Page 31 of Under His Protection

“You’re with him now?” he asked. His tone was similar to Dante’s. Firm and with authority. I had to answer.

“Um, yes.”

He shook his head, chuckling to himself. “I shouldn’t bother asking. I saw enough.”

You saw us all over each other because we were faking it.

“I’m pretending to be with him.” I cringed as soon as the words left my lips. Blurting that out was dumb. The only way Dante and I could fake this relationship was if we kept it a secret. I already told Tessa. She wouldn’t blab about it, but Romeo?

I didn’t know if he could be trusted with this secret. Or if Dante would be mad that I’d told him, too. Romeo and I had never really gotten along. He was too serious. I was too quiet. We seldom saw each other, only during those few times my dad visited and brought us along when he caught up with Dante.

“Are you trying to manipulate him?” Romeo demanded.

“No! No.” I shook my head, trying to pull the torn dress up higher on my chest. “Not him. We’re both pretending.”

“You’re pretending to be together.” He said it instead of asking it. “No. I don’t buy that.”

“What?” I furrowed my brow, worried that I’d opened my mouth at all and that he seemed to think I could be trying to con his father. “No. It’s true.”

“He’s pretending that you’re his girlfriend?” He looked at me before pulling off the highway.

“Yes.”

“You?”

I groaned. “What? I’m not fake-girlfriend quality?”

“That’s not my call to make. All I’m saying is that I don’t believe you. I saw you at the restaurant. You were all over each other.”

“Because we were pretending.”

“Yeah, right.” He chuckled once again, annoyed as he shook his head. “If that’s the line you’re sticking with, you might want to consider that he’s more interested in you than you think.”

“He’s…” I thought back to his kisses. His touches. Maybe he was that focused and driven to always be in business mode that he’d forgotten how to act like he had a date. Once I pointed it out to him, he was touching me and doting on me.

“Be careful what you wish for.” Did he really mean that he’d deliver on it?

“He’s not.” I cleared my throat. “He’s not interested in me for real. We just want to make it believable, and with how obsessed he is with work matters and whatnot, it simply looked convincing.”

“That’s what you think?” He smirked at me.

I had no clue what to think anymore.

“Why would you need to pretend to date anyone? Much less, my dad?”

“I was lost in a bet to the Devil’s Brothers club.”

He raised his brows. “What?”

I sighed, embarrassed to admit it. Romeo and I had never really gotten along. He was older than me, but while Ricky was closer in age to him, their birthdays uncannily close to each other, they’d never gotten along well, either. Romeo was just too serious of a person to get close with.

“Ricky bet on me with Reaper, the bikers’ leader, and lost. Your dad suggested that we pretend to date so the MC guys would back off. That if they saw me with him, they’d realize I was already taken.”

“Goddamn.” He rolled his eyes. “Your brother is a fucking dumbass.”

I shrugged. I wouldn’t argue with him there. In fleeting moments, it made my blood pressure spike with the reminders of how he’d treated me like a thing to toss around.

“Seriously. He’s a moron to even try to negotiate or deal with that MC.”

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