I do find Tristan’s personality repulsive, but physically… I’m not so sure. I never thought his touch would set my body on fire like it did tonight. I never thought I’d enjoy watching him stroke his…
Fuck, I can’t think about what I caught him doing in the bathroom. If I want this to work, I have to pretend like he’s disgusting.
He’s Mr. Wickham. Charming and beautiful but ultimately shallow and tediously self-absorbed, like a spoiled little kid. I can’t stand people like that.
I’ll have to remind myself of that over and over again tomorrow if I’m going to pull this off.
CHAPTER 3
Amy
“This is all for show,” Serena, a fellow game contestant, says as we stand in the center of the quad in a group of eight other women. “He’s still hung up on Harper.”
Of course he is. No matter how many times they break up, they always find themselves right back to where they started sophomore year. Or at least, that’s what I’ve heard from people who gossip.
I don’t know why I still care. Any pathetic hope of reconciling with Harper should have vanished the moment she humiliated me publicly. She knew exactly what she was doing when she read my story out loud in the quad that day.
Though I never posted any of my writing online until college, Harper knew I wrote fanfic. She even used to read it years ago. Told me how good it was.
She betrayed me.
My cheeks warm at the memory of the day she read the sex scene aloud in the quad. Tristan is right now standing not too farfrom where it happened. Except then, his bright-blue eyes were boring into mine, like he was enjoying my suffering.
He also knew how much my writing meant to me. I’d told him just the day before, when I thought he might be trying to make amends for stealing my best friend from me. He’d listened to me talk with such a kind, open expression.
I knew it was a risk to tell him, but a part of me wondered if maybe Harper had sent him to test the waters with me. Find out if I might be able to forgive her. She was always doing indirect things like that when we were kids, like sending her little brother, Nick, to my house to apologize to me when we’d gotten into a fight.
But that wasn’t what happened that day in the library between me and Tristan.
Tristan did it just to lure me in so he could humiliate me later. He’d planned it. Just like he planned my humiliation when he filled out the form to nominate me for this game.
He’s cruel.
And for some reason, he decided long ago that I’m on his shit list.
I’ve never understood why.
“They’re perfect for each other,” I whisper.
Serena chuckles. “Harper isn’t that bad. She’s just protective of the people she loves.Overprotective,” she says under her breath, obviously unaware of my previous friendship with Harper. “Tristanisbad, though.” Serena shoots me a pointed look. “Be careful. Whatever you do, don’t fall for him during the game. He’ll use it against you.”
I’m the last person in the world she needs to warn about Tristan. What would she think if she knew our history?
My gaze drifts to the announcer at the center of the field as he explains the instructions for our five-minute date. Tristan stands with his hands in his pockets, looking utterly bored. Our eyesmeet, and a slow, predatory smile spreads across his face. My stomach drops.
“Not a chance of that,” I say to Serena. “But I might sleep with him.”
Serena laughs heartily, drawing the attention of a film student to our right. He walks closer to us, his phone high in the air.
I hate that this is all being filmed. By phone cameras too. How fucking amateur.
While the announcer drones on about the rules, Tristan cocks an eyebrow at me. I swallow hard, my mouth suddenly dry.
I need to get myself together. I can do this. After Cody left last night, I stayed awake planning my seduction. I’m going to make Tristan want me so badly he’ll pick me at the end.
I imagine how exhilarating it will be to reject him after that. Tristan will finally figure out that he can’t break me, and I’ll be ten-thousand dollars richer.
I ought to be good at seduction, even as a nerdy girl. Every day, I write about the underdog Elizabeth seducing the prize of the marriage mart—Mr. Darcy.
