The Billionaire's Pretend Girlf - Leslie North Page 0,35

she would have jumped at the chance to go back to the room with him. Now, she just saw it for what it truly was: a danger zone of physical intimacy leading to emotional lies. Not even lies from Daniel, who had never promised her anything. Lies she’d tell herself because of how badly she wanted them to be true.

This meant she needed to guard her heart more than ever.

“That’s fine,” she finally said.

Daniel watched her for a moment, scooping up one of her hands and bringing her knuckles to his lips. “Are you okay, princess?”

“Just tired,” she lied. “The wine hit me. I feel like I could go to sleep right now.” Though that was only partially true. She needed to curl up into a cocoon right now, so that she could reinforce the new decision to herself. Make it turn into a stone wall around her heart.

Daniel stood, pressing a hand to the small of her back as they said their goodbyes to the tables. Blake complained about Daniel leaving so early, but Daniel said he’d make up for it tomorrow at the wedding. On their way back to the room, Jackie tried to conjure even a fraction of her previous good mood—but at this point, it was a losing battle.

“The wedding’s going to be great,” Daniel said, draping his arm over her shoulders. “I can’t wait to see you in your dress.”

She smiled, but it faded quickly. “It’s so pretty. But it was so expensive. I feel like I should give it back once this is over.”

Daniel sent her a sharp look. “No. All those clothes are yours. I told you.”

Jackie nodded, a storm brewing inside her. She’d tried to reference what would come after the wedding—hoping he might say something about her having other chances to use the dress in the future, when he took her out—but Daniel hadn’t caught on. Or maybe he did. Maybe ‘once this is over’ was just another reinforcement that what they were doing here would be officially dead come Monday.

The endless swirl of speculation was exhausting. Her eyes fluttered shut for a few steps, repeating to herself the new game plan: Keep your guard up.

Because once they got into that room, just the two of them, she was going to need to protect herself at every turn.

12

Daniel rubbed at the back of his neck, staring at the steam rolling out of the bathroom. Jackie was in there, in arguably the world’s hottest and longest shower, and every inch of him wanted to join her.

But something was off. He couldn’t tell what, but she’d been acting differently toward him all damn night. Part of him wanted to blame Tania, but that seemed almost too easy. She wasn’t the malicious type, and their break-up hadn’t been ugly in any way. He didn’t think she’d make up lies about him and there was nothing damaging about the truth—that things just hadn’t worked out. He and Tania had never been serious, even though she had clearly wanted it desperately. Their easygoing friendship all through grad school had naturally morphed into something more as they were both starting their careers. But the timing was wrong—and besides, they were too much the same person. Being with Tania had always felt like dating himself. And that’s not what he wanted.

He’d thought that he didn’t want anything—or anyone—at all. But Jackie was showing him that he wanted someone exactly like her.

So whatever she was going through, he should be there to help snap her out of it. Maybe she really was just tired. They were still getting to know each other—it stood to reason that he had much to learn about her moods and cycles. Just as he was getting ready to take his clothes off and surprise Jackie in the shower, his phone rang.

Dad.

Daniel steeled himself before he answered the phone, switching it to speaker so he could continue undressing. “Hey, Dad. What’s up?”

“Listen, any chance you have the Bangladesh proposal ready early?”

Daniel frowned. He still had three more days to finish that enormous project, and would need every one of them to complete it. “No, unfortunately. Why?”

His dad sighed tersely. “Any chance you could get it to me by the end of the day?”

Daniel’s head dropped into his hands. Here they went again: back on the eternal work merry-go-round. Just as he was actually enjoying the closest thing he’d had to a vacation in too long. “No, Dad. I’m out of town. Remember?”

His dad scoffed. “For