Page 9 of Kane's Fake Relationship

“Just tell me if he’s coming.”

“No, Kane is not coming to Christmas.”

“Kane? What a sweet name.”

I looked across the table and caught Kane’s smile. The same one that normally annoyed the shit out of me made something flutter deep inside my core. This was getting complicated fast. I had my mother in my ear as I sat across from a seemingly gorgeous man who made me want to do things that were unheard of, in a deli run by an old man and his daughter. I had no idea what had happened to my perfect routine and structured life in the last twenty-four hours, but I was pretty sure the person to blame was the man with his hand reaching across the table for my phone.

Chapter Five

Kane

“Iwouldn’tmissitfor the world, Mrs. Hill and I can’t wait to meet you too.”

The second I pulled the phone from Trinity’s ear, she looked relieved, but as I began talking to her mother, I could tell I was digging a hole so deep we would need a crane to yank the two of us out of it.

“Here, she said good night.”

“What the hell did you just do?”

“I just saved you from a Christmas of being set up with some stranger. You could say thank you.”

“You want me to thank you? All you have done since you stepped into my life is push yourself closer and closer. Intruded in places you don’t belong and infuriated me.”

“You say all that like it’s a bad thing.”

“It is a bad thing! How are you this crazy?”

“I like to think of it as creativity, not insanity. Listen, it will be fine. We’ll leave in the morning and head to your mom’s. We can do Christmas Eve there with her early, then head to my parents’ house. Your mom says she just goes to church on Christmas Day, so we do that with her, have breakfast and be at my parents’ by dinner. All set.”

“All set? Do you hear yourself? We barely know each other and now you have committed to Christmas with my family.”

“Not just yours. My mother would kill me if I didn’t bring my new girlfriend home.”

Suddenly Trinity was up, throwing her garbage away and rushing out the door. I hollered a quick thank you to the woman behind the counter, dumped my trash, and ran out behind her.

“Hey, wait up!”

She turned and pointed at me, ready to let me have it. Fuck, she was gorgeous while she was angry.

“You suck!”

I laughed, a genuine belly laugh I hadn’t felt in years. Damn, this woman just kept surprising me.

“I suck? That’s the best you can come up with?”

“I could come up with more, but I’m just so mad right now I can’t even think of the right words.”

I walked closer to her slowly, hoping she wouldn’t run on me. When I was close enough to reach for her, I did and I pulled her into my chest as she half-heartedly tried to fight me off.

“Just relax, Trinity, stop trying to push me away.” Her body slackened in my embrace and I took a deep breath. “I know this is hard for you, but you can trust me to take care of you. If you just take a second and think it through, this is the perfect plan.”

“I hate you,” she mumbled into my chest.

“Hate is so close to love that it only turns me on more.”

Her small laugh was like music to my ears. “Are you okay?”

“No.”

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