Page 59 of The Fake Date Agreement

She’s silent.

If I were positive there wasn’t a window in there, I’d assume she was climbing out of it.

Back in the arena, I thought she was shy, and maybe she is. But after what Reid told Caleb and me about what her ex had said, a part of me wonders if the shyness isn’t just shyness but insecurity because of other things her ex might have said to her.

“Are you ready to stop hiding in there?”

“No.” Her voice is small. “I mean, this is fine. Expensive but fine.”

She’s still talking when I get to my feet. I glance over to ensure the sales assistant is busy at the front counter and slip into Tobie’s dressing room.

And slam to a sudden halt when I come face to face with soft, creamy breasts spilling from the top of a dusty pink demi bra that barely covers her nipples. I have to look away before I give in to temptation.

Her eyes dart to mine in the mirror. She stumbles back, yanks her shirt from the chair, and covers her chest. She’s bright red, her blush spreading over her cheeks and the top of her freckled shoulders. “You can’t be in here. I’m?—”

“Beautiful,” I softly interrupt, wanting to kiss each freckle. “And I just want you to see yourself the way I do.”

Her chin lifts slightly. “You don’t mean that.”

Her shoulder-length, wavy brown hair is loose, and the way she’s shielding her gorgeous, luscious body from me is making me think of rumpled sheets, sweaty morning sex, and I’m already far too hard to be thinking of that.

“And that is the problem we’re here to solve.” I focus my attention on her face before I do something in this room that’s better saved for a bedroom.

“What?”

I drop into a crouch.

She squishes herself into the corner, eyes like saucers. “What are you doing?”

I point my chin at the seat behind her. “Sit for a second. We need to talk.”

She doesn’t move. “While I’m half-naked?”

“Yes.”

If I give her an out, she’ll take it, and I think she needs me to be a little firmer with her than Reid would be. Caleb would growl at her, and she doesn’t need that. She’s jumpy enough.

She doesn’t want to see something that should be obvious, so I have to make it very clear to her.

After another long moment, she perches on the edge of the seat, and I clasp my hands together. I want to push her thighs apart, drag her toward me, and see how she tastes, but that’s not what I came in here to do.

Unless it’s what Tobie wants.

“We all want you,” I quietly tell her.

She stares at me.

Her mouth opens. Then it closes.

“Reid hasn’t tried to hide it, has he?” I ask.

She shakes her head.

“Caleb is staying away for now, but the clues are there.”

“What clues?” Her voice is quiet.

“The way he nearly choked out a guy when we couldn’t find your dorm room the night you left the arena.”

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