Page 98 of Breaking the Habit

“I’m going to show you something, Ri,” he said his eyes fastened to the papers in his hands. “I’m not supposed to, but I’m going to anyway. You need to keep it quiet for right now.” He started to hand them over, then he paused. “Are you too hungover to read?”

She frowned, snatching the papers out of his hands. “I can manage.”

Riley peered at the top page, squinting as she read and reread the title: NON-DISCLOSURE AGREEMENT.

She glanced up at Levi. Maybe he had a point about the hangover interfering. “Why don’t you give me an executive summary to start?”

Levi’s jaw flexed as he ran a hand over his cornrows. “Fine. So, I made a deal with a PR firm to be seen with Titi LaCreux. They’re creating a big campaign around a fake romance. I’m making a fuckton of money to be involved in it.”

Riley swallowed, looking back at the contract in her hands. His words fit strangely inside her. The strangest part about it was they fit at all. She didn’t rush to reject them. Even in her ultra-vulnerable, overly sensitive hangover state.

“Sounds really convenient,” Riley finally said. She should be suspicious of the way she was so eager to latch onto the first thing that tumbled out of his mouth. “Wouldn’t be hard to draw up some sort of bullshit NDA. They’re all over the internet.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Why would I do that to you?”

“You forget, I’m a lawyer’s daughter.” She tossed the contract aside, suddenly so tired she couldn’t sit up. “I’ve heard of things you can’t even imagine. And making a fake contract to fool a girlfriend? It’s been done before.”

Levi’s nostrils flared. “I’m not faking this. If I didn’t want to be with you, I would have told you by now.”

“So instead of telling me you made up some bullshit rule about Travis wanting us to be apart for a week and a half before the fight, right?” Her throat tensed. Tears were coming. “But really it was just so you could go hang out with Titi LaCrap.”

“No, that bullshit rule really was Travis’s. Because he sees us together. He knows how fucking head over heels we are.” Levi clenched his jaw, pausing as he seemed to struggle with something. “I signed this contract before anything had gotten serious between us. I never would have agreed to it if they’d approached me once you and I got close. Not even for the money.”

“How much money is it?” Riley croaked.

“Four hundred G.”

“Jesus.” Riley buried her face into her knees. It sounded so absurd. But it wasn’t. Not out here.

“I should have told you before,” Levi said, the bed creaking as he shifted closer to her. “But I thought I could get by with doing the minimum for them without having to break the NDA or even get into it with you.” He worked his jaw back and forth, studying her face. “I didn’t think you’d find out that I met up with Titi this week. I didn’t know it would become the hugest news story of the century.”

“Still sounds to me like you did something shady even though you knew better.”

He ran two fingers over his hairline, jaw flexing as he studied the comforter of her bed. “Yeah. You’re right. But I swear to you, it wasn’t because I was with her. It was because I signed this damn contract.”

She forced herself not to meet his honey gaze. If she did, she’d fall right into his arms, and she couldn’t do that. No, she needed more time to think about things. Get outside opinions. Make sure she wasn’t totally insane after all.

“I don’t know, Levi.” She swallowed a thick knot in her throat, watching the ceiling so the veil of tears in her eyes didn’t turn into a traitorous tear. “I think you should go. I need to think about things.”

“Keep it,” Levi said, pointing to the contract she’d tossed. “Read it over. You’ll see that it’s real.”

“Mm-hmm.” She lay back in bed, turning away from him. Her heart ached, her stomach hurt, and everything sucked.

“Ri,” Levi said, sounding like he was pleading.

“I want to be alone, Levi,” she said, pinching her eyes shut. But that wasn’t true. Not even a little bit. She wanted his arms around her and his weight beside her and the reassuring whoosh of his breath at her ear. But giving in to that would mean she was weak. That she hadn’t learned anything from her ex.

The bed creaked, and her eyes shot open, against her better judgement. He was standing, working his jaw back and forth.

“Who’s gonna take my cornrows out?” he asked quietly.

She pouted, burrowing her face in the covers. “Gage is.”

“What am I gonna tell Gage when you don’t come home with me?”

“Levi, stop,” she wailed. God, he knew where to hit to make her feel worse.

“You know the outing you arranged with him and the girls is like the funnest thing he’s ever done, right?” Levi rested his hands on his hips. “What about my new jokes? Who’s gonna screen ’em?”

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