“I—”
“Chloe told you about Peri, that doesn’t make me happy, but it’s not a secret. Now you need to know that Judge warned me before we even had this deal you were into me. I missed it, but once he pointed it out, I realized it was pretty obvious.”
Okay.
Uh.
Not good.
Judge had noticed.
And Rix knew.
I poised to spring off him, but his arms tightened again.
“Don’t.”
“Rix—”
“I want you.”
I shut my mouth and stopped moving.
“We’re young. You’re gorgeous. You find me attractive. Isn’t this what life’s about? We enjoy it. We live it. We set my parents at ease for a little while. We put your family in their place. It gives me what I need to keep Peri from getting the wrong ideas. And while that happens, we have fun.”
“We have fun,” I parroted.
“Yeah. We have fun.”
“Pretending to be a couple.”
“No, being a couple that knows the stakes.”
I edged back slightly, and he let me, then when I was as far away as he wished to allow, he stopped letting me.
That was when I spoke.
“And what are those?”
“That this, Alexandra,” he gave me a squeeze, “is fun. Cooking together and TV and hiking and our mutual deep understanding that Kurt Russell is the shit. All of that, if you’re down, will start to include me-spending-the-night, you-spending-the-night and all-you-can-get-up-to-in-the-night fun.”
I shivered.
The fingertips of both his hands dug in, and his eyes got lazy.
It took effort, but I didn’t get lost in his lazy eyes.
“So, friends with benefits,” I noted.
“No,” he refuted again, his voice warm now. Deeper. Coaxing. “A couple that enjoys each other and the time they spend together, doing it knowing in the end they’ll still be friends. And that’s important, Alexandra. This ends here, now, if you can’t do that. And by that, I mean the fake couple part ends, the friend part remains. Always. I promise, I’ll get it. Totally, honey. But I like you. You mean something to me. And I’m not losing you how I can have you. I’m just saying, I want more of you if you feel you’re able to give it to me.”
Rix threatening the end right now had me gripped with fear.
Okay, yes, he was saying there’d be an end.
He was planning on that.
But now, it would not be the end.
Not because of Blake’s wedding (but yes, because Peri needed to get with the program, though I wasn’t going to share the fullness of that mission, I was glad Rix was now on board, as it were).
No, because I couldn’t let it end.
Because I liked him.
He meant something to me.
And I wanted more.
“I want more too,” I admitted, trying to meet his eyes, not exactly succeeding, not exactly failing.
“So nothing changes, we go slow,” and he finished with a steely, “except we’re not fake.”
I repeated that like I was rolling it around in my mouth, enjoying the taste. “We’re not fake.”
“Alex.”
I focused on him.
“Seal the deal, honey.”
The caramel was melting, so I knew what he was asking.
And we were a couple.
Rix and me, a couple.
Officially.
Not a normal one, but I’d never been normal, and I suspected neither had he.
But right now, that was what we were.
Something I never dreamed of being with Rix.
I had it.
It was temporary.
But I was going to hold on to it.
For as long as I could.
I pushed up and went in.
Like the first time, he let me kiss him.
Unlike the first time, when I eventually landed on my back with Rix on top of me, he started kissing me.
The getting to know you biz that evening had been pretty extreme.
The best part?
Rix thought I was a good kisser.
But I discovered he was better.
Judge
Around the same time…
* * *
Chloe was sitting at Duncan and Genny’s island, chatting to her mom and Duncan while Duncan fried meatballs at the stove, and her mom prepared a salad, when Judge approached her.
She tipped her head back and smiled up at him.
He dropped his head, touched his mouth to hers, and then he didn’t delay when he handed her his phone and earbuds.
Her brows slanted low over her eyes, but she took them, and her movements came quicker when she saw what was on the screen of his phone.
He watched as she watched that day’s Elsa Exchange.
“Everything okay?” Duncan asked.
“I don’t know,” Judge answered.
“Oh my,” Chloe whispered, her lips tipping up.
“I know that look,” Genny said as she stared at her daughter.
Judge knew it too.
When the video was finished, Chloe took out the buds and handed them and the phone back to Judge.
Though “Interesting” was all she said.
“You have a hand in that?” he asked.
Her eyes narrowed on him. “Precisely which part are you referring to, darling?”
“Elsa Cohen knowing about Rix and Alex.”
“Elsa Cohen?” Genny asked warily.
“Rix and Alex?” Duncan asked, shocked.
“I would not offer that woman a life preserver,” Chloe snapped.
She would.
But he got what she was saying.
Judge relaxed.
Because she might have been meddling with Rix and Alex.
But she didn’t do this.
“Mom and Duncan, you and I live here,” she reminded him. “That means, for paparazzi, there’s money to be made. The fact they stumbled on to Rix and Alex doesn’t surprise me.”
“Yeah,” he muttered.
“What’s going on?” Duncan demanded.
Chloe lost her mood and smiled happily at Duncan. “Oh, it’s the sweetest thing in the world, Bowie.”
Then she launched in.
Judge caught Genny watching him.
She lifted her brows.
He shook his head.
She sighed, but she did it on a small smile.
Then they all listened to Chloe’s sharing.
Rix
Five and a half hours later…
* * *
“Hey,” he called.
He knew it before he saw it.
But Alex lifted her head from his chest, trying to hide her hand dashing tears from her eyes.
“Babe, give it up. They soaked through my shirt round the time she went back to that school,” he informed her.
Those eyes darted to his.
Tears in them, the green seemed more green, the brown almost amber.
So totally the prettiest eyes he’d ever seen.
“Tell me you liked it,” she urged quietly.
The Queen’s Gambit binge was over.
“I wasn’t sure what your deal was with that show, but the last episode payoff was massive.”
A huge smile split her face.
Rix pulled her up his chest and kissed it.
She tensed at first, then released and relaxed into him.