For him, I’ll be the girl of his dreams. For him, I’ll be anything he needs.
A vacation in a tropical paradise should be exciting, but for Griffin, it’s a nightmare. He’s going to be there with all his old friends and all of them are going to make fun of him because, like always, he’s single.
I can change that for him. I can be the girl of his dreams. I can be on his arm and show them all that he’s a different kind of man.
And I get a vacation in paradise and that should be more than enough for me. But when I’m this close to him and I’m pretending to love him, I can’t help but realize what a catch he really is.
And every moment spent near him just makes it harder to ignore. To ignore the electric shiver beneath my skin when he touches me. To ignore the way my body aches for his attentions.
We’re not dating. We’re not in love. But the longer we play pretend the easier it is to believe the lie.
To believe that it’s true. To believe that it’s possible.
To believe that when he looks at me, he only sees the girl of his dreams.
Excerpt
“Have you ever done this before?” he asks me, leaning against the wall at the corner and staring at me while I pluck through my dresser and pick out what I’m going to wear tonight.
I know what he’s asking but where is the fun in giving him the right answer? Abandoning the dress I was starting to fancy I turned to him with a sly smile, “Pretending to date my ex-boss and current best friend while on vacation in a tropical paradise with all of his friends from back home and also posing as someone that I’m not on top of it? I’ve only done it once or twice before.”
“I’m serious,” he growls, “Tess, you know what I’m asking.”
And I want to know more. I want to know why he’s so comfortable using a name he didn’t know this morning. I want to know why he’s already making pet names for me. I want to know why, when he stares at me, there is such a fire behind his gaze and such a twitch in his fingertips.
“Once or twice,” I say softly, answering him, “Maybe a few times more than that.”
Been a woman. Changed myself on this level. Taken SWITCH.
Have I done that? That’s what he wants to know.
But the question on my end is why? Does his interest come from concern or is it something else? Something specific? Something that has far more to do with how well I flirt and whether there are other things I might be just as good at as well?
After all, everyone knows what everyone does on SWITCH. So does he want to be my first?
Would that be so bad?
“It’s dangerous,” he says cautiously to me, “You’re dealing with a lot now. A whole lot of emotions and chemicals firing in your brain. It can overwhelm a person.”
I take offense at it. Griffin knows who I am and knows that I’m not some delicate waif who needs to be protected. To think otherwise is frankly more than just an insult.
“This isn’t my first rodeo,” I say, stepping forward and closing the gap between us while my arms wrap around myself protectively and I jut out my chin with my best impression at defiance, “I know what I’m doing here and I know what I signed up for when I decided to be your date. You don’t have to worry about little old me, Grif.”
His jaw flexes, “I do though.”
“You shouldn’t,” I say, stepping in and pushing up close to him, “You don’t need to worry about a thing with me. I know how to act. I know what to say. And I know what to do. For them. For all those silly little boys that you call friends. For someone else too. For you.”
“What makes you think I want you flirting with my friends?” his eyes narrow as he snarls those words at me.
“I saw the way you looked at me, the way you acted around me. When you pulled me close I could feel how hard your heart was beating. I know you like it.
“What was it they said about you? You couldn’t get a girl. Well, now you have the girl they all want. All of them. The only question is what are you going to do about it?”
I meant with them. I swear it. I meant around them. I meant showing off to the guys. I meant teasing our way into breaking a few hearts.
Making them want me but know that they couldn’t have me. Challenging them to frustration and letting him win.
That’s what I meant.
What I didn’t mean was to challenge him to claim me in a wholly different way.