Page 11 of About That Pact

Rafe’s eyes sparkled with mischief. Whenever there was an opportunity to pester Charlie, he took it. Any reaction, even if it was an angry one, was better than no reaction. She was like kryptonite to him. Taunting her, he always found, was more effective to get what he wanted from her—and a lot more entertaining. He gave her a devious smirk before spinning toward Jason.

“Charlie has been trying to convince me to come with her to meet some friends tonight. I finally said yes. What are you doing? You want to come too?”

Jason began to hoot, not believing Rafe in the slightest. “Charlotte asked you to go out?”

“No,” Charlotte said while he answered, “Yes.”

“You are on thin ice.” She gave him a look that almost made him shudder. Almost.

“Aren’t I always?”

Charlotte pushed past him and walked back into the house. Thin ice might have been deserved, but only because of how cold she was toward him. The endeavor to clear the air was turning out to be harder than he’d expected.

“What’s going on?” Jason asked Rafe.

“Don’t let her fool you,” Rafe said, keeping an eye on Charlotte. She smiled and bobbed her head while her dad talked to her, but she kept glaring at him.

Jason rubbed his hands together like he was excited to watch a show. “This I have to see. I have a few things to do after this, but I can meet you guys around nine.”

Rafe agreed, and they both moved away from the shed to join the rest of the party. He watched Charlotte help her dad distribute food. This time around, he was going to have to chase her.

CHARLOTTE WENT INTO her old bedroom and locked the door, relieved to be alone. She should have been nominated for an Oscar with the Meryl Streep performance she gave. She’d laughed at all the corny dad jokes and had politely responded no when asked if she was dating. If there were ever a time she needed to get out of her parents’ house, it was now.

She slung out of her barbeque clothes and changed into her recently purchased red dress. Red wasn’t her normal go-to color, but she loved the way the satin material felt against her skin. Plus, the open back gave it a sexy appeal, even though the front didn’t show off any cleavage. The dress wasn’t revealing, but now that Rafe was tagging along, she was regretting her outfit. A burlap bag would have been a better option.

She took her time curling her hair, doing anything she could to delay getting drinks with Rafe. Her hair was wild and messy, but she figured she could still drag on getting ready, run out to her car, then text Rafe to join her. She’d apologize to her parents tomorrow for sneakily exiting the party. It wasn’t the best option for no one to notice her and Rafe together, but it was all she could come up with.

A knock gently tapped on her bedroom door.

“It’s almost seven-thirty. You gave me strict instructions this was when we were leaving,” Rafe reminded her from the other side.

“I didn’t know you were the tardy police!” she shouted back while applying eyeshadow.

“There are a lot of things you don’t know about me.”

“Doubtful.”

“When are we leaving?” he asked impatiently.

Her friends were expecting her at eight, and it would take twenty minutes to get there. Add in the extra time to slip out and then having to wait for Rafe to meet her at her car, it would take the full thirty minutes she had left. She swiped on mascara that had cost embarrassingly too much money, but the extravagant long lashes were worth it.

All she had left was lip gloss and a squirt of perfume. Still, the idea of making Rafe wait just a teensy bit longer was too appealing.

“If you aren’t ready in five minutes, I’m telling Jason I was your first kiss,” Rafe threatened her.

She dropped her gloss on the table in shock. He was infuriating. All her mistakes in life were centered around the man outside her door. Taking a deep breath, she reminded herself she was in control. He had forced his way into her night out, but she got to make the calls from here.

Ready to sneak to her car, she opened the door and immediately stopped. Rafe leaned against the wall facing her, his arms crossed over his muscled chest. They stared each other down, waiting to see who would make the first move.

Charlotte refused to let it be her.

Chapter 5

AS A MAN who always had something to say—hell, who got paid to have something to say—being at a loss for words was unheard of. Tonight, Charlotte stole his breath. It had been a while since he’d seen her all dolled up. Which made sense since she went out of her way to not be in his presence. It didn’t matter, she was a beautiful woman. For their night out, she chose to show off a different side of her wardrobe collection—one he was not accustomed to seeing, but would never complain about. He clenched his jaw, unsure if his mouth would hang open otherwise. Her red dress landed a couple inches above her knees, clutching her chest like second skin. With her wildly curly hair and blue sandals, she was a showstopper. Charlotte made anyone else pale in comparison. People were going to break their necks to look at her.

“I didn’t appreciate your lack of response to me being your first—”

She lifted her hand. “Stop. Don’t even finish that sentence. I want to salvage the rest of my day and have fun tonight. That means no talking about the past.”