Page 58 of Stolen Summer

Phantom Guy raised a brow. “Since when do you not share?”

“Tonight,” Cole growled, leveling a glower that would make anyone I know wither, including the masked phantom. “And every night, she is with me.” As if his threat alone wasn’t enough, Cole slid a possessive arm around me, pulling me closer to his side.

But all he managed to do was rouse his friend’s interest in me. I saw it in the gleam of his hazel gaze as he glanced at me. “No one’s ever caught his eye for longer than a night. You must be special.” Phantom Guy lifted his glass in salute, an uncomfortable sly smirk on his lips. “I’ll catch up with you later,” he said to Cole before moving on.

Cole put light pressure on the small of my back, indicating we were moving through the room. “Do you always threaten your friends?” I asked low enough for his ears only.

His lips were turned down, and I wondered what it would take to draw a smile onto his lips. “When they deserve it.”

“He called you Riles. I thought we were undercover.” I touched the rim of my delicate mask.

“You’re undercover. My identity was compromised long ago.”

Cole took me around the room socializing. The responses were various degrees of the first. Most with more decorum than Phantom Guy, but I was judged the instant they laid eyes on me.

Not an unusual reaction

“You’re uncomfortable,” Cole murmured in my ear.

We were with a small group. They were talking stocks, markets, inflation, politics, and all the things I basically hated. I’d checked out of the conversation seconds after it started, focusing my energy on the little bacon-wrapped wieners that kept passing by me on trays carried by the staff.

I licked my finger, lifting my gaze to Cole’s, and despite being here for more than an hour, seeing the skull hiding his face still surprised me. “I’m not used to wearing a mask,” I reasoned, readjusting the satin ribbon tucked over my ear.

It was a lie.

And he knew it.

“It isn’t the clothes I was referring to,” he said, calling me out.

I plucked Cole’s half-drunk champagne glass from his fingers. I noticed he’d slowed down where I’d amped up on the liquor intake. “Fine. But can you blame me? This isn’t exactly my kind of scene.”

He shifted his body in a maneuver that cut us off from the handful of people still in a heated discussion. I swore one of them was our governor, but of course, I couldn’t be sure, not with the charcoal raven mask covering nearly his entire face except for his dried lips. It took everything in me not to offer him some of my lip gloss. It hurt just looking at those crusty lips.

“If it makes you feel better, it’s not mine either,” Cole said.

“Then why are we here?” I asked.

“Simple. If I want to continue being the malicious narcissistic, rich boy you believe I am, then I must play by my father’s rules.”

I gave an unladylike snort. “So basically, if you want to continue receiving your inheritance, you go where Daddy says.”

“I like my version better.”

“Am I supposed to be your girlfriend? Just so I know my part. I don’t want any more surprises.”

“The night will be full of them, Killer. And to answer your question, yes, for the summer. It will keep the leeches off me.”

“Leeches?” I glanced around the room. Every girl here had her eyes on us. “Oh, leeches. Got it. This should be fun. I should warn you now I’ll cut a bitch.”

Cole laughed. Like really laughed, and I felt the effect of it in my chest, my heart cartwheeling. A flush stole over my body, and I wanted desperately to kiss him, to feel the cool steel of his lip ring against my lips.

So, I did.

Lifting on my toes, I pressed my mouth to his.

We were engaged after all. This was exactly the kind of thing a fiancée would do. I was playing the game.

Liar.