Page 27 of Should Have Been Me

“I’m starting to think there’s more to the man beneath those stuffy suits than I originally thought. I think you may actually be full of surprises, Vaughn.”

He sat back in that man-splay that I always found sexy. You know what I’m talking about. The one where the guy spreads his legs wide while propping an elbow on the arm of his chair and cradling his chin in an almost lazy fashion. It screamed confidence and sex. And it shouldn’t have worked for a guy sitting in a teeny velvet girly chair, but damn, it did.

“Ready for another one?”

I actually wasn’t sure, but I felt the need to at least fake the same level of confidence this guy was exuding, so I pasted a bored expression on my face and waved my hand as if to say out with it already. I am a very important person, I don’t have all day.

“I think we should keep up the ruse we started back in that café.”

I choked on my own saliva. So much for playing it cool. “You what?”

“Remember what you said to me after I told Beelzebub we were together? You said I didn’t have a clue what I’d just done. By your cryptic warning and the fact my father has already asked about you, I take it word is already spreading all over town.”

I stifled a laugh by biting the inside of my lip. “First of all, his name is Barrett, but I’m sure you already knew that.” He waved me off dismissively. “And second... Yep. That particular bit of gossip spread faster than the Black Plague. I already got the obligatory guilt call from my mother who demanded I bring you to dinner. I’ve decided to handle the situation like any responsible adult would.”

He lifted one dark, sculpted brow. “By burying your head in the sand and pretending it didn’t happen?”

“You know, for a fake boyfriend, you’re surprisingly astute.”

“See? I already know you better than Beany Baby ever did. So what do you say?”

I rocked back and forth in my chair as the two of us watched each other in silence, the atmosphere swirling around us getting thicker with a kind of tension I couldn’t bring myself to put a name to but that left my skin tingling all the same.

Something told me saying yes to this man was akin to making a deal with the devil, but the intrigue was too great to ignore. I felt like a kid who had to reach out and touch the burner on the stove to see for myself if it was hot, despite my mother’s warnings. “I say... okay. Let’s do this.”

He unfolded himself from that ridiculous chair, stretching to his full height, which had to be a few inches over six feet. As I followed suit and stood up, I couldn’t help but notice that the top of my head would barely reach his chin. Given that I was five seven and was rocking high heels, that was impressive as hell.

I rounded the desk and moved to the door. I twisted the knob and pulled it open, sucking in a lungful of fresh, unelectrified air.

His eyes locked with mine as he met me in the open doorway, stopping right in front of me. He stood so close his knuckles brushed against the front of my blouse as he buttoned his jacket, sending a zing through my blood. I pulled in a broken breath as I tipped my head back to look into those intoxicating eyes.

He was all I could see, all I could smell. The heat from his skin was wrapping me up like a warm blanket. “So when do you want to get started?”

“Uh . . . what?”

He did that barely-there smirk again, and damn if it wasn’t sexy as hell. “We should probably meet up somewhere private to go over our stories, right? I’m not sure if you’re aware of this, but you have a terrible poker face.”

Indignation pinched my face into a scowl. “I have an excellent poker face, thank you very much.” Just as soon as the sentence came out of my mouth, I jolted back in shock when his fingers came up to caress my jawline.

“I rest my case,” he said arrogantly. “No one is going to buy this if you flinch every time I touch you.”

I couldn’t stop my lips from forming a pout. “No fair. I wasn’t prepared. If I’d known you were going to touch me, I wouldn’t have flinched.”

He arched a brow, communicating I’d proven his point without having to say a damn word.

“Fine.” I huffed out a breath and rolled my eyes. “Dinner at my place tomorrow night.” I moved to my desk and scrawled my address and cell number onto a bright pink sticky note. Tearing it off, I passed it to him, an electric current traveling up my arm at the brush of his fingers against mine when he took the slip of paper from me.

“See you tomorrow, Calamity. Try not to spill coffee on any poor, unexpecting men in the meantime.”

I crossed my arms over my chest and smirked. “I make no promises. Hey, Vaughn?” I called when he turned to leave, bringing him up short. “What are the odds of your father showing up here in the next few days?”

The flare of his nostrils was answer enough. Still, he said, “Too high, but I’ll do what I can to prevent it.”

Something tugged at my chest, not only for Vaughn, but for his sick father as well. A man who only wanted to give his daughter her heart’s desire.

“We’ll do the wedding.”

The infinitesimal widening of his eyes was his only giveaway. “You don’t have to?—”

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