Anger built, consuming the hurt like fuel. She wanted to hit something. No—someone.
She jerked Caleb’s shirt off. But she’d forgotten it was still partway fastened, and buttons scattered, diving for the bottom of the white shag carpet.
Good. She hoped they were lost forever, and Caleb had to buy a new shirt at Boring And Overpriced Executive Clothes R Us. The man was so repressed he’d probably never even come in contact with fabric that had a pinstripe.
She hurled the pinstripe-free shirt at his forehead. He caught it with one effortless swipe of his hand.
The air-conditioning kicked on, the cold air raising goose bumps on her bare skin. All her tantrum had accomplished was to get her half naked. Annabelle was right. Liv needed to think before she acted.
Caleb turned away, examining the rhinestone accents on Holiday Barbie’s green velvet gown, but the rigid set of his back made it clear he was pissed. He probably didn’t approve of hissy fits. Or semi-nudity.
She took a deep breath, but she couldn’t do it. She could not ask Caleb for his shirt back after she’d thrown it at him.
But she must have made some kind of noise while trying to force the words out, because he turned, as suddenly as if she’d fired her dad’s prized SIG Sauer Prelaz-Burnand rifle into the ceiling.
“I—” she started. That was as long as his gaze managed to stay on her face. It dipped to the middle of her chest, where her bra fastened.
His gaze went molten. Feral.
Blood rushed the wrong way—toward her lips, her breasts, between her legs—when it should have gone to her head. Her nipples hardened against the lace. She forgot to breathe, then had to gulp in air to catch up.
She couldn’t smell Ella’s perfume anymore. There was only soap and man. Caleb.
He moved toward her, gaze focused, mouth set in a determined slant.
Despite the cool air flowing from the ceiling vent, the heat in Caleb’s gaze burned her. The years fell away. She was sixteen, and so stupidly in love that she’d do anything to be with this boy.
Her body moved on its own, angling toward him, her lips so close that all he had to do was lean down to meet them.
He didn’t.
In the space of one breath, he went from smoking-hot lover to distant, self-possessed Captain Integrity. The desire was so completely gone from his gaze that she felt like a naive child for thinking he was going to kiss her.
Except, he was having trouble looking at her. His gaze flitted from her lips to her chest, then back up, finally settling on her upper arm.
The one on her left side. Exactly where the tattoo was.
CHAPTER 6
“IT’S NOT YOUR name,” Liv blurted out.
Caleb didn’t say a word. He didn’t have to, because he was staring at his name in bold, cursive letters that would never come off her arm. His gaze singed her skin, which made everything worse, because, no doubt, Caleb could see that too.
“Well, okay. It is your name. But it’s not your name. I didn’t put it there because of you. I got it for my boyfriend.”
His brows jutted up dangerously.
“Ex-boyfriend.”
He didn’t look pacified.
“Actually, it was supposed to be a butterfly.” Shut up, Liv. “Or a flower. That’s what I was trying to point to. But I was shaking a little bit and I guess my hand must’ve slipped, and… You know.” Finally—finally—she got her stupid mouth closed.
“No.” The word came out flat, like Caleb had crushed it with the power of his anger. “I don’t know.”
“I’m not good with needles. So I was a little nervous when I went inside.” She really needed to stop there. Telling Caleb the whole story would only give him more ammunition to use against her. But his intense stare was completely focused on her. The muscles inside her throat bypassed her brain entirely, like he was controlling them through the power of his gaze, and the next thing she knew, she’d told him exactly what had happened.
“You were freaking out so bad you didn’t even know you’d pointed to my-boyfriend’s-name-here instead of a butterfly, and CJ didn’t say anything?”
“I don’t think he realized how badly I was freaking out.”
“Bullshit.” The word exploded from Caleb’s throat, so fast and hard it almost knocked her on her ass. “One thing you’re not is subtle. If he didn’t notice, it’s because he chose not to.”
