Vengeance Pact

Chapter Two

Ryan

Her pretty face scrunches up with confusion and what I figure could be anger. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

I hold a hand up, placating. “Hold up Tee, I –”

“Ryan I-is this your idea of a joke?”

“A joke? Whoa,” I give her a lopsided smile, “y’know people would pay good money to be with me yeah?”

She stares at me squarely, a brow arching with a small shake of her head.

My smile drops. “Yeah I probably shouldn’t have said that. Listen Tee, you don’t have to do it if you don’t want to.”

“I don’t w—”

“But I really want you to.”

“What – why would you want me to, Ryan? Why would I even want to date you? You’re with my sister.”

“Not anymore. I was with your sister.”

She shrugs. “Potatoe Potato. Everyone knows y’all still hook up.”

“Tee—”

“Y’all are still into each other, obviously, there’s no way in hell, I’m getting into that. Ciara loves you.”

“That’s kinda my whole point.”

She stares at me for a beat. And then it hit her. She gasps, “Oh my God.”

I try again. “Tee—”

“You want me to fake date you?”

She says it like it’s the worst thing after the fucking civil war. “Just for a week.”

“A whole week?”

“Yeah till the wedding’s over.”

She walks past me to her bedroom and I follow meekly. “What’s going on Ryan.”

She doesn’t look straight at me but I know from the sound of her voice that she’s worried. I step further into the room taking in all the dresses on the bed and the shape of her from behind. She is still slender, though a far cry from the skinny freshman I knew in college, but damn there’s nothing skinny about that ass. The right kind of curvy and plump, accentuating her hips and—

She turns sharply to look at me and catches the look on my face that all too well tells her where my eyes have been. Colour seeps into her cheeks and she looks away. “I’m not going to do it Ryan. For whatever reason, I’m not going to be your…” she searches for the right word, “back up plan.”

“Backup plan?” Has she seen herself in the mirror lately?

“Yes. That’s exactly what this is. You can’t get Ciara so you want to use me to make her jealous?”

“Partially yeah.”

“Partially?”

“Yeah.” She can’t know the other reason. Even I don’t know the other reason. Not yet at least.

“What’s the whole point of this, Ryan? She’s getting married for fuck’s sake let her go.”

“It’s not about getting her back, Tee, it’s about… getting her back.”

She looks at me like I’ve lost it. “What?”

“Getting back at her. She cheated on me, Tee, and my reputation… well you know.” She must’ve obviously seen how the media dragged the scandal when she was found with an almost seventy-year old billionaire right after we were seen together at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. It was a blow to me, to my reputation, to my company and that wasn’t even all.

“Yeah right, Ryan, you and your fucked up ego. Like I said, y’all still hookup, I’m not getting into that.”

She is standing on the edge of her bed, facing me and momentarily my eyes drop to the points of her nipples pushing through her small top. I shake my head and prop myself on her messy bed. “We hooked up,” I correct her. “One time. And we were both drunk.”

“How recent was that?”

My eyes drift down to her nipples one more time. For fucks sake I’m acting like a freaking pervert. “A few months ago.”

She catches my wayward stare again and moves to stare out the window with her back to me. She grabs her chestnut hair in one hand and snaps a light band over it to keep it away from her face.

I don’t know why I find that sexy.

“I don’t know about that, Ryan,” she picks up a dress from a small couch and starts folding it over, “Listen, it’s really hard saying no to you—”

“Then don’t.”

“But I’ve gotta.” She turns to look me squarely in my eye, her jaw twitching, “This is Ciara we’re talking about and I don’t need all that attention and hate.”

I return her stare with mine until she blinks and drops her eyelids. “But you do, Tiara.”

“What?”

“You want all the attention.” Standing, I pick up a dress from her bed, and dump it back down. From the looks of it, she’s searching for the right outfit for the wedding and I’ve been complimented more than once for my fashion sense. It was one of the things Ciara loved about me.

“I don’t.”

“You’ve always wanted all the attention, Tee.”

She folds the dress with extra energy, her nostrils flaring slightly. “Now you’re confusing me with Ciara.”

“No one can confuse you with Ciara, Tee.”

She gasps softly drawing my gaze back to her face. I don’t mean it the way she thinks. Ciara is blonde and she is brunette. Ciara is slender in a super-model kinda way and she – used to be skinny – but now she is slender in a hot-as-fuck, I’m-made-to-make-you-want-to-come-all-over-my-face kinda way. No one could confuse that sensuous body with Ciara’s.

But the look on her face says she thinks otherwise. “How dare you, Ryan.”

“I don’t m—”

“I’m sorry I can’t compare to your girlfriend any more than the moon can compare to the fucking sun but you should’ve known that when you showed up on my doorstep.”

“You’ve got some real inferiority complex going bad for you, Tee.”

She points at the door. “And you’ve gotta get out, Ryan.”

I walk to her in two quick strides and grab her elbow so that she is flushed against me. I look down at her, hard. “You want the attention, Tee,” my voice has gone hard too, “you’ve always wanted it. I’m here to give it to you.”

“Ryan,” she whispers, her voice is soft, all traces of anger vanished.

I gaze at her pink face and almost immediately feel her perked up nipples against my chest through my shirt. Suddenly my voice isn’t the only thing that is getting hard.

I step back from her, and she looks away from me. “We both want things. I want to get back at Ciara and you want the attention. We can give each other those things.”

She shakes her head but before she can say anything I continue speaking.

“All those years of being in the shadows. All those years of being the second best. All those years of being invisible, Tee, I’m offering you a chance, not only to share the spotlight, but to take it and to be the spotlight. To be the center of attraction. To get back at Ciara. And what better way of doing that than with someone she used to love? At her own wedding?”

“Where she is supposed to be the spotlight,” she nods slowly.

Seeing an opening, I press on. “She has been the spotlight your whole life, Tee, you can convince yourself otherwise but I know you want a slice of it. Just one week. Then you can go back into your hiding hole. This might turn out to be a great thing for you. Think of what it’ll do for your studio?”

She gapes at me. Of course she doesn’t know I know of her business activities. Last year, she started a photography line which according to sources hasn’t been going… well.

She walks away from me back to the bed, hugging herself slightly. “I don’t know, Ryan.”

“You only have to say yes.”

She looks up at me, her expression vulnerable. “If only it’s as easy as you say.”

“It could be.”

“Ryan—”

“Think about it Tee.”

She looks up at me. “Just one week?”

“One week. Just one week, Tee. And I’ll let you go. I promise.”

She sighs and sits on the bed. “Oh the drama,” her lips quirk a little as she warms to the idea, “she’ll be so fucking mad. Mom too,” she chuckles a little, “oh Ryan, you’ve always been nothing but trouble.”

She smiles as she says the words, then she stands and extends a hand. “Fine, Ryan Shelby. I’ll be your fake girlfriend for one week. For both our benefits.”

I take her soft palm in mine and shake firmly. “Mutual benefits.”

She smiles at me and I hold her gaze because mine is threatening to drop down to her nipples again. I let go of her hand. “I’ll pick you up two days from now. I hope you don’t change your mind before then.”