Page 47 of Fake It for Christmas

I want more.

Is any of this for real?

Instead I just breathed deep, giving him a small smile and a little squeeze on the thigh before lying down beside him.

“How’d I do, teacher?” I asked.

Both of us slowly laughed, catching our breath. The snow was gently falling outside again past the window, and for a moment I felt like I was floating midair.

“You get a solid A,” he said.

“Not an A-plus?” I teased. “Well, clearly I need to work harder next time.”

I let the last two words hang between us, hoping he would take the bait.

Will there be a next time, Shane? Would you want that just as fucking badly as I would, or is this still just all pretend?

“I’m pretty sure Harvey is going to hang me if I don’t show up for work soon,” he said, and part of the magic in the air disappeared.

“Wait,” I said. “You have to go intoworktoday?”

“Yup,” he told me. “He’s pretty lenient on snow days, though. He won’t mind that I’m fifteen minutes late.”

“You let me fuck you like that when you had to be at work?” I said, propping myself up on my elbow. “Come on. Let’s go. I don’t want to make you late.”

He lifted his eyebrows. “Trust me, doing this with you was worth it. I needed a good fuck.”

I bit the inside of my cheek. “Well, I’m glad I could provide. But I don’t want to screw up your work life. Get up. I’ll get dressed and head out, too.”

Shane sighed. “You’re too kind to me, Rowen,” he said.

Because I care about you,I thought, something tightening a little in my throat.Way more than I even realized.

11

SHANE

“We will be in touch,” Nathan said to me over the video call, smiling the same friendly way I’d seen him smile into the camera hundreds of times.

Nathan freaking Wood.

Because I was on a video call with Shawn and Nathan Wood. Not an assistant or manager or producer for the Fixer Brothers—but the actual, real, live Fixer Brothers themselves. I wasn’t sure how I was still able to breathe, but somehow I’d managed it.

“Amazing,” I said. “Incredible. Thank you both, so much.”

I reached over to Rowen beside me, gripping his hand for probably the twentieth time. He’d been by my side, playing the part of my boyfriend absolutely fucking perfectly the whole time. I’d been on autopilot for the entirety of the video call, hoping that I was putting together words in ways that made sense, but mentally I’d basically been on another planet the whole time.

But Rowen had been amazing. He was damn good in front of a camera, and this call had been no different.

“There’s just one more thing I want to ask,” Shawn said, leaning forward and looking out at us.

Nathan laughed beside him. “He’s been asking this with every couple we interview.”

“Hey,” Shawn protested, looking over at his brother. “It’s a couples edition Fixer Brothers show. Of course I want to ask coupley things.”

“I agree. Go for it.”

“It’s a simple question,” Shawn said. “What was the moment you fell in love?”

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