“I—”
“I’m gonna have a little talk with CJ.” Caleb regarded her, all pulsing veins and clenched jaw, clearly in the mood to do way more than talk.
Her belly fluttered and her fingertips tingled.
“Where is he?” Caleb demanded.
“He’s gone.”
“What’s his address?”
“Come on. What are you going to do? Hunt him down and kick his ass?” The idea wasn’t as ridiculous as it should’ve been. With that fierce intensity in Caleb’s eyes, he wasn’t Captain Integrity anymore. He was a man and she was a woman and anything could happen.
“Where is he?” The words were soft. Level. But Caleb’s stare was brimming with intensity.
She tried for a laugh, but it came out flat. “Who are you, and what have you done with Captain Integrity?”
He ran a hand over his forehead. Cleared his throat. Just like that, the smooth, even expression she knew so well was back. “Sorry.”
“That’s, uh, okay.”
“I got a little carried away. I won’t touch CJ, but there has to be something I can do.” He spoke in his normal, even tone, but as if a curtain had been lifted, she saw the raw power and intensity beneath it. The single-minded focus that made him seem less like an overprotective brother and more like—
She cut the thought off there. “If you really want to help, there is one thing you could do. But you’re not going to like it.”
“Let me worry about that.”
She hesitated. Caleb clearly wasn’t himself right now. It would be wrong to take advantage of him in this vulnerable state.
Or, maybe he was himself. Maybe she’d met the real Caleb for the first time today.
It couldn’t be healthy for him to keep so much locked up inside. And if being around her helped him get in touch with his feelings, they’d be doing each other a favor.
Her mind made up, she slanted him a you-know-you-want-to smile. “The thing is, I kind of need a boyfriend.”
*
“A boyfriend?” Caleb asked. “Like, you want me to set you up with someone?” It wasn’t a bad idea. Liv definitely needed some help when it came to choosing a man.
He did a mental survey of his single friends. John couldn’t even take care of a dog, much less make time for a girlfriend. Aaron wasn’t looking to settle down. Ezra was a good guy. Stable job. Kept a cool head even when everyone around him had one too many drinks. Still, he couldn’t see Ezra and Liv together. Liv belonged with…
You? goaded a sly voice in his head. He looked away, before Liv read the renegade thought off his face.
The two of them were never going to happen, so he forced himself to say, “I can probably find someone.”
“No! I mean, that’s nice of you to offer, but I need someone specific.”
Her voice was louder. Closer.
It would be a bad idea to look at her. It was a bad idea to engage her at all, but he needed to know which of his buddies she had in mind and why.
“Specific how?” he heard himself ask.
“See… The thing is…” She took a deep breath and then the words spilled out of her mouth so fast he could barely tell one from the other. “The thing is, I have that tattoo on my arm, and my parents are going to see it at the wedding, and if they think it’s CJ’s name they’ll freak out and pull my loan for the shop. So I need to be dating someone else named Caleb. Someone my parents love and respect.”
The words filled him with a fierce, primitive satisfaction. “You need me.”
“Yes. I need you.”
He glanced
at Liv. Her eyes were wide and blue and open, and he couldn’t look away. He didn’t even want to blink.
She swallowed. “I know it’s a huge favor, but it would mean a lot to me.”
He couldn’t do it. He was clear on that much. But when she gave him those you’re-my-hero eyes, he went fuzzy on exactly why.
He jerked his gaze away. He needed a minute. A minute of looking at anything but Liv, so he could clear his head.
Once again, he found himself in front of Ella’s Barbie collection, but this time, instead of staring blankly while he waited for Papa Voretti to kick his ass, he actually looked. Each Barbie was paired with a Ken doll. The Barbie in the ball gown stood next to the Ken in a tux. Tennis Barbie was arm in arm with tennis Ken. And bikini Barbie was ready to hit the waves with the Ken wearing board shorts. Perfectly matched.
