Page 161 of By His Rule

“Faking it. I bet there wouldn’t be any faking with him, though. I'm just saying.”

“You’re almost as insufferable as he is,” I complain.

“So, what’s the plan? Fake dates? Making excuses to be photographed together?”

The more she talks, the more I realize that this whole plan is insane.

Just look at the last twenty-four hours. I’ve kissed him twice.

Twice.

I’ve felt his body pressed up against mine, and I’ve spent longer than acceptable imagining just what it could be like if there weren’t a couple of layers of clothes between us.

His canceling tonight was the best thing that could have happened.

“I’m going to tell him no,” I state firmly.

Decision made. This is a very, very bad idea.

The worst.

“And you think he’ll accept that?”

“He’s already canceled our first date.”

“Ooooh, that explains your hair,” she says, making a point of glancing at my freshly styled curls.

My insides twist up painfully. I went to so much effort, and look where I’ve been left.

Alone on my couch with a glass of wine.

“It needed washing after the gym. There is nothing more to it.”

“Why has he canceled?”

“Didn’t say. But it’s for the best. I’m his assistant. He’s my boss. That is all there needs to be between us.”

38

KIAN

Icould be sitting opposite Lorelei in a restaurant right now, trying to figure out the best way to score myself an invite into her apartment so that our night doesn’t have to end at the entrance to her building like our afternoon did.

But no. Instead, I’m sitting in a hospital with one of my little sisters while the other has her ankle x-rayed. Mom is with Kenzie, and I was called in to keep Tilly entertained.

I don’t mind. I love my irritating little sisters almost as much as I do my knuckle-headed brothers. But there are other things I could be doing right now than watching videos of the girls’ cheer competition this afternoon that ended up with us here.

Kenzie is the flier, and well, let’s just say that she didn’t fly all too well when their stunt went wrong and she ended up crashing to the floor.

“We’d have won,” Tilly complains for the fifth time. She’s a year younger than Kenzie, but you wouldn’t know it. They’re exactly the same height and look almost identical. They get confused for twins on a daily basis. “All she had to do was hold that pose and we’d have smashed it.”

“Next time, Tills,” I say, hoping to pacify her.

“You should have come,” she complains.

“Something came up. I’ll be there for the next one,” I promise.

“You said that about this one,” she says sadly.

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