Faking it with Damian Black by Louise Jane

Now she’s babbling nonsense about her being mine for a show? There was an

undeniable attraction between us. Even a blind man would see it. She says one

thing, but her b*dy’s response to my touch says otherwise. She wanted me, so

what’s her

deal?

“I’m not a property you can own because we’re fake dating, Darmian.” Her

statement stabbed a hot knife in my chest, knockingback to my senses. She

shook her head and pushedaway with little force. I let her because now I

realize where this resistance was coming from. “I made a mistake in New York.

This relationship was only meant to save us both from our crazy exes. And I

don’t want to jump into another relationship that would surely endwith a

broken heart.

again.

For the second time, she slammed the door in my face, but this time, I knew I

deserved that.

“I’m a little hurt that you didn’t chere just to see my awesomeness,” Charlie

chuckled, handinga bottle of beer.

He askedto cover and look at this BMW R18 a neighbor was selling to

him. The bike was in good condition. Charlie mentioned something about his

friend moving to Canada or something: I actually zoned out the entire time.

I couldn’t keep things to myself anymore. After leaving Millicent’s place, I drove

around town without a destination in mind. My head felt like it would explode

from my confiicting thoughts, I wanted to make things right with Millicent, but I

also knew she was doing the right thing by keepingat arm’s length.

I don’t know when it happened, but my attraction to Millicent becso

compelling. It was easy to forget what she was toand my family when my dic

k was taking the wheels.

Then Charlie invitedfor a beer for the second tthis week. So here I am.

Charlie can be trusted: 1 just hope he doesn’t spill my secret to Madeline. That

girl was like a trigger bomb. One fiick, and she’d spill her guts without

hesitation.

“I’d f ucking kill you if this gets out,” I groaned, lifting the beer to my l*ps.

|||

O

Sat, Feb

Chapter 33

Even though he could afford to buy a place in the city, Charle chose to stay in

his childhood home. His bad made this house of wood, bricks, and glass from

scratch A legacy Charlie inherited along with their family futur lainess when las

dad died. His mom wanted to sell everything his father had built, but he refused

to

He’d added a few improvements to the place on the back of the house, a

platform now stretched towards the lake, cradling the furniture Charlie carved

himself in his spare time, Outdoor Chairs, tables, and a concrete fire pit. Cinder

danced up into the air as Charlie fed wood into the burning coal.

“Not if Maddie asks He plonked on the chair beside me, close enough so I could

slam my list on his shoulder.

His laugh was gleeful. The guy loved to givesh it, seeing how miserable Lam

“Your secret is safe with me, 1” He shook his head, lifting a foot iver his knee. “I

know Sonja That chick is f ucking dime

Apart from Millicent, Charlie now knows my f ucked up past with Sonja. My

friends can be brutally honest, but I know they’d have my back in whatever

situation I get myself into without judgment. I was the problem. Even to this

date, I still blmyself for falling into Sonja’s trap.

“Guess there’s no judging the book by its cover, huh?” He thrusted a steel stick

onto the fire, allowing air into the fiame.

“I f ucked up, that is,” I stared deep into the slowly growing filicking

upwards towards the darkened sky.

“You made a mistake” Charlie said over the noise of the insects from the trees

bordering the lake. It was so peaceful here! could hear my own thoughts.

“What’s important is you making a move to get out of that situation and make

things right.”

“By making another mistake, man” I couldn’t recognize the pessimist guy that’s

speaking. Dad taughtto look at the bright side of every situation. Up to this

day, that’s one lesson I still apply at work and in life, except for this situation

with Millicent. I don’t know how to navigate a fake relationship:

“Maybe,” Charlie murmured, sipping his beer. “But what do you really want to

happen right now, D I can see you are

confiicted

Confiicted would be an understatement. Lost is the right word. “I don’t f ucking

know, man. I thought we had an understanding. Then she suddenly put her

walls back up again.”

“Which was supposed to be there in the first place, right?” he stated. “You chose

Millicent because you’re sure she will not ask for more than what you put in

your contract. And she’s living up to that. So what was your deal?”

Med it.

why

Speaking in front of people was nothing new to me, but I never talked about

what I felt. Business, I could handle, but feelings? They’re an unknown territory

to me. The first tI said what I felt and gave my heart to Sonja,, hurled it on

the ground, and then crushed it with her heels. And what Charlie said was the

plain and simp am 1 so pis sed that Millicent repainted the lines we crossed in

New York? She coated it in a bright yellow setting us right back on track on this

fake engagement.

I stared into the fire, waiting for a piece of paper to appear magically from thin

air, bearing the answer to m

Charlie sighed heavily, uncrossing his legs. He rested his elbows on top of his

knees, clasping his hands togeth the epitof a psyche doctor trying to

persuade his patient to open up. “I think I know what’s going on, but infiuence

your thoughts.”

I lift my gaze from the fire, pinning him with furrowed brows,

“You said you loved Sonja?”

The crease between my brows deepened.

“How did you know you loved her?” he asked.

I growled. “What kind of f ucking question is that?”

Charlie pushed up his eyeglasses and shook his head “Just answer the f ucking

question, man. You’ve been with her in college, then got back together years

after separation What makes you think you love her?”

။

09:27 Sat, Feb 10

Chapter 33

This was starting to sound like a cross-examination. Charlie had units in law

before his father died, and he had to stop school and focus on their family

business. His childhood dream was to beca lawyer, and it’s still

manifesting.

“Con, man, indulge me. You chere for a reason, and don’t tellit’s

because I invited you for a beer. You’ve turneddown the first five times,” he

belched out, sounding amused more than hurt.

Groaning, I leaned back in my seat and stared at the star-filled sky, mulling over

his question. “I want to see her all the f ucking time. I breathe into the air. “She

was constantly in my head.”

“Why?” Charlic pressed.

27%2

“I don’t know, man. I can’t stop thinking about how f ucking hot she was. And no

woman could get my d ick as hard as she could.”

“And now?”

I made an exasperated sound under my throat, glaring at Charlie. His eyes show

no judgment whatsoever, only curiosity.

“Now?”

“Do you still think about her?”

I stopped glaring at Charlie, now a hundred percent focused on his questions.

These past months, the only tSonja crossed my mind was when I saw her in

Roslin City. I stopped thinking and dreaming about her when Millicent stepped

into my life.

A slow smile stretched Charlie’s l*p when I kept silent. “What you feel for Sonja

isn’t love, man. That’s lust.”

I would argue with Charlie if he wasn’t in an eight-year relationship with

Madeline. He earned the right to pronounce the difference between love and

lust and other feelings in general. If it isn’t love that made him loyal to one girl

that long. I don’t know what could.

“You’re right about one thing; you can’t stop thinking about her, but not only

about how hot she is. But because you wonder what the f uck she’s doing when

she’s not with you. You constantly worry if she’d eaten, took her med at the

right time, or if she needs help in reaching something from the top shelf,” he

chuckled, a memory crossing his face.

Madeline was a foot and a half shorter than Charlie. He probably worries about

her having trouble reaching for things.

“You want

do everything with her, shopping, groceries, walking in the park, watching a

cheesy romantic movie that makes her smile, cook for her, give her cuddles at

night – even without making love you’d be f ucking glad just to be sleeping

beside her.”

My heart trashed wildly inside its cage. Was it even possible that I don’t really

know what love is?

“Love is that st upid little thing that makes your heart pound just seeing her

smile, D”

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