Chapter 9

nine

Kane

She’s fucking adorable. It’d be concerning how easily she’s playing into my plans to make her mine, if anyone else but me was playing her.

Carrying the pizza back to the kitchen, I find her standing nervously at the counter with her sleeves pulled over fisted hands. She’s nervous. She’s cute when she’s nervous. Fuck, this girl is cute all the time. The focus of my obsession—not the only disturbing quality I inherited from my father. Hopefully she can love me for it the way my mother loves my father, in spite of all his faults. Because of them.

“You were saying,” she prompts, nibbling the corner of her lip.

“I was?” I know exactly what she’s talking about, but I want to push her.

“You have issues—” She moves just a single step closer to me, raising that little chin. “With my plan.”

“Right.” I open the box of pizza and slide two pieces onto her plate before I drop four onto mine. Her eyes bug, but she doesn’t say anything in response as she slides her plate from the counter and moves to the table. I watch as she tucks one foot under her bum before lifting the other to rest her heel on the seat. She looks like a pretzel. An adorable, entirely edible, pretzel.

I join her at the table and say casually, “We do this, I don’t want anyone knowing the truth. I can’t risk that getting out.”

She makes a motion to ‘zip her lips’. “I won’t tell a soul.”

Fucking hell, she’s cute. “You close to your family?”

She nods and admits softly, “I am.”

“You can’t tell them.”

“I won’t.”

“My friends⁠—”

“It’s cool if you want them to know⁠—”

“No.”

She blinks, a sexy bloom of red hitting her cheeks. “Okay.” There’s something deliciously submissive about the way she speaks, the monster inside me hums. “We won’t tell anyone.”

“If no one knows, we’ll have to work hard at appearing real,” I tell her as I take a bite.

She nods, plucking an olive from the top to drop it onto a little pink tongue. When her lips close around it and she sucks the juice, my cock stirs. Then her lips part and her eyes get wide as my words register. “You mean we’ll go out together? Maybe hold hands and, like, kiss every now and again?”

I take another bite and nod once, watching her process. She’s beautiful. Exquisite. A masterpiece—even with the bruises.

I can’t wait for the bruises to be gone.

She speaks again, “But when we’re home, we’ll really just be—like—friends.”

“We’ll need to be comfortable together if people are going to buy this.”

“I’m comfortable with you.”

I let my head bob as I finish another slice. She’s halfway through hers when I stand and make my way to the fridge. “Want a drink?”

“Water, please.”

I grab her a bottle of water and myself a beer. I set my beer in front of my plate, moving behind her with her water. As I reach around her body to set her water on the table, I let my hand settle on the side of her neck before I drop my face to the other side of her neck. I’m close enough to see the way her flesh erupts in a million tiny goosebumps, the flutter of her pulse, the way her lips part on a stuttered inhale. Under my hand, I feel her entire body stiffen.

I let my voice rumble against the shell of her ear, wanting to bottle the sweet scent of her. “Your whole body tensed at this simple touch. That’s not comfortable, Sunshine.”

Taking pity on her, I release my hold on her and lower into my own chair. She’s flushed. Her face, her chest, her ears.

Beautiful.

“You’re saying we have to practice—so that it’s not obvious we’re not real.”

“As your husband, I’m going to touch you, Nevaeh.” She wets her lips in a way that makes me think she likes the thought. “I’m going to kiss you, taste you. The man that made you his would be fucking addicted, no question. So, make no mistake, where the world’s concerned, I’m going to be addicted to you.”

A shuddering breath falls from between pink lips. “Whoa.” I raise a brow in a question she answers, “You’re intense.”

“What do you say, Sunshine? We got a deal?”

She studies me for a long moment, then she holds out a tiny hand. I take it, wrapping mine around hers and engulfing it. Her chest rises on a sharp inhale, but she says, “Deal.”