“Yes, sir,” she said jokingly and slowly eased her foot down on the gas to pull into the street.

I groaned. “Don’t call me that right now. We can try it once the blood stops, but absolutely not in this context.”

She chuckled, sitting straight up with both hands on the steering wheel. I kept waiting for her to accelerate, but she didn’t. She also didn’t say anything else, her sole focus on driving. I watched her for a minute before I reached out and put my hand on her leg.

“You can go a little bit faster than a crawl. At this rate, we won’t get to my place until Sunday.”

“Yes, sir,” she joked again, but I heard the nerves in her voice this time, kicking it up a few octaves higher than usual. “I’ll do my best to get us there by Thursday.”

I laughed, but then grimaced when it sent more pain spiraling through me. Deciding to let her concentrate on driving, I kept my mouth shut the rest of the way home. I just held the shirt against my nose and obsessed about what Mikey had said like some preteen girl.

As her best friend, he’d know stuff I wouldn’t. Like the fact that she loved me apparently. The mere prospect made my head spin. Is he right? Does she love me, or did they have a misunderstanding?

Based on the pain in my face and the fact that she’d said she had nowhere to sleep tonight, it was kind of obvious that they’d fought, but still, I didn’t know if she’d admitted to loving me and that was what had set him off, or if he was just making assumptions.

Since he’d brought it up at all, it was a safe bet that their fight had been about us, but why?

All these questions burned holes in my brain, but I didn’t ask them. If Ella wanted to talk to me about their fight, she would. I had to respect that. I’d long since realized she wasn’t a toy I could push around or a puppet I could pull the strings of however I wanted.

It was difficult but I didn’t ask any of my questions. I didn’t demand to know the answers. I just sat there, giving her space as she drove us home like a geriatric with severe confidence issues.

When we finally got to my place, we climbed out of the car and Ella silently followed me inside. I glanced at her as I shut the door behind us. “I’ll fetch your bags later. Let’s get this sorted so I don’t bleed all over your stuff. Then I’ll go grab them.”

She nodded, and the flash of humor I’d seen in her in the car seemed to be gone. Instead, she just looked empty, sad, and nervous. At least that meant I’d done the right thing not pressing her for answers. Taking her hand, I wrapped my fingers around hers and brought her knuckles to my lips, then brushed a soft kiss to them and led her to my bathroom.

She took the first-aid kit I handed over, and she cared for me just as gently and naturally as she had back in Edinburgh. I never thought we’d be back here—or that she’d essentially be living with me—but that was what was happening right now. If I had known it was going to happen, I’d have thought I’d resist it a bit harder than this, though. Thought I’d have fought having a live-in girlfriend, even a fake one, tooth and nail.

Instead, I wasn’t resisting at all. I wanted to be where I was and I wanted her to be here with me, taking care of me exactly like this. What that said about two people whose relationship was supposed to be fake, I didn’t know, but I didn’t question it.

What I did do was let her fix me up. Then I stripped us both down to our underwear and pulled her into bed with me. “You want to try cuddling again?”

“That sounds great,” she murmured and she rested her head on my chest and burrowed into my side, holding on to me like I was her ultimate protector. “We’ll get my stuff tomorrow?”

I nodded. We hadn’t even brushed our teeth, but I guessed we were just going to be rebels about it tonight. I sure as fuck wasn’t letting go of her for something as mundane as dental care right now. I reached out and flicked off the light on my nightstand. Then I closed my eyes, not even thinking about taking it any further. Tonight, for the first time in my life, the only thing I wanted from the half-naked woman in my bed was for her to let me hold her while we slept.

40

ELLA

I had accidentally moved in with someone. Strange but true. For normal couples, living together was a huge step. Something that was discussed and considered to death, pros and cons measured and the state of the relationship thoroughly assessed for its readiness to handle cohabitation.

In our case, all it’d taken had been that one phone call. I’d called, he’d come running, and that had been the end of it. For a week now, we’d been living together, and so far, it’d been nothing short of domestic bliss.

We hadn’t discussed our situation at all, nor had we labeled it, made any rules, or broached the subject of how long it would last. Calan seemed perfectly happy to let me stay and I was perfectly happy to be there, so we’d just sort of left it.