Page 44 of Down & Dirty

“He’s drawing you a picture,” she said, a grin quickly replacing her worry. “Super-secret.”

“Good, let me get out of these clothes before he sees me. And then I’ll fill you in.”

I only meant to fill her in on the fight, but the minute I was alone I could feel my heart racing with the need to talk to someone about what had happened. What washappening. All of it.

Our lack of press attention meant no one outside of the OTM team had seen Cory and I together and Elle knew nothing about our arrangement. I’d managed to keep her from getting suspicious when asking her to watch Micah for a few of our ‘dates,’ playing them off as work engagements. The poor woman was so busy she didn’t have time to excavate my life’s drama. But after today, I really needed someone else to sort this out.

Micah was still in his room, so I grabbed a glass of lemonadeand joined Elle on the couch, gingerly propping my leg on the cushions between us.

“That was a lot of blood on your pants, you’re sure you’re okay?”

I wasn’t quick enough to stop the smile that unfurled. “Yeah, I got first aid at the shop.”

Elle leaned back, her eyes narrowing. “What’s that look for?”

The confidentiality clause in the contract played in my head like a booming voiceover. And then I saw Cory’s face when he’d asked me to keep this thing a secret. I knew we needed it to appear real, and for the press to never find out the truth about us. But Elle was my best friend. I could trust her with my life. In fact, I did, regularly—his name was Micah.

“Cory Ellis.”

A lopsided smile spread across Elle’s face, her expression far more curious than the shocked look I anticipated. “Say more.”

“My brother and Kip Waters got into a scuffle after Ronnie acted like Ronnie on the course.”

“Typical.”

“Exactly. And I tried to break it up.”

“Also typical.” She leveled me with a glare when I opened my mouth to argue.

“Fine, whatever. Anyway, I got knocked back onto Ronnie’s bike.”

“Ouch.”

“Tell me about it.” It wasn’t scary so much as disorienting. One minute I was upright, the next I was in pain, and then the next, I was in Cory’s arms. My skin flushed all over again thinking about the way he’d picked me up, stealing me away from the others. It was sweet, in a protective, caveman way. “I think my knee is going to be purple from the bruise, but the slice across it looks worse.”

“Jesus. Okay, so that all makes sense, in the pattern of Stone family drama. What does Ellis have to do with it?”

“He was the one who patched me up after.”

“Why him and not someone from OTM? Or Ronnie even?”

My cheeks got hot and Elle’s expression hardened as she caught the first scent of secrecy. “Ronnie was getting his ass handed to him. And, Cory wanted to.”

“Skylar Rae Stone, cut your shit. Why would Cory Ellis—who you have hated since day one—give a crap about you bleeding out all over the course?”

Her take on Cory was harsher than I expected, and I jerked back scowling. “He’s never been that bad.”

A guffaw burst out of her. “You were the one who said he was the most arrogant, self-centered, man-whore you’d ever met. You said he’d be more likely to save his million-dollar watch in a fire than one of his paper-doll girlfriends. Which was kinda awful, since them being made of paper really would have sealed their fate.”

I vaguely recalled saying that one night early on. There might have been some wine.

“I was wrong. He’s not that bad.”

“And how exactly did you come to revise your conclusions?” There was a glimmer in her eye, the spark of energy you only get when you’re about to peel the lid off something really juicy.

This was it. No one else knew besides Cory and me, but things were too complicated now to do this without my best friend.

“We’ve sort of been seeing each other,” her mouth popped open, but I held up a hand and went on in a rush. “It’s not real. It’s business. He needed some help in the PR department and he was willing to pay me to show up as his girlfriend in a few photos.”

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