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“God, no.”
“Then how is it?—”
“It’s fake, okay?” I blurted, the words slipping out before I could hold them back. How the fuck am I meant to keep this a secret from the world when I can’t even keep it from my sister? “It’s not real. It’s just for the wedding and that’s it.”
Her jaw dropped open as her gaze collided with the side of my face. I stared at the road ahead, not looking at her. “Wade. No. What the fuck?”
“I didn’t have any other option.” The words felt like a defeat as I said them, an ache in my chest blossoming. There wasn’t going to be a long-term relationship for me. It just wasn’t in the cards. “It was Ray or no investment. And I need the investment.”
Chloe rubbed at her face, an annoying groan seeping from her lips. “Am I just supposed to lie for you?”
“I mean, yeah, that would be great if you could.”
“Oh my God,” she sighed. I watched from the corner of my eye as her hands found her stomach. “You know lying makes me feel sick.”
“It’s just for a few days,” I insisted. I tightened my grip on the steering wheel, my knuckles blanching.
“Yes but it’s a few days of my wedding.”
Shit. I was an awful brother. I hadn’t even considered that before I’d opened my mouth. “Please.” I chanced a quick glance at her before looking at the road again. Her pale face said it all. “You owe me. Please.”
She pulled at the strands of her hair, her silence deafening. I needed her to lie for me; everything rested on that and as much as I hated it, it was the situation I’d put myself into. Something told me it would come back to bite me in the ass one day, whether that was after Dom’s parents eventually found out that I was some kind of playboy all along or years down the line when karma finally struck.
“Why couldn’t it have been one of your bunnies?” she groaned. She sunk deeper into the passenger seat. “At least I know them well enough to lie about something like this.”
“Do you honestly think any of them would have made for a good “fake” long-term partner?” I asked. I already knew her answer. “Ray was the best choice I had so I went with it. I’d honestly rather not get the investment than do it with someone else.”
“What does that mean?” she asked, her brows furrowing as she looked straight at me again. “At least with one of them, you’d be able to pull off appearances because of the familiarity. You’d fit together well. As much as I like your assistant, she’s… stoic. I don’t exactly see her acting out any sort of affection.”
Why did that feel like a blow?
“There’s still time. You can pick someone else.”
“I want it to be Ray,” I snapped. She’s right. I could choose someone else. But I didn’t want that. As frustrated as I was both sexually and mentally, I didn’t want a bunny. They seemed too immature, too boring. With Ray, it was more of a chase, as if I was a lion hunting down a gazelle. There was something exciting about that even if we didn’t end up selling it perfectly. The bunnies offered themselves to me on a silver platter, no chase there. It was boring, mundane.
I didn’t want to think about what that meant.
“I’ll lie for you,” she sighed. “But you better make it fucking easy for me.”
————
The outside of Ray’s home was overgrown and tired. Too-long dead grass that had somehow survived this far into winter poked through the snow, brown vines that weaved up the sides of the house. Ray’s car sat under an exterior garage, just barely covered enough to keep the snow out of the broken window. I made a mental note to send over some landscapers when the weather got better so she wouldn’t need to worry about that.
Watching someone dressed so immaculately in the clothes she’d bought with my card exit a house so drab was uncanny. She clutched the edges of her wool coat as she walked carefully down the steps. Each footstep was a risk—the overnight freeze had covered everything in ice, and in heels that high, falling would almost certainly take her out for the evening.
I held the door open for her as she eventually made it down the long driveway. Black satin swayed around her hips from where it flared, hitting her just above the knee. Her legs were covered in thin black stockings. “You look nice,” I grinned. A part of me was happy to see her, that part that had always been a bit of a hopeless romantic, a part I often pretended to play whenever I was with a bunny. I kept it close to my chest, though it tried to claw its way out from time to time. But I pushed it back down. I couldn’t afford a repeat of it being shattered into a million pieces.
“Thanks,” she mumbled. “I didn’t really know what to wear. I’ve never done this kind of thing before.”
I shut her door behind her as she dropped into the passenger seat. She hadn’t fought me when I told her I’d be driving tonight, and in truth, I took that as a win.
I got back in the driver's seat and turned the heat up. “You’ve never been dancing?” I asked, shifting the car into drive. “That’s not really an expensive hobby.”
I could feel her glare boring into my skin. “That’s not the reason I haven’t done it, asshole. I’ve just never been one to go out dancing.”
I held a hand up to her and offered her a sardonic grin. “Sorry, sorry,” I said, and I meant it. “Lucky for you, my mother insisted on putting me in ballroom dancing classes as a child, so I can show you the ropes.”
She scrunched up her nose and shook her head from side to side. “Ballroom dancing classes? Was she expecting you to grow up and marry a princess or some shit?”
