Page 65 of Once Upon a Fake Date

My voice was tight. “What are you doing here?”

“Friends on the team invited me.”

I paled. “What?” Of course, he had friends on the lacrosse team. I should have known that, but it wasn’t like he introduced me to his friends. He’d kept me isolated, emotionally dependent on him. I hadn’t seen how emotionally abusive he was until it was too late.

Standing up, I went to go into the house. “Sorry, my boyfriend is waiting for me?—”

“Your boyfriend?” He grabbed my wrist, pulling me backhard,so I stumbled down the steps and into him.

“Ow!” I cried, wincing as my ankle rolled underneath me.

He didn’t even seem to notice that I was in pain, or how my eyes filled with water as he tightened his hold on my wrist. “I’myour boyfriend, Audrey.”

Suddenly, I was pinned against the siding of the house, a position that felt all too familiar with earlier this semester.

“Are you delusional?” I yelled. “How can you not get it through your head that I. Broke. Up. With. You?”

God, why was there no one around right now? Maybe if I screamed loud enough, someone would come from inside and then there would be proof. “I’ll scream,” I said, deadpanning. “And I’ll tell everyone on campus what you did. How you cheated on me. No one will even want to come near you after that.”

I opened my mouth, only to have him cover it with his hand. My eyes widened.

“You’re not going to do that.” He narrowed his eyes. “You see, Aud. Girls don’t break up with me.” A slimy grin spread over his face. “I don’t care if you say you’re with that lacrosse player now.” He eyed my jersey with distaste. “You’ll come running back to me before long.”

I whimpered a little, unable to move as he held me tight against his body. His body spray was potent, and the smell was enough to make me gag. Ugh, how much had he even put on? It was nothing like the way Parker smelled—woodsy and masculine all at once. No, this was all wrong.

There was no way I’d be going back to this possessive, controlling, manipulating jerk.

His hand was still covering my mouth, and I bit down, not hard enough to break the skin but enough to startle him, so he let go of me. “The fuck!?”

He reached out, the palm of his hand making contact with my cheek, and I flinched. No matter what had happened before, he’d never hit me. Not like this.

Tears rolled down my eyes, and I stepped backwards, wrapping my arms around myself. “Leave mealone, Duke.”

Clarity filled his eyes, and he was suddenly crowding in front of me, his hands gently. “I’m sorry, baby girl. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I just—I miss you. Please. Forgive me. Come back to me.”

“No.” The word was barely more than a whisper. “Just—just go.”

And for once, he finally did what I asked, and I turned to go inside.

To look for my safe space—the only place I wanted to be right now.

Parker’s arms.

CHAPTER 20

Parker

Has anyone seen Audrey?” I asked the living room full of my teammates. We’d won the game and that meant the guys wanted to celebrate, the party now in full swing. But there were way more people here than we’d discussed, and I was concerned that it was getting out of hand for a weeknight.

“Parker!” Samuel slurred. “About time you showed up, man. We can’t celebrate the winning goal scorer without him actually present!”

“Dude,” I dropped my voice low. “Are you drunk right now? Coach is going to kill us if we show up with hangovers tomorrow at practice.”

I was one-hundred-percent sober. Hadn’t had a drop to drink all night. How could I, with Audrey in my room, looking like temptation incarnate?

I’d been hard as a rock all fucking night, especially with Audrey sprawled out over my bed, wearing my jersey, looking like an angel with her golden hair spread out around her. All I wanted was to touch her. To pull her into my arms and kiss her again. After our kiss earlier, I was pretty sure she felt the sparks between us, but my lack of experience made me feel at a loss for words. What was I supposed to do?

“I’ll be fine.” Sam’s voice brought me back into the present. The living room, with my team. Right. I blinked at him. “Just need to sleep it off and I’ll be right as rain tomorrow.” He slung an arm around my shoulder. “Anyway?—”

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