Page 82 of The Enemy of My Enemy Is… My Fake Boyfriend?

Instead of seeing her, I spotted my favorite person in the world... Chase fucking Harrington.

Fists clenched at the mere sight of him, I took a breath and reminded myself that we knew he'd be here. That was the price we paid for going to these things.

He hadn't shown his actual face in weeks, and I couldn't help smiling at the thought of him nursing his broken nose andhopefully a black eye too. I was still waiting to get sued by that motherfucker.

I noticed a bunch of people looking toward the entrance, whispering like someone big was arriving. Turning my head, I saw Aria coming through the towering double doors, and man, she looked fucking stunning. Her deep red dress hugged her curves in all the right places, her hair cascading down her back like a waterfall. As she walked, heads swiveled to watch her, and I couldn't blame them—she really was a sight to behold.

Jesus. I had it bad.

Remembering myself, I did my best attempt at being a gentleman and walked her way, wanting her to be on my arm, wanting the world to know she was with me. Her eyes scanned the room, like she was looking for someone, and when she spotted me heading toward her, she beamed at me.

Yeah, she'd been looking for me. And that felt damn good.

I walked a little faster, annoyed at the crowd for being in my way, but finally, I made it. Once I reached her, I took her in my arms, ready to kiss her, but holding back because I didn't want to mess up her makeup. She smiled up at me, then did the deed herself, pressing her lips to mine.

Since we'd stopped doing the benefits thing, I'd taken every opportunity in public to touch her and to kiss her, taking what I could get, and tonight, even with her family here, I intended to do the same.

Someone near us cleared their throat, and we broke apart, Aria's sisters standing by her side. One of them looked at me skeptically while the other smiled from ear to ear. From what Aria had told me, I could guess who was who. Plus, I'd seen my share of photos of the two.

Aria stepped back, and I took her younger sister's hand. "Astrid. Pleasure to meet you."

Her smile grew, making me realize I just might have an ally in her.

But then it was Annalise's turn, and she squinted at me while I shook her hand. "Yeah, yeah," she said. "Pleasure and all that."

Whoa, feisty.

"I like your hair," I said, amused by her widening eyes. "Looks good tonight."

Astrid and Aria both cracked up laughing, the inside joke that Annalise now had to wear a wig reminiscent of her old hairstyle whenever she did stuff with her family since she'd chopped it off and dyed it for her new "undercover" job.

Not sure how Annalise would take it, I was pleasantly surprised when she gave me a reluctant smile.

"Ohh," Aria said all of the sudden. "Here are my parents."

Nerves shot through me as I turned to face them. Sisters were definitely easier than parents, especially because never in my life had I met any woman's parents, and it suddenly felt incredibly important that they like me. I didn't exactly have the best track record with my own family, and that made it all seem even more significant.

Feeling like an awkward teenager about to take his date to prom, I shook Mr. Stratton's hand first, the man almost as tall as me but with a grip like a vise. He looked me right in the eye, not intimidated in the least by my height. "Ethan," he said.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Stratton," I answered in a tone I hoped struck a happy medium between respect and confidence.

Mrs. Stratton was easier, leaning in to give me a hug right off the bat, her strong perfume tickling my nose. I held back a sneeze, thank the universe, because sneezing in her face was the last thing I wanted to do.

For fuck's sake, I hadn't expected to feel all these things just from meeting my fake girlfriend's family. It shouldn't have mattered, but it did, way more than I cared to admit, especiallywith Aria watching every movement, every nuance, as we interacted.

After what seemed like endless mingling, Aria's family the most popular people in the room with everyone gravitating toward them, we finally sat down at our table, Aria on one side of me, her dad on the other.

It didn't take long for him to turn to me, his face deadly serious. "So tell me about your company," he said, "BlackCode Solutions."

I wasn't surprised that he asked me that, or that he knew the name of my business. The man was known to be thorough. Normally, I didn't talk much about how I'd gotten my start, but I sensed I was being tested, that Mr. Stratton had heard bad things about me, and this was my time to set the record straight.

Taking a deep breath, I launched into the story of how I founded my company, telling Aria's dad about how it all started in my college dorm when I'd been frustrated by the lack of cybersecurity measures in place and I'd hacked away at some of the problems all on my own, developing my own software solutions. "After I graduated, I built up a team, we fought our way through, and now we're making waves in the industry."

I was proud of what I'd accomplished, what my team had done too, and it came through in my voice. How Mr. Stratton would choose to see that, I had no fucking idea.

When I finished talking, he nodded, his eyes catching on something across the room. I followed his line of vision to see Chase standing at a distant table with Hannah hanging on his arm. Mr. Stratton bristled beside me, his posture going stiff, his gaze narrowing.

Good. His reaction gave me a strange satisfaction.

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