Danica folded her arms.“Well, that’s unexpected.”
“You’ll get used to it,” Kayne said, as if he genuinely meant it.
Chloe floated outside her body, observing all this from a comfortable emotional distance because her physical form was busy spontaneously combusting.
Danica recovered quickly—Giordano women were resilient when scandal-adjacent—and narrowed her eyes at Chloe with pure sisterly accusation.“And you didn’t tell me?”
“I—uh—well—” Great.Now she’d lost the ability to form words.
“We’ve kept it private,” Kayne supplied smoothly.
Danica looked between them, confused, annoyed, maybe begrudgingly impressed.Finally, she tossed her hair and sniffed.“Fine.Whatever.I’ll be in my office.Working.”
“Working?”Chloe echoed faintly.
“Yes,” Danica snapped, and flounced away.
Chloe waited until her sister vanished before rounding on Kayne in a whisper-yell.“What was that?”
Kayne shrugged, polite and maddeningly calm.“Our cover story.”
“That was not a cover story,” she hissed.“That was a full-length romantic subplot!”
“You needed me to play the part,” he said evenly.“I played it.”
Chloe pressed a palm to her forehead.“You told her you’re my boyfriend, not someone I’m casually seeing.”
His eyes warmed in a way that made her chest flutter like a kicked beehive.“I’ll tell whoever I need to,cher.”
Chloe nearly melted through the floor.Not figuratively.Literally.She was officially one heartbeat away from becoming a romantic puddle.
#
Kayne leaned againstthe doorframe of Chloe’s office and watched her attempt to straighten a stack of papers she’d already reorganized three times.
Her cheeks were still flushed, her hands unsteady.He could practically hear her heartbeat skittering like a trapped hummingbird trying to claw its way out of her ribs.
Hell, he shouldn’t enjoy this, but he absolutely, shamelessly did.
“I can’t believe you said that,” she muttered, flipping the same résumé over for the fourth time.“You can’t just announce things like that, Kayne.”
“When your sister’s hanging off my arm like a moss-covered vine?”he said dryly.“Sure I can.”
She shot him a glare that didn’t land, mostly because her blush ruined any chance of severity.“You told her we were in a relationship.”
“Mm,” he said, because the sound alone made her twitch.“That I did.”
“Kayne.”She pointed a trembling finger at him.“That was not part of the plan.”
“It’s the cover story Leo asked for.”
“No, Leo said, ‘pretend to date her for optics,’ not ‘declare your undying devotion during my sister’s mating dance.’”
Kayne’s mouth twitched.It was subtle, but impossible to hide.
She noticed.
“Oh, my God,” she whispered, eyes widening.“You’re laughing at me.”