Unlike him and Liv. A partner was supposed to help you be your best self—the person you wanted to be. But Liv brought out the worst in him. The emotional toddler who made snap decisions based on momentary gratification instead of logic. Even a fake relationship would be a disaster of epic proportions.
But he could still help her out. He’d talk to her. Calm her down and help her examine her options. Find a way for her to escape her parents’ wrath that didn’t require him to stick by her side for the next four weeks.
He met her gaze—a necessary risk. “You don’t need a boyfriend, Livvy. You need an excuse to get out of the wedding. Come down with the flu.”
“You know my mom. Unless I’m in the hospital hooked up to an IV, she’ll tell me to pop a Tamiflu and some Sudafed and get my ass to church.”
“What about makeup? Can’t you…I don’t know…cover it up?”
“I’ve tried. I can get it to look almost natural, but almost won’t be good enough for Ella. You know she’s gonna be inspecting her bridesmaids before she lets us in front of the photographer. And even the strongest fixing mist isn’t going to stop Bridezilla and a bottle of makeup remover.”
“Wear a sweater.”
“Are you kidding me? She’d rip it off. You saw how she went after my shirt today.”
Desperation forced him to consider anything. “Maybe if you talked to her about it…”
“It’s okay to say no.” She crossed her arms over her chest and stared him down, blue eye flashing an unmistakable message. You don’t have the balls to take me on. “I’m sure you have better things to do.”
Damn right he did. Except that, with Liv in front of him, he couldn’t think of a single one of them. “I…uh…”
He’d given her exactly the opening she needed, but instead of taking him down, her arms fell to her side, like she was the one on the verge of surrender. “I know you’re not my biggest fan. You never liked to be around me. Not even when we were kids.”
“That’s not true.”
“It’s okay. It’s not like it’s breaking news. I don’t know why I even bothered asking you for help.” She turned away, but not before he caught the rapid blink-blink-blink that warned of impending tears.
Aw, no. Anything but that.
“No big deal. I’ll find a way to open my shop. It’ll take a little longer, that’s all.” Her tone was breezy, but there was no mistaking the hurt underneath it. And it wasn’t just about the loan she stood to lose. It was about him. She thought he didn’t want to be her friend.
“Livvy.” She still had her back to him, and he couldn’t stand it. He needed her eyes. “Look at me.”
She didn’t move.
“Please.”
Finally, she turned toward him. But that was worse. Because he couldn’t fool himself into thinking that sheen of moisture in her eyes was anything but tears.
His chest went tight. Liv didn’t cry. Not when she fell off her bike when she was five, fracturing her thumb. Not when Matt spilled paint all over the prom dress she’d spent the weekend sewing. Not even when that waste of space Bennett Rasmussen stood her up for the dance. But she was crying now.
He’d made her lips tremble and the light go out of her eyes, and he had to fix it. “I’ll do it, okay? I’ll be your boyfriend. Fake boyfriend.”
“No!” She swiped a hand across her eyes, removing all evidence of her tears in a single pass. “I’m fine.”
“I want to help.”
“No. You don’t.”
He sighed. “I’m sharing a room with the world’s creepiest collection of Barbies. And, I swear to God, they’re staring at me. If I didn’t want to help, I’d be drinking a beer by the pool.”
“Really?” She laid a hand on his chest and looked up at him with those wide eyes. They weren’t filled with tears anymore. They were wide and bright and inviting, and he wanted to climb inside.
Shit.
He pulled away.
If he was going to do this, he needed rules. Parameters that would ensure his destructive emotions weren’t allowed to take over. The key was to maintain some mental distance. To remember that Liv wasn’t his future. If he ever got married, it would be to someone like Joslyn. Someone who calmed him instead of confusing him and stirring him up.
He cleared his throat. “I have a few conditions.”
“Of course.”
