Page 3 of The Fake Boyfriend Fiasco

The man as a whole was worthy of admiration, actually; he looked like a model, or maybe a wet dream. But that didn’t matter, because Nik was—tragically—putting his days of carefree sluttery behind him.

“That’s rough,” Keynes said. Then he looked over at his companion, so of course, Nik did too. Which is when his jaw almost, very nearly, dropped.

Because the woman standing in the shadowed alcove was unlike anyone he’d ever seen.

He’d heard of people being called striking, and he certainly felt like he’d been struck. Her dress, long and buttercup-yellow, was pretty, but it was the rest of her that affected him most. Everything about her commanded attention, from the contrast between her platinum blonde hair and dark skin, to the tattoos that covered every visible inch of her. A silver ring glinted down the centre of her glossy lower lip, accompanied by little studs on either side of her nose and what looked like a thousand tiny gemstones decorating the curves of her ears.

She watched him with eyes rimmed in pitch-black makeup and glinting with amusement. There was a sardonic tilt to her lush mouth that made him think she was laughing at him, rather than with him. Then he heard Melissa’s strident tones echoing from somewhere way-too-close, and the woman’s slight smile turned into a full-blown, wicked grin.

That grin was giving him ideas. But, worse than that, something about her was giving him fucking heart palpitations. He couldn’t even describe the feeling that overtook him at the sight of her. It was like… like running onto a pitch and sprinting through icy drizzle, eyes narrowed, feet fast, the earth soft beneath his studs, knowing absolutely nothing could stop him.

Weird.

“In trouble?” she asked. And Jesus Christ, her low, teasing voice alone did more for Nik than porn ever had.

“You could say that,” he managed, his eyes flitting from the smirk on her lips to the arch of her brow. She was tall, but the way she stood made her seem taller—or maybe it was the energy that surrounded her, strong enough to suffocate the weak.

Nik wasn’t weak. But he wouldn’t mind giving up his oxygen for her.

Which was possibly the strangest fucking thought he’d ever had.

“If you’re a friend of Keynes’s,” she said, “then whatever’s happening here must be your fault. He only likes disreputable people.”

Nik heard, as if through a tunnel, the sound of Keynes snorting out a sarcastic response. He barely registered the words. He didn’t register a damned thing except her, bright like sunshine, burning him alive in the most beautiful way. “If you’re his friend, too,” Nik said, “doesn’t that make you disreputable?”

“Of course,” she smiled. It was a real smile, so brilliant it set him off balance. Her brows arched as she grinned, one slightly higher than the other, and her eyes tilted up at the corners.

Nik didn’t know if he’d just felt the earth shake or if he was actually losing his mind. Phantom or real, something jarred his bones and his brain all at once, until everything felt fundamentally… different.

He blinked slowly, readjusting to this slight shift in his world. Something inside him unfurled; it was the urgency that took over on the pitch, its demands a low growl. But for once, it wasn’t telling him to win.

Her. Take her.

Wait, what?

Before he could grapple with that alarming thought, he heard the sharp click of footsteps. Melissa. His panicked caveman brain set in again. Actually, maybe it wasn’t caveman brain, because a caveman’s solution to this problem would be fight or flight, right?

As opposed to Nik’s solution, which was to lock eyes with the tattooed woman and say, “Can I kiss you?”

Her brows shot up. “Me?”

“Yes.”

“Now?”

“Yes.” When she didn’t answer, he turned to Keynes. “Or you. If you’re into that.” He knew very well that Keynes was into that, but the woman beside him might not.

Keynes gave him a slow, catlike smile. “I certainly am.” He stepped forward, hooked an arm around Nik’s shoulders, and kissed him.

It was an excellent kiss, all things considered. But it didn’t have the desired effect. Melissa didn’t find Nik kissing someone else and finally take the fucking hint.

Instead, she saw him kissing someone else and hollered, “Nik! There you are!”

* * *

Aria had tried a lot of things, but she’d never bothered with voyeurism. It just didn’t ring her bell.

She also knew that she wasn’t the slightest bit attracted to Keynes. She had been, at one point, because he was drop-dead fucking gorgeous, but friendship had dealt with that lust rather swiftly.

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