I’ve been Tate’s fake girlfriend for two weeks now and I’m slowly starting to lose my mind. I feel like I have whiplash from the public version of us and the private version. When we’re out anywhere, he’s constantly touching me, kissing me, and looking at me like I’m the air he needs to survive. The attention has kept my body in an almost constant state of arousal that self-care isn’t even touching for relief. Then, in private, he’s all business with school work and he barely even looks at me. It’s messing with my head.
That doesn’t even take the whole Asher issue into account. Just being around him without my mask at their house turns me into a red-faced, sputtering dimwit. I don’t think I’ve been able to string two words together to speak to him whenever he’s been around. It’s completely ridiculous. I don’t know how much longer I’m going to be able to do this.
I finish packing my bag with all I will need for a study session and the required baked goods Jude now demands for entrance to the house and order my Uber. At least I didn’t have to go to an after-party last night as the team was at an away game. As much as I try and ignore the whispered words and nasty looks sent my way, it’s getting old. I don’t ever want to go to another one of those parties after what happened with Sam and Hunter. No matter how hot it was to have Jude punch the guy for me.
I step out the front door of my apartment building and immediately feel the hard bite of winter in the air. I wrap my long wool scarf around my neck a few more times and tug the zipper on my long puffy winter jacket up higher to ward off the cold. Thankfully, the car pulls up shortly after so I don’t have to stand out in the cold for too long. When we pull up in front of the house, Beckett and Asher are in the driveway unloading grocery bags from Beckett’s truck to carry inside. I quickly hop out and run over to grab a few to help take them in. That gets me an eyebrow raise from Ash and a, “Thank you, darlin’” from Beckett.
I trail along behind them and after kicking off my boots, join them in the kitchen to add my bags to a massive pile.
“Wow, you guys leave anything in the store for the other shoppers?” I joke in Beckett’s direction, still not able to speak directly to Ash without making a fool of myself.
Tate joins us and answers me while he starts unloading bags. “Stocking up for the storm and the four of us eat a lot. Did you bring those annotations?”
I give him a tight smile and nod. Right, not in public so he’s all business again. I move over to the dining room table to unload my bag and within seconds of me pulling out the bakery box of cookies, Jude is right there stealing it. He flashes me a wink and disappears just as quickly as he appeared. I settle in my seat but I can hear them all talking in the kitchen.
“We should invite some girls over. If we get snowed in, we can ride out the storm by being ridden,” I hear Jude say around a mouthful of cookie. “Fuck me, that girl’s got some Harry Houdini level kitchen magic in her. You guys have to try one of these.”
While I appreciate that he likes my baking, I’m very much not interested in being trapped in this house during sex-a-palooza so I snag my phone and check the weather forecast. There is a storm called for but it’s not supposed to start until sometime during the night. I’ll be out of here in plenty of time to miss the start of it but I need to check in with work to see if they are going to keep the club open. If it’s going to storm, I need to be tucked safely away in my bed with the covers over my head to block it all out. I’ve made a lot of progress in therapy over the years but I still suffer whenever there’s a blizzard. No, the last place I can be is in public if a storm hits.
Tate slides into the seat next to me and fires up his laptop so we can get to work. He passes it over so I can check his progress and I lose myself to edits and suggestions to firm up his stance on the current assignment.
TATE
Isqueeze the stress ball over and over as I try and ignore my fake girlfriend sitting beside me. Something that’s getting harder and harder to do. Somehow, this girl has gotten under my skin big time and it pisses me off. Every time I touch her now when we’re out putting on a show, it gets harder to pull back. She’s fucking clueless about how her little whimpers and moans make my dick weep. I’ve never touched a woman so fucking ripe for the picking. I can’t believe she’s faking her reactions when we’re making out but she has to be acting to be able to shut it off just as fast and then walk away, doesn’t she?
Savy’s all I wanted in a fake girlfriend and she’s held up her end perfectly. She shows up when and where I say and then leaves to let me do my own thing without a complaint. She’s helped me get a handle on the work I’ve gotten behind on and her prompting for me to dig deeper has made my assignments even better than anything I could have done before.
I glance over at her and my eyes immediately drop down to her mouth and I try not to groan. She’s completely absorbed in what she’s reading and is mindlessly biting down and sucking on the end of her pen. And I think that’s why I’m in this mess.
She doesn’t even try to get more from me and that’s not something I’m used to. I think I need to just fuck her and get her out of my system. I only want her because she’s not interested. That and I haven’t banged anyone since summer. That has to be the reason. She’s not my type, she’s not even pretty in her baggy old lady clothes. I lift my gaze up to her dark brown hair that’s always wrapped up tight in a bun and wonder if it’s as soft as it looks. If it’s long enough to wrap my fist in it while I…
“Do I have something in my hair?”
Her quiet question has me tearing my eyes away from her bun and meeting her blue eyes behind her thick glasses. I squeeze the stress ball even tighter to keep from reaching over and taking off those glasses so I can get a better look at her eyes. Instead, I shake my head with a frown and go back to my reading. It’s gotten dim in the room so I jump up and go over to hit the light switch to brighten things up. When I go to sit down again, I see Savy checking her watch and then her phone.
“What’s up? Somewhere you need to be?” I ask her, hoping at the same time that her answer is both yes and no.
She looks toward the huge bay window that faces the backyard but the blinds are closed blocking the view, and then she sighs.
“Yeah, I should head out. I don’t want to get caught out in the storm that’s coming.” She stands and starts gathering up her stuff so I do too.
“For sure, that’s smart. Uh, listen, I have that thing on Thursday, that booster dinner. Are you still okay about going with me?”
Her hands freeze as she reaches for a book. It’s only for a half second but I notice.
“That’s, um, that’s the formal event you mentioned, right?”
A thought occurs to me and I curse under my breath. She works two jobs so she might not be able to afford formal wear.
“It is. Do you have a dress that would work? I’m good with paying for one if you don’t have the cash for it. That dinner’s sort of outside of what we agreed to so you shouldn’t have to pay out of pocket for it.”
A blush creeps up her neck into her cheeks and it pisses me off how fucking cute I find her blushes now and how I wonder if those blushes will spread all over her body when she’s turned on.
“I’m good. I mean, I have a dress that will work. It’s fine. I’ll be there.”
“Good, great. I appreciate it. These types of dinners generate a lot of money for the team but they’re boring as fuck and there’s a lot of cougars prowling at them so it’ll be good to not have to go to it alone.”
Her lips press together in a flat smile as she slings her bag over her shoulder and snags her puffy jacket and scarf. She swipes open the car app on her phone and for some reason, I’m not ready for her to leave.
