Charade

His voice is sugary sweet. It’s the voice he uses to get his way. I’ve heard it a million times, except it used to be he had to use it on other people and not me.

It reminds me of what this is all about. Gregory’s used to having his way. Winning. He never expected me to walk away. He wanted to have his cake and eat it too. Or to screw around with Red, but have me on his arm. Not going to happen.

So I play the game too. “I’m better than okay, actually. Colt…he…” I use the same fakeness on him, as though I’m so enamored with Colt that I can’t find the words to explain him when really I want to use a few choice words that wouldn’t help my situation.

“You’re going to get hurt. He’s using you to get in your pants.”

Now this pissed me off. “Excuse me? You’re the one who—”

“This is the second time I’ve caught you messing with my girl, Pretty Boy. I’m not going to let it go a third time.”

I can’t believe it, but I actually exhale a sigh of relief at the sound of Colt’s voice. Colt pulls me in front of him, and puts his hands on my waist. Under my shirt. They’re warm against my skin. “Hey. Sorry I’m late.” He leans forward and presses his lips to my neck and holy shit, I shiver. He’s good at this.

“H—hey.” Ugh. Why is my voice breaking? I need to get myself together.

“You’re done here, right? I really want to get you alone.” He kisses my neck again. Even nibbles on it a little and out of nowhere I giggle. Okay. I need to chill and I don’t remember telling him he could kiss me, but there’s no way I’m stopping him now.

Gregory is just watching us, eyes wide. Fire burns in them and I know he wants to explode, but I also know he’s probably afraid of Colt. This couldn’t be more perfect.

“Yeah. I’m definitely ready.”

“Catch ya later, Pretty Boy.” I hear the grin in Colt’s voice. He latches our hands together, and we walk away, while I try to ignore the tingles shooting around in my stomach.

~CHAPTER TEN~

Colt

The second we step outside, I let go of her hand. I’m not a real hand-holding-kind-of-guy, especially when I’m not really hooking up with the girl. The kissing? That I can handle, but the rest of it is too frolicking-through-flowers for my taste.

“What was that?” Cheyenne asks, her mouth pursed.

“That was me making the asshole jealous, like you’re paying me to.”

“You didn’t have to really kiss me.”

I look at her. Would it hurt to show a little appreciation? “You’re just pissed you liked it.”

“We should go to the coffee house. It’ll be good for us to make an appearance together.”

“Choosing to ignore what I just said to you? And what if I have a class? Or do you?”

She shakes her head. “I have a little break before my next one. You?”

For the first time since coming outside she looks at me. Christ, she’s gorgeous. This would be a whole hell of a lot easier if she wasn’t. She has these pouty, little lips I want to bite and then suck into my mouth.

“Are you checking me out?”

Fuck. I got caught. “Do you have to ask? You know how you look.”

This makes her stumble. I try to catch her, but she does it herself. “I…”

I shake my head. “I don’t play games, Cheyenne. I tell it how it is. The only games here are the ones you’re paying me to play around everyone else.”

“Can we just go get a coffee now?” She’s fighting a smile which honestly, makes her sexier. Too bad she drives me crazy.

“Anything you want, Princess Cheyenne.” I don’t know why it is, but I can’t stop screwing with this girl. She both pisses me off and makes me feel mischievous at the same time.

“I thought you were going to stop calling me that?”

“I thought you were going to stop acting like a princess?”

She sighs and for the first time I wonder if this whole thing is wearing on her more than I thought. “Why don’t our truces last very long?” she asks.

“I guess we’re special like that.” Again, I feel like an ass. I don’t know why I’m worried about it. We’ll be going our separate ways in no time.

“Let’s just go get coffee so you can show me off,” she says.

We walk to the coffee house I first saw her at. When we get inside I ask her what she wants and tell her she can sit while I order. Such a good little lap dog I’m becoming.

Cheyenne smiles at me. A few minutes later I’m at the table with our drinks and sit down.

“So…” she’s obviously reaching for something to say. Instead of saving her, I sit back to see what she’ll come up with. “Classes. You never replied about classes.”

“I’m good till later today.”

“How old are you?”

“Shouldn’t you already know this, since we’re sleeping together?” I wink at her.

“You know what? Never mind. I forgot how big an asshole you are.”

I sigh. What is it with this woman? “Twenty-one. You?”

“Nineteen. Major?”

“I’m still figuring it out.”

She crinkles her nose and her eyes flick around the room. “Aren’t you a junior?”

“Why do you do that?” I change the subject. And technically I should be a senior.

“Do what?”

“Look around like that…like you are always scanning to see who’s around to know if you need to impress someone or not.”

She squints her dark eyes and cocks her head. Does she really not know she does that?

“Oh. I know them. They’re Gregory’s friends.” Cheyenne reaches across the table and grabs my hand. This is so fucking ridiculous. I can’t believe I agreed to play this game with her. I don’t like to be used and I’m sure as hell not into fake people.

