Page 5 of Bribed by the Billionaire Bad Boy

—would I help a petty thief?

Thatis the line.

Lex says, “—haven’t you auditioned for anything before?”

Mr. D’plume claps, shaking me from a scene painted in night and crystal. I blink back into terror and shame, finding him, then Agatha’s incredulous fury, then the gaping mouths and wide eyes of half the classroom.

Red races to my cheeks, and I’m going to be sick.

Covering my mouth to keep the bile down, I barely have a moment to register just how perfectly Lex has managed to recite a script I know he only received thirty minutes ago, just like the rest of the class.

“I think we’ve found our Harriet,” Mr. D’plume states.

“What?” Agatha voices my question for me, her head whipping around to pin Mr. D’plume.

A rare smile lifts one corner of the professor’s mouth, and he pays Agatha no mind as he addresses Lex. “You might need to work on your lines a bit more. You messed up a bit at the endthere.”

Lex snorts, rubbing the back of his neck. “What can I say? Harriet has a way of making Kenneth do stupid things.”

There is no way he possibly could have concluded that and memorized all this in the thirty minutes since we got our scripts. Then again, showing off like this is nothing new for him. I’ve never been quite this close to the man before. Normally, I’m sitting in my seat, watching him make a fool of himself at the front of the room.

What possessed him to drag me into this?

And why did I play along?

After all,I’mnot supposed to know this script either.

“It’s clear you two bring out something unique in each other. I wonder if it will last through auditions.” Mr. D’plume doesn’t waste a moment in reading off the details about our auditions, and I don’t waste a moment sliding back into my seat.

Lex wastes absolutely every moment as he remains standing in front of my desk and blocking my view of the board. When our professor is done providing the information he feels we need to audition, he tells everyone to get on our way, but Lex still hasn’t moved.

I try to pack up normally and “get on my way,” but the man faces me, and the challenge still hasn’t left his eyes. “We’re doing that again at auditions,” he states.

I could choke. My head is already shaking as I pack my script up into a folder and tuck it in my bag. “Absolutely not.”

“You’re right. It will be a different scene.”

My face burns, but I force myself to stand and look up at this guy. The top of my head just barely manages to reach his chin. “I don’tact.”

“You’re inacting,” he states, expression unchanged.

“I am not. I’m intheater.Youclearly are the one inacting.”

A brow lifts. “There’s acting in theater.”

“There’sa lotof things in theater. Like, sounds and lights. Which is what I normally do. Because no one wants me to touch a paintbrush for the backgrounds. Trust me.”

“Okay, I will.”

I flinch as he drags another line from the script out of nowhere, and I have half a mind to snarl at him just like Harriet would. Instead, I push past and try to sort through the panic in my head. With any luck, I’ll still be just as invisible as I was before this mess. With any luck, no one will speak a word about it to me. With any—

Lex follows me after snatching his things, his gait keeping easy pace with mine even though it feels like I’m half running. “We’re auditioning together.”

“No, we aren’t.”

“We are.”

“You are just as insufferable as the rumors say.” Though the rumors also state he doesn’t bother much with people, and I had thoughtIwas a people.