Page 4 of Seeking Her Studs

She looks at me wide-eyed.

“There will be rules, of course, as to how you can use it. But we can renovate it together.” I get ahead of myself with the offer. Colt and Reese will kill me for promising this without talking to them first. But she’s right. She should be able to spread her wings a little before she’s off to college and maybe out of the house forever.

In response, I feel her bony arms wrap around my waist. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.” Her voice is high-pitched with excitement.

She pulls away and runs toward the house, her ‘thank you’s’ now pouring out into the dusk.

“Hey, where you going?” I shout after her.

“To start a Pinterest board!” She shouts back.

I have no idea what that is. But I do know that I essentially just offered a sixteen-year-old her own movable apartment to avoid talking about Blaire.

Which isn’t even the worst thing that Blaire Evans has made me do.

CHAPTER THREE

Blaire

If there’s one thing I know how to do, it’s act.

Put on a show.

Play pretend.

Get in character.

I can do it all. In fact, I can do it all so well that I’m not sure I ever stop. And I’m starting to think that might be my problem.

“I’m sorry, you want me to do what?” I level my accusatory gaze at my agent Patricia and then down to the new David Yurman necklace wrapped around her long, shiny Botoxed neck. I wonder how much of my lost dignity went into the money she used to buy that?

“Nothing is any different, Blaire.” She smiles and tilts her head reassuringly. Her cadence is maternal while her actions are not. It used to get her a long way with me when I was younger and still believed she cared. But now I’m a grown ass woman at thirty-two years old. And I recognize it as the tone she uses when she really wants something.

“How many people saw you buy this ring?” I ask Mika Plymouth. He’s recently become Hollywood’s favorite leading actor and is my co-star in a highly anticipated historical romance set to release after this summer. Now the world also likely thinks he’s my fiancé.

And he doesn’t mean a damn thing to me. It’s all contractual. And the entire world eats it up because, like I said, I’m always acting.

I twist the 3-karat diamond ring in my hand. I didn’t even try it on. The anxiety that I wouldn’t be able to get it off is too intense.

“Ergh,” he can’t even spit out an answer to my question. And it’s all I need to know. Of course, paparazzi caught him buying the ring. It was all a part of a plan. A plan I just happened to be left in the dark about.

“There are already pictures being posted as we speak,” Patricia smiles as she drops this bomb. “As far as the headlines go, you’re engaged. Congratulations!”

“Well, then you better think about how many people you want seeing him returning it.” I place the extravagant, yet meaningless, ring on my kitchen table. “Because this is too far. Even for me.”

I was reluctant about entering into this P.R. relationship at all, but begrudgingly accepted, thinking it would be brief. He needed the boost to his career. And I needed, according to my agent, to ‘appear more human’, which is ridiculous. What could I possibly be to people other than human?

Cat?

Horse?

That’s actually a nice thought. I would love to gallop through some canyon and finally, for once in my life, feel free.

“Blaire,” a male voice interjects. But it’s not Mika’s. It’s his agent, Frederic. Like the rest of our lives, even the fake break-up of our fake engagement has to be micromanaged by other people. “All you have to do is wait a few more months,” Frederic continues. “Do the press junket and then you can go off and do whatever you want.”

I open my mouth to speak, but before I can get a word out, Patricia interjects. “Actually, think about how much more interest could be stirred up by break-up rumors. We wouldn’t make an announcement yet. She would be seen without a ring though and people would start talking and-”

I don’t hear the rest as I leave my kitchen. Patricia and Frederic are too engrossed in scheming to even notice.