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“Well that half of the sentence was certainly a lie,” he said.
I paused for a moment. “Mm.” I wiggled my lips to the side, deciding not to acknowledge his suggestion that the latter half of his sentence was true. If Mason genuinely wanted to rip my dress off, I genuinely didn’t want to know. I had no place in my head for that kind of information. Arms still crossed, I changed the subject. “So, is this the part where you charge all this stuff to your account?” I asked lamely.
“Do you have everything you need for St. Lucia?”
“If I buy all the dresses I tried on today, I have more than enough.”
Mason cocked an eyebrow. “Swimwear?”
“I have swimsuits at home.”
“The point is to get new things Aaron’s never seen before,” Mason said, his eyes skimming the sweetheart neck of my dress. He laughed when I played with my hair to block his view of my cleavage. “This isn’t an attempt to con my way into watching you get naked and try on bikinis, Taylor. I just want you to get my brother’s attention because that’s the plan. If you want privacy, I can easily leave again. I do have a lot of work to do at the office.”
I blushed despite myself. “That’s not it,” I lied, suddenly confused and not at all sure why. “I just don’t want you spending any more money here. I can get good bikinis that don’t cost four hundred dollars a piece, okay?” I laughed. “I’ll just have Sofia take me somewhere. She’s the queen of shopping for this kind of stuff.”
Mason let his gaze linger on me for a second before saying, “Okay.” Unless I imagined it, there was a hint of knowing smugness in his smile before he turned to walk away and find the salesgirl. Once he was out of sight, I groaned inwardly, raking my hand through my hair and trying to figure out what was weird about our conversation just now. But I couldn’t. The weirdness just hung in the air, leaving me feeling vaguely unsettled despite the fact that I’d just recorded a hands-down win against Whitney Frickin’ Decker.
As Mason paid for my things, I stayed in the fitting room with the salesgirl, who helped me out of my dress. She was quiet as she unzipped me and slipped all my new dresses into black garment bags, but once she was done and I was back to my usual sweater and jeans, she dared to flash a sly look. “This is our first time seeing Mr. Leo in the store,” she said quietly. “He never actually comes in to shop, so… you must be a special one.”
I laughed. “A special case, that’s for sure.”
“Well, whatever it is, he’s… very handsome. So it must be fun,” she whispered as she walked me out toward Mason, who waiting for me at the counter, his black pea coat on again and its sharp collar turned up to skim his jaw. He was on the phone with the office so I took the moment to study him without his knowing, realizing that – ugh. Even if I didn’t say it aloud, I did have to admit it to just myself: So far, faking it with Mason was actually kind of fun.
Chapter Six
Monday lunch with Sofia was a necessity for both of us, and it started with her confessing three things: one, that she already knew about my “new fling,” two, that she shamelessly approved, and three, she too would be attending Aaron’s wedding to Eva.
“I’m sorry, Taylor! I swear to God I was torturing myself trying to figure out how to tell you, and I promise I’m still going to punch him in the mouth when I see him, even if it’s on the day of his wedding and then I have to do his fucking makeup after to cover it up,” she rambled and cringed at once, her fingers thrust in her copper hair. “I just had to go because my family was pressuring me to so I could get the scoop on what the hell Aaron’s even thinking. And my agency would kill me if I said no to that… sweet, sweet, Tully money.”
I burst out laughing. “Hey, someone needs to do the bride’s makeup. And money is money, so I get it,” I said truthfully, reaching across our Benedicts to give her hand a reassuring squeeze.
I couldn’t stay mad at the girl. Sofia Ricardi was the youngest cousin of the Leo brothers and my best friend since I started dating Aaron three years ago. While Aaron and Sofia had always been close, our bond quickly surpassed theirs the moment we met, which started with me breathing, “Your eyebrows are perfect.” The second Sofia revealed she did makeup for a living, my girly side awakened with the giggly force of a thousand rainbows, and since then, we’d been practically sisters. In fact, she was the sole reason I even survived the weeks after Aaron left. Aside from swearing to cause him physical harm upon their next meeting, she brought me wine and dinner several days a week, even wrapping my couch with a fitted sheet and comforter when I insisted on sleeping there instead of the bed.
Despite Mason’s insistence, I honestly couldn’t imagine keeping our fake relationship a secret from Sofia. But the task became a little easier when I heard she’d be coming with us to St. Lucia. The idea of everyone watching Mason and me act like a loving new couple was daunting enough, so I definitely didn’t need Sofia constantly peering at me and giggling about how convincing I was, teasing me about how I totally had a crush on Mason or whatever. It was actually simpler to let the crush ship sail and just pretend we were real.
Plus, it meant I could just go ahead and talk about how hot things got at the store yesterday.
I had to tell the story. It was an undeniably good one and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t at least a teensy bit turned on by the filth that came out of Mason’s mouth when he saw me in that dress. I just reasoned that at least half the tingly thrill came from the fact that we’d teamed up to knock Whitney down several pegs, so it wasn’t anything to be worried about. It was just a fun little act. Besides, there was no woman in the world who wouldn’t be somewhat to completely titillated by the idea of Mason Leo wanting to tear her clothes off. So that was my defense.
Sofia was giving me a hard time about it though.
“Ew, can yo
u stop?”
“What?”
“I can tell you’re thinking about Mason right now and trust me, I’m used to sex conversations with you that involve one of my cousins, but I don’t know if I can handle the way you’re squirming right now.”
“You’re exaggerating.”
“I’m not. I’ve definitely never seen you relive a memory so good that you started making sex faces right in public.”
“Sof! Gross.”
“You’re telling me! I’m the one who has to look at this shit,” she said with a dramatic shudder. “But it’s fine. Now I know to tell the resort to put me in a room way down the hall from you and Mase. I should probably tell them to order a couple extra headboards while I’m at it.”
My cheeks burned. “Okay, let’s… please never talk about the prospect of me and Mason having sex,” I said, failing to recognize my slip-up till Sofia made a funny face at me.
