Page 10 of The Stand-In Boyfriend

I narrow my eyes at her. The idea that she sees me as some attention whore is getting to me for a reason I can’t seem to explain.

Concentrate, Russell. You’re here for a reason.

“I don’t give a crap about attention. But you might.”

Jessica frowns, her lips pressing in a tight line. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“That means I have a proposition for you.”

“This ought to be good.” She crosses her arms over her chest. The stance should be defiant, but the only thing it does is push her tits higher.

Stop thinking about her tits and get down to business.

“You’re pissy because everybody is still talking about how your ex cheated on you, and they think you want to get back with him.”

“What the hell…”

I lift my hands to stop her from speaking. “I just call it as I see it. Doesn’t mean I think the same, or care one bit if you want to get back with him or not.”

“Well, I don’t. Jack and I are over.”

“Good.” I nod. Hearing her say it does things to me I don’t want to examine too closely. “But that doesn’t mean shit because we both know that people don’t care about the truth. They want drama. So, let’s give it to them. God knows we already started.”

“Oh, not we,you.” Jessica pushes off the hood and moves closer, stabbing her finger in my chest, and then once again for good measure. “Youstarted it by kissing me. It wasn’t even that good of a kiss.”

I wrap my fingers around hers to stop her from poking me further. If this is going to work, we’ll definitely have to work on that.

“Wasn’t a good kiss?” I almost choke on the words. “What the hell do you know about good kissing? You dated ahockeyplayer for half of last year.”

She huffs. “I don’t get what your feud is with hockey players, but Jack was an excellent kisser.”

My jaw clenches at her words. The last thing I want is to be compared to Jack-fucking-Morgan, a king douchebag.

“Then did you stop to think that maybe it’s you who’s the problem?” The words come out of my mouth before I can think better of them.

Jessica flinches like I slapped her, her face turning pale. Instantly, I regret my outburst. She might drive me insane, but that was a low blow. A really low blow.

“Jess…”

She doesn’t let me finish. Tugging her hand out of my grip, she pulls back without saying a word. Sliding into her car, she closes the door behind her and drives away.

And I let her.

Fuck.

Chapter Five

JESSICA

“Who does he think he is?” I ask in lieu of hello as soon as Evie opens her front door. Not waiting for her answer, I walk past her and up the stairs to her room.

“Umm… I guess that depends on whoheis.”

“Fucking Noah Russell, that’s who! Seriously, how could you date that guy? He’s infuriating.”

Great, and now I can’t stop thinking about Noah kissing Evie. And kissing me.

Then did you stop to think that maybe it’s you who’s the problem?

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