Page 61 of Heartless As Puck

“You like it?” he asked, his voice practically a growl.

“It’s the best I’ve ever tasted,” I murmured in response.

Honestly, I had no idea what was going on. He’d been attentive every time he had a chance during this trip, and it was becoming difficult to believe it was only for the sake of the act.

Something had been different between us since we’d danced at Rinkside the other night. The way he looked at me felt more raw, more real. Every time I felt his eyes on me, I longed for the attraction to be true, but I had no idea if it was.

What if he was working hard to convince everyone around us that we really were together? Or worse, what if he’d decided that he’d gained so much from pretending to date me that he might as well seduce me properly and lock down a permanent connection to the Wright hockey dynasty?

“Try mine!” Jesse thrust his hand between us, and I flinched as the movement yanked me out of my thoughts. “You might like it better.”

Austin batted his hand away. “Get your own s’more taster. This one is mine.” He said it playfully, but there was something in his eyes that made me think he was completely serious.

His intense gaze scorched me to my core and created a quiver of need deep within me. I could hardly breathe, but I forced myself to chew and swallow.

What on earth was he up to?

Jesse fanned himself. “Do you two need a moment alone?”

“Actually, I need to grab my scarf from my room,” I said, seizing the opportunity for a few minutes to myself. I needed to remember that this was just pretend or else I was in danger of falling for the ruse.

The last thing I needed was a broken heart.

“Need me to come with you?” Austin asked.

“No, I’m fine.” I got up and picked my way out of the cluster of chairs and long-legged hockey players sprawled around us, but instead of heading straight for the wing to the left of the rustic wooden building that served as the camp’s hub, where our small room for the night was, I wandered toward the woods.

I paused at the edge, gazing into the trees, listening for any nocturnal wildlife that might be moving about.

Get a hold of yourself.

You are in control of your own emotions.

Austin is just your boss. No matter how sweet he is, or how possessively he behaves, or how good of an act he puts on when it comes to looking at you like he wants to eat you, none of it is real.

A twig snapped behind me, and I spun around, my heart racing. I immediately exhaled, relieved, as Austin emerged from the shadows, although the gleam of his eyes in the darkness was doing nothing to help me remember that this was fake, fake, fake.

He moved closer. The air stirred as he erased the distance between us and placed his hands on my hips.

His gaze searched mine. “Do you feel this too? This thing between us?”

A breath shuddered from me. “I feel something. I’m not sure what.”

His fingertips tightened on my hips, but then he pulled his hands away and shoved them into his pockets. “I’ve been struggling to keep my hands to myself. I want to touch you so badly, but I know we are in a precarious position, and I never want you to feel pressured. If this is too much—if I’ve crossed the line—tell me now. If you need space from me, then we can pretend we’ve had a fight and ask if you can sleep in one of the spare rooms.”

My knee jiggled slightly. That would be the sensible thing to do. The proper thing to do. Especially since I wasn’t sure of his motives. But I’d tried to be proper for so long and I wanted a break. For once, I wanted to act young and dumb in a way that I’d never been able to as a kid in the public eye.

“I don’t feel pressured,” I whispered, as if speaking too loudly might make the conversation more real and rob me of my courage. “You really want me? This isn’t just about the act?”

He nodded. “It’s like you’re a drug, and the more I have, the more I need. But this isn’t about me. It has to be your decision.”

A sense of power flowed through me. Perhaps I should have been disturbed by him talking about me that way, but instead, I was thrilled. No one had ever needed me like that. It heated my blood and made me itch to touch him.

I rested my palms on his chest and slowly stretched onto my tiptoes to press my lips to his.

The kiss started out chastely, the same as every one we’d shared before, but then he grabbed me by the hips and backed me up against the nearest tree, angling his head to get deeper.

He didn’t push beyond that, and I knew that if I wanted it to go further, the onus was on me to take it there, so I flicked my tongue against his lips, dipping it between them when they parted on a gasp.