Page 6 of Faking Ever After

“It’s his bed,” I pointed out.

Kim’s lips did something that was almost a smirk. “You do realize you’ll be sharing his bed for two weeks, right?”

“Oh.” It hadn’t crossed my mind. A lot of things hadn’t crossed my mind in the last two days. All I knew was that I had to turn my phone off because that dick had been calling me, and I’d kept the drive safe in my right pocket at all times. Then it hit me. We were playing boyfriends for two weeks in front of his family. I hadn’t had the time to think this through, seizing the first chance at escaping across the ocean until things settled down a little. Of course, I had to share his bed. “How old is he?”

“Thirty,” Kim said while lifting the blinds from the windows in the middle Sky Living Room.

I wasn’t sure if that was a relief or not. Asking Kim if her boss was a perv was high on the list of things that would get me smacked across the head.

While my friend finished inspecting the cabin, I found myself sitting on the edge of the bed. The mattress was hard, just the way I liked it, and the crisp, white comforter was tucked over it. A decorative throw was draped along the lower end of the bed.

“Right,” said Kim with satisfaction. “Any last-minute questions?”

I tried to think about it. Again, my brain focused on the sheer luck I was having. It was uncanny. My unlucky ass was sitting on the finest flying bed in the galaxy and I was leaving New York in the nick of time. This bought me two weeks to find a way into the flash drive and retrieve the evidence. And I would be in the company of one filthy rich man. Nobody would make a move, I was sure. So, having considered everything one more time, I shook my head. “I’m all set.”

“I’d say give ‘em hell, but that is exactly the opposite of what I want you to do,” Kim said with a half-smile. Then, softening a little, she raised her eyebrows. “It’ll be alright, Finn. Just keep it cool and follow Percy’s cues. You’ll do fine.”

I mustered all the courage I could find in my heart. “You know it.” Trying for my most disarming grin, I ended up giving her a soft smile.

Kim nodded as she pulled back from the door. With a few more words of well-wishing and safe-tripping, she left the plane.

I tested the bed with a little bounce, my ass lifting off and sinking into the mattress. “Who lives like this?” I whispered, looking around the flying bedroom. For most of my life — which was, admittedly, only twenty-six years long so far — I hadn’t had a chance to look into a grounded bedroom with this level of style.

If Julie could see me now.

I wanted to snap a photo for her, but I didn’t dare turn my phone on. And I didn’t dare get in touch with any of them until I had some bargaining power.

Sighing, I lay flat on my back, my arms and legs spread-eagled. I stared at the ceiling. To make it worthwhile, you probably had to fly this thing every time you went to Starbucks. Otherwise, it was just a really expensive real estate property.But I figured that my brain wasn’t wired the same way as Percy Davenport’s.

Who the hell was this guy?

My internal question was answered by someone clearing his throat. “Oh. Erm. Hello.” The words tumbled out of a naturally deep voice that wasn’t at all gruff or gravelly. It was smooth like an expensive whiskey, sparking a vague image of Armie Hammer for the shortest of moments until I lifted my head to look at him. “You’re already in the bed,” the man pointed out, his gaze averted as soon as I looked into his eyes.

I sat up with a sharp inhale and blinked as if the fog would clear at any moment and take away the hallucination that Apollo was standing in front of me. “Oh, excuse me,” I blurted. “I made myself too comfortable.”

“No, no,” the man replied, his deep voice crackling and rising. “Please. Relax.” He put a hand on the back of his head and scratched his dusty blond hair awkwardly, glancing at me, then quickly looking at his fine, brown monk shoes with double straps and brogue holes punctured decoratively. He wore a dark blue suit sans neck accessories, his crisp white shirt unbuttoned at the top. He was undoubtedly six-foot-three or taller, his broad shoulders hugged snugly by the suit jacket. I could tell the exact place where his biceps bulged in the motion of his arm.

Although Percy Davenport was handsome enough to do a catwalk, it was his face that made me pause. Elongated, sculpted by the angels, it had all the perfect proportions no money could buy. His lips were sharp and defined, with a little bow on the upper one and a fullness that nearly matched mine on the lower one. His nose had an elegant straightness and bore a gentle rise midway, an imperfection that only added to the distinct beauty of his face. His blue eyes would have struck me as cold except for the twinkle that was the opposite of frosty.

Fuck. Me. Sideways.I licked my lips as I realized I hadn’t spoken in some time. “You must be Mr. Davenport.” I stood up, wiped my suddenly slick palm against my black jeans, and thrust my hand out.

“Just Percy, please,” he said, accepting my hand. My pulse sped. “And you are…I’m sorry, I should have asked Kim.”

“Finn Connolly,” I said, finding the lightness with which I decorated my voice. My number one task was to put this guy at ease, or I would be waving goodbye to a very fancy airplane from the hot New York tarmac. “Your caring boyfriend.” I grinned my finest grin for Percy.

Percy swallowed a lump in his throat audibly, his face unmistakably flushed. “Yes. Of course.” He released my hand and turned his back to me. Ahead of him was the sitting area. Percy took a couple of steps away from me and I followed. He led us into the first sitting room, where armchairs had belts and small, secured tables, and he neared one of the cabinets on the right side of the room and produced a bottle of something undoubtedly expensive and visibly alcoholic. “Would you like a drink, or is that…not how this works?” His awkwardness was doing all sorts of things to me. On one hand, it made him far less intimidating. My previous experience with the rich and powerful was inseparable from the sense of having to be beneath them. Percy didn’t seem bothered by the fact that he was stammering and that his voice was cracking. On the other hand, I was hoping I wouldn’t have to hold the reins. This situation was bizarre enough already without me having to navigate the uncharted waters.

“Erm, I can have a drink,” I said, his question rattling through my head.

Percy proceeded to methodically spill the contents of the bottle around the glasses, snort-chuckled, and filled two fingers of the alcoholic beverage inside the glasses on his secondattempt. “Sorry. It’s a little wet.” He handed me one glass, looked into my eyes, smiled abruptly, and looked away. “Ah, so, um.”

“Indeed,” I agreed as I accepted the glass.

Percy clenched his teeth, a frown rippling over his forehead for a short while, and he inhaled deeply. When he spoke again, it was like he was forcing very stubborn sentences to budge over his lips. “I apologize, Finn. This is just very new to me.”

“Relax,” I said. It was, I believed almost immediately, the most unproductive thing to say after, perhaps:try to be more tense. I summoned all my swagger before continuing. “I’m not exactly an expert on how this works, either. We can figure it out together.”

“Oh?” The genuine curiosity made his already painfully attractive face look brighter. “So, you are fairly new at this.”

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