Page 44 of The Enemy of My Enemy Is… My Fake Boyfriend?

After I'd done about half a wall, I remembered my drink and handed the roller back to Ethan. "It's all you,darling. Care for a drink?" I asked.

"Always."

By the time I returned, he'd finished the rest of the wall and started the next, and judging by the way he worked with such focus, it seemed like he had no intention of stopping.

I got comfortable on my couch that I'd pushed toward the center of the room and resumed watching him, slowly sipping my delicious coffee cocktail.So maybe I'd lied a little when I'd told my mom I wanted to do this all myself because it sure was nice to sit back and let Ethan do all the work.

"So I didn't just come over to help," he said after a while with only the music as our soundtrack. "I have some things to tell you."

I perked up at his tone. "What's that?"

"Well, first of all, I found out Chase is losing his mind at the possibility of us being together." He kept right on painting like he hadn't just dropped a bombshell on me.

"What?" I gasped. "But how do you know?"

There'd been several articles and plenty of social media posts about our little coffee date, but it'd bothered me immensely that we'd never even know if Chase had seen them, let alone his reaction.

He shrugged. "I might have a person on the inside."

"Are you serious? You have a spy working at Empire Buzz?"

"I can neither confirm nor deny that."

Mouth agape, I stared at him casually painting the wall, my mind spinning as I rotated through every single one of Chase's employees, wondering who the heck was the traitor.

"But that's not the point," he continued. "The point is..." He turned to grin at me. "We're getting under his skin."

He was right, and his words were music to my ears. "Maybe being with Hannah isn't making him as happy as it seems."

"Exactly. Otherwise he really wouldn't care so much what his ex got up to, right?"

Still in awe, I nodded, triumph shooting through me at the thought of Chase getting upset. This was exactly what I had hoped for.

"Hey," Ethan said, looking at his phone, "what's your wifi password?"

"Oh, it's Aria1234."

He glanced up from his cell, fire in his eyes as our gazes met. Sheesh. What was that about?

"Are you fucking serious? That's your password?"

"Yeah. What's wrong with it?"

"What's wrong with it?What's wrong with it?" He paused to take a shuddering breath. "As your fake boyfriend, as someone who has his own cybersecurity firm, I cannot, I simply cannot, allow you to have Aria1234 as your password for anything. Please tell me that's not your password foreverything."

"Well, noteverything."

"Somostthings?"

"Maybe," I admitted.

He muttered a few choice words under his breath before sitting down on the couch beside me. "I cannot in good conscience let you walk around on this planet so vulnerable. We're going to fix thisright now."

Okay, something about this little protective side was hot, I had to admit. And I didn't mind one bit how close he sat nextto me while we went through my phone together, then my computer and tablet, updating every single thing I could think of and more, Ethan's competence and knowledge the biggest turn-on ever.

I couldn't help comparing him to Chase and his business. Empire Buzz was all about social media, and one would think Chase would have been incredibly helpful to me in that regard. But he'd rarely shared anything with me, and when he had, he'd never seemed so... I struggled for the right word. So capable, so knowledgeable, so masterful.

Yet somehow, with only a small fraction of the skill Ethan possessed, Chase had actually been rather condescending about it all. But the way Ethan did it wasn't mansplaining. It was just pure proficiency coming through along with passion and excitement, almost like a man obsessed.

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