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Chapter Nine
Ryan
Tess wasn’t the kind of woman who needed makeup to look better. She was gorgeous in every incarnation I’d seen so far—when she’d stood uncertainly on the steps as we’d arrived, sweating out in the barn from moving tables and chairs, and covered in perspiration and dressed in workout gear when she’d nearly knocked me over on the stairs. Every time I saw her it felt like seeing her again for the first time, like some kind of epic revelation my brain couldn’t hang on to. But seeing her out on the porch after Janet finished touching up her makeup and hair … I’d honestly never been more attracted to anyone.
We stood just off the porch, and I looked up at her in amazement. Her dark hair cascaded around her gorgeous pale face, hanging in loose waves over her shoulders and down her back. Her skin glowed from within, the lightest blush touching her pale cheeks. And her eyes—always compelling and deep—had become endless pools of light, reflecting the mid-morning sun in the green and brown depths.
“Ryan,” the photographer called, and I snapped my head around to see Juliet and the camera crew standing on the grass waiting for me to follow. I’d been literally stunned still by Tess’s appearance, and realized much too late that I’d been staring.
Tess gave me a smile, one that seemed to say, “okay, creeper, move along,” and I came back to myself. I was never going to sell how into Juliet I was if I kept drooling over her sister. I jogged across the lawn to Juliet, each step away from Tess feeling so wrong it hurt.
“Tess, will you join us?” the reporter, Alison Sands, called to her. “And we need a few shots with your grandmother, too.”
I slipped an arm around Juliet’s waist, more conscious than ever that I was in danger of ruining the deception, that my hammering heart and distracted mind might give us away if anyone had the slightest reason to suspect Juliet wasn’t the cause of them. I didn’t turn to watch Tess approach, but I could fucking feel her draw near as we turned to look out toward the water.
“Hey, babe,” Juliet said, leaning into my side. Right. Juliet. Focus on Juliet. I owed her my best performance.
Alison grinned at us. “What a cute couple,” she said. “Would you guys be up for some sexier shots? I saw the airport footage and it’s trending so well online. I think people are up for seeing more of that intimacy between you.” She waved us toward the edge of the lawn, where it sloped down into sand at the edge of the river.
“Sure,” I said, still feeling a tether pulling my focus backward, where I knew Tess was just feet from me.
“Tess, why don’t you jump in here for now? We’ll get a few shots of you with the couple and the big house in the background, a few with Helen, and then a couple of the water. And then we’ll get to the sexy stuff.”
Tess let out a laugh that sounded uncomfortable, and it worked its way inside me. This had to be strange for her, having this odd interruption to her daily life, having these people here. I glanced at the enormous security guys who stood on the periphery, constantly vigilant on her sister’s behalf. The bigger one—Jace, I think his name was?—looked extremely unhappy as he stared at my arm around Juliet’s waist. I wondered for a brief moment if she might need to worry about her bodyguard turning obsessive. I’d heard stories about things like that. But Juliet had hired the best, she’d told me so when I’d mentioned the guys who’d been accompanying us everywhere since I’d met her in the town car to begin our charade.
The photographer arranged us, Juliet in the circle of my arms and Tess standing at her side, and we shot for what felt like hours, eventually adding Gran to the mix too. I hoped the shots were good, but I couldn’t stop thinking about how I had the wrong woman in my arms.
We moved around the property a bit, posing here and there, always me with Juliet, Tess on the side, and eventually, Gran seated in front of us, complaining loudly and plucking at the dress Tess had made her go change into. “This is why I only wear cotton,” she said. “Preferably Juicy Couture. Doesn’t bind. Plenty of give.”
Alison was scribbling furiously.
“You don’t need to include that,” Tess said, laughing. “Just pretend she’s being gracious and acting like any other ninety year old woman.”
“Damn it, you people!” Gran spit out. “I’m not ninety until tomorrow. For now, I’m fifty-nine, just like I have been for years.”
Gran lightened the mood, but it all felt so false to me. Still, nothing was worse than when Tess stood behind the photographer watching us as Juliet and I were directed to lay down in the grass with the water behind us. If only I did have the hots for Juliet, it would have been a dream come true—staking my claim publicly for all of America to see. Instead, it felt like the worst acting I’d ever done.
They took shots of her straddling me, her hair cascading down around us as she sat with her long legs bent on either side of my hips and I reached up, holding her. They took shots of me hovering over her, as if we were close to losing control and going for it right here on the ground with everyone around. They pushed us to be closer, to make it sexier, and they even got a few shots with Juliet’s leg up around my hip and my hand on her breast. It was veering out of PG territory, and I tried as hard as I could not to look at Tess, but it was impossible, especially with Gran at her side, occasionally heckling things like, “Get it, son!”
Tess was beautiful, even as she watched Juliet and me together. Her eyes burned and her skin flushed, and I wondered if she felt it too—this strange connection between us. I barely knew her, so why did I feel like I was betraying her somehow, out here touching her sister for the camera? She was practically a stranger, but I knew I couldn’t watch her rolling around on the ground with another man. It would potentially kill me. And Tess’s body language and darting eyes told me it wasn’t comfortable for her either. Or was I reading into the way her breath seemed to lift her chest in shallow breaths, the high red dots in her cheeks?
“I think we’ve got what we need for now,” Alison said finally. Relief washed through me and I practically leapt away from Juliet before remembering myself and stepping back a bit.
We thanked the crew and they packed up and headed for the van out front while we headed back to the house.
“I’ll get some lunch put together,” Tess said tightly over her shoulder, and then she disappeared into the house, leaving Juliet and me on the front step.
“I think that went really well,” Juliet said, stepping away from me and glancing nervously at the security guard who stood at the edge of the porch. She probably worried he might overhear us—I assumed even her security detail didn’t know we were just pretending, though they must have been confused by my sudden appearance at Juliet’s side. They had to know I hadn’t been around the house prior to this trip, that we hadn’t needed them to check restaurants or hold off photographers around town at home. I pulled her farther down the long porch to a set of chairs, and we sat down.
“I think we should tell your sister,” I said. I hadn’t even planned to say it, but the feeling that I was lying to Tess was eating at me. Which made no sense, given that she was basically a stranger. But there it was. I wanted her to know, needed her to know that I wasn’t interested in Juliet.
Juliet’s eyebrows flew up and she widened her eyes at me. “I don’t know,” she said. “The more people believing we’re a couple, the better.”
“It’s just hard to keep it all up inside the house,” I said. “And she already knows we are sleeping in separate rooms. And the interview’s over.”
“That’s true,” she said, one finger at the edge of her lips. She lifted a shoulder in a half shrug. “The reporters are coming back for the party, but I guess we can tell Tess. We’d better not tell Gran, though. You never know what she’ll say.”
“Gran seems pretty harmless,” I said, my heart swelling at the idea of telling Tess the truth and my head spinning with the possibility of telling her other things.
