There Goes My Heart (The Sullivans #20) - Bella Andre Page 0,6

a couple of Rory’s brothers. “I’ve met two of them,” she said, “and they’re great. But what do they have to do with anything?”

“I hate the thought of one of my sisters being in your position.”

Zara was about to protest that the engagement party was nothing she couldn’t handle, but she decided not to waste her voice when Rory already knew it had been bad enough to lead to Prosecco-guzzling and a two-hour morning nap on his couch.

“Okay, maybe going with a plus-one would play better,” she conceded. “But I don’t want you to go unless you’re absolutely certain that you won’t hate every second of it. Especially since it’s all the way in Camden.”

“I like Camden.” He was like a bull in her china shop. “What time does the party start?”

She just blinked at him. Even had her brain been working at top capacity, she would have had trouble making sense of his behavior. “At six, so I was planning to leave no later than four. But we can just meet there.”

“No way.” He outright rejected that idea. “We want them to think I’m besotted.”

“Besotted?” She couldn’t believe that word was in his vocabulary. “Just being seen together will be more than enough.”

“I disagree. In fact, I think we should dig a little deeper to make it really believable. Learn each other’s favorite colors and whatever else a couple does.”

Couple? He wanted to pretend they were a couple?

This day was going from bad to worse.

Rory Sullivan being this into pretending to be her boyfriend was clearly karmic punishment for something she’d done in the past.

Long-buried shame for her past misdeeds rose up to hit her hard in the solar plexus, and it took every ounce of self-control she had to shove the shame back down deep. So deep that she could pretend it wasn’t there if she tried hard enough.

That was when she realized he was smirking at her—a look Rory Sullivan had likely patented at birth—which meant this wasn’t karma. No, far more likely it was payback for stealing his parking space. “You’re loving this, aren’t you? Winding me up with all this pretend-boyfriend stuff?”

He didn’t bother to hold in his laughter. “You should see your face. The more I say, the greener you get.”

She breathed a sigh of relief. “So you don’t actually want to pretend to be a—” She could hardly bring herself to say it. “Couple?”

No was the right response. Of course not would be even better.

“Actually, we probably should,” was the wrong answer on every single level. But one he gave anyway.

If only she hadn’t drunk so much earlier. More synapses might have been firing, and she would have done better than saying, “No one would ever believe it.”

“Sure they would.” He looked far too confident as he moved toward her. “Two single makers sharing a workspace all these months.” He was barely a foot from her when he stopped. “Plenty of people have probably wondered what we’re getting up to all those late nights when we’re the only ones left in the building.”

“Working!” She was horrified by any other possibility, particularly when the truth was that she’d had more than one secret fantasy after seeing Rory use his saws and drills and sanders without a shirt during a few particularly hot nights. “We’ve both been working. Separately!”

“You and I know that. But your stepsister and your ex don’t.” She couldn’t miss the naughty glint in his eyes. “All they’re going to see is that we can’t keep our hands off each other.”

This time, she was the one laughing. “We touched for the first time five minutes ago. I can’t even imagine what it would feel like to put my hands all over you.”

It wasn’t until the words were out of her mouth that she realized what she’d just done. With a handful of words, she’d thrown down the gauntlet. Firmly and undeniably in front of the man who had driven her crazier during the past year than anyone else ever had. And who would surely never let her walk out of here without taking up the challenge.

No surprise, then, that he responded by holding his arms wide. “Go ahead. Put your hands on me.”

Did his voice suddenly sound a little hoarse? Or was it simply that she had completely lost her grip on reality?

She had to lick suddenly dry lips before responding. “It won’t be a big deal if I do.” She forced a shrug. “You’re just a guy I work with, doing