When I gave my full attention to Phoebe again, I leaned in, making sure only she could hear me when I said, “You're acting like you're ready to accept my earlier proposal.”
A shiver ran over her, and goosebumps she couldn’t hide rose to life along her shoulders and neck. Her lips parted, and she studied my face like she wanted to memorise every fleck of it.
“Are you ready for me to be your secret distraction for a while?” I asked.
“Yes,” she answered breathlessly.
That one word from her lips felt like an injection of joy pushed straight into my bloodstream.
“You trust me to take care of your body? To make you forget everything you're trying to escape?”
“Yes.” Her chest bounced.
“To fix whatever that bastard broke in you when he betrayed you with another woman?”
Her eyes widened, like she couldn’t believe I’d put two and two together and gotten fucking four, but she nodded anyway. “Even if it makes me stupid, yes.”
“You could never be stupid, Phoebe. Don’t talk about yourself that way.” I leaned in closer, brushing my lips across the edge of her ear. To the others in this noisy club, it would look like I’d had to lean in to get her to hear me. To Phoebe, it was a promise of how tenderly I intended to treat her until she begged me to get rough. “And you’re okay with keeping it a secret between us?”
She nodded against me.
“Then we walk away from each other. No hard feelings. No remorse.”
“None.”
“Just friends.”
“Maybe not even that.”
Her response made my smile grow even bigger, the love of her back and forth turning me on far more than it had any right to as I pulled back so she could see my face again. “It's going to be fun fucking you in private while pretending to hate you in public.”
“I can fuck you and still hate you, Henry.” She blinked up at me, teasing.
“You can try.”
She pretended to brush some hair behind her ear before she tore her eyes away from mine, turning towards Rhea and Jace at just the right time before we got busted. The moment he saw her, Jace threw his other arm around Phoebe and pulled her to him, making me irrationally envious when I had no right to be. I hated how he didn't have to hide his flirtation with anyone. I hated even more how he could do it with the one woman I’d claimed as mine from now until I boarded our flight home.
Phoebe, however, let him hold her for a second before she politely pushed away from him and stepped aside. “I'm heading to the bar. Anyone want anything?”
You. I want you, I thought, the urge to devour her stronger than my willpower.
“I'll go with you,” I found myself saying, acting the exact opposite of how I'd wanted to in front of everyone.
Phoebe raised a brow at me, quickly eyeing Andy to see if he reacted, and I found it sweet that she even cared about me getting shit off him when she had her own problems to deal with.
“Are you sure you two can be together for five minutes without biting each other's heads off?” Jace asked with a laugh. “I’d like a beer, but I’m scared one of you will end up launching it at the other.”
“Anything's better than listening to you four pretending you're not coupled up yet while arguing about those girls you shouldn't have been talking to,” I hit back, only for Rhea and Bailey to turn to Andy and Jace with another glare.
“Cheers for that, arsehole,” Andy called out, making me smile to myself as I gave him the finger and walked over to Phoebe.
“Come on. I'll even buy you a drink without any poison in it.” I grinned at her, faking my disdain in front of the others.
Playing her character to perfection, Phoebe rolled her eyes and turned away from me, but not before she made sure the others heard her parting words. “Follow me all you want, Cohen, but I'd rather live in the armpit of a sweaty giant than accept a drink from you only for you to hold it against me for the next week. No, thank you.”
Andy laughed.
Jace muttered something I couldn't really decipher.
