“You don’t even care about hockey,” he pointed out, stepping even closer to her.
“But I care about –“ She stopped herself before she said too much. Hell, she didn’t even realize what she was saying. She took a moment to catch her breath, not daring to look at Alec, not daring to see him because she knew he would see her. Instead, she sucked in a breath, took a moment to calm herself down.
Without warning, Alec reached out. She glanced at his hand, waiting. There was no way he would touch her, right? No way he would do something to her like that. But he didn’t drop his hand. Slowly, so slowly, his fingertips brushed the top of her ear as they pushed stray hair behind her ear. She sizzled when he touched her. Everything froze. Even her heart stilled for a moment. She shouldn’t like when Alec touched her. She shouldn’t feel her skin burn in a way that was both pleasurable and confusing. She expected pain and shame to come with touch, not gentleness. Not pleasure.
But that was exactly what happened.
“I think,” Alec said, his voice low. “I think you and I can help each other.”
Noah furrowed her brows, crossing her arms over her chest. The word help never sat right with her since she and Aaron blew up. It always made her blush because it implied that she couldn’t help herself. It was stupid, she knew, but that was just how she felt about things now.
“Really?” Her voice was flat and she didn’t care.
“Look, I know it’s me and I’m probably the last guy you want to be around right now,” Alec said.
Noah bit back a snort. If he truly believed that, he was an idiot. If anything, she wanted to be around Alec. For some strange reason she didn’t quite understand, he was the one that made her feel safe. He was the one that calmed her down and made her forget about Aaron, even briefly. She needed to be around that more. She had to be.
“But considering the whole world thinks we’re dating, I was wondering if maybe you might be open to the possibility of letting people think that way,” he finished.
Noah blinked once, twice. He wasn’t serious, was he? He wanted the world to think they were together? He wanted people to believe that?
“Why would you want that?” she asked.
Alec cleared his throat and dropped his gaze. Immediately, Noah narrowed her eyes at him. Something was going on here, something she couldn’t put her finger on. But if Alec was asking for her help, that had to mean something was up.
“Well,” he said, “Seraphina found out about what happened at the rink. That little fucker Zummo actually called her up and told her himself. Can you believe that? What an asshole, am I right?”
Noah twisted her finger. “Let’s move along, Alec,” she said. “What are you trying to say? What’s going on?”
“Look,” he said, “for whatever reason, you need my help pretending to be your boyfriend, right?” Noah opened her mouth, ready to say something, even if she wasn’t quite sure she knew what she wanted to say. Alec held up a hand, stopping her. “You don’t have to get into it if you don’t want to. I get it. But I need your help.”
Noah blew out a breath. She supposed that was fair. “Okay,” she said. “What is it?”
“I can be your boyfriend,” he said. “But I need you to be my girlfriend. Seraphina Hanson thinks we’re together and she approves. She thinks it’ll help my public persona and that you will ground me. Whatever that means.” He tilted his head to the side. “Well? Will you do it?”
Noah hesitated. She didn’t think it was a good idea, but Alec helped her. The least she could do was return the favor.
“Yeah,” she nodded. “I’ll be your girlfriend.”
11
Alec
The first thing Alec did after Noah approved of his plan was instruct her to get dressed up in something fancy.
“Why?” she asked, furrowing her brow and crossing her arms across her chest.
Alec rolled his eyes at her response. He shouldn’t have been surprised that this was how she was going to react to him. Now that they were fake girlfriend-boyfriend, he expected at the very least that she would go along with everything he suggested and not question him, but apparently that wasn’t going to happen.
“Well, Pat Zummo wrote all about us,” he pointed out. “Which means people are going to look for us. I’m thinking I take you to a nice restaurant at the Spectrum. Everyone and their mother is at that outside mall, which means I’m sure paparazzi will be there too. If not them, then Mayhem fans with camera phones. If we’re going to be together, we need to sell it.”
“And that requires me to dress in something fancy for dinner?” Noah asked, arching a brow. He could tell she wasn’t entirely convinced.
“Well, do you honestly think I’m going to settle down with someone ugly?” he asked. “Fix up your hair, put on makeup, and voila! You could almost pass for someone I would realistically take out.”
Noah flipped him off and his lips curved up before he could stop them. At least she wasn’t throwing things at him – yet.
“You’re doing me a favor,” she commented, “so I’m going to refrain from insulting you.”
“I appreciate it.”
“This only lasts for today,” she said as she stepped back in her room. “Tomorrow, fake boyfriend or not, you’re fair game.”
She slammed the door closed before he could reply.
Hopefully that means
