Page 10 of Seduced By You

“I don’t know. It’s… I’m not an actor, and neither are you. If it was only the wedding, then perhaps I could do it. But it’s three days. How are we supposed to keep up the pretense for three days?”

All too fucking easily.

“Look. We’re best friends, right? So we’re already close. We laugh together, we tease each other, we’re natural in our interactions. None of that has to change. All we have to do is something like hold hands in public and dance at the wedding.”

If I wasn’t careful, I risked appearing desperate, but to have my dream dangled so close only to have it snatched away was not happening.

Was. Not. Happening.

Goose bumps peppered the back of my neck as I waited for her to consider my rebuttal. The silence physically hurt me, but the right play here was to keep quiet. Let her think about it properly.

And if she still wasn’t happy with the arrangement, I’d… I’d…

Ah, fuck. I got nothing.

She nibbled the corner of her mouth, then urned her seductive gray eyes on me. Twirling a lock of her lavender hair around her finger, she nodded. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

Relief loosened the coiled muscles in my back, and my shoulders relaxed.

“I am right.” I dropped my half-eaten pastry on the plate and reached for her hands, encasing them in mine. “Look, Lee, you deserve your shot at revenge. You’ve earned it. Let me do this for you.”

An inner voice muttered, “Foryou, you mean.”

It wasn’t wrong. But what Lee didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her. The only person at risk of getting hurt was me. And as I was the catalyst for the entire situation, then I got to decide whether or not I could handle it.

Spend a few days in England, bank a few memories, have a fun time rubbing her ex’s nose in it, then return to our normal lives.

What could possibly go wrong?

Lee rubbed her lips together. “Are you sure?”

“Positive. I wouldn’t have suggested it last week if I wasn’t. Come on. It’ll be fun.” I pushed the remains of my plate away. Lee stared in horror at me, then at it, and then back at me.

“You’re not going to finish those?” She jerked her chin at the leftover pain au chocolat and the untouched kouign-amann, which, in my opinion, was far superior to the humble croissant. This morning, though, my appetite wasn’t there, and after Lee almost backed out before we’d begun, what little I’d had, vanished.

I patted my stomach. “Gotta take care of the six-pack.”

“Well, I don’t.” She snagged the pain au chocolat and polished it off in one mouthful.

As close to her lips touching yours as you’re gonna get, dickhead.

“So, are you in?” I pressed.

She swallowed. “I guess.”

“Great.”

I reached into the inside pocket of my jacket and removed a sheet of paper. Laying it on the kitchen countertop, I smoothed it out. “I noted down a few questions before I left the house this morning.”

“Oh my God. Look at you, you little organizer. I planned to wing it.”

“That works, too. We can use these as prompts if we run out.”

She plucked the paper out of my hand and scanned it. “Wow. How did you think of all these?”

“I didn’t. Google did.”

“Ah. Full marks for ingenuity. Zero for effort.”

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