Page 36 of The Fake Dating Plan

“So? It shall pass.”

“Thanks.” I tilted my head. “That’s very comforting. I feel comforted right now.” I didn’t. I was screaming inside. How could this happen? I was so caught up with Ax and his hot ass body in a tuxedo, not to forget Heron, who scrambled my brain with his presence. I should have been more careful. Fuck. “The entire world is going to think I screwed you to get a deal.”

“Again. I think you’re making a big issue out of nothing.”

“Nothing? Nothing!” My chest tightened. The room felt smaller and smaller. Then it began spinning. Oh god. Oh no. What was happening to me?

“Calm down, Em,” he said, grabbing my shoulders and clasping me. I focused my gaze on him. He, too, looked like he was spinning, but at a slower rate than the room. “Breathe in, and out.”

I did what he said. I took a deep breath in and I struggled to get one out. I tried again until I was feeling a little steadier. He pushed me back gently until I felt my ankles hit the base of the bed. He pressed his hands down on my shoulders and I sank onto the bed.

“You are having a panic attack.” He left the room and a moment later, he came back holding a glass of water. “Drink this. You’re probably dehydrated as well.”

I took the glass and drank a few sips. I could feel a slight headache coming on. I gulped down the entire glass.

“That’s my girl,” he said after I was done drinking. He took the glass, which was in danger of slipping from my unsteady hands. We sat for a few minutes without talking to each other. The silence was comforting and allowed me to get my bearings. The room slowly became clearer and more focused. After what felt like hours but was probably minutes, he said, “We should leave this room.”

“We haven’t finished discussing the picture.”

He stood up. “We can do it where we’re going.”

I frowned. “And we can’t do it here because…”

He shrugged. “If you want me to kill off the story, come with me.”

“That’s blackmail.”

“It’s your choice.”

“And yet, I feel like I’m not being given any.”

He retraced his steps, walking away from me. “Hey stop!”

“I’m giving you thirty minutes.”

“Where are you going?” Was he leaving? Asshole.

But if I wanted that picture taken down, I would have to do as he said. I got up on unsteady feet and took a shower. I felt a little better afterward and when I went to the living room of the hotel suite, Ax was there, standing next to a table for two filled with different breakfast items. His eyes flared when I came in.

My eyes narrowed. Something was off, but I was too hungry to dwell on it. I sank into the chair he drew for me and scanned the table. There were three types of bacon, eggs cooked six different ways, cheeses, toast, butter, beans, three types of sausages, six types of cereal, three types of milk, yogurt, a plate full of berries, several pitchers of juice, and another one with some green stuff I couldn’t recognize. All the breakfast a girl can ever dream of having. Something was off.

I grabbed a slice of toast.

“Before you eat that, drink this.” He poured the green stuff into a glass. “Best hangover cure in the world.” He took a seat opposite me and watched me drink. Satisfied, he sat back and took out his phone.

“I thought we were going somewhere.”

“After you eat. I don’t want you collapsing on me.”

“Where are we going?”

“You’ll find out.”

The helicopter we took landed on a superyacht. Ax bowled with laughter when he no doubt had registered the horror on my face. “Is this where you throw me in the ocean and I become the topic for a true-crime podcast?”

He laughed again as he helped me out of the helicopter.

“We’re in the middle of the fucking ocean Ax!”

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