“I gotta take a leak. I’ll be right back.” Pushing to my feet, I head to the bathroom. The asshole’s friends eye me and I wonder when we reverted back to high school.

After I get done I see Cheyenne sitting there with her arms crossed. “What happened?” I look at her friends, but they’re not paying attention to us.

“Nothing. Let’s just go.”

Shrugging, I grab my cell off the table. Taking a quick look at my texts I see someone needs a hook up. I could walk home, but that will take too much time, so I say, “I live off campus. I need a ride home.” My car wouldn’t start this morning so Adrian drove me in.

“Whatever.”

I follow the princess to her dorm, wondering what crawled up her ass while I was gone. She walks up to a Honda Accord which isn’t what I expected from her. I would have thought she’d drive something flashier.

I give her directions to my shithole house. It doesn’t take long to get there and she’s silent the whole time. When she pulls over, I can tell she wants to say something. “Spit it out, Cheyenne. I’m in a hurry here.”

“You’re a drug dealer.”

Fuck. “You know, we’re not really in a relationship, so you don’t need to play the controlling girlfriend card by looking through my texts.” My whole body feels hot. My heart is suddenly going a million miles an hour. Who the hell does she think she is?

“I didn’t mean snoop, but your phone lit up when the text came through and I caught a glance.”

“It sure as hell didn’t say what it was about so how do you know?”

“I just do. Ruin your life or not, I don’t care. It’s not my business, but if we’re doing this, you have to keep it away from me. I don’t want anything to do with that shit.”

My whole body tenses. “Because obviously I’m doing it for the hell of it. I’m the guy with tatts who lives in the piece of shit house and gets in fights with frat boys. Obviously that means I deal drugs because I want to.”

I can hardly hear through the pounding in my ears. I push the door open, get out and slam the door. The window’s down so I bend over. “Everything’s not always black and white, Princess. Sometimes we have to do shit because there’s not another choice. Maybe you should think about that before you snub your nose at me.”

Without another word, I’m gone.

~CHAPTER TWELVE~

Cheyenne

It’s been two days since I talked to Colt and I’m still thinking about him. I shouldn’t be. It’s not like I know him very well. It’s not as though this stupid charade we had going on was really making me feel any better. But I’m thinking about that last day in the car.

And thinking about how big a bitch I was.

It’s obvious he needs the money. That’s why he agreed with my stupid boyfriend idea. And I know his mom is dying. Dying. I could tell by the sound of his voice when he told me how much it affects him. It was the same way he spoke to me when he said he had no other choice. I’m assuming that means whatever money he’s getting is somehow going to help his mom.

He’s fighting for her—caring for her the way I wish my mom had cared about me.

The door opens and Andy walks inside. “Are you still moping? You’re taking longer to get over this break-up than you did the first one!” She flops on my bed beside me. She’s like that. Doesn’t mind getting in someone’s personal space and she acts like we’re best friends or something.

“Want to talk about him?” she asks.

If only she knew. “No.”

“You sure?” Her pink ponytail flies around as she turns.

“Yeah… I’m sure you want to hang out with your…girlfriend or something.”

Andy looks like I’ve disappointed her. Welcome to the club, I want to tell her.

“One of these days, you’re going to have to find someone to be real with, Cheyenne.”

I don’t have time to reply to her. As she’s walking out, my cell rings. I fumble with it, not sure who I’m expecting it to be, when I see it’s my aunt. “Hello.”

“Hi, Cheyenne. How are you?” There’s a slight edge to her voice.

“I’m okay. What’s wrong?”

“It’s the weekend. I wanted to see if you’d come home. I thought we could spend some time together.”

My heart speeds up. Her voice is off.

“Or I could come to you. We can get a room…hang out. How does that sound?”

It sounds like something is seriously wrong. I fight to swallow the ball in my throat. “No…no. I’ll come home. I need to get away anyway.”

“Okay, sweetie… I love you.”

“You, too.” I don’t take the time to grab any clothes. I have some at home. Purse and cell in hand, I’m out the door.

Something’s wrong. I know it to the marrow of my bones. My mind flips through everything bad: my aunt and uncle divorcing, someone’s sick. I don’t like any of the options that squeeze their way into my subconscious. Lily and Mark are steady. The only steady I’ve ever known.

It only takes me forty-five minutes to make the hour drive. I see the blinds move when I pull into the driveway. It makes my gut sink even farther. I don’t know how I’m as calm as I am right now.

“That was fast,” Aunt Lily plasters a fake smile on her face.

“What’s wrong?”

My uncle steps out of the kitchen. He’s the typical wealthy workaholic—always busy, yet he’s here. Why is he here?

My cell slips out of my sweaty hand and hits the floor.

Aunt Lily tries to smile at me again, but she can’t quite do it. Bending over she picks up my phone.

“Just tell me.” I fall onto the couch. Lily’s eyes glisten before one tear slips out. They each sit on one side of me. I’m afraid my heart is going to burst out of my chest.