Page 15 of The Fake Date Deal

“Hanging.” Danny scoffed at me. “Don’t bullshit a bullshitter.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The two of you, please.” He stole my phone from my pocket and held it up to my face. It unlocked, and he went thumbing through my saved photos. He found one of me and Eve sprawled on a beach towel, her head turned toward me, my hand on her leg. “Check out those moon eyes, and here again. Moon eyes, moon eyes, and, yep. More moon eyes. Has the famous playboy been tamed at last?”

“Famous playboy…” I snorted.

“I’ve never seen you twice with the same girl. Then you meet her, and you’re joined at the hip.”

“You’re just jealous,” I said. “Because she’s almost a princess.”

“Because she’s a ten and she wants you. And she seems sweet as well.” Danny thumbed my phone off and jammed it back in my pocket. “My last girlfriend cleaned fish in the sink. She left all, like, guts in there. It was disgusting.”

“Isn’t that a good thing, a girl who cooks? I’d clean up the guts if Eve made me dinner.”

“Does she cook?”

“Ha, who knows? It’s like I told you. We’re not out of bed enough to do any cooking.”

“Rub it in, why don’t you?” Danny let out a groan. “Did I tell you she dumped me? Fish Girl, I mean. Ran off with some actor, someone more famous.”

I did know. He’d been harping on Fish Girl for close to a month. It was time he quit sulking, if you asked me. Moved on to the next one, like me and Eve.

“I’m heading inside,” said Danny. “You should go too. Do whatever you’ve got to do before showtime rolls round.”

I nodded and waved, but I stayed where I was. Bullfrogged, yeah, maybe. I guessed I was. But I’d hit the jackpot the night I’d met Eve. Most girls I met came with an agenda, looking to bag a celebrity boyfriend. A husband, even, and whoa. Pump the brakes. With Eve, it was different. She didn’t want that. She wanted to rub me in Rafael’s face, and I wanted that too. All our ugly up front. We could be honest, because we had been from the start, and no expectations meant we could have fun.

She’d be in the stands today, watching me race. My heart did a funny thing when I thought of her there, jumping up like a puppy promised a treat.

Has the famous playboy been tamed at last?

I made a pssh sound — tamed. Me. As if. If anything, Eve had loosed my inner wild beast. I’d never wanted anyone like I wanted her. Like an addiction. I couldn’t get enough. I thought about texting her right there and then, something quick and dirty. A promise for later. But, no. Now was race time. I needed to focus.

I let myself picture her just one more time, the way she’d looked this morning stepping out of the shower, her golden-blond hair dark from the water. I’d kissed drops of water off her neck and shoulders. She’d first pushed me off, then pulled me closer, protesting I’d make her have to shower again. Tonight, I’d shower with her, and then we’d go dancing.

I went into the race sharp as a tack — not cocky or arrogant, just calm and sure. I wasn’t thinking of Eve, or of anything really. When I got in the zone like that, I became pure instinct, all about speed. All about forward movement and the feel of the track, the roar of my engine one with my breath. I swear in that state, I could feel every pebble, every puff of the breeze against my windshield. Deep underneath that, sure, I was me, and I knew at the end of this, my prize would be Eve. But that didn’t distract me, just gave me an edge. Threw an extra kick into the thrill of the race.

I was still deep in race mode when I stooped for my medal, my body still thrumming with the music of the track. When I lifted my head up, there she was — Eve — and I jumped off the bandstand, not a thought in my head. I ran to meet her and we embraced, and all my senses came alive with her, all at once. I could feel her heart beating, the rush of her blood. Her pulse in her chest, in her lips, in her arms. Her scent made my head spin, vanilla and pears, and I breathed her deep. Kissed her to taste her. I spun her around, the breeze in my face, confetti tickling my hands and my neck. It swirled around us, and Eve was laughing, and her merry laughter was all I could hear.

“You’re everything,” I gasped.

She pulled back. “What?”

The world was still spinning, though we had stopped. I pushed her hair off her face, savoring its silken texture. “I said, let’s get out of here. Let’s celebrate.”

We’d planned to go dancing, but that didn’t happen. We were getting changed, but we only made it halfway, to the point where she was naked and I was as well, and I was pinning her against a tall mirror. I could see my own face in there, contorted with lust. Hers was the same, her blue eyes gone dark. Her lipstick was smudged from too much kissing. I thumbed it away, then kissed her some more.

“We should get dressed,” she said, and hooked her leg around me. She ran her lips up my neck, her breath a hot whisper. Her tongue flickered out and teased at my earlobe. I felt my knees go weak, and I tensed to stay standing. Eve did things to me, with her touch, with her body…

“I got a dress for tonight.” She pressed up against me. “A sparkly gold one, layers of silk. Backless.”

“Mm…” I walked my fingers down her spine. “How backless is it? This low?”

“Lower.”

I flattened my palm to her back and inched it down lower. She stopped me just shy of the nub of her tailbone.

“That low, really?”

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