Page 87 of The Proposal Project

“What are you doing?” he asks.

I don’t notice that he’s followed me until I hear his voice behind me. I look at his reflection through the mirror. He’s standing in the doorway, watching me. “Making it look like I spent the night here and just rolled out of bed,” I tell him.

“I see.” He watches while I mess with my hair some more. “Are you trying to give yourself sex hair?”

I stop what I’m doing to give him a look. He smirks, his arms crossed. “Maybe,” I admit. I fight a smile. “Tina notices little details like that. I need us to be believable.”

“I can probably help with that.” He steps up behind me. Before I can ask what he’s doing, his fingers are in my hair, pulling and tugging me back against him. No one has ever pulled my hair before, so I don’t know that I like it until he’s doing it to me. My breath catches in my throat as my back comes flush with the front of his body.

His mouth meets my shoulder, his hot breath leaving a trail up my neck until he reaches the back of my jaw under my ear. Then he pulls my hair again, this time turning my head until I’m looking at him.

“What are you—” I start to say, but he interrupts me by bringing his mouth to mine. He pulls on my lower lip with his teeth, then turns me all the way around so that I’m facing him. He steps into me, backing me up against the bathroom sink. He bites a trail down my neck to my collarbone, then pushes his body against mine, and if I’m not mistaken, I can feel his hard length through both of our clothes. He reaches down and scoops my legs up so that I’m sitting on the bathroom counter. I wrap my legs around his waist and pull him in closer. I don’t remember making the conscious decision to do so. It feels like I’m acting on instinct. My body needs his.

My hands come up under his shirt, feeling the bare skin of his back. He presses into me, and I can feel all of him. My hands come around his sides to his front and trail down his stomach. He sucks in a breath, reacting to my touch. My fingers dip down, stopping at his waistband. His lips close around mine again while his hands come down from my hips to my ass, and he pulls me into him like we’re not already close enough. Without separating himself from me, he reaches down and undoes his belt buckle.

“Oliver,” I gasp. “What?—”

We’re interrupted by the sound of someone knocking on his front door. We both freeze. He turns his head in that direction, then looks at me. We stare at each other for a hot second. With his face this close to mine, his brown eyes look like pools of honey with little green streaks.

“Just making it look convincing.” His voice is quiet and deep, but his words feel like a knife. I don’t know what I expect. It’s not like this is different from any of the other times he’s put on a show for Tina and Ryan. He takes a step back. I lower my feet to the floor, sliding off the bathroom counter. He watches me for a second longer, then heads to the front door. I close the bathroom door behind him, needing a little space to catch my breath and gather my thoughts.

I can hear Tina’s voice as soon as she and Ryan walk through the door. I face the mirror again. I run my fingers through my hair and pat it down to look more presentable, even though I came in here to do just the opposite. I straighten out my shirt, and then I step out of the bathroom.

“There she is,” Tina says. Her eyes wander over my body as I come toward them, like she’s trying to decide if I look disheveled enough. I force a smile even though on the inside I feel like crying. I don’t know why I’ve let Oliver get to me. I’ve known all along that he’s not into me. He’s made it very clear that he only makes out with me for their benefit. None of this is real.

I lock eyes with him, and he smiles. His smile irritates me because he’s so clueless about how I feel right now. He doesn’t know that every time he touches me, I lose a few more of my inhibitions, and I start to think that there’s a part of him that wants me too. But then his words bring me back to reality and it feels like I’ve fallen out of a second story window into a bed of broken glass. On second thought, that might feel better than this.

But I’m smiling, and no one seems to know that I’m anything but happy.

“Are you guys ready to go?” Ryan asks.

“Yep,” Oliver says. “Just finished packing my bag. Priscilla?”

“Me too.”

Tina and Ryan head out the door first. I follow them and Oliver comes out behind me. He grabs my arm before I can follow them all the way to the car.

“Hang on,” he says. “I have to lock up.”

I watch as he turns the key in the deadbolt, wondering why he needs me next to him to do this. I just want to get to the car and be alone in the backseat for a minute until he gets there. He takes the key back out of the lock, then looks over his shoulder toward the driveway where Tina and Ryan disappeared around the corner of the house. I turn my head, following his gaze. He cups my chin with his hand, turning my face back to him. He’s closer than he was a second ago. My heart skips. It’s his closeness, and how gently his fingers touch my chin, so different from the way he grabbed my hair only a few minutes ago. He leans down and touches his lips to mine. It’s soft and quick, nothing like what went on in the bathroom, but it leaves me breathless just the same. I wish I could say that this kiss makes me feel better, or even that it makes me feel worse, but it does neither. I’m left feeling even more confused than before.

He grabs my hand and leads me to the car. I get in the back and slide over to make room for him. He takes my hand again once he’s settled in next to me. I look down at our intertwined fingers. I wish I could tell him that this is too much and I can’t do this anymore, but I’m committed to this for the weekend.

“How long is this drive?” I ask. It’s not so much that I’m curious about how long it will take to get there. I want to know how easy it will be to get home if this weekend ends up being too much for me and I need to leave.

“Just a couple hours,” Tina says.

Ryan scoffs. “Try four.”

“Roundtrip?” I ask hopefully.

“No. Four each way,” he says. “The cabin is in Pennsylvania. Didn’t Tina tell you that?”

I glare at Tina. She looks back at me, her eyes blocked by a pair of big sunglasses, and smiles. “I’m not sure I would have agreed to this trip if I knew it was such a long drive.”

“You didn’t agree to it anyway,” she reminds me. “Your lover-boy agreed to it on your behalf.”

I look at Oliver. “Did you know how far away this place was?”

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