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Chapter Eight
Seducing Gloria was the easiest and hardest job Nate had ever had.
Easy, because Gloria fell for his and Kris’s ruse hook, line, and sinker.
Hard, because Nate had to pretend to be Kris’s boyfriend—a shitty one who flirted with her future stepmother behind her back at that—while not touching her the way he wanted to.
Yes, they cuddled and hugged when Gloria was around, but that wasn’t the same. Nate wanted Kris alone, for real. No acting. He wanted her beneath him, screaming his name while he drove into her. He wanted her mouth around his cock, and his fingers bringing her over the edge, and—
“Dude, careful!” Elijah’s voice jerked Nate out of his fantasies.
Nate cursed as coffee spilled over the edge of the mug and scalded his fingers. He quickly set the drink on the counter and washed his hands with ice-cold water before cleaning up his mess.
It’d only been two weeks since he and Kris started their boyfriend-girlfriend act, and he was already in over his head. That was what happened when you spent time with someone almost every day.
For their plan to succeed, he had to be around Gloria, which meant regular trips to Kris’s house. Not that Nate was complaining. The mansion boasted everything a guy could want, and he enjoyed hanging out with Kris. She was spoiled, yeah, but he supposed it was hard not to be when you had that many zeros in your bank account. Plus, she was funny and incisive and hot as hell. No bullshit, which he appreciated, and she smelled amazing—
Nate stifled a groan.Two weeks in and he was already blurring the lines between business and pleasure. What had started as a challenge (melt Kris’s icy exterior) and side hustle (the whole seduce-Gloria scheme) had turned into something else entirely—and he and Kris hadn’t even had a proper kiss yet.
Fuck.
“What’s with you lately? You’ve been distracted as hell.” Elijah crossed his arms over his chest. With his spiky blue hair, nose ring, and penchant for black, he would be more at home in a hipster Brooklyn dive bar than a trendy, all-white L.A. cafe named Alchemy. Then again, his father was the cafe’s owner, so he didn’t have much choice when it came to where he worked.
“Lot on my mind.” Nate made a new latte. This time, he stopped the machine right as the coffee hit the brim.
He couldn’t afford any mess-ups. Elijah was an old friend from high school and had done Nate a solid getting him this job. Decent salary, nice coworkers, clean environment, and flexible enough when Nate had to adjust his shifts for auditions or family emergencies. He didn’t want to fuck it up by giving Elijah’s dad—a notorious hardass—any reason to fire him. Luckily, Elijah’s father was rarely around, and Liza, the manager who ran daily operations, loved Nate.
Still, better safe than sorry.
“I can see that. At the risk of sounding like a clingy girlfriend, we haven’t hung out in weeks.” Elijah popped an eyebrow. “Wait. Do you have a new girl? That why you’ve been so MIA lately?”
“Not really,” Nate said with a twinge of guilt. He spent most of his time with Kris these days, to the detriment of his other relationships. “Sorry, man. Let’s hang soon. I’ll kick your ass atCall of Duty.”
Elijah snorted, all ire gone. That was the great thing about him—he never held a grudge. “You couldn’t kick my ass if I glued it to your foot.”
Nate finished the latte art and smirked at his friend. “Wanna bet? Twenty bucks says I can.”
“Since when do you bet money?”
Never.Nate never bet with money. But he had $7,500 sitting pretty in his bank account, twenty bucks wasn’t that much money, and he was in a good mood—he’d gotten a callback for the crime thriller role.
“It’s a good day.”
Nate rounded the counter and walked over to the dark-haired woman who’d ordered the coffee. She smiled her thanks. She was a regular who kept to herself most of the time, but she was nice and tipped well, which was more than he could say for most customers.
“Can I get you anything else?” he asked.
“No, thanks.” The woman’s gaze strayed to the entrance like she was waiting for someone. She did that a lot, except Nate had never seen her here with another person. “I’m okay for now.”
“If you change your mind, you know where to find me.”
Nate flashed a charming grin and returned to his spot behind the counter. Elijah was on his phone, playing some stupid game, and Nate was refilling the pastry case when the chimes over the door rang.
He saw Elijah straighten out of the corner of his eye.
“Dude, that’s her,” his friend hissed.
“Who?” Nate slid a croissant onto the shelf, not really caring about the answer. Elijah had more crushes than a middle school girl.
