“What?” I ask, completely thrown off. “How did sheseeyou?”
“She’s just paranoid,” Roman says with a shrug. “Don’t worry. I was planning on ending things with her soon. This back and forth between Miami and New York City will never work especially when she’s this paranoid.”
Just as he goes to slide his phone into his pocket, it vibrates in his palm. He looks down at it, his brows dropping in confusion then lets out a heavy groan.
“She sent me a fucking video.”
“Of what?” I ask, tightening the bulb into the socket which does absolutely nothing. The electricity in here is an even bigger problem than I originally thought. This is going to set us back by at least three weeks if not more.
He shrugs again. “I don’t know. It’s loading. Maybe it’s her apologizing.”
I chuckle, shaking my head. My cousin is so damn messed up sometimes. He somehow always ends up with the wildest women who fall so hard and so fast they do some borderline intense stuff to keep him.
I’m not sure why they go crazy over him, except that he’s laid-back, extremely wealthy and genuinely a good guy deep inside even though he likes to make everyone else think he’s the ass-hole billionaire stereotype of every romance book. Maybe his over-the-top niceness does come across as flirty sometimes, but he’s always been upfront with me, he’d never cheat on a woman that he was dating exclusively, and I believe him.
The video finally loads, and Roman presses play, turning the volume up at full blast. I’m hardly paying attention to the words until something catches my ear.My voice.
“What are we doing back here?”
Then there’s loud, heavy panting, followed by deep, labored sighs and my voice again—
“Fuck, that was hot.”
“What the hell…?” I look down at Roman. “What are you watching?”
Roman squints at the screen, but I’m already down the ladder and storming across the room, grabbing the phone out of his hand as a knowing grin starts to spread across his face.
“Holy shit, dude. You’re the guy she saw making out with a stranger at the bar last night! During the company holiday event? The audacity!” He fakes a scandalized grin. “So, that’s why you disappeared!”
I glance down at the screen where the video is paused. It’s a full body shot of me, waist up, like someone was holding the camera at chest level. The moment is frozen on screen at the exact spot after I kissed Christina—or at least, the woman I thought wasChristina. And I’m looking at her like I want her.
“I don’t understand,” I mutter, rubbing my temples and staring at the image, but Roman can’t stop laughing. He’s practically on the dusty floor, losing it in a fit of tears and obnoxious laughs.
I click out of the video and scroll through Kacey’s text messages.
Kacey: You’re literally caught in 4D making out with this chick, so there’s no way you can deny it. Don’t bother calling or texting me again.
I hit call anyway, but she sends it straight to voicemail. I call again, and this time she picks up, shouting, “I said don’t contact me!”
“Kacey, it’s Gabriel, Roman’s cousin.”
“Well, what the hell do you want?”
“How did you get this video?”
“I hired a private investigator, dumbass. And your idiot, cheating cousin took the bait with hardly any effort from her. Any other questions before I delete him from my phone andmemories?”
I’m left speechless, my jaw hanging open as I shake my head in disbelief. Sure, Roman and I used to be mistaken for each other when we were kids growing up, but it’s been a few years since that’s happened. I’ve bulked up and he’s put on more lean muscle. And though we’ve maintained the same dark, black hair and hazel eyes, probably around the same height too, I don’t think we lookthat muchalike. I mean, the guy’s a solid six years older than me.
So that explains why she gave me a fake number, cornered me in the back of the bar, initiated the kiss and then ran. It was a set up.
“Nope. I think that’s it. Thank you,” I tell Kacey.
When I hang up, I hand the phone back to Roman without saying a word, just giving him a disbelieving shake of my head.
“Dude, you need to get out of the city and find yourself a woman who trusts you. She hired a fucking PI to spy on you while you were working.”
He wipes his eyes, still laughing his ass off about the mix-up, but then goes quiet and serious. “You’re probably right about that.”
