Page 10 of The Fake Boyfriend Excursion

"Cast-offs? You’re such a piece of shit. Apologize," I say, my voice deadly serious.

Chad rolls his eyes. "For what? You're the one trying to make me look like a fool. Ginny's just sitting there letting it happen. I'm the one who brought you on this fucking trip. It's my bed you should be sleeping in. You owe me that."

Virginia's spine stiffens, her face flushed with embarrassment and anger.

I glance at our mom. "Are you seriously going to sit there and let him talk to her like that?"

Her hands flutter in the air in front of her. "I'm sure he didn't mean it the way it sounds. He's just surprised. We all are. This is just very surprising, Patrick."

"Surprising. Right." I shake my head and lean down to speak directly into Virginia's ear. "We stay, and I'm not going to have any sort of appetite. Let's go back to the room."

She nods, barely perceptively, and tosses the napkin she'd spread out carefully over her lap onto the table. I hurry to stand,pulling her chair out for her as she rises. Chad jumps to his feet as well, rounding the table, but I get between him and Virginia.

He’s fucking done making her feel like shit.

Our parents look on, but, like always, do nothing. Dad’s impassive, like he's not quite sure what to make of the spectacle, and Mom is frowning at us, worried that her darling baby isn't getting exactly what he wants.

Chad tries to look around me at Virginia, but I shuffle to the side, using my bigger body to completely block him from her. He glares up into my face, the few inches I have on him making all the difference in our close proximity.

"We both know that she's too much of a frigid bitch to spread her legs for you, so whatever game you two are playing, I hope you enjoy it because before this trip is over, she'll be back where she belongs, begging me to take her back."

I put my hand on Chad's chest, and I see our mom start to rise out of the corner of my eye. I ignore her, so completely fucking done with all of this.

"You ever call her that again, and you won't make it back to dry land."

I give him a slight push back, jostling the table when his legs hit it. I reach back without looking, and am grateful beyond measure when Virginia grabs my hand with both of hers and follows me out of the restaurant.

We don't speak the entire way back to the room as I do my best to get my temper under control. If there hadn't been a room full of witnesses, I'm not sure what I would've done. The things that Chad said, the way he seemed to truly believe that not only did Virginia owe him for bringing her on the trip, but that she'd choose him over me in the end, nearly had me throwing her over my shoulder to carry her the rest of the way back to the suite.

As soon as the door is shut behind us, she slips free of my hand and paces farther into the room, fingers pressed into hercheeks. "That was bad," she says softly. "Even worse than I imagined. Oh my god, your parents must think I'm such a slut. I should have just stayed here."

I narrow my eyes and close the distance between. "Don't say that. No one gets to call you that. Not even you."

She drops her hands and looks up at me. "What are we doing, Trick? He’s not buying it. There's no point in keeping up the charade."

There’s every point to it, but I’m not about to admit that. Not yet.

"He just needs a little more convincing. We already have him rattled. That was not a confident man."

"No, he's like a wounded rattle snake, striking out every chance he gets," she mutters, turning and pacing away from me and then coming back. "And I didn't even get to have any of that fancy food. I’m starving."

Cracking a smile, I walk over and grab the room service menu, holding it out to her. "Order anything you want. Actually, double it because I'm starving, too."

Starving for her, but I'd have to make do with fresh mahi-mahi.

5

I really am slut.

I smile to myself as Trick and I make our way down to the boat that's going to take us out for snorkeling. Of course, I don't mean it in a negative way like I had the night before. No, after a night of laying awake thinking about what had happened and the way that Trick had stood up for me and threatened Chad, I'd come to the conclusion that if he'd turned to me in bed in that moment and asked me to spread my legs for him, I would have. It didn't matter anymore that I had come on the trip with his brother. Chad had never done anything like that for me before. He'd been more of the backhanded compliment kind of guy, telling me what a pretty face I had or how an outfit made me look skinnier, things like that.

The second I'd walked out of the bathroom the night before in my red heart dress, Trick had ran his gaze over my body, slowly, appreciatively, in the privacy of our suite without anyone else there to put on a show for, and then he told me that I looked beautiful and it had felt like he meant it. So yeah, maybe it did make me slutty to want to jump into bed with a man I hadn't been in a relationship with two days ago, and technically still wasn't, but it's not like I'd been holding out from having sexbecause I wanted to save myself for marriage. I just wanted to be sure that it would mean something to the other person.

And the way that Trick looked at me sometimes, when he didn't think I would notice or was paying attention, it made me wonder if he was exactly the kind of man I'd been waiting for, that he would take it very seriously if I gave him my virginity. We spent the day out in the water watching the most beautiful and brightly colored fish, as well as some small sharks and stingrays moving around us and below us. I'd never done anything like snorkeling before, but it was amazing. Every time I looked over in excitement at Trick, he was already looking back at me, smiling around his mouthpiece.

The only thing that marred the beautiful moment for me was Chad's presence. I thought it was funny he had decided to go at the last minute, considering when I tried to plan excursions for our trip, he'd blown me off saying he'd rather just go with the flow and hang out at the pool than be traipsing all over the place. And yet, this morning when Trick had asked if I wanted to go to shore and I had suggested doing something, he'd immediately pulled up the available options to see what we could book last minute. It was just one more way he was completely different from his brother. One more way I wish what we had pretended last night was real.

I'd been so tempted when we got back to the suite to just throw myself at him and kiss him, partly in thanks and partly because of what Annabeth had said about actually enjoying my vacation and using Trick to do it. Not that I wanted to use him, but if he was open to the idea, I wouldn't say no. Too bad I was pretty sure he was just being a good person, though sometimes when we were on the boat or as we walked around checking out local shops before heading back to the ship, I'd realized he wastouching me or standing a little too close, but that Chad wasn't around. I didn't say anything, though. I didn't want to spoil the moment, even if it made me selfish and greedy. After everything Chad had put me through the last few days, I argued that I deserved a little bit of extra, even if Trick didn't really mean it that way.

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