Chapter 3 Hollis
The blond-haired beauty who appeared out of thin air bends subtly toward me. And then, as if she’s as surprised as I am by her proposal, she grins.
“We start now,” she says.
There’s an inherent playfulness to her tone, a definite levity in her words that appeals to me. But it’s the slight edge hidden beneath the sweet lilt of her voice that has me curious.
And curiosity killed the cat.
I nibble on my lip as I study her.
She has straight hair the color of corn silk in the summer in Indiana.
Her eyes are the greenest green, just like the turf on a football field before a game.
A constellation of freckles are sprinkled across her nose that turns up slightly at the end, completing a compelling and sexy as hell picture in front of me.
This girl is no vixen. There’s too much innocence about her for that. But she’s not na?ve either. She assesses me too carefully for that to be true.
“How exactly do we play this?” I ask, rolling my tongue around the inside of my mouth. “Any rules I should know?”
She glances over her shoulder but quickly turns back to me. “Could you just … I don’t know, pretend you’re really into me?”
“Absolutely.”
“Great.” She licks her lips as her gaze drops to my lips. “That’s it. Just act like you like me, I guess.”
Is she for fucking real?
As the question slips through my mind, she looks over her shoulder again. My eyes follow hers and land on a complete douchebag coming our way.
Suddenly, this is a route I understand.
Douchebag’s hand wraps around another woman’s waist. Her eyes dart between my new girlfriend and Douchebag.
My insides twist.
I have no idea who this guy is, but I don’t like him. Not just because he’s dressed like a tool or from the way he blatantly ignores me. Rude, sure, but I don’t care. What’s he to me? Not shit on my shoe.
You can always tell a guy’s true nature by the women around him. By all accounts, this one is a dick.
I walk around the chair separating me from my new girlfriend.
“Want me to knock him out?” I ask.
Her eyes widen. “What? No! Why would you do that?”
“I haven’t been in a fight for a long time, and he looks like he could use a good ass-whippin’.”
Her jaw drops. “I don’t … No. We’re not …” Her face flushes, and she does everything in her power to remain unaffected by me. “No punching. Okay?”
“The thought of that turned you on a little, didn’t it?”
The color in her cheeks deepen. She squirms, her whole body moving like it can’t handle the energy contained in her tight little body.
“It did,” I tease. “Huh. Good to know.”
Her gorgeous lips part. Before she can say anything, Douchebag, his girl, and about five-hundred bottles of men’s cologne join us.
He looks at my new girlfriend as though I don’t exist.
"I wanted to check on you before I left,” he says. “It felt like the right thing to do, considering your situation.”
Sure, it did, asshole.
My girl’s eyes narrow so subtly that I’m not sure if anyone notices it but me. “Hello, Sebastian.”
“We were just talking about you,” I say, moving to stand directly behind my co-conspirator. I place both hands around her, lacing my fingers at her stomach and tugging her into me.
My blood heats as I invade her personal space. She smells like flowers and the ocean—a sweet, airy scent that feels like a cold drink of water on a hot day. The gray fabric wrapped around the deep curves of her body is soft against my skin.
She looks up at me and smiles. It’s not the smile she used with Sebastian and not the one she flashed at me earlier. This one is simultaneously more shy and more mischievous. It’s a juxtaposition that lights my libido on fire.
Game on.
“I can’t wait to take this dress off you later,” I whisper loud enough for Sebastian to hear.
Her jaw hangs open as a giggle of disbelief escapes from it.
“Don’t act all innocent,” I tease her. “I have the texts you sent me earlier, you dirty girl.”
She twists in my arms and slaps at my chest. I clasp her wrist and hold it to my body. Her breath stalls in her chest as I lean down. I smile as my lips near her skin. Her body relaxes into mine as I grin.
A soft breath whispers into the air as I grow closer … and kiss her on the forehead.
She blows out the rest in a gush. Her eyes narrow as she looks up at me—partially amused and partially annoyed.
I grin. “Later, beautiful.”
She exhales every drop of oxygen in her body as she tries to keep the irritation out of her chuckle.
“I’d like you to meet Catherine,” Sebastian says in a voice a couple of octaves louder than necessary. “Catherine, this is Larissa.”
Larissa. Noted.
Sebastian clenches his fingertips into the poor girl’s side, closing the two millimeters between them. He then turns so he’s almost standing sideways to me.
I didn’t have Sebastian painted to have a lot of street sense.
The little black sweater vest over an argyle sweater and a complexion that screams fancy skin creams gave that away.
