Page 137 of Just One Fake Date

Tyler’s brows rose. “Not fierce, my ass.”

The words were so unexpected that she laughed out loud. His eyes gleamed with satisfaction just before she heard Cole clear his throat.

And she realized the image Tyler had created.

Nice, she mouthed and shook her head. Tyler grinned, untroubled, then she turned to face her ex. With Tyler’s hand on her back, she felt able to stand tall and pretend it didn’t matter at all.

It was after Cole had led his new wife away that Shannyn realized it didn’t matter.

That was new. The old wound didn’t burn anymore. Cole’s presence—even his existence—didn’t infuriate her or reduce her to tears. She didn’t care whether he had everything he wanted or not. She wished him well, actually, but was moving on.

Shannyn was thinking instead about another man standing behind her and helping her confront her fears. She was thinking about Tyler’s hand on her back and his reliability and just how damn hot he was and she realized that he was everything she’d ever wanted. She’d fallen in love with Tyler and he wasn’t disappearing from her life.

All she had to do was trust that everything could be theirs.

The realization sent a surge of joy through Shannyn and she immediately wanted to celebrate.

She turned to Tyler, knowing her happiness showed. “Do you want to dance?”

Something changed.

It had happened when Shannyn talked to Cole but Ty couldn’t immediately put his finger on why. She seemed suddenly reckless and he was a bit surprised by her urge to dance. It was as if she was trying to avoid the hurt or ignore it, and while he sympathized, her reaction wasn’t very encouraging.

He claimed her bag with her camera and entrusted it to the bartender, along with a fifty to guarantee that the guy watched it and a promise of another when they picked it up. He led Shannyn to the dance floor but before they joined the throng, a waiter passed with a tray of shooters. To his surprise, Shannyn took one and tossed it back, returning the empty glass to the tray. She seized Tyler’s hand and he didn’t trust her apparent happiness.

It was an act.

He’d never seen her take a drink. She was trying to compensate for something.

And Tyler guessed with painful clarity what that was. He’d thought before that she was pushing him away because she was in love with another guy—he’d been right about that but wrong about the guy.

She still loved Cole.

It was the only thing that could make Ty back away from the challenge of persuading her to give them a chance.

When Shannyn reached for another shooter, Ty plucked it out of her hand and drank half of it before she could. She finished it, her eyes shining with defiance, and he knew the evening that had held so much promise was going to go straight to shit.

It made his new tattoo hurt, but he didn’t regret a thing.

In the end,he carried Shannyn and her bag out of the wedding, poured them both into a cab and took her home. The tequila had hit her hard, probably because she was so tiny. Maybe she was exhausted, too. He hadn’t seen her eat a lot and wondered whether she’d even had lunch.

In the cab, she started to cry, which absolutely ruined him.

Ty couldn’t make any sense of what she was saying and was glad when she fell silent. He carried her across the lobby of the club and up to his place, then laid her on his bed. He took off her jacket and boots, then her trousers, halfway thinking she’d wake up and protest. She didn’t. She was wearing lingerie again, white lace this time, but Tyler removed it all. When he’d coaxed her into one of his clean T-shirts, he tucked her in. He stood watching her sleep, wishing he could fix this one thing.

But he couldn’t.

And he was too nice to take advantage of her when she was down. He would have loved to have gotten into bed with her and held her while she slept, but there was no way he was going to be mistaken for someone else.

Especially a guy like Cole.

He hung up her trousers and jacket, restless to do something and not know what else he could do.

A phone rang, the sound unfamiliar, and it took Ty a moment to realized it was Shannyn’s cell phone. He went back into the living room, scooped up her bag and pulled out the phone in time for its last ring. The displayed caller was S. Hawke, which made absolutely no sense since he was holding her phone in his hand. Was it her mom calling? But he saw that it was a local number before the phone fell silent.

Then Ty remembered that there was a phone in Shannyn’s kitchen. She still had a land line at the house.

The call must have been from Aidan, wondering where she was.

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