Chapter Thirteen Breathe
SUTTON
Grace, Rylee, and Skyler are staring at me and Jayce in total shock, their jaws nearly on the floor. I can only imagine what they all must be thinking right now, and they’ll be chomping at the bit to get answers once the initial dumbfoundment wears off.
I anticipate having to face the barrage of questions they’ll certainly have for me and start to mentally prepare myself, knowing the moment Jayce sets me down, I’ll be swarmed as if I kicked a bee hive.
To my surprise, Jayce doesn’t let me go. He continues to hold me in his arms and turns to skate toward the tunnel leading to the locker room. For a moment, no one follows us, as if the team is also frozen in their shock, but within moments, I hear them crowding out of the rink behind us.
Once we’re outside of the locker room, Jayce sets me on my feet and places a kiss on my forehead.
“Jayce, what…”
“Wait for me right here,” he gently orders. “We’ll talk about everything, I promise.”
I must still be in a state of shock because I just nod obediently.
Grinning, he turns and makes his way into the locker room and I stare after him in a bit of a daze.
Even when I hear hurried footsteps rushing up behind me, I can’t seem to tear my gaze from the closed locker room door he’d disappeared behind.
“Sutton!” I recognize Rylee’s voice before I feel hands on my shoulders, pulling me around, breaking my trance. Grace and Skyler move in on either side of me, and I’m suddenly surrounded.
“Uhhhh.” I give them a nervous, awkward smile. “I can explain…”
“We didn’t even know there was anything going on between you and Jayce!” Skyler exclaims, her eyes wide behind her glasses. “How long have you two been together? Why’d you keep it from us? What about that Leon guy? Did you lose a bet?”
My cheeks flush and I blink, overwhelmed. She’s talking so fast it’s hard to keep up with each of her questions, so I just shake my head hard.
“No, no, guys, listen.” I glance around to make sure no one else is in the corridor with us.
“It’s not like that. I think he’s doing this to get our families off our backs.
It’s all an act. A ploy he came up with.
I turned him down the first time he told me the idea, but I think it might actually be my best option right now. ”
The girls freeze and stare at me in silence for several long moments.
“An act?” Rylee murmurs, arching a blonde brow.
“You’re not really together?” Grace asks with a confused frown.
“No, not really,” I insist.
“Wait!” Rylee exclaims. “What do you mean by first time? He proposed to you before?”
I wince. “Oh, yeah…we ran into each other at a gala we both attended and…talked.”
I’m still not ready to tell them we actually hooked up. I can only imagine their freak outs over that bit of news.
Skyler narrows her eyes and studies me a moment more before shaking her head.
“I don’t buy it,” she states. “There’s something more going on here. I can sense it.”
“What?” I gape at her, baffled. “No, there really isn’t. It’s just a business deal…”
She taps the side of her nose and gives me a sly smile. “I can sniff this shit out. The way Jayce looked at you on the ice wasn’t the look of a man making a business deal. It was of a guy getting exactly what he wanted.”
“Yes, obviously,” I nod. “He got me to say yes to his deal. I gave him what he wanted…”
She shakes her head, looking a little smug in her confidence. “Nope! There was more there! I could see it. You guys definitely fucked! I can tell!”
I freeze before catching myself and forcing my expression not to show my shock.
Stay cool. Stay calm. Skyler may be so observant and good at reading people that it’s borderline scary, but I’ve spent my life mastering my reactions and emotions so no one knows what I’m really feeling.
Schooling my features, I release a long breath, I raise my hand and pinch the bridge of my nose, squeezing my eyes shut.
“You’re giving me a headache, Sky.”
“I kind of agree with Sky,” Rylee admits. “That didn’t seem like just a ploy out there. It seemed pretty fucking real.”
What is going on? Why are they so insistent that there’s more to this agreement with Jayce than what I’ve told them? Am I going to have to spend this fake engagement convincing them all it’s actually fake?
I turn to Grace, praying she’s more realistic than the rest of them.
“Yeah,” Grace nods, shooting my hope down immediately. “It was pretty convincing.”
I gaze around at them all, uncertain what I can say to convince them. Are they all so lovestruck themselves that they can’t help but see romance everywhere, even if it’s not actually there?
“You’re all reading way too much into this.”
Rylee grabs my hand with my new engagement ring and lifts it.
“A guy doesn’t buy a ring like this for a convenient arrangement.” Skyler and Grace nod in agreement.
“He does if he has generational wealth,” I grumble.
The locker room door suddenly opens and the guys start filing back out.
While the rest of the team shoots me curious looks, Jensen, Zander, Carson, and Wilder join the girls in corralling me.
They’re gazing at me, clearly wanting to ask me more questions, but they hesitate, instead sharing uncertain glances with the girls.
I’m starting to feel a little claustrophobic when Jayce suddenly appears, reaching through our gathered friends to grab my hand.
“We’re going to head out, guys,” he tells everyone as he tugs me free and starts leading me down the corridor.
Stunned, I look from him back to our friends, but instead of trying to stop us, they’re all just beaming at us as we walk away.
“Have fun, you two!” Carson calls out.
Jayce waves over his shoulder but doesn’t look back.
We don’t say a word to each other as we make our way toward the employee entrance of the arena and then out into the parking lot reserved for the team and staff.
He leads me to a slick black Porsche parked toward the back of the lot.
My heart is racing and I’m struggling to breathe properly by the time he opens the passenger door for me.
I slide into the seat and stare straight out the windshield as he makes his way around to the driver’s side.
The moment he’s in the car and his door is closed, I lose it.