Still, I’m surprised a guy like this doesn’t even have the sense not to turn his back on a guy like me—a guy who could break his jaw with the flick of my wrist. Not to mention, he’s clearly trying to piss all over my girl.
Have I known her for longer than three minutes? No. But that’s not the point.
Catherine grins sheepishly. “It’s nice to meet you, Larissa. Your dress is so cute.”
Larissa smiles at Catherine, relief sprinkled over her features. “Thank you. I like yours too. Did you get it at Halcyon?”
“I did. I love that store.”
“Me too,” Larissa says. “I almost bought that exact outfit a few weeks ago but wasn’t sure I could pull it off.”
Catherine laughs. “I thought the same thing about myself.”
The girls exchange a friendly smile as Sebastian stews beside Catherine.
His jaw clenches as he looks at me. I lift a brow in a silent challenge.
I usually try to give people the benefit of the doubt and not judge a book by its cover or however that saying goes. But Sebastian seems to have gone out of his fucking way to print asshole on his forehead. There’s another adage about trusting people when they tell you who they are.
I believe him.
Sebastian tries to hold my glare but gives up in a matter of seconds, just as I knew he would.
He clears his throat. “Catherine, would you gather our coats, please? I’ll meet you by the door in a moment.”
“Sure,” she nearly whispers. “It was nice to meet you both.” After a timid nod, she dashes away.
I instantly feel sorry for the girl. But there’s no time to think about that. I have a job to do.
“Sebastian, this is …” A streak of panic flutters through my girlfriend’s eyes as she realizes she doesn’t know my name.
“I’m Hollis Hudson,” I interject, more for Larissa’s benefit than anything.
“I’m an old, close friend of Larissa’s,” Sebastian says, eyeing me carefully. “It’s always nice to see her around.”
“Well, I’m a new, closer friend of Larissa’s, so I bet we’ll all be seeing each other around.” I run my tongue around my cheek and let my stare finish the thought.
He hems and haws around, looking back and forth between us as his displeasure grows by the minute. “How is your father, Riss?”
Larissa bristles at the nickname. “My dad is great.”
Sebastian nods. He expected more from her—more freely given information that felt intimate to him. A wrinkled brow tells me he didn’t get what he wanted. A set jaw tells me he’s going to press until he does.
“Tell him hello for me,” he says.
Larissa tenses in my arms. I rub my hands up and down her shoulders, giving them a gentle squeeze at the end. I want to tell this fucker precisely what I think, but I’m in a bit of a pickle here. I’m not really her boyfriend, or I’d jump right in and put Sebastian in his place.
And she already told me no punching.
I bite my tongue and wait for her to give me an indication about what she wants me to do. I’m not going to be in her life in the morning. I don’t want to ruin shit she doesn’t want imploding.
She takes a deep breath, her body heaving from the energy I think she’s about to spew. I know one thing—if she loses her cool in front of this guy, it’ll only encourage him and his antics.
I’ve seen this a hundred times before. There are people—men and women—who get off on riling people up. Sebastian is clearly one of those guys, and I’ll be damned if I let that happen.
Not to my fake girlfriend.
“We have somewhere we need to be,” I tell Larissa.
Larissa looks up at me in surprise. “We do?”
The expression on her pretty face changes from surprise to concern—surprise I said we had plans and concern she broke character.
I wink to assuage her worry.
“We do,” I tell her, dropping my voice. “And you’re gonna love them. Trust me.”
She flushes the sexiest shade of pink. An impish smile displays little dimples in her cheeks. Whether she’s playing along in her role as my girlfriend or if she really is reacting to the idea of us being together, I don’t know. What I do know is that it’s a hell of a turn-on.
“And what do those plans consist of, Hollis?” she asks, making my name sound a whole hell of a lot sexier than it ever has before.
The intimacy in her eyes and that fucking blush make my cock hard as hell. I move around as smoothly as I can to try to distract it.
“Do you want me to tell you right here in front of God and everyone?” I ask.
Her eyes sparkle.
Sebastian clears his throat, but neither of us looks his way.
“I took your advice from this morning and put together a little something. It’ll be fun. I promise,” I say, letting the last word fall on a hushed whisper.
Our bodies are only inches apart. From this angle, I can see straight down the top of her dress to the ample cleavage hoisted up like it was done just for me.
She throws her head back just far enough that her hair swishes against my arm. The ends tickle as they dust my hand, almost goading me to make more contact. And with Sebastian still standing there, she must want that.
So I give her what she wants.