Page 85 of Tempting the Player
“Because you’re hurt,” she said, taking off her glasses. “I can tell. It’s in your eyes. So I imagine something happened. And we planned to call this off after New Year’s. And that is still a few days away.”
Bridget couldn’t even believe she was considering telling her the truth, but she sat down, shaking her head slowly. “I’m in love with him.”
Miss Gore sat back.
“And I think… Well, I thought he felt the same way.” Tears crawled up her throat. “But I screwed up. I told him the truth.”
“The truth about what?” she asked. “The student loans? Look, I know that’s a sore spot with you, obviously, but it’s not that big of a deal. I doubt Chad—“
“No.” Bridget sighed. “I told him why I agreed to do this.”
Miss Gore paled. “Oh, dear…”
“I told him that I hadn’t wanted to and that you basically blackmailed me.” She pursed her lips. “By the way, don’t think I’m not still pissed off by that. I am.”
She nodded. “Understandable. And he was mad?”
“Mad?” Bridget let out a short, humorless laugh that just sounded really sad. “He was beyond pissed. He walked right out.”
Miss Gore raised one brow. “Well, I imagine it doesn’t do wonders for a man’s ego, especially one of his size, to hear a woman agreed to be his girlfriend because she was blackmailed. Have you tried calling him?”
Pressing her lips together, Bridget nodded. The ball of ugh was in her throat and going nowhere. “I’ve called. I’ve texted. He hasn’t responded.”
Her brows puckered. Several moments passed. “I do believe he’s developed strong feelings for you—possibly even love.”
Bridget scowled. “What part of the conversation do you not understand? He left. He doesn’t want to see me. That’s not love.”
The publicist smiled. “The only reason why he’d be mad is because he has feelings. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t have cared. The fact that he is upset proves that he has feelings.” She leaned forward, patting her hand. Bridget jerked back, but Miss Gore was nonplussed. “This is good—great. I couldn’t have dared to hope for a real relationship to come out of this, but this is perfect. People will be clamoring to hire me.”
“You’re insane,” Bridget said, staring at her.
“No. You just wait and see. He’ll come around.” She stood, smiling like she just had the best year at work. “You know, I was starting to suspect something.” She clapped her hands together. “You will end up thanking me for this.”
Bridget’s mouth dropped open. “Get out of my apartment.”
“I’m serious.” She picked up her purse. “In the end, you’ll invite me to the wedding, and you’ll thank me in the toast.”
In total shock, Bridget did the same thing she had done the first time Miss Gore visited her apartment.
Bridget flipped her off.
With both hands.
…
Chad was in a funk or, how his brothers put it, PMSing. He hadn’t told them what went down between him and Bridget. It wasn’t any of their business.
His feet pounded on the treadmill. He’d been running for the last hour. Sweat poured from him. Every night since he discovered the truth behind why Bridget had readily agreed to be his pretend girlfriend, he’d spent more hours on the treadmill than he cared to count.
Muscles burned an unholy fire, but it was better than the cold cavern in his chest. It was better than sitting in front of the TV not really paying attention to the screen. And it was far better than lying in bed staring at his ceiling, wondering how in the fuck he had misjudged Bridget so badly.
He slowed down and then smacked the stop button. He got off the treadmill and ripped the towel from the arm and started mopping up his sweat.
Then again, how fucking stupid was he that he really thought she’d go along with this just because of who he was? Even he could admit that his ego had surpassed all of his brothers’ combined—and his father’s.
Maybe he could one day understand why she did it, but he could never get past it. Not when his father did shit like that, buying his “girlfriends” jewels, cars, paying off debt, and furnishing their apartments while his mother doped herself into an early grave.
And what the hell was he thinking, anyway? Him in a relationship—one that had started off by two people pretending to be in love? Shit, he was worse than his father when it came to his track record with women.
