Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 75553 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75553 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
“What is it?” he asked.
“I… I’m not a good actress,” I confessed to him as I bit down on my bottom lip. “I really mean it, Griff. I’m hopeless. I never got any good parts in my high school plays because I was lousy at hiding my nervousness anytime I got near a stage. If we’re going through with this, well, I’m worried I might mess it up.”
There, I said it. I told him exactly what to expect, so now, he couldn’t be mad at me if I screwed up. He could make sure to cover up for any of my slip ups. I felt relief wash over me even though my body was still thrumming with nervous energy. It was strange to realize that I trusted Griff. I trusted him to make sure we didn’t get caught. He was always so calm and collected outside of this whole takeover ordeal. I knew he’d make this work somehow.
“Remy,” he said, snapping me out of my daydream. I looked at him and realized that while I had been panicking internally, Griff had stood up from his chair. He was towering over me, easily about a foot taller than me even in my heels, and I gulped. I wasn’t sure how I was going to hide my real feelings for Griff if we were going to be in such close quarters all the time.
Then something even worse happened: he held my hands in his. They felt strong, big, and a little rough. Working in an office wouldn’t have made them that way. I wondered what Griff might do in his spare time that would cause calluses on this hands…
“Remy, look at me,” he said and once more pulled me from my reverie. I did as I was told. “I’ve always admired your honesty. You’re one of the most trustworthy people I’ve met in this company, but just this once, I really, really, need you to lie your ass off for me, okay?” He smiled down at me and the white of his teeth was almost blinding. He was so handsome, I could barely breathe for a moment.
When I realized I’d been silent for a little too long, I nodded my head and laughed. “I’ll do my best, Griff, I promise,” I told him and squeezed his hands a little. “But you have to promise me you won’t hold my crappy acting against me during my next performance review.”
I was surprised when my bad attempt at humor actually managed to stir a chuckle from Griff. Hearing his laugh again for the first time in days made me smile. No matter what, I really wanted Griff to be happy.
“I promise you, Remy, that I’ll consider this favor as an example of you going above and beyond the call of duty,” he told me with a smile. “It’ll only be looked upon favorably, I swear.”
“Okay, thank you,” I said before retrieving my hands from his, no matter how much I wanted them to stay there. They were getting sweaty from how closely we were stood and the last thing I wanted was for him to think I had sweaty hands! “So, tell me, what do you expect from me during this whole thing?”
“What do I expect?” Griff asked with a slight tilt of his head.
“You know,” I continued with a shrug. “How do you want me to act when I’m playing the part of… your girlfriend?” Saying it aloud made my heart beat crazy fast even though I knew it was just pretend. A big part of me wanted to know the real answer to that question. Would Griff be able to teach me to be his ideal girlfriend? That was an incredible thought.
However, Griff didn’t seem to be on the same page as me. He shrugged and sat back down at his desk again. “I don’t expect you to do much out of the ordinary, to be honest, Remy,” he explained as he began sorting through the papers on his desk. “After all, even if we were dating, this is still a workplace. We wouldn’t exactly be doing any kind of PDA in front of our co-workers, so don’t worry. There won’t be any… physical components.”
My heart dropped. I was glad Griff had his back turned on me since I no doubt looked extremely disappointed in that moment. It wasn’t like I wanted any kind of attention from Griff if it was all fake, but at the same time, it would have been wonderful to finally find out what his lips felt like pressed against my own…
“Did you have any other questions?” Griff asked from where he was scribbling down notes.
“N-no, not at all,” I told him before finally moving my feet and heading for the door. “I’ll go out now and send your schedule over to Kelly like she wanted. I’ll also get the word out about our relationship to some of the other staff. Just in case Kelly decides to snoop some more.” I walked as fast as I could, hoping to finally get a moment to myself where I processed everything.