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“What kind of letters?”
His jaw hardens. “You don’t want to know.”
“Okay.” I shrug. “I don’t want to know. That doesn’t explain why I’m here.”
“They all want to be my girlfriend. Want to tie me down and ride the easy track to fame. I don’t fucking know.” He swipes at his lip again. “Just know I’m not interested.”
“So, you want me to pretend to be your girlfriend, so they think you’re unavailable and don’t try?”
“Some will still try.”
“Gross.” I wince. He watches me so closely I feel like he can see through me.Into me.
“The guys in the band like the attention. The groupies. They didn’t grow up in this life, so it’s still a novelty to them.” I nod again. “They don’t get why I’m annoyed by it. They take the pussy thrown at them and walk without looking back. That would be all well and good, if that pussy didn’t stir shit after, but it almost always does.” When I flinchat the harshness of his words, he glares unapologetically at me. “You’ll give me a buffer. Space to breathe.”
“Why don’t you just get a real girlfriend?”
He doesn’t miss a beat. “Already told you, real girlfriends want to tie a man down. Manipulate him. Cause shit. I’m not interested in that.”
“O—kay.”
“I don’t want to be accountable to anyone. I don’t want to have to explain myself when I’ve gotta stay late at a gig. Don’t want the cold shoulder when I want to fuck, and my chick is pissed that some bitch tossed her panties at me on stage. Like I said, I want my freedom. That’s where you come in.”
“Because this isn’t real, I won’t make demands of you?”
“Exactly.”
I nod, rolling my lips in thought. The guy is an asshole, that’s a definite fact. I mean, who talks like he does? Who has so little respect for the sanctity of the relationship between two people, and the emotions that go along with it, that they speak as he does? Propose what he’s proposed?
I look around the room and feel disappointment crush my chest. “I don’t think I can do this.”
“What?” Goodness, the man is shrouded in shadows.Does he ever smile?
“I’m not the girl you’re looking for, Cash.” I pull my bottom lip between my teeth. “I wish I could bebecause—you’re offering a kind of reprieve I really need but—” I shake my head at the dream that is this bedroom. Then I harden myself against that dream. “My reputation means something to me. When I look in the mirror, I want to see a girl I like and respect. I won’t feel that way if I pretend to be your girlfriend to the world and you make me look like a love-struck fool with no backbone or self-respect. I’m sorry. I should go.”
He steps forward to catch my arm before I can lift the crate. His dark eyes search mine, mining deep for emotions he can pluck and pull to make me do what he wants.
“What do you mean you’d look like a love-struck fool with no backbone or self-respect?”
I lift my shoulders. “You want a docile doormat to sit at home while you mess around doing whatever you want to do with whoever you want to do it with, and not question you. That’s not me. Honestly, you’d have better luck with one of those girls that has her own agenda for fame as your real girlfriend. She wouldn’t care about what you’re doing, because to her you’d be a steppingstone.”
His eyes sweep my face. “Why would you care about what I was doing?”
“Never in a million years would I stand for my boyfriend cheating on me. Not ever. If I’m with someone, I’m withhim. Only him. I would demand thesame from him, and if he couldn’t do that, I’d walk. It’s that simple. I won’t be the girl the world looks at asthatgirl.”
“If I agree to drop the women, you’ll do this?”
I raise my brows. “You’d do that? Drop the women for this farce?”
“Farce.” He smirks, a small chuckle spilling between us. “That your only condition?”
I shake my head dumbly. “I mean—I don’t know. How are you…” My face begins to heat to an all-time new hot. “What are you going to…”
“You askin’ me how I’ll get off, Kitten?”
“Oh my God.” I close my eyes, because Icannotlook at him.
He laughs, the smoky sound uncomfortably hypnotic. Deliciously rough.
