Page 65 of Fake Shot
“Zero difference between Audrey and me, huh?” she asks, but her voice is taunting me like she wants to crack me open and figure out all my secrets.
“Not back then.”
“What about a couple weeks ago? If it had been Audrey at that dinner, and Jerome grabbed her instead of me, would you have ended up in that alley with her instead?”
Jerome. That’s the asshole’s name. Noted.
I press my lips together and swallow before saying, “No.”
“Why not?”
“Jules, why are you pushing me like this? Trust me when I say you don’t want to know the answers to these questions.”
“Why? Because youcan’t do anythingabout your attraction to me?” She mimics my words back to me.
“You are such a brat sometimes,” I practically growl. Why does it turn me on when she acts like this? “But yes, that’s exactly why.”
“Tell me, if it had been Audrey . . .?”
“It wouldn’t have been her.”
“What does that even mean, Colt?” She rolls her eyes, and I step in close enough that I have to drop my hand from her chin because there isn’t room for my arm between us. God,she drives me crazy—the way she pushes and taunts me has me wanting to back her up against the wall and have my way with her.
“It means that I wouldn’t have gone to that restaurant in the first place for Audrey. And I sure as hell wouldn’t have let her practically fuck me through her clothes like you were doing in that alley.”
Her gulp is so loud I’m glad no one is around to hear it except for me.
“Why not?” she asks, a challenge flashing in her gorgeous blue eyes as they lock onto mine.
“I don’t have the same protective instincts toward her that I feel for you, and I’veneverlooked at her the way I look at you.”
“And how do you look at me, Colt?”
“I’m starting to think you’re not just taunting me.” I shake my head as I stare down at her. “Now I’m pretty sure you’re trying totormentme.”
“Torment you how?” She rolls her eyes again like she knows it’ll get a reaction out of me, and I clench my jaw so I don’t surge forward and invade her mouth like I want to do. The tension between us is ever-present, like a spark ready to turn into a blaze.
When I don’t respond, she says, “Because I’m reminding you that you’re attracted to me after you’ve told me you don’t want to feel that way? Sorry, I forgot I’m supposed to focus on your feelings and not my own.”
My fingers curl around her lower back to rest on the curve of her ass as I pull her flush against me. “Are you saying you have feelings for me?”
“Relax, Colt.” She lets out a sigh. “I got over my crush on you after Vegas.”
“What?” I bark out the word so sharply she flinches.
“What part of that requires explaining?”
My hand instinctively tightens on her hip, anchoring her to me. “All of it, Jules. Because it sounds like you’re saying that what happened in Vegas had something to do with me.”
I’m expecting her to laugh and say that no, that wasn’t what she meant. But I’d know she was lying. Why else would she have gotten over her crush on me after Vegas if what happened there had nothing to do with me?
Instead of giving me an explanation, she digs her heels in, asking, “Why doyousound mad about this? You’re not the one who almost ruined their life with their inability to control their own emotions.”
“Because if you had feelings for me before Vegas and you went and married someone else while we were there, I have to wonder if it was because of something I did. Or didn’t do. I don’t know. But I haveneverwanted to hurt you—not now, and certainly not back then. So if I did, I deserve to know what happened. And to have the chance to make it right.”
She looks away. “It was a long time ago, Colt. It can’t be made right.”
“The fuck it can’t.” The words are low and feral, and I watch her shiver as they coast over her skin. “We need to talk about this, and we’re not doing it here. Let’s go.”