“What was that?” I exclaim, turning to him with wide eyes. “Why did you do that? In front of the whole arena? There was press there!”
“That was the point,” he tells me. “Doing it so publicly makes it harder for our families to have any doubts that it’s real. The media narrative is already in motion. All our families can do now is go along with it.”
That’s when it fully hits me. My parents are going to see it.
Oh, God, what will they think? They’ll probably be upset with me.
Might even think I humiliated them on purpose!
That I went behind their backs just to spite them.
What if they see right through this whole thing?
Figure out I lied to them? Not that I ever said I was with Jayce, but I can’t just explain this away so easily, can I?
“Hey,” Jayce’s calm, firm voice breaks through my spiraling thoughts. He grabs my waist and pulls me over the center console and onto his lap, then takes my hand and presses it to his chest. Mirroring the movement, he presses his hand to my chest over my heart. “Look at me.”
I blink and meet his gaze. I hadn’t realized just how badly I’ve unraveled. There are tears in my eyes and my chest is rising and falling heavily as I heave and try to breathe properly. My anxiety is making my stomach twist so bad, I think I might actually be sick.
“Breathe, Starling,” he orders gently, sucking in air through his nose and slowly releasing it from his mouth. “Just like that.”
I mimic him, and strangely enough, the steady beat of his heart beneath my palm as well as his guidance is helping ground me again. I’m able to pull myself from my mental spiral and slowly calm down as I stare into his deep blue eyes.
After a few more moments of breathing together, the corner of his mouth twitches into a half smile and he nods.
“That’s better.”
Swallowing, I pull my hand from where it’s resting on his chest, and he drops his as well, though he keeps his other arm wrapped around my waist so I remain firmly in his lap.
“Thanks,” I murmur, my cheeks heating with both embarrassment and the full awareness of being so physically close to him. “Sorry you had to see that.”
“Don’t be sorry.” He touches my chin and rubs his thumb along my jaw. “Not with me.”
His touch is so gentle it makes my heart twist with yearning.
Needing to focus, I clear my throat and ask, “Why did you do this?”
He lets go of my chin and answers, “I know springing the proposal on you like that was a bit of a dirty move, but I know we can pull this off. We don’t need to get married, just fake an engagement for… how does six months sound? We could just do three, but six buys us more time.”
“Why are you so set on this plan?” I ask, genuinely curious. “You know my situation, but I don’t really understand yours.”
Sighing, he runs a hand through his blonde hair.
“My parents are in an arranged marriage,” he murmurs.
“They can’t stand stand each other, and have never made that a secret.
I’m not really a believer in true love or marriage, but my grandfather expects me to settle down and be a responsible family man to really show I’ll be a responsible CEO.
If we can pull this off, you can be the one to break things off.
That way, we both look like we gave it a try and are left heartbroken, and maybe our families will back off and not bring marriage up to either of us for a long time.
We’ll both be able to pursue our goals without their interference then. ”
I bite my lip as I consider his words. Honestly, the disbelief and hesitation I felt the first time he proposed this plan is all but gone now. I’ve warmed to the idea quite a bit since we last saw each other.
“So, here’s the thing,” I begin. “I’m in town to land a big contract with Jackson Romero.”
His brows shoot up in surprise. “No shit? For the performance center project? I heard about that. It’ll be a huge job.”
I nod. “Exactly, and if I can land it, I’ll prove to my parents that I can take over our company and grow it all on my own.
This is just the kind of project that’ll do the trick, but an engagement on top of that would also get my Mom off my back about Leon.
Once I land the contract, I’ll go back to New York until construction actually begins.
We could end the engagement then. It’s not like I’m going to stay in Colorado forever, and you’re not going to leave, so that could be a realistic reason for us to end things. ”
He grins, looking almost impressed. “I totally agree. We can play it off that we tried our best to make long distance work, but the separation was just too difficult and it’s not something we can keep doing. It’s a good plan. So, can I take that to mean you’re in?”
“I’m in.” I chuckle. “You’ve got yourself a fake fiancee.”
He laughs. “It’ll be a pleasure working with you.”
There’s a moment of awkward silence before I say, “Uh, so… I don’t want to lie to my friends, and they kind of already know the proposal wasn’t real. Is it okay that I keep them in the loop?”
Jayce nods. “Yeah, that’s fine. If you trust them to keep the secret, it’s all good.”
I grin, feeling a sense of relief wash over me. “Okay, well…I suppose I should go back to Grace’s apartment. Or, Carson’s. It’s really his, right?”
I start to move to get off his lap but he holds me in place. “You should move in with me.”
I frown at him, confused. “What? Why? This isn’t a real…”
“I know,” he cuts me off. “But we have to make it look real. We’re going to be followed by paparazzi, and maybe even PIs determined to find out if we’re legit.
Living together will make it easier to convince onlookers that we’re together.
Besides, my place is huge. There’s plenty of room for you and we won’t be tripping over each other. ”
It makes sense, I can’t deny that. Still, it feels like things could get a little muddy if we’re not careful.
“Okay,” I say at length. “I’ll move in, but we need to make one thing clear. What happened in California was a one-time thing, all right? If we’re going to do this, we can’t complicate things. We cannot have sex. We’re friends and that’s it.”
To my surprise, I see a flash of disappointment in his gaze, but it’s gone in an instant and he nods. “Agreed. That’s exactly what I was thinking as well.”
Good. This is good. We both are going into this knowing exactly what it is. An arrangement. A mutually beneficial business deal.
Nothing more.
Before I can move, he slips me off his lap and back over to my seat, and when he lets me go, I try to ignore how cold I suddenly feel without his touch.