He'd probably like that.
Anything to make me grovel, right?
Now, I didn't know what to say. I gave a loose shrug and tried to look like I didn't feel like crying – not because of anything that had happened here in the restroom, but rather because all of this had gotten so darn complicated.
Like a total idiot, I'd actually developed feelings for him.
Flynn stepped closer. "I'm just saying, the world is full of assholes. If you're too nice, you're gonna get hurt."
As if I didn't know.
I forced a laugh. "What do you care? You hate me."
He frowned. "What?"
"Oh, please. Don't bother denying it. You said so yourself." With a useless shrug, I mumbled, "In so many words, anyway."
"That's what you think?" He looked at me like I was crazy. "That I hate you?"
I forced another laugh, this one more bitter than the first. "Of course that's what I think. I mean, you haven't exactly bothered to hide it."
But already, he was shaking his head. "You're wrong."
I scoffed, "Sure I am."
His expression softened. "Anna—"
"Oh, c'mon, Flynn…" I made a show of looking around the empty restroom. "Even that whole scene of you busting in to rescue me. We both know it was all for show."
He was still looking at me like I'd lost my mind. "For show? You serious?"
"Of course I’m serious." Even though we were alone, I lowered my voice. "I mean, it's not like we'rereallytogether."
Something in his gaze flickered, but he made no reply. It was true that over the last few months, we'd had our moments – public kisses that felt a little too real, smoldering looks that made me weak in the knees, and then, there'd been that time in his car, when we'd come dangerously close to making the fiction a reality.
Even now, I could still feel his fingers and taste his tongue. At the memory, heat flooded my face. I could even feel his erection, massively huge in my eager hands.
We hadn't been naked, but things had been careening pretty hard in that direction – until reality slapped me in the face.
Who knows, maybe Iwasstupid, because too many times to count, especially over the last week, I'd found myself falling hard under his spell, just like every other girl in the world.
But now, I couldn’t help but stiffen at the recollection of how even this latest week had ended, with a screaming match on his front lawn.
It hadn't beenmescreaming. It hadn't even been Flynn. Still, that didn't make it any less troubling, especially when the paparazzi showed up to capture and replay the whole sordid scene.
Over and over.
The coveragehadn'tbeen favorable, to me in particular. No surprise there, considering that in the eyes of the world, I was responsible for breaking up the world's most perfect couple.
Flynn's voice interrupted my thoughts. "What is it?"
I blinked away the memories. "What's what?"
"Just now," he said. "What were you thinking?"
I'd been thinking of how cringe-worthy it had been when his ex – who also happened to be his costar – had claimed in front of the assembled reporters that she and Flynn had still been together when he'd hooked up with me. And what did that makeme? The loathsome harpy he was screwing on the side.
It was a lie, of course – just like everything else.
