Page 50 of Fake Shot

“You wanted to know why people are staring, and I gave you an honest answer.”

Her jaw drops the tiniest bit as she runs her tongue along her top lip, and all I can think about is how she tastes. I want her to kiss me again. I want to experience that kind of possession I felt the last time our bodies came together, before we were so rudely interrupted.

In fact, sometimes it feels like that’s all I can think about now ... hockey and her. How she smells like her body wash and kissed me like she wanted to own me, the deep sound of her laughter and how I can tell there’s so many things she’sthinking but doesn’t say, the way she can command an entire crew of construction workers and is seemingly completely unaware that what I feel for her is becoming more than just physical.

She’s extraordinary: all the hard, driven parts of her brother, with the softer sentimental side of her sister. And as if I summoned her up in my mind, Audrey strides toward us. The smile she’s wearing is so fake, I worry she’s going to ruin this whole thing—that everyone will see through this. It’s been hard convincing my teammates that this is real, and if they don’t see a united front within the family, no one will buy this for a second longer.

Which is why it surprises me when she stops close to us, takes each of our hands in hers, and says, “I’m so sorry I got you both into this mess.” Audrey seemed to accept this ruse just fine last night in the Family Room, which makes me think that Jules must have said something to her about the bar or our conversation when we got home. It has me wondering how she’s really feeling about how close we came to something happening between us again.

“You didn’t get us into this mess,” Jules assures her sister.

“If I’d been at that dinner, none of this would have happened.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Jules says. “You were where you needed to be. And it’s fine. Colt and I will manage to get along through this ruse, and then everything can go back to how it was.”

I don’t know why I hate that idea so much, but I do. I really fucking hate it. I don’t know when she grew up, or how I hadn’t noticed. But the woman standing in front of meis so much more than just my best friend’s little sister—even if I keep telling her that’s all she is.

I don’t want to go back to how it was, when I teased and tormented her like she was still a kid. No, I want to go back to that alley, where she squeezed her thighs into my waist while she kissed me so thoroughly that I still wake up hard after dreaming about it.

But we can’t go there again.

Audrey’s lips press into a line, and she looks like she’s about to say something when Drew comes up beside her. He slips his arm around her waist, gripping her hip possessively. “What’s wrong?”

The question is addressed to the whole group, but Audrey looks up at him. “Ugh, besides me fucking up my sister’s life? Nothing.”

“Hey,” I say, “if you’re implying that being engaged to me is fucking up her life, I’m insulted.”

All three of them stare back at me.

“What? I’m kind of a catch ... ask anyone.”

“The only thing I’m likely to catch from you is a venereal disease,” Jules mutters, barely loud enough for the four of us to hear.

Audrey’s eyes widen, and Drew laughs into his beer before tilting it up and taking a sip. That beer looks like just what I need, and getting one gives me an excuse to get out of this foursome, where I feel like everyone is waiting to see how I’m going to fuck this up.

“I’m going to grab a drink,” I say to Jules. “Do you want anything?”

“Just for this to be over as quickly as possible.”

I bite the inside of my cheek because I don’t think shemeant to be funny, but it’s a relief that she’s back to giving me shit after a whole day of avoiding me.

“Champagne it is,” I say.

“I don’t even like champagne.”

“I thought it was your favorite?” Audrey calls her out.

When Jules gives her sister a death glare, I pull her back to me, enjoying the way I can feel her breasts pushed up against my chest as I duck my head and whisper, “I knew it was your favorite.” I wait for her surprised inhale of breath, and when I hear it, I turn and head to the bar with a shit-eating grin spread across my face.

Not only am I here with the hottest woman in the room, but she’s a whole lot more affected by me than she’s letting on. I should stop taunting her, leading her down this path that leaves us both sexually frustrated. I should let us go back to what we were before this whole fake engagement situation. I should keep my distance, but I can’t seem to stay away.

I’m waiting at the bar for my beer and Jules’s champagne when McCabe wanders up to me. “Engaged, huh?” He could not possibly sound more skeptical if I’d told him I’d given up sex. “To Flynn’s baby sister?”

“Ew, you don’t need to make it sound sketchy, man.”

He takes a swig of his beer while raising his eyebrows as if to say,It is sketchy.“How old is she?”

“Twenty-five.”

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