“So you want me to play mind games with him?” I frown.
Aiden snickers and places his hand on the top of my seat behind my shoulder, bringing his sweet scent with him as he crowds my space. “Us fake-dating is a mind game, pretty girl. Why stop there?” he coos.
I’ll give it to him. He’s right.
Knowing he’s won, Aiden grins. “Tell him this: ‘Can’t hang out. I’m going on a date.’ That will be enough to leave him wondering what you’re doing andwhoyou’re doing it with.”
I huff a laugh and glance at my phone, but I hesitate. “Do you really think it will work?”
Aiden plucks my phone from my hand, straightens, and types out a response to Brandon. “Trust me, it will. He’s a guy. We think with our dicks. Hinting at being on a date will jumpstart that primitive side of his brain we talked about, and the chase will begin.”
I sink my front teeth into my bottom lip and refuse to linger on that bit about Aiden thinking with his dick. I’d rather know that he sleeps around than visualize it.
He taps one more time on the screen and then hands the phone back to me. “Don’t message him back.”
“But he hasn’t?—”
My phone chimes with a new text.
Aiden smirks and grabs me by the elbow to help me stand. “Let him sit with this new information for the day. Now, are you ready to take some pictures?”
SEVEN
AIDEN
“Are you going to change too?”Nova asks behind me.
“Nope. Unless me being shirtless bothers you?” I snap the blackout curtains over her bedroom windows, bathing her room in shadows. A sunbeam peeks through a crack, combining with the pink LED lights and providing just enough light to see by.
She blows a raspberry. “It’s nothing I haven’t seen before.”
At least she didn’t say it bothers her. That’s something, right?
I turn to her with a smirk that she doesn’t see because she’s already disappeared into her walk-in closet.
“So what are some of your ideas for pictures?” Nova calls from inside.
I stride across the bedroom and lean against the doorjamb with my arms folded over my chest. She flicks through her hanging ensembles, her lips pursed as she searches for the rightoutfit. I’m curious about what she’ll go with, but also bitter because she’s dressing for another man and not me.
“We’ll start at your desk, then work our way to the bed,” I say, testing how she’ll react.
Nova doesn’t disappoint as her hand pauses and she peeks at me from the corner of her eye. “To the bed, huh?”
I grin.
She’s intimidated about taking pictures with me on a bed, but she’s trying to play it off. God, she’s adorable. I bet she’s wondering what types of poses I have in mind, but I don’t plan on giving her too much info. I want to witness her genuine reaction when it happens.
She said no sex, and maybe it’s for the best. But that doesn’t mean we can’t do other things that will give me the hit I crave. Licking her used panties isn’t holding me over. Like the selfish bastard I am, I need more of her.
Nova turns her head toward me when I don’t say anything, her gaze guarded, but she still smiles to play off her nerves. “It’s nothing bad, is it?”
My grin widens, and I shrug. “Definebad.”
“You’re killing me.” She rolls her eyes and chuckles. Turning back to the clothes, she sifts through her options.
“Just trust the process. We have the rules, and I don’t plan on breaking them, so you’re safe from being ravaged by me.”
Nova shoots a deadpan look at me, and I wink. She laughs, the sound like music to my ears. Fuck me, her giggles are the quickest way to my heart.
