Alyssa shakes her head. “I don’t understand. What does this have to do with me?”
I know I have to tread delicately and wish Autumn was here with me to do this the right way. I’m not exactly known for my tact and Alyssa is especially prickly. Plus, there’s a part of me that seems to like pissing her off.
“Don’t ask me why or how. I don’t understand how the fucking industry works, the tabloids and the gossip sites. I don’t know why certain things get hits or seem to attract the public. But the fact is, people are really…enamored with those photos. The idea of me with, well, someone like you.”
She looks like I just slapped her. I didn’t mean for it to come out that way. “Sorry,” I say quickly, “I mean–”
“Oh, I get it,” she snipes with fire in her eyes. “People think you’re all humble now because you’re with a fat chick.”
Now I feel like I’ve been slapped. “Fat? What the fuck are you talking about? You’re gorgeous. You’re perfect.”
“I’m ten times the size of whatever girl you’re usually with. I’m curvy, I’m soft, I have a cute face. I’m not all angles and bones and fake boobs and long legs and–”
I raise my hand. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Alyssa. Let’s not get crazy here. You’re all those wonderful things and people like that. They think it’s a good change of pace for me. All of them, all of the comments, they want this to be a thing. For the mystery girl to actually mean something to me and not be just some random screw.”
“So what?”
“So the fact is, I want to keep up appearances. I want the world to believe that you and I are serious.”
Her face is blank. “But we aren’t.”
“I know.”
“We had sex.”
“I know.”
“That was it. Right?”
Normally I would be careful here because every single time I’ve been with a girl who seemed okay with a one-night stand or a purely physical relationship, it turned out they always hoped for more or expected more. But with Alyssa, I’m pretty sure she might just hate me, so…
“Right. I honestly never expected to see you again,” I admit.
She doesn’t flinch. “Same.”
“But here I am.”
“And you’re talking nonsense. What did your publicist say exactly?”
“Autumn. You’d like her. Really. She said that if you were my girlfriend that it would make me a lot more palatable for people right now. The bad boy image apparently doesn’t work when you’re thirty-eight.”
Alyssa stares at me for an eternity, eyes flickering with something I can’t read while a million thoughts seem to wage a war inside.
“Your publicist thinks we should date?” she repeats. “How is that even a PR strategy?”
“I assure you she’s good. She’s been in the business a long time, deals with actors here and in LA all the time. She’s got contacts. She’s got ways. She was able to get me your address, after all. If she suggests this, I believe her.”
She shakes her head, rubbing her hand down her face with a sigh. “It’s just…stupid. Why would you even entertain this? Just get your shit together and stop acting like a douche. Is it so hard?”
Ouch. “I’m working on it but this will help. And what will it hurt?”
“You? Nothing. It won’t hurt at all. But what about me? Name a single fucking thing I would have to gain by pretending to be your girlfriend? I’m not a famewhore. I like my privacy. I like being anonymous. This sounds like absolute hell.”
I frown. “I’m not that bad.”
“I think you might just be.”
I didn’t want to bring up this next part. The part that makes it seem a bit sketchy. But here it goes.
“I would make it worth your while.”
She laughs bitterly. “Oh my god. You think fucking me is a selling point?”
“This has nothing to do with sex,” I tell her quickly. “You don’t have to touch me ever again.”
“Good.”
“Great,” I fire back, eyes narrowing. “This is just for show. We do it for the photos, for the publicity. You’ll just be arm candy, someone who’s with me in public. You don’t need to sleep with me, or sleep over or visa versa or anything like that.” I pause. “And I would make it worth your while because I’ll be paying you.”
Her head jerks back. “You’d pay me to be your fake girlfriend?”
Man, it sounds asinine when she puts it that way. “Yes.”
Heavy silence looms over us like a cloud.
Then.
“How much?”
I tilt my head at her curiously. I’m actually surprised she asked. “Whatever you want.”
She watches me carefully and comes away from the door, slowly walking toward me. I keep my eyes trained to her face and not her breasts which are swaying seductively under her thin t-shirt. “You’re telling me that you’ll give me however much I want for this?”
I nod, wondering just how crazy negotiations might get. “Money, privilege, access. However much you want, whatever you want.”
“You know I want this in writing, in an actual contract,” she says cautiously.
“Of course. Autumn can have the lawyers draw one up tomorrow. So wait, are you actually seriously considering it?”
“I’m considering it,” she says. “I’m not saying yes.”
“But you’re not saying no.”
A wry smile plays across her lips as she appraises me coolly. “I wonder how many times you’ve had to say that.”
“You know I’m persistent.”
“Like a fucking mosquito.”
It’s in this moment that I have to take a minute and wonder if this really is the right thing. Because as hot as I find her, as much as she turns me on, I know that being around Alyssa might not always be a pleasant thing. There’s a chance I can win her over but there’s also the chance that…well, it’s the chance I face with most women when they get to know me. If she gets to know me, the real me, she’ll run for the fucking hills.
If Alyssa does agree to be my fake girlfriend, she might just make my life a living hell.
“Look,” I tell her. “Have dinner with me tonight, with Autumn. You can hear the whole thing from someone else. We’ll talk about the contract, about everything. You can just do this for three months, tops.”
“That’s still a long time,” she says. “And it means I can’t date during that time. And neither can you.”
I hadn’t thought about that. “Well, I’ll manage,” I tell her.
“Whatever you need managing, it won’t be me doing it.”
I come closer, feeling a flame in my chest. “Did I do something to you to make you hate me this much? You seemed to like me a lot better last night. Don’t pretend you didn’t, there’s photographic proof now.”
Her eyes go up to the ceiling. “Just because I let you fuck me, doesn’t mean I like you.”
“Let me?” I reply, aghast. Fuck that. “You didn’t let me. You wanted me just as badly as I wanted you. Explain how your pussy got so fucking wet from just my kiss.”
Her nostrils flare and she looks away and I can tell, somewhere inside her, she wants it all over again.
I can’t pretend I don’t either.
I take another step toward her. With Alyssa, I just need to push. I need to piss her off. I’m starting to think it’s what really gets her going. “You fucking want me right now. You want me to strip you naked, throw you on the bed, lick up between your thighs until you’re screaming my name again.” I lean in close, daring her to meet my eyes. Pure heat thrums through my veins. “You’ve been dreaming about it all morning. I bet you can still feel my cock inside you. That you’re a little raw from being fucked so thoroughly.”
She slowly meets my eyes, swallowing audibly. “If I sign this contract,” she says, her voice husky. “That means this can’t happen.”