Page 61 of Seduced by Her Billionaire Fake Fiancé

Andie grimaced. “I haven’t been sleeping that well.”

“God, Andie, you have to get over this. He’s just a guy.”

“I’m fine,” Andie responded, lips compressed. “I am over it.”

“Yeah, right.”

“It was nothing.”

Sophie shook her head. “Okay, if you say so.”

Andie forced their conversation in a totally different direction, finding it much easier to speak with Sophie about her life rather than the mess that was Andie’s. But as the night wore on and they had a second cocktail and the bar filled up, Andie began to run out of steam, and craved, more than anything, the privacy of her own home, where she could lose herself to her lonely thoughts.

“Okay, I know what you need,” Sophie said, grinning. “Trust me.”

Andie’s heart thumped in her chest. “Why? Soph?”

But Sophie was already lifting a hand in the air and waving it with a coquettish smile. “Those guys have been checking us out all night. They’re cute. Just…chat to one of them. Flirt a bit. See how it feels. I promise, you’ll see that whatever you had going on with Max wasn’t that special. It was just…new.”

Andie fiercely rejected the sentiment but had no time to express that, because two men dressed in suits came and stood at the edge of their table, smiling as they introduced themselves, and Andie and Sophie squished in a little in the booth to make space for them. One of the guys, Luke, took up the space beside Andie and began making idle conversation with her. Non-threatening. Easy.

Her nerves, stretched taut, relaxed a little. She found him pleasant to talk to. There was none of the tension and zap that pulled at her when she was with Max. This was…enjoyable. Like warm milk before bed.

She sipped her drink, asked him some questions, laughed at a joke. Time passed without Andie being conscious of it. More drinks were ordered. She ignored hers—cocktails had a habit of messing with her head anyway, and she’d already had two. Luke kept chatting with her. Andie barely heard anything that was happening with Sophie and the other guy, whose name she couldn’t even remember.

But time continued to pass and Andie was tired. She found herself stifling a yawn and turned to Sophie, finally, to find her completely engrossed and clearly very interested in Luke’s friend.

“Soph, we should go.”

“Oh,” Sophie frowned. “Really? Why? It’s early?”

“I’m tired,” Andie explained.

“Ten more minutes?” Sophie asked, smiling, turning back to Luke’s friend.

Andie opened her mouth to say something then gave up. She knew how stubborn Sophie could be. Besides, Luke was engaging and interesting and said something else funny, that made her laugh—and it feltgoodto laugh. He was handsome, she realized, with nice eyes and an attractive smile, but she noticed his good features in a purely academic way. There was no soul-deep recognition that something in him called to something in her.

It took Andie half an hour to pry Sophie away, and only after she’d swapped numbers with Luke’s friend. Andie didn’t think to do anything of the sort with Luke, but when she got Sophie outside and into a cab, she realized she’d left her bag in the bar.

“Wait here,” she said to the driver, and with a glance at Sophie, she rolled her eyes. “I’ll be two minutes.”

She quickly moved back into the bar, to the table, where her bag was still discarded idly between Luke and his friend. She pointed to it, Luke picked it up, stood, walked towards her, hand outstretched.

“I’m glad you came back,” Luke said with a smile.

“Well, I wouldn’t have gotten far without my bag.”

“True. But I meant for a different reason.”

“Oh?”

“I was just saying that I wish I’d been brave enough to kiss you.”

Andie’s lips parted. Her heart screeched. Everything inside of her shifted. And before she could say, or even think, anything, he did exactly that, dropping his head and pressing his lips to hers, and her reaction was so visceral and violent that it shocked her.

Every cell in her body screamed ‘no’. Every part of her rejected the attention of this very nice, very handsome man. She pulled away quickly, shaking her head, lifting a hand to her lips as if to erase the kiss.

“I’m not-interested,” she said, firmly. “I enjoyed speaking with you, but I’m not—,”

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