“Tucker, put your hand on her waist. Pull her in and sell the romance,” Andrea orders.
Ready to play along, my hand finds her waist, and something electric snaps under my skin. Her breath stutters and mine damn near stops. Leaning in closer, I feel her warmth pressed against me. I lift my hand and let my fingers trace her jaw. Her skin is soft beneath my thumb. She tilts her head just slightly. Call it trust or instinct, but it pulls me in like a gravitational force that I don’t stand a chance against.
There isn’t a camera in the world that could convince me this is fake.
I slide my hand under her jaw, tilting her face toward mine. I lean in, ready to claim her lips as mine. My thumb moves to brush the corner of her mouth.
She inhales sharply, and I feel it.Feel her. Every trembling breath against my skin and every inch of air tightening between us like it’s ready to snap.
Her gaze flicks to my mouth, telling me she feels it, too.
The way she’s looking at me right now unravels something in me that I didn’t know was still tied tight. Scottie has no idea what she does to me. The other night in my driveway, and now this? She has no idea how close I am to giving in. No idea that if she asked me, just once, to stop pretending, I’d kiss her like it’s the only thing I’ve ever been meant to do.
“Tucker,” she whispers.
Her breath hits my mouth and it damn near wrecks me.
I cup her face fully now, palms framing her cheeks like she’s something precious that I’m terrified will break. “Hi,” I whisper.
Her mouth parts like she’s about to say something else, but instead, her eyes soften.
And that almost undoes me more than the way she was looking at my mouth a second ago.
“Hi,” she whispers back, her smile barely there…like it’s just for me.
“Perfect! Cut!” Andrea shouts.
But I don’t move. Not right away.
Not until Scottie blinks, as if waking up from something we shouldn’t have started.
She steps back, making the space between us feel cold. She brings her hand to her lips like she needs confirmation that all of that really happened.
And I smile like I’m fine and as if this was all for show.
Without another word, she turns and disappears from the kitchen. And I let her go because I have to.
Because this is fake.
Because she deserves more than I can give her.
At least that’s what I tell myself.
CHAPTER 16
IT WASN’T NOTHING.
Scottie
Standing in the bathroom with my palms bracing the edge of the sink, I stare at my reflection like the mirror might give me an answer I don’t already know. I didn’t even realize I was smiling until my cheeks started to ache. It’s as if my body is still convinced I was kissed even though I wasn’t.
It’s stupid. It’s reckless.
It’s not what I’m supposed to be here for.
Andrea yelling “cut” still rings in my head like a warning bell.
The moment the words rang through the air he didn’t pull away or drop his hands. He stood there, touching me, and close enough that my breath hit his mouth, and I felt him inhale like he was starving.
