Page 10 of The Hearts We've Broken
“I was going to take my time, but it seems you had other plans, Peach. I don’t want to wait another second to be inside you.” Sliding on the condom, I stood at the edge of the bed. “Now, turn around and let me fuck you like I’ve wanted to all night.”
CHAPTER FIVE
juniper
Iwas not expecting Mikey Tucker to beg me to have sex with him. Making him watch was just a bluff, but for some reason, it worked.
What I wasreallynot expecting was for him to stop me at the door to his trailer after. I assumed he’d want to skip all the awkward post-hookup talk. He didn’t seem like the kind to want to cuddle, either. Based on what I’d heard from Liv, he was a one-night-stand-only guy. No strings attached, never see you again, type of thing.
“Wait, you’re telling me you want me to be yourgirlfriend?” I cocked my head to the side, raising an eyebrow.
He ran his fingers through his hair. “Fake girlfriend, but yes.”
Why the hell does he need a fake girlfriend?
I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.
I thought about it for a second, though, and something dawned on me. Yes, being able to say I hooked up with the bull rider Ava had so desperately wanted a chance with was great, butshowing up on his arm? That was even betterrevenge. Even though we would know it was fake, no one else would, so she’d think he chose me and not her.
It was brilliant.
I wasn’t just going to agree to this arrangement, though.
“What’s in it for me?” I crossed my arms, knowing full well what I was going to be getting out of this but not willing to show all my cards.
“Whatever you want.” He shrugged at first then backtracked. “Within reason. Don’t go asking me to write a check with more than two zeros. I may be a bull rider, but I’m not loaded.”
“Make an appearance with me at an event this summer in Goldfinch.” It would have to be summertime for it to be an event that both Ava and Brady would be at, but if I was doing this for Mikey now, I felt like it was reasonable for him to return the favor later.
He nodded without hesitation. “Deal. I just need you to do this for a couple weeks. A month or two tops. Nothing serious.”
“Before we shake on this, we need to set some ground rules,” I pointed out. “Do you have a pen and paper anywhere?” I looked around the trailer and pursed my lips, finally noticing the disarray. It looked like a tornado of frat boys had rolled through. I fought the urge to gag, instead focusing my eyes on the ceiling.
“Here.” Mikey handed me a piece of notebook paper with a stain I hoped was coffee and a pen.
“Okay. First rule: both of us, obviously, have to stay single. No bringing other girls home. No going out with anyone else. If this is going to work, we have to be exclusive. Agreed?”
He nodded, and I wrote it down.
“What’s next?”
“Make it believable, but nothing extra. No offense, but I don’t want to be spending money on fancy jewelry or shit like that.”
I rolled my eyes but wrote down the second rule. “I don’t want your money, Casanova. But I agree. This isn’t real, so there’s no need to be flashy with it. Third rule: no kissing in private. There’s no reason for us to do that.”
“What about sex?” he asked, becauseof course he did.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea. However, if we’re going to be kissing and pretending to be intimate, I do think you should get tested. You know, in case something does happen again, which it won’t, but in case.” In hindsight, I probably should have brought up his sexual healthbeforewe hooked up, but I wasn’t exactly thinking logically in the heat of the moment. I wouldn’t be making that mistake again. “I’ll get tested, too, and share the results if it makes you feel better.” I’d gotten a test shortly after I caught Brady and Ava, because if he was so quick to cheat on me with her, then I had to assume he was cheating on me with others. I knew I was in the clear then, but the last thing I wanted was to catch something—especially now—so even if Mikey insisted I didn’t need to, I’d be going. Offering to get tested and share the outcome made my request feel more fair, too.
I expected him to complain, to protest and say he was fine, but he simply replied, “Whatever you want, Peach.”
I raised a brow at the name he’d called me four times now before scribblingNO SEXnext toNo kissing. Normally, I’d find something like that annoying, but coming from him, it was almost sweet. Endearing in an odd way, if you could even describe strangers who’d just hooked up as that. It’d work just fine to make ourrelationship look believable, so I didn’t want to tell him to stop.
“Final rule, but arguably the most important.” I looked up at him from the paper to make sure he was paying close attention. “Absolutely no—underanycircumstances—falling in love with each other.” I finished writing, underlining the bullet point a few times for emphasis, and slapped down the pen. “Sound good?”
“That shouldn’t be an issue. No feelings and no one gets hurt. Sounds perfect to me.”
“Great.” I picked up the pen that I so dramatically threw down a few seconds earlier and signed my name under the rules. I handed him the pen, and he scribbled his signature next to mine. “Do you want me to keep it or do you want to?”
