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Leo met her gaze, then let his eyes roam over all of her face. “You’re beautiful when you’re furious,” he said softly, then cleared his throat like he hadn’t meant to say that out loud.
And—well—
Ugh!
“I amnot.”
A brow arched, and Leo’s gaze met hers once more. “That’s what you want to argue about? That you’re not beautiful when you’re angry?”
“I want to argue about a lot of things,” she gritted out through clenched teeth. “Like, for example, what the hell just happened in there.”
“We should really get back. The cake—”
“Oh, spare me.” Amelia turned in her seat and clamped her hands on her knees, then brought them up to slap against her face. She felt like a giant had grabbed her by the ankles and shook her like a piggy bank, hoping her brain would fall out of her ears in fat gold coins. She couldn’t make sense of her thoughts.
But they really did need to get the cake to the hotel. Leo waited until her seatbelt was clipped to gently ease himself into the street.
“Keep an eye on the cake,” he commanded, like this was his car and his cake. The arrogant turd of a man. Argh!
Amelia ground her teeth and glanced at the back seat, because despite everything, she didn’t want to ruin Maggie’s wedding cake. It was secure and survived the first turn that took them onto the bridge that linked this side of Stirling to the town’s central district.
Reaching back to put a hand on top of the cardboard box, Amelia took a few deep breaths. She didn’t want to upset Leo while they were carrying such precious cargo, so she forced herself to stay silent until they pulled into the hotel parking lot and Leo turned off the engine.
Then, Amelia removed her hand from the cardboard box in the back seat and knotted her fingers together on her lap. She took a long, deep breath.
“I can explain,” Leo said quietly.
She blinked and took another breath, lest her anger take over and she use his seatbelt as a garrote, which was exactly what he deserved. “Please,” she finally answered pleasantly. “That would be wonderful. In your own time.” She made a careless flick of her hand, for emphasis, hoping he could smell the sarcasm and bitterness pouring off her skin.
Leo’s shoulders fell as he combed a hand through his perfect haircut, but Amelia didn’t feel a twinge of pity. Oh, no. She wasn’t letting him off the hook that easily. This man had just pretended to be betrothed to her! He’d lied to his boss!
The worst part of it all was Amelia felt oddly humiliated. Was it a joke? A prank? A man like Leo would never stoop so low as to be with Amelia. She had no game. She spent her days behind a computer screen, sorting through data for hours on end. She had it on good authority that she was terrible in bed, and it wasn’t like any other man had ever disproved that theory by begging her for sex after the first time or two.
Her ex had beenveryclear. Her skills between the sheets were abysmal, and nothing she had tried had ever been an improvement. She was sitting beside a man who had allegedly given his entire college chlamydia because he hadsomany women dying to sleep with him, and she knew for a fact that her own skills ranked somewhere far below terrible.
But she wouldn’t cry. No way. She wouldn’t give Leo the satisfaction. If this was some sick joke, it would bounce right off her.
“I’ve been telling everyone at work I’m engaged for the better part of a year,” Leo admitted quietly. The car’s engine clicked and rattled as it cooled down, filling the silence that followed his words. He let out a huff and turned to meet Amelia’s gaze. “It turned into this whole…thing. Everyone became obsessed with it, and the more I tried to deflect, the more they tried to figure out who she was. Fred and my coworkers would try to convince me to bring my fiancée to work events, and I’d dodge the invitations. This week is the annual work retreat, and Fred was really putting the pressure on me. Partners are always invited, so he said I had no excuse.”
“So your solution was to lie to him? What happens when I don’t show up on Wednesday?”
He scrubbed his face then let his hands drop on top of the steering wheel, which reminded Amelia that she was angry that he’d somehow hijacked her car keys and was driving her car. Although, she had to admit, the cake probably had a better chance of survival with him behind the wheel. She wasn’t a bad driver, but the ride had definitely been smoother with him at the helm.
But that wasn’t the point!
The point was, he was an arrogant, lying bastard, and she wanted nothing to do with him.
“I panicked,” Leo said. “He was right there, and I’d just been touching your face, and if you weren’t my mysterious fiancée, it would look like I was cheating on her. And everyone already thinks I’m some kind of manwhore—”
“Pestilence,” Amelia said, then clamped her lips shut.
The bitter laugh that fell from Leo’s lips was an awful sound. He leaned his head back against the headrest. It hit with a soft thump. “Yeah. I wondered if you’d heard about that.”
“So it’s true?”
Leo’s gaze turned shuttered, and his lips curled into a flirtatious smile. “It’s all true, sweetheart. I’m as bad as they come.”
Amelia rolled her eyes and reached for the door. She wasn’t going to sit there and listen to that. It sounded a hell of a lot like self-pity. Whatever reputation Leo had in college, it was none of her business. They were both in their thirties now, and plus, they should be inside the hotel celebrating Maggie and Emory’s wedding. This whole situation was ridiculous, and it had nothing to do with her. So there. The end.
