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As the chilly air crawls under my jacket, I laugh at the idea of spending my annual leave in the Arctic. What was I thinking?
As much as I want the walk to help me with my current dilemma, the conclusion is underwhelming. I don’t think I can get a boyfriend fast enough for my dad to see how happily settled I am. Ugh! Just the thought of settling makes me sick.
Even if I run into an acceptable candidate right now, it wouldn’t be real. But it doesn’t have to be. I can fake it. For Dad, I can definitely fake it.
Now that’s an idea. I don’t need an actual boyfriend, because there is no way I’m going to fall in love anyway. I just need a fake one.
I pull out my phone and scroll through my contacts. Shit. I don’t have a close enough male friend to ask them for this type of favor. Most of my acquaintances are busy people, and just coordinating our calendars to deliver on such a charade would be impossible.
Deflated, I turn into my building and take the elevator. On my floor, I automatically turn toward the door across from mine. Maybe I left my inhibition at the bottom of my last drink, but suddenly Dominic seems like a solution to my problem.
He’s available, my dad likes him, our schedules work out, and he wouldn’t have to invest much time since I’m just across the hallway. A convenient fake boyfriend. Yes, I hate him, but even that plays to my advantage because I can be sure there won’t be a heartache.
I look at my home and then back to his door. Before I lose my cool or realize I haven’t considered why on Earth would he agree to this, I knock on his door. It’s time to get myself a fake boyfriend.
Chapter10
Dominic
Though I’m trying to find a precedent to help with another case—this time for Cesare’s neighbor—my mind keeps coming back to London.
She’s like a dragon, spitting fire all the time. It’s a mask she formed at one point like a protective wall. Why? It’s like she imprisoned her happiness in a stone tower and lost the keys.
Her father and stepmother are nice people. Bianca is a bit overbearing and intense, but they are lovely. Certainly more supportive than my parents have ever been.
And she gets along with her siblings. So why would someone who grew up in a loving, supportive family turn into such an angry ball of energy?
Micah alluded to something in her past. Something filed the edges of her personality too sharp, but he said it’s her story to tell. And that only made me more intrigued.
What made her so angry and inconsiderate of others on the one hand, and so involved in helping on the other?
The more burning question is, why do I care?
I groan. As much as I hate her dragon act, it’s a turn on. She despises me or pretends to. I’m pretty sure she regrets that she kissed me.
The woman’s need to be in control is perhaps greater than mine. I want to unwrap those protective layers and see her naked truth. And her naked body.
My cock jerks behind my zipper. I haven’t had sex in two months and two weeks. Yes, I’m counting. Normally I would assume it’s the absence of sex making me horny around her, but that’s not the case. My arousal only correlates with her presence. Case in point, the embarrassing lap dance from Patagonia.
Who would have thought that Dominic ‘The Player’ Cressard could grow immune to lap dances? Poor Nia almost started crying because she worried she would get fired, and she really needs the money. That’s what got us talking, and I ended up offering her my place and the job.
Lately, I’m offering help all the time. It kind of goes against my decision to take a sabbatical, but I can’t help it. That day when I started working on Alonso’s, then London’s cases was the first day I felt really alive. In the longest time.
London’s case was a mistake, though. Instead of thanking me, she comes and accuses me of sleeping with Felicia Warren? Not even if she was the last woman in the world.
For one, she likes boys young enough to be her sons—the reason I was at the club in the first place, to confront her about her vapid affair—but more importantly, she is as feminine as a rock. And quite a bitch, as I learned from T’s and Nia’s research.
Is London jealous? She seems to hate me. Though her lips tonight, those full dark pink lips, didn’t seem on board with the hatred. Her body shivered under my prowling gaze. She was fighting it, but she wanted me at that moment.
I won’t lie. I want to fuck her. She is hot and she excites me, and I want to fuck her to get back into the game.
She is not a delicate flower who would demand a relationship, and even if it was a hate fuck for her, I don’t care. I need to get back into the saddle, and if it’s the always annoyed neighbor who can boost me there, then so be it.
My cock hardens at the idea. Shit. The only problem is she’s been fighting it so hard. Silly woman. The idea of wearing her down pleases me more than it should.
Challenge accepted. I’m going to screw London Lowe before Christmas. And maybe then I’ll be able to return to my life in Chicago.
I almost fist my cock to jerk off to the idea of it when someone knocks. What the hell? It’s past midnight and only Nia and my housekeeper have free access to get inside the building.
