“Xavier can be a bit of an ass, sometimes.” Tarquin grinned at me again. “Don’t mind him.”

“Haha, I try not to anymore.”

“Really?” Xavier moved closer to me. “Is that so, Lola?” His hand moved back up my thigh and slipped inside of my leg. The movement made me jump and he laughed. “Are you okay, my dear?”

“Stop calling me that.” I hissed at him and I saw Tarquin looking away with a smile.

“What else did my mother say, Tarq?” Xavier ignored me and put his arm around my shoulder. “And did father say anything?”

“Uncle James just laughed.” Tarquin grinned. “That didn’t make Aunt Henrietta very happy.”

“She’s still in shock I suppose.”

“I thought you were never getting married.”

“I’m not.” Xavier snapped at his cousin and then realized his mistake. “I mean I never thought I was going to, until I met Lola. She took my breath away when I saw her. It was only when I saw her that I realized what I was missing out on.”

I watched him talking and for a few seconds, I almost believed it was real. For a few seconds, I stared at his profile and thought all my dreams had really come true. Maybe he really did love me. Maybe I was the one he’d always wanted. Yeah, Lola and maybe pigs fly. I chided myself silently.

“Once he saw me, he knew he had to have me.” I spoke up and smiled sweetly at Xavier. “He knew that I was the one he wanted to marry.” I reached over and grabbed his arm. “And we’re going to go and get me a nice big ring tomorrow aren’t we?” I almost burst out laughing as his eyes narrowed at me. Take that, Xavier. Two can play your game.

“Sure, right after we get the toys.”

“What toys?” Was he seriously going to talk about board games now?

“Oh you know, the toys that will make your orgasms even more powerful.” He grinned and grabbed my hand so that I couldn’t remove it. “And maybe something that will make that other thing more attractive to you.”

“What other thing?” I whispered, embarrassed that Tarquin was listening to us talk about sex. Had Xavier no shame?

“You know, the back—”

“Xavier.” I cried out loudly. “Enough.” I looked at Tarquin surreptitiously to see if he had figured out what Xavier had been about to say. My face was burning a bright red. I was pretty sure that if cars could see it, they would think it was a stop sign.

“Yes, my dear.” Xavier leaned back and ran his hands through his hair. “Just wanted to make sure you were still excited.”

“I’m not excited.” I leaned over and whispered in his ear. “We need to talk when you’re ready. And when I say ‘when you’re ready’, I mean as soon as we’re in private. I’m not about to just sit here and —”

“Oh Lola.” He turned his head, grabbed my face and kissed me hard. His lips pressed down onto mine, shutting me up as his tongue entered my mouth. I sucked on it eagerly as if I’d been in some sort of drought. His fingers made their way into my hair and he massaged my scalp as he sucked on my tongue. My body reacted swiftly and I felt myself relaxing as feelings of passion overwhelmed me.

“Get a room you two.” Tarquin’s laugh brought me back to reality and I pulled back from Xavier, feeling slightly ashamed.

“I’m sorry.” I turned to him with a red face. “I forgot you were there.”

“It’s fine.” He shrugged, good-naturedly. “It happens to me all the time.”

“Oh.” I bit my lower lip, wanting him to clarify his response. Did it happen to him all the time generally? Or did it happen all the time, when he was with Xavier? Did Xavier have a habit of making out with women when he was around? Not that I doubted that was true, but it made me feel incredibly sad and jealous. It was hard being the fake-fiancée of a handsome bachelor.

“So what do you do, Lola? Are you excited to be in Romerius? Are you excited to meet Xavier’s parents? What did your parents think of your engagement to Xavier? Did they think it was fast? Did they—”

“Enough, Tarquin.” Xavier’s voice was authoritative. “That’s enough. You can ask Lola more questions tomorrow.”

“Or in a week.” I said sweetly, while wondering how in the hell we were going to extricate ourselves from this fake engagement in one week. I could already see the look of disappointment on Tarquin’s face when we ‘broke up’. I really wasn’t sure why Xavier was having us go along with this plan. It made no sense. I know he’d said he was doing this to help me from ruining my reputation with the tabloids, but I didn’t really care what they had to say. It seemed like a huge over-exaggeration and I was slightly worried that a week with Xavier was going to be too much for me. Playing his fiancée would make everything seem real and I wasn’t sure that was such a good idea. Anna would go crazy of course. She’d be excited for me and then she’d panic. Part of me wondered what Sebastian was thinking. He’d think it was weird, I’m sure. He didn’t know that I knew his brother before the class and he knew that I couldn’t stand Xavier. We both joked about how pompous he was and what an arrogant jerk he could be. He’d think I’d gone crazy. I cringed as I realized that he might think I was some sort of gold digger. That made me feel sad. I really hoped he realized that there was more to the story than he knew.