Could we be friends? I could probably handle it if I didn’t want to jump his bones every time I saw him.
Maybe if I thought about my brothers every time I considered having sex with Matt, I could gross myself out of wanting him.
“Madi?” The humor in Matt’s voice dragged me out of my head. “Your expression keeps changing, and it’s a little unnerving.”
Of course, he noticed.More than I want him to.
“We can be friends, but no more fake dating.” I didn’t want to risk blurring the lines. And I couldn’t risk falling.
“If we see Paul?”
“Then you can pretend to be my boyfriend, but I’m done playing this game.”
“Okay.”
“Okay?”
“You sound shocked.”
“I guess I expected you to clear it with your boss first.”
“My boss? You mean your father? Your twin brother? Or maybe you meant one of your other brothers?”
“Any of them. All of them. I don’t know who you report to.”
Matt laughed. “I don’t need to clear it with anyone.”
During the ride home, Matt broke the uncomfortable silence with a whopper of a question.
“Madi, why does it bother you so much that your family wants to protect you?”
No warming up or lobbing a soft ball to ease into it.
“Because I don’t believe I’m in any real danger.”
“Do you lie to yourself often?”
“Excuse me?”
“Madi, I can see it in your eyes and your body language is a neon fucking sign every time Paul gets near you. You’re afraid.”
“Uncomfortable.”
“Scared.”
“Annoyed.” I didn’t put my hands on my hips, but I might as well have.
“Delusional.”
“Fuck you, Robinson.”
Matt read me like an open book, and in that moment I hated him for it.
He grinned, knowing he’d won.
“Madi, think about it. Would your… would my bosses’ have assigned the man they don’t want anywhere near you as your full-time bodyguard and fake boyfriend if they didn’t think Paul was a viable threat?”
No, they wouldn’t, and I’d known it all along.
