The Pretend Boyfriend novel Chapter 8

But he doesn't. He doesn't because his tongue is still frozen to the roof of his mouth and his vocal chords are locked.

Caleb breaks the awkward silence.

He grins as he says, "I guess we've found our lucky girl."

It's an extremely awkward situation.

Brian Morton and Caleb Carr are seated across Cassie and herself in an all-night diner. Sam is unable to take her eyes off Brian.

When she had stomped into the poker room, her eyes had been riveted to the handsomest man in the room. Actually, he is one of the best-looking men she has ever seen. He's not conventionally pretty. His brown eyes are large and deep-set, and they blaze with a confidence far beyond his obvious youthfulness. His nose is rough-hewn and broad, like a blade in the middle of his sculptured face. His mouth is wide and generous and extremely sensual.

The entire ensemble serves to make him extremely arresting. He radiates an aura of ruthless intensity. A devil-may-care, 'fuck the world and I don't care what people think of me' attitude. He is the type of man who walks into a room, and every single head would be averted to watch him.

Damn. Now she can't take her eyes off him.

But how did he get to be so damned gorgeous? She remembers him as that heavyset kid. He was definitely overweight then. But now ... his body under that leather jacket suggests hours of toning at the gym.

His hair. She loves his dark hair, especially when hers is so unmanageable. How does he get it that voluminously floppy over his forehead?

Looks aside, she reminds herself that he is still the bully who made her cry more than once in the privacy of the second floor girls' bathroom.

I should hate his guts.

He doesn't look too pleased to be here either. And the story Caleb is feeding her is too incredible.

"So he lost his bet to you?" Cassie says, her eyes gleaming. "And he gets to be her slave for a whole weekend?"

"I call it Atonement 101." The smirk has not left Caleb's face all night. Sam remembers him all right. He hasn't changed all that much compared to Brian. Caleb is dark-haired and terribly cute in a boy-next-door way. He was nice in middle school ... sorta. When he wasn't standing around and looking on like a dodo while Brian was up to his tricks. Still, kids go through all sorts of weird issues at that age. God knows she did.

Brian crosses his eyes. He has a caustic sardonic attitude to everything, even when he's commenting on the weather - which has taken on a tint of Arctic. But on him, it comes off as highly sexual. Everything about him is highly sexual, even though he doesn't seem to be putting any effort into it.

"OK, OK," he says, "no need to make such a big deal. You'd think I lost the Alamo by the way you're going about it."

"It is a big deal," Caleb insists. He turns to Sam. "So ... what are your plans for the weekend?"

"You don't have a boyfriend," Brian states.

The way he says it puts a flush into her cheeks. You don't have a boyfriend ... and you want me to be your showcase boyfriend for the weekend. He gets it immediately, she can tell. He's a smart cookie.

She says in a lofty tone, "Well, I'm between boyfriends right now ... and it's not required that I bring someone. But I suppose it won't hurt."

Oh crap. The way she said it was so lame. She sounded positively desperate. Can he see through that? Can he tell?

The side of Brian's sensual mouth curls up.

"No, I suppose it won't hurt," he drawls.

Smug and sanctimonious bastard. Her eyes narrow. Is she reading too much into everything he says? It's just that they had such an awful history together. If her wounds didn't still chafe at the weight of her pre-pubertal experiences, she wouldn't be feeling this way.

It's like Pride and Prejudice. One chance remark, and she'll hate him forever. Or in this case, there had been plenty of off-putting remarks. Too many to count. Caleb is fine. She doesn't have too many bad memories of Caleb, other than he stood there while Brian did the dirty to everyone.