Total pages in book: 46
Estimated words: 44746 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 224(@200wpm)___ 179(@250wpm)___ 149(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 44746 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 224(@200wpm)___ 179(@250wpm)___ 149(@300wpm)
I put my arm around her shoulders. She looks surprised but she doesn’t try to pull away.
“Do you think this is sustainable?” she asks me. “I mean, this farce?”
“Do you?”
She glares at me. “I asked first.”
I think for a second, just considering. “I do,” I say finally. “It might be hard. But there’s no reason we can’t make it happen.”
“And then what? How long do we make this happen?”
“Until the hotel is built. Then we can have a public and nasty breakup.”
She laughs at that. “Oh, lovely. You’re going to cheat on me and I’m going to throw all your clothes out a window.”
“No, thank you. You’re going to cheat on me and I’m going to leave you with dignity.”
“No way. I’m going to scream at you, blame you for everything wrong in my life. It’s going to be magnificent.”
I chuckle and pull her tightly against myself without thinking. We walk like that for another half block before I realize that we don’t need to be faking this anymore.
I let her go with a frown. “Sorry. I didn’t even realize…”
“It’s okay,” she says. “I didn’t mind.”
There’s a short silence as I step over to the car. I pull open the door and she steps inside. I follow her in and sit next to her, our legs touching. She smiles at me and, damn it, I can’t help but smile back.
The driver takes her home first. We pull up outside of her apartment and I walk her to her door.
“You don’t have to,” she protests. “We’re not faking anything now.”
“I’m not faking,” I say, taking her hand. “Come on. I’m walking you home. If you’re going to be my fake secret girlfriend, I’ll at least treat you like it.”
She blushes a little as I take her up to her door. I stop there and face her.
“Well,” she says softly. “That was nice.”
“It was mostly boring.” I smirk at her and tilt her chin up toward me. “But you did well. I’m proud of you.”
Her eyes spark to life. “Really?”
“Really.” I cock my head, moving closer to her. She puts her hands on my hips gently, looking up into my eyes. “I want you to call me sir,” I whisper.
“Right now?” She’s blushing slightly in the dim light filtering in through a hallway window.
“Right now,” I say.
“Yes, sir.”
I can’t help myself.
I pull her against me and I kiss her.
It’s the last thing I should do but as soon as my lips touch hers, I know it’s too good to stop. I let my tongue roam against her tongue, tasting her, feeling her.
The kiss lingers full and deep before I finally break away.
“Good night, Paige,” I say.
She blinks as I step away. “Good night.” She sounds breathless and off balance.
I’m smiling huge as I turn and leave her there outside her door.
Let her think about that kiss.
I know I just took this already blurry situation and made it much more confusing. I just made the lines between what’s real and what’s fake much more malleable.
I just don’t care. She looked too good not to taste tonight. Maybe we’ll never kiss again during all of this…
But I have a feeling that was just the first.
5
Paige
I swear I can still taste him the next morning when I show up for work.
I don’t feel quite so ebullient today, more just… confused. I mean, I don’t know why he kissed me, why he put his arm around me, why he keeps looking at me like he wants to fuck me one second and glaring at me like I’m an incompetent moron the next. I don’t know what he wants or if he even knows.
All I know is, this is complicated as hell.
Because that kiss…
Holy shit, that kiss.
There’s something special about a man who just knows. You can send all the signals you want sometimes, but some men are just clueless.
Leon, though, he just knew. He knew what I wanted.
And god, I wanted him to kiss me.
Flirting with him all night was fun. I mean, I enjoyed it, I can’t pretend like I didn’t. We ate good food, drank good wine, and I had good company. Sure, Cerise seems like a crazy mega-bitch and Maxime is equally crazy, but at least they’re fun.
And then there’s Leon, my fake boyfriend. He’s gorgeous and when he’s not being my boss, he’s actually nice to be around.
So the whole thing is just a mess, basically. I wanted to be kissed and I was kissed and now all I want is to be kissed again and again and again but no, we can’t, we’re in a business arrangement.
Well, business can suck it.
I get in early like always and arrange his desk. Just before he comes in, I put his coffee down and sit in my customary spot.
He sweeps into the room. He glances at me, sits at his desk, and sips his coffee. He frowns slightly.