“I’m not being mean. I’m being observant.” He squeezes my hand. “Besides, your lights are way better than their Bed Bath and Beyond clearance rack. Hey.” Ethan turns me to face him, blocking my view. “Remember why we’re here?”
“To make him jealous.” The words taste bitter.
“No.” His thumb strokes over my knuckles. “To show him what he missed. To show him you’ve moved on. To show him you’re happy.”
“Am I happy?”
He smiles, soft and real. “You were five minutes ago. Before they walked in.”
He’s right. I was happy. I was laughing and dancing and forgetting to be careful.
“How convincing do we need to be?” I ask, pulse racing.
His eyes darken. “How convincing do you want to be?”
Across the room, Miles has spotted us. He’s staring at our joined hands, at the way Ethan’s leaves brush my lights, at how close we’re standing. His toga slips slightly and he hastily readjusts it, his scowl making him look less like a Greek god and more frat boy.
“Very, very convincing.”
“Thank fuck,” Ethan mutters, and then his hand is in my hair and his mouth is on mine.
This isn’t a gentle kiss. This isn’t testing the waters. This is Ethan kissing me like he’s been thinking about it all night, like the fake boyfriend thing was killing him, like he’s been waiting for permission to stop pretending.
His teeth catch my bottom lip and I gasp, hands fisting in his leaf garland. The party disappears. There’s just Ethan, warm and solid and tasting like cinnamon punch, kissing me like I’m something precious instead of someone’s second choice.
When we break apart, I’m dizzy.
“Was that—” I start.
“Convincing?” He’s breathing hard, pupils blown wide. “Yeah, Pip. I think we sold it.”
I glance over his shoulder. Miles is frozen, Harper tugging at his toga to get his attention. His face is a study in shock and something else—something that looks a lot like regret.
Good.
“Maybe we should make sure,” I say, riding the high of Miles’s expression. “Really drive it home.”
Ethan grins, wild and beautiful. “I like how you think.”
He kisses me again, and this time I kiss back with everything I have. Let Miles watch. Let him see what it looks like when someone actually wants me.
Let him choke on his stupid bedsheet toga.
19
ETHAN
Piper is using me. And right now, I am totally okay with that.
I know she’s just using me to get to Miles, as a way to make him jealous. Though honestly, I’m not sure she even wants to be with him anymore, which makes this whole thing even more confusing.
Will I ever understand women?
But right now, she’s got her hands tangled in my leaf garland and she’s kissing me so thoroughly that I don’t have brain cells left to analyze it. The party rages around us—bass vibrating through the floorboards, someone shrieking as their bubble-wrap dress gets systematically popped, the smell of cheap beer and Freddie’s brownies creating that distinctive college party atmosphere.
My body responds predictably to having a beautiful woman pressed against me, her fairy lights warm between us.
And Piper notices.
