Page 32 of The Enemy of My Enemy Is… My Fake Boyfriend?

"And as a matter of fact, I have an idea," he went on like he hadn't just dropped an atomic bomb on me.

Still catching flies with my dropped jaw, I stared at him, no clue what he could be thinking. "What?"

He looked like the cat who'd caught the canary, a smug satisfied smile forming on his face as he leaned in closer to me, so close I could see nuances of darker blue in his eyes. "You and me going out on a very public date... as a couple."

I gasped at the suggestion. "Like apretendcouple, right?"

Eyeing me, he took a swig of his beer. "Right. Of course."

Ethan and me going out? What a crazy idea. Absolutely insane. My family would wonder if I'd lost my mind. The gossip sites would go nuts. And Chase? My lips formed into a smile as I thought about it.

"So I take it by that smile, you're thinking of Chase's reaction," Ethan, ever astute, observed.

My grin growing, I nodded at him. "He'll freak. He hates you so much."

Ethan rubbed his hands together, the motion and his narrowed eyes making him resemble a movie villain. "Exactly."

"I like it." I liked it a little too much. Did that make me a bad person?

"We can start slowly. Like just be spotted and photographed together at first. Then gradually, we can ramp it up."

I gulped, this idea that had taken root suddenly turning into something more that I hadn't thought about initially. "What do you mean by ramp it up?"

"I'm not sure yet. But we can play it by ear... test it all out."

Disappointment shot through me because I could certainly read between the lines. I wasn't born yesterday, and I had the sinking feeling that Ethan was yet another guy just trying to get into my pants. "I'm not going to sleep with you."

"Jesus. Who said anything about having sex?"

The way he said it, as if he was disgusted, made me feel like a leper. "Is the thought of having sex with me that revolting?"

An amused smirk formed on his handsome face. "Make up your mind, Stratton. If you want to fuck me, all you have to do is say so. And let me just assure you that sex with me would never be boring, unimaginative... or quick."

My face flushed with heat, and I reached for my now empty beer bottle. "I can promise you that I'll never want to have sex with you."

He feigned hurt. "Message received. Loud and clear. Now that we've gotten that out of the way and we know that sex is off the table, let's set some boundaries. Because if we act like a couple, we're going to have to be affectionate sometimes in public. Don't you agree?"

"Of course. But we can just limit it to hand holding, an arm around my back here or there. Maybe a little peck on the cheek if we really need to sell it."

"All right. Boundaries set." Ethan motioned to the bartender who came over and placed another bottle in front of me. "So when do you want to start?"

I had to think about that. If we started too soon, it'd be pretty obvious, wouldn't it? "Maybe we should do it in two weeks."

His face fell for a split second before his usual look was back in place. "Okay. Two weeks."

"I know. I'm itching to get started too. God, I want revenge on that asshole." Grabbing my full beer, I took a long drink of the ice cold beverage, my mind whirling. "Maybe while we wait, we can do something else a little more under the radar. You know?"

"What do you have in mind?"

Eleven

Ethan

I looked over at Aria in her get-up. Never in my twenty-nine years would I have ever imagined Aria Stratton dressed down in a drab-colored Dickies uniform, a man's wig and baseball cap on, scruff on her face, and padding stuffed into her coveralls to make her look like she sported a beer belly.

This was batshit crazy.Shewas batshit crazy. After all, she'd been the one to come up with this ridiculous scheme while drinking her four beers at the bar the other day. We'd stayed longer than I'd expected, Aria growing more animated with every passing minute as she hatched her plan.

I'd stopped after one beer, the need to get us both home safely way more important than drinking. And that I'd done, walking Aria to her door at the end of the night before heading back to my place to wait for this dreaded day.

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