Page 38 of The Fake Dating Plan

“And you thought blackmailing me would get me into your bed?”

“It’s not blackmail when my name is also involved. I mean, not to be crass, but that image trended because I’m Axel Reid, billionaire playboy.”

“It’s trending!”

“It will if the US wakes up and finds it.”

She bit her lip. I groaned as my head filled with images of her on the sheets, biting her lips, trying not to come apart in my arms. “If I say yes, how fast can you do it?”

“Say yes and you’ll see.”

“What happens after the weekend?”

“You and I go back to hating each other.”

She nibbled her lip in thought. I let her maul it over for a few minutes but it felt like an entire day. When she finally nodded, I felt like punching in the air. But it was not enough. “I need verbal approval.”

“Yes Ax, I will stay with you for two days.”

Then I did it. I punched the air. She laughed. I took out my phone and made a few well-placed phone calls. Called my guys who knew how to handle stuff like this and after a couple of minutes I hung up. “It’s done.”

“Already?”

“Well, not done done. You can’t delete something from the Internet, but I made the newspaper put out a correction, and I buried any mention of it.”

“What! No way!” I took out my phone and searched for my name. Nothing except the usual articles came up. Then I searched for my name, the gala, and Ax’s name. Again, nothing came up.

“What sorcery is this?”

He laughed. “There’s a firm that practices the dark arts of burying information on the Internet and making people look like they have clean slates.”

“You did this before you knew I would say yes, didn’t you?”

“Like I said, there was no need for you to be worried.”

She looked genuinely impressed and gave me a curious look as if she was seeing me in a different light. She crossed her arms and said, “Now that I’ve said yes, what’s next?”

“A few rules, or should I say agreed-upon terms?”

“Such as?”

I brushed away a few unruly strands of hair that fell to my forehead. “We should focus on the present. Not the future,” I took a tentative step forward, “certainly not the past,” another step, “just now, here for the next two days.”

I was so close to her she had to tilt my neck to look into my eyes. Hers had a hypnotic way of making me want to lean forward and kiss her. If she wanted to act like our previous relationship had no bearing on the now, I was fine with that. I can pretend too. I stepped forward to do what I wanted to do for a long time and, surprisingly; she stepped back.

“Uh, did I miss something?”

She pressed her hands against my chest, pushing me away. “I said I will stay with you, never agreed to anything else.”

“Oh, you little witch.”

“That is what we agreed to, after all, wasn’t it?”

She was good. Too good. And right. “I should have been clearer I guess.”

“Yes.”

She won, and I was left with pie on my face and a boner from all the anticipation that led to nothing but blue balls. I needed to get my mind off thinking about her. “Now that we’ve come to an agreement, do you want a tour of the city?”

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