I laughed. “Do I make you nervous, Pearl?”

We were still standing close. Too close. I could’ve lifted her chin with a hooked finger and kissed her without taking a step. I could see her breasts rising and falling with the pace of her quick breaths.

“We both swore off dating,” she said. Her eyes darted between mine, making me feel like she was searching my face for some sign of what I was thinking. Hopefully, she didn’t find it, because I was currently thinking we had an hour before dinner and I could absolutely make her come for me two or three times in an hour. Hell, we’d still have time to clean up. And sex didn’t equal a relationship, anyway. So neither of us would even be breaking our little vows we’d made.

“We did,” I said carefully. “But this whole thing is pointless if people see through the act. So it’s in both our best interests to get comfortable with each other.” I lifted my hand and brushed her cheek. She flinched back, eyes twitching open wider for a moment. “Like that,” I said. “My girlfriend wouldn’t flinch from my touch. Try again.”

She stared up at me and gave the slightest nod.

I brought my hand to her cheek again and ran my fingertips down it. She let out a shuddering breath, head dipping along the path of my hand as her eyes closed. I was smiling when she opened them again, blinking fast like she’d just woken from a spell.

“See? Not so hard,” I said.

“That’s plenty of practice. I need to finish my makeup,”

She spoke quickly and practically rushed away from me. She went into the bathroom and pulled the door shut.

I grinned at the blurry shape of her behind the glass. For about the hundredth time in the last hour, I wondered what the hell I was doing. Honestly, I had no clue. I did know this was fun. It was a dance I’d never really danced–something between flirting and fighting. It was a game of chicken, and I wanted to find out which one of us was going to lose our nerve and pull away first. Or maybe neither of us would. Maybe we’d just wind up colliding head to head.

That was the beauty of it, I guessed. Either way, there’d be fireworks. And I’d always loved fireworks.

10

PEARL

The sound of chairs wood farting as they were being scooted in all over the large room was deafening. Just about every Pollard employee must’ve been here, and we were all taking up spots at little round tables in the hotel’s conference room. As far as rooms went, this one was impressive, with a seemingly endless expanse of windows leading right up to the a-frame ceiling, which was lined with smooth, pale logs. With the wildlife-themed furniture and images, it had a very cozy upscale lodge atmosphere.

I was making a point of studying it all because it saved me from having to look at my dinner guests.