“Just give him a chance, Ness,” she pleaded. Those mesmerizing, obsidian eyes of hers pierced the deepest depths of my heart. “For me?”
She knew the effect she had on me.
“Fine,” I told her. “But only because it’s you.”
She batted her eyelashes with flair. “You’ve never been able to resist me.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Okay, now that that’s settled, I’m going to get back to my fiancé before he talks Jared’s ear off.”
I quirked my brow. “Huh?”
She pointed across the room, past the last few stragglers loading up on spare pastries, to Ryan who was currently yakking it up with none other than my fake boyfriend. For someone with such a big mouth and an even bigger dick—something I could now confirm thanks to our passionate kiss in the street two days ago—Pink sure did have a talent for sneaking around undetected.
“By the way, how long has that been going on?”
Kaylani nodded her head toward my knight in shining Under Armour.
“It’s still pretty new,” I answered honestly.
“He’s not your usual type.” She tilted her head to the side and twisted her lips. I’d seen her make the same face when trying to solve quadratic equations or understand the rules of football. Kaylani was a basketball fan through and through. “But I kindof love that for you,” she added before skipping off to join her fiancé.
She wasn’t wrong; Pink was unlike any of my previous partners. Not that there was a long list of them—barely enough to fill a lineup—but as a woman in her thirties, I had had my fair share of good and bad relationships. Enough to know what I liked, what I didn’t, what was sensible, and what would inevitably end in heartbreak.
There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that Jared Pink would break my heartifgiven the opportunity. Unfortunately, that didn’t make me any less attracted to him.
A high-pitched squeal from across the room stole my attention. Kaylani laughed as Ryan flung her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and carried her toward the door. Just as he reached the threshold, she lifted her head enough to smile and say, “Bye, Ness. Bye, J—”
The door closed behind them before she had a chance to finish, leaving me alone with the man who had starred in my dreams for three nights straight.
“Great job today, angel.”
“Thanks.”
He smirked when I didn’t press him on the silly nickname. His ego was already the size of Jupiter; the last thing it needed was some stroking. Unlike another part of him I had been thinking about all week.
I blew out my breath. I refused to let my attraction to Jared get the best of me.
“I’d love to stay and help finish cleaning up,” he said, leaning his hip against the wall that had once housed hand-thrown pots, cups, and on special occasions, like bachelorette parties, ceramic dildos. “But I’ve got to meet with my agent about this podcast thing.”
“Good lord, they’re giving you a microphone?”
His chest shook. “Sadly, no. But this reporter is going to be following the team for a week or so to write a profile on me. He’s doing it for all the Cy Young nominees.”
I blinked. “Is that a baseball thing I should know?”
“As a fan, yes.” He rounded the table as I poured myself the last of Miles’s lemonade and positioned himself next to me until we were hip to hip. “As my girlfriend, absolutely.”
I rounded on him. “I’m not your girlfriend.”
“Quiet, angel. Somebody might hear you.”
We were broaching dangerous territory again. Already, I could feel myself inching forward, caught in Jared’s gravitational pull. Forget an ego the size of a planet; this manwasa planet.
“You and Ryan were getting on like old friends.”
His smile waned at the sudden change in subject. I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of guilt for dulling his shine.