“I don’t want to make this more complicated than it has to be. Your parents are already convinced there’s something going on between us, so we can play off that. At the rehearsal dinner, we’ll tell everyone that we’ve been secretly dating. They’ll see us together then, and at the wedding the next day. After that, we can quietly break up.” He listened to the words coming out of his mouth with a mounting sense of disbelief. This had to be the worst idea he’d ever had. But he couldn’t watch Liv cry again. The mere idea of it did terrible thing to his self-control.
“The rehearsal dinner isn’t for four weeks,” she said. “Why wait?”
Because I have a date with the woman I might spend the rest of my life with. Because I’ve always wanted you more than I should. Because you scare the shit out of me. “Because the key to a good lie is to keep it simple. The less time we have to pretend to be a couple, the less chance we’ll get busted.”
“But our story is supposed to be that we’ve been having this secret relationship, right? Once we tell my family, they’re going to think back over the last few months, wondering how they missed the clues. My parents caught us here together, so that’s one point in our favor. But the stag and doe weekend is—”
“The what now?”
“Stag and doe weekend.” Liv smirked. “You know. Ella and Brandon’s combined bachelor / bachelorette party. Ella gave it a cute nickname just in case an entire weekend trapped at a remote mountain lodge playing bridal charades wasn’t painful enough already.”
Damn. He’d forgotten about that. He mentally cursed Ella for being so paranoid about her fiancé getting a lap dance that she’d insisted on going co-ed.
“We’re both going to be there, in front of my entire family. If we don’t at least give each other some hot looks, no one is going to buy that we were secretly hooking up.”
“Not hooking up.” He paced the small room, as antsy as if he’d been locked up in solitary. “Having a relationship.”
Liv rolled her eyes. “Whatever. You know what I mean.”
“Okay. We’ll go public at the stag and doe weekend. Happy?”
“Thrilled. Anything else we need to work out?”
He debated telling her about his date with Joslyn, but there was no reason to go into that. It’s not like Liv was actually his girlfriend. He wasn’t cheating on her. The date was well before the stag and doe weekend, no Vorettis would be in attendance, and he wasn’t in the mood for another lecture about lack of sparks. “Nope.”
She gave him a sunny smile. “Then let’s make it official.” She stuck out her hand for him to shake, like they were closing a business deal.
Which was exactly the way he was going to treat this. Like a business deal.
But her skin was softer than he expected. Hotter. She curl
ed her fingers around his palm like she didn’t want to let him go, and he felt her inside, burrowing into the quiet, dark places he never let anyone see.
He pulled free abruptly.
“Second thoughts?” she asked, softly.
He cleared his throat. “No.”
He had roughly a million second thoughts, but none of them mattered. He’d felt her hand in his. Looked into her eyes.
He was in this now, and there was no going back.
CHAPTER 7
“WAIT A MINUTE. You’re taking me to Michael Saka?” Joslyn’s eyes widened with something that looked closer to panic than pleasure, and Caleb mentally cursed himself for his choice. You didn’t take a woman to the most expensive restaurant in San Diego for your first date.
When he’d made the reservation five days ago, calling in years of markers to get his buddy who worked there to find an open table, he’d figured it would prove to Joslyn that he was seriously interested in her. Then, when he told her about his arrangement with Liv, she’d understand he was simply helping out a friend. Only, now Joslyn was looking at him like he was a stalker in violation of a restraining order.
Okay. Damage control.
He pulled into the lot and cut the engine. “I know it’s over the top, but I’ve always wanted to try this place. And Rafe won’t go anywhere unless there’s beer and wings.”
Joslyn sat frozen in her seat, staring at the sun setting over the ocean—even the parking lot had a killer view. “You don’t have to impress me. You know that, right? I already like you.”
Her words washed over him with a soothing warmth. She wasn’t worried he was a stalker. She was worried he was emptying his bank account to impress her.
This woman was everything he’d been looking for in a partner. He was going to give this relationship his best shot. He owed it to himself.
“I really do want to try the restaurant,” he said. “And I want to try it with you.”
Pretty in Ink (Voretti Family Book 3) Page 6
