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Excerpt

“Give me a minute to make the changes and we can get this signed,” Mark says as he stands. With a smile to me and a nod at the other men, he disappears out the door.

Cole and Roman stand too. “It was nice to meet you, Violet,” Roman says. “I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of you in the future.”

I smile a little stiffly at the reminder.

As Roman strides out of the room, Cole leans down and murmurs in Tate’s ear. Tate’s eyes find mine, and he shakes his head, though a small smile plays at the corners of his mouth. Cole straightens and claps Tate on the back, then tips his head at me one last time before the door closes behind him.

And suddenly Tate and I are alone.

“Are you ready for this?” he asks, his voice pitched low. “The moment you sign that contract, you become my girlfriend.”

A single, clueless butterfly takes flight in my stomach. “Your fake girlfriend.”

He lowers his chin in acknowledgment but that smile returns. “How are your acting skills?”

“Isn’t it a bit late to ask that question?”

“Probably.” He leans back in his chair. “Let’s hope you can pull off kissing me then, since you were the one who insisted on having it in the contract.”

Familiar annoyance flashes through me, and I grit my teeth. “I think I can feign being into you for a few seconds at a time.”

“Is that so?”

The way one of his brows arches has me pulling my shoulders back and tilting my chin up. “Yes.”

He stands suddenly and rounds the desk. I turn in my chair and follow his movement, nerves fluttering in my chest. What is he doing?

He stops a foot in front of me.  “Care to put that claim to the test?”

My heart thunders in my chest as I blink up at him. “What do you mean?”

He reaches down and grasps my hand, then tugs me to my feet. “Maybe you should prove you’re up to the job before we sign. It would be the smart thing to do, wouldn’t it?”

Slowly, he takes me in, his gaze sweeping over every inch of my face before finally landing on my lips. He’s good at this faking it stuff. If his expression alone was all I had to go by, I might actually think he wants to kiss me.

“Mark will be back in a second.” I cringe internally at the way the words come out as a breathless whisper.

“Let’s see how you perform under pressure then.”

With one big, warm hand curved around my nape, he uses his thumb to tilt my jaw up. “Are you ready?”

When I force myself to focus on him, there isn’t even a hint of the amusement I expected to find in his expression. Instead, his eyes sear into me with a heat that sends my internal temperature skyrocketing.

I nod, my whole body thrumming with awareness. But he doesn’t lower his head, he doesn’t kiss me. No, he drifts his thumb over my lower lip, and God, why does this feel so real? It shouldn’t. We’re minutes away from signing the contract that spells out the terms and conditions of this relationship. Not to mention, Tate is the last man I should want to kiss. And yet, anticipation whispers over my skin and my breath catches in my throat.

After what feels like a lifetime, he lowers his head until his lips hover over mine. The warmth of his breath washing over my skin gives me goose bumps.

“Show me what you’ve got, butterfly,” he murmurs.

He’s not going to make it easy on me. Or maybe he wants me to prove exactly how committed I am to this arrangement. Either way, I won’t back down from this challenge. Not when True Brew is at stake.

I go up on my toes and slide my hand into the soft strands of hair at the back of his neck. My pulse kicks into high gear and my stomach twists in anticipation. Just as I’m closing the space between us, Mark’s voice sounds from outside the room.

I leap away from Tate and turn to face the windows behind me, just as the door swings open.

Tate’s low chuckle scorches my skin, but I don’t dare look at him.

“Okay, I’ve made those changes—”

I turn to my brother when his words cut off abruptly.

He squints at me where I’m standing at the window, then narrows his gaze further when he shifts his attention to Tate, who is standing suspiciously close by. I’m too scared to look at Tate, afraid that this time I’ll see the amusement he was hiding before, so I keep my attention focused just over Mark’s shoulder, willing my still-hammering pulse to slow.

“Everything okay?” Mark asks.

“Everything’s fine,” Tate says. “Violet was just demonstrating her excellent acting skills.”

His voice is casual—almost flippant. Probably because he actually was acting when he all but dared me to kiss him.

And now the heat in my cheeks has more to do with embarrassment than anything else. I feel like I’ve been played. It’s ridiculous, because pretending to be attracted to him is exactly what I signed up for. But I didn’t expect to lose track of that within the first few minutes. We haven’t even signed the damn contract yet.

I close my eyes and exhale. I’ll do better from now on.

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