Page 38 of Away With You
That he’s willing to do this, to admit to this plan to someone like Nicky Dimitrios, speaks volumes. It would not be an easy thing to admit to. From the outside looking in, it seems a little pathetic.
“No, it’s fine,” I tell him. My heart pinches at the thought of anyone seeing him in that light. “It needs to stay our secret.”
His eyes gleam. “Thanks, Katie.”
“Sure. It wasn’t a hardship spending the evening with those two.”
“And me…” he prompts.
I turn and run my eyes over him. It’s certainly not a hardship to spend any time with this man. “Eh, you’re okay, too.”
“You do keep me humble, Kitty Kat.”
We drive the rest of the way in silence, the warmth in the car and the scent from his skin lulling me into a sense of comfort, one I haven’t felt in…years.
“So, what do you think?” he starts as we sit in the idling car, once again in a spot right outside my building.How does he do that?“Can we do this? Sell to the world that we’re an actual couple?”
Heat fills me, and a big part of me wishes he were asking me to do this for real.
“I mean, your friends were pretty convinced. What’s a few million more?”
He lets out a whoop and pulls me in for a full-body hug. “Thank you, Katie,” he whispers, his breath hot against my ear. “I owe you big time.”
I lean back from him, reluctantly extracting myself from his powerful arms, and nod. “I’m happy to help.”
We gaze at each other in the dim light, and I again remind myself firmly that we’re just friends. No matter what it looks like on the outside, we are only pretending. So what if he’s staring at my lips like he longs to kiss me, and my skin tingles every time we touch? In a few weeks, he’ll go back to his life, and I’ll remain here, and if my heart is going to come out of this unscathed, it’d do well to remember that.
Nathan Jackson is yourfakeboyfriend, Katie. Nothing more.
?·?·?
“You’re dating Nathan Jackson and you didn’t even tell me?”
It’s barely morning. The sun has just made an appearance, and not only is Jade in my flat, but she is also on my bed. Bouncing and screeching and scaring Nuke to death. My furry friend took off in a huff the minute my bedroom door slammed open, but not before she trounced over my face to express her displeasure.
Clearly, all my friends are unhappy with me today.
“Pardon?” I mumble through my curtain of hair.What is she even saying?
“Ka-t-ie,” she says, stretching my name into three syllables, showing just how cross she is. “Get up at once and answer me. Are you and Nathan dating?”
Yikes. How does she know about this?
“Um.” I roll over and sit up, pushing my hair out of my eyes to stare up at her. From this angle, she looks about ten feet tall. Like an angry giant. In a purple jumpsuit.
“Answer me.”
“I mean, kind of?”
She falls face first onto the bed beside me, pushing onto her elbows and into my face. “Explain yourself.”
I scramble my thoughts in order. “I’ll tell you everything, but first I need to know how you found out.”
Jade rolls onto her back and fishes around in the front of her jumpsuit. “This,thisis how I found out my bestie is dating the hottest man in the world.” She thrusts her phone at me, and I stare at her screen, my stomach sinking.
Contrary to Nathan’s belief that no one will pay attention to him in the off-season and we’ll be controlling the narrative, there are not one but ten articles outing our relationship. Complete with pictures from last night…and the night before?
“This is unbelievable,” I murmur, skimming through the screenshots Jade had helpfully taken, each more incriminating than the next. I mean, this is what we wanted when we decided to do this fake dating thing, but not like this. Not with my photo splashed everywhere and thousands of people speculating whether I’m the woman to help the F1 driver fall in love again.
