Page 530 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 11
“I’m not in love with Axel. I think maybe I was just in love with the idea of him. The way we used to be. When we were like...five.” I laughed awkwardly. “Axel and I are never going to happen.”
“I’m sorry,” Jacob said.
“I’m not. I’m just sorry it took me so long to wake up.”
Jacob nodded. “You deserve the world, Scarlett.”
I stared at him. Again, he didn’t put himself into his declaration. He wasn’t the one who’d give me the world. And maybe I just needed to take it myself. “And the kiss thief...well...that’s done too. I don’t care who it is. I don’t care about any of it.”
“Really? I find that hard to believe. What about Operation All Eyes on Baby Doll?”
“Done. Just like Operation Too Hot to Handle. I’m done wasting time on a drifter.”
Jacob laughed. “It probably isn’t a drifter.”
“Maybe. But I don’t care.” I stared at him. It didn’t seem like my kiss thief was him. And truly, I didn’t care who it was.
“Why the sudden change of heart?” he asked.
“Because I realized something important.”
“And what is that?”
I took a deep breath. “That I don’t want my fake boyfriend to be fake anymore. That I want it to be real.” There. I’d said it. God, the truth felt so good to get off my chest. But his silence did not feel nearly as good.Shit.“I know you like Olivia. Obviously. She’s gorgeous. And I mean...I get it.” I gestured to my chest. RJ said my breasts were great, but what did he know. He was my cousin. And Olivia was obviously very well endowed there.
“I probably shouldn’t have even said anything,” I added. “I want you to be happy. And you two make a very cute couple. Like...the picture perfect high school sweethearts, really. I just wanted you to know how I felt. And I know it took me too long. And that you obviously don’t feel the same way. Obviously. Because you’re not saying anything. And you already told me you didn’t like me anymore. So...” my voice trailed off. I wished my dad would cause a scene right about now. How had he not discovered the spiked water bottles yet?
Jacob smiled down at me. Like he was holding back laughter at my confession.
God, couldn’t someone come kill me? “I’m sorry,” I said. “I shouldn’t have just word vomited all over you. You like Olivia. I get it. I know you don’t like me. You laughed at our first kiss. You were just doing me a solid by fake dating me. Because we’re friends. And we’ll always be friends. God, I hope we’ll still be friends after this confession. Can we just pretend I didn’t say I was in love with you?” My eyes grew round. What the hell did I just say? In all the words that had fallen out of my mouth, “I love you” hadn’t been one of them until two seconds ago.Screw me.
“Took you long enough.”
“What?”
“Scarlett.” He pulled me in a little closer. “I haven’t been faking any of this.”
“What?” I said again.
“You put me in a tough spot after you totally freaked out after our first kiss...”
“Because you laughed at me!”
He smiled. “Yes, it was a bad kiss...”
“And you laughed at our second kiss too.”
“Of course it was going to be awkward at first. We’ve been friends our whole lives. But I could tell you were freaking outabout it. I knew we just needed to give it more time. So...I came up with the fake dating thing. So we could ease into it.”
I just stared at him.
“How could you possibly think that any of this was fake?” he asked.
“Because you said it was!”
He silenced me with a kiss.
A kiss that wasn’t at all awkward. Because it hadn’t been awkward in a long time.
