Trouble with the Fake Boyfriend (Rock Bottom #3) - Holly Renee Page 0,55

respond, but he was right behind me.

“That’s such bullshit and you know it.” He rounded the car, but I was already headed for the house. “Brooke, talk to me.”

I spun in his direction, and I could feel my throat getting tight. “What do you want me to say?”

“I don’t know.” He threw his arms out to the side. “But something other than this bullshit. Don’t pretend you’re only in this for the deal.”

“What do you think I’m in this for, Liam?” I marched up the stairs and waited at the door until he opened it. “We had a deal with clear rules.”

He opened the door and motioned for me to go inside. “I think we blew those rules out of the fucking water last night, don’t you?”

I didn’t wait for him or turn around to see if he was following me as I stomped up the stairs. These damn heels were killing my feet, and I wasn’t going to stand around arguing with him in four-inch heels. I opened his bedroom door and started unclasping the small buckle around my ankle. “Last night was a mistake. Neither one of us should have let it happen. We shouldn’t have screwed this up.”

“It wasn’t a mistake.” He was standing directly behind me, and I hated how wounded he sounded.

“This can’t work.” I motioned between the two of us.

“Why not?”

“Because.” I didn’t know what to say. He knew we were a bad idea as much as I did. “We’re barely even friends, Liam.”

“We’ve seemed like pretty good friends since we’ve been in Tennessee.” He threw his suit jacket on his small desk.

“Isn’t that what you hired me to do?” I crossed my arms and tried to breathe. I needed to end this now. I was already hurt and we hadn’t even started. Liam was the kind of guy that could destroy me. I couldn’t rely on him for everything. I came here because of what he offered me. Regardless of how badly I didn’t want to be like my mom, I knew that.

But I refused to give him all the power over me. I refused to let him hold my heart in his hands and trust that he wouldn’t crush it whenever he realized I wasn’t what he wanted.

“I think I’ve played the part perfectly.”

He looked at me like he barely knew me, and I hated it. I wanted to wrap my arms around his neck and beg him to forget everything I had said.

But Liam deserved better than that. He deserved more than I could give him.

He moved toward me, the smell of his cologne enough to make me want to reach out and touch him, but he wasn’t waiting for me. He gripped my chin in his hand and forced me to look up at him.

“If you want to pretend like that’s all this is, then let’s pretend.” His hand moved from my jaw to the back of my head. “One more night.” My hair tightened in his fingers, and even though I wished it hadn’t, a small moan fell from my lips. “Make me believe that I’m nothing to you.”

He let go of my hair, and I could barely catch my breath as he started unbuttoning his shirt. This was a bad idea. The worst idea we had yet, but I couldn’t say no.

I wanted him too badly. I wanted him to take away tonight and make me forget that this was all coming to an end. I wanted him to make me forget that we weren’t real even if that’s what he wanted me to prove.

He jerked his shirt from his shoulders as I bunched my dress around my hips. He was staring at me like he hated me, and I welcomed it. I could deal with him hating me. I could deal with the cold, impassive Liam I knew before we ever came to this godforsaken state.

I pulled my dress over my head and he unbuckled his belt. He was standing in front of me in only his dress pants and shoes, and he looked beautiful. He looked like he could have anyone he wanted, and I knew it was true. I knew that he had made me fall for him even though I didn’t want to.

This wasn’t who I was. I was the girl who could detach everything. Sex was sex and a business deal was a business deal, but somehow everything got completely mixed up.

“Get on your knees, Brooke.” His words were a command, and I