Page 70 of Worth Every Moment
“Do your shirt up, you idiot,” she mutters against my shoulder.
“In a minute.” I hug her tighter. “I’m busy right now.”
She laughs, and the sound brings another smile to my lips.Can she feel how hard my heart is racing?I catch the scent of her perfume in her hair. It’s the new one.Infinity. I lean my head against hers, inhaling deeply, recalling how she smelled like this at the photo shoot. When this fake relationship ends, this scent will fucking haunt me.
But if this is all I get with Erica—a fake relationship for three months—then I am taking every fucking scrap of it. I will devourit like a man starved. And then I’ll feast on the memory when it’s over.
We hold eye contact, heat rolling through me in waves as an idea forms. It’s crazy, but she might just agree to it.
“You need this to look different, right?” I ask, and she nods cautiously. “You need it to look like I’ve changed for you. You—Erica Lefroy—are so sexy, so irresistible, that I’m putting aside all my old habits because you’ve altered my life. No one else is coming through that revolving door again. Ever.”
A flinch skitters over her face that I can’t make sense of. “Mmm-hmm. Ideally, yes.”
I can hardly believe what I’m about to suggest, because it’s a wild idea, and I’ve never done anything like it before. It’ll piss Dad off, and who knows what that might lead to. But all my concerns are outweighed by two undeniable facts: it feels like the right thing to do, and I want it to the core of my being.
“Move in with me.”
A small jolt runs through her. “What?”
“You want me to show the world that it’s different this time?”
Her chin quivers the slightest bit. “Yes.”
“Come and live with me. In my house. I’ve never done that with anyone before.”
“Live with you? Like… roommates?”
I can’t help smiling. “No, like my girlfriend.”
“Fake girlfriend,” she corrects.
“Yeah. Until Nico and Kate’s wedding. The full three months.”
“Because you can’t last longer than that without sex?” She teases, probably hoping I’ll laugh along with her, but I’m too busy ignoring the twinge in my chest as I recall that she called me amanwhore. A derogatory title, but one I’ve earned, I suppose, even if I did it bathed deep in shame. And I can’t change it now.
“Hey, I’m joking,” she purrs, recalling my attention, but there’s something in her gaze that has me wondering if this isn’t all a joke to her either. If something about what she’s just said bothers her the same way it bothers me. But I can’t think about that now. There’s so much I haven’t told her. Can’t tell her. If this were a real relationship, keeping the kind of secrets I’m keeping would be a shitty foundation. But it’s not real, as she keeps reminding me. “Terrible joke. Sorry,” she adds.
I give her a squeeze to let her know I’m not offended. “Move in with me tomorrow and stay until we leave for Nico and Kate’s wedding.”
“And what happens after the wedding? Do I just move out?”
“Does that mean you’re moving in?”
“Yeah.” She flashes me an unguarded smile.“It’s a good idea.”
Excitement fizzes through me.Erica Lefroy is going to live with me, in my home, under my roof.I’m not stupid enough to believe she’s agreeing because she genuinely wants to live with me. This is about her career, and getting back at her mum, just like the photo shoot and this launch party. Iknowall that, but it doesn’t stop me feeling like I might explode at the idea of living with her.
“But how does it end?” she continues. “We should have discussed this before. If I’m living with you, how does it end?Whydoes it end?”
It’s right on the tip of my tongue to explain. To tell her everything so we can work out how the fuck it endstogether. But my mouth refuses to form the words, ‘I have to get engaged to someone else’, so I say, “We’ll work it out. You can break up with me. Make it big and showy and that’ll be the end of that.”
She looks unsure, and guilt skitters down my spine. “And… are we still friends after such a big public breakup?”
“Always.” I pull her closer, and the soft music of the slow dance wraps around us. To me, there might as well be no oneelse here because I am consumed by the woman in my arms. “I’ll always be here for you.”
Even if it tears me apart.
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