Page 155 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 11

Saturday

I ran out of the kitchen. The only people in the hallway were just the students making out. I was a little surprised my dad wasn’t out here yelling at them. I ran back into the ballroom. The darkness of the room and the blaring music were disorienting.

For my whole life, all I wanted was Axel.

And more recently, all I’d wanted was to unmask my kiss thief.

But none of that mattered.

Axel would never love me back.

And I didn’t want to be with the kiss thief. I deserved more than someone who only wanted me in a dark room. I wanted to be loved out loud, like Jacob kept telling me I deserved.

He was who I wanted.

I pulled Axel’s crown off my head.

I wanted to be loved by Jacob. And I just hoped I wasn’t too late.

My eyes finally adjusted to the darkness. But I didn’t see Jacob anywhere. I pushed my way through the crowd on the dance floor. But Jacob was nowhere in sight.

I sighed and walked over to the bar.

My mom was standing behind it now. “Are you having fun?!” she yelled over the music.

I forced a smile to my face. “Mhm.”

“Here, make sure you stay hydrated.” She handed me a water bottle.

I really didn’t need any more vodka. “Mom?”

“Yes?”

“Have you seen Jacob?”

She shook her head.

I’d found my confidence for literally one second. And just like that, I’d lost it again. I looked down at Axel’s crown in my hand. Jacob had probably left. With Olivia. He was probably doing things with her like he’d practiced with me. I started blinking fast.

“I saw you dancing with Axel earlier,” my mom said.

I sniffed. “Yeah.” I didn’t see Axel anywhere either. He was probably in a hotel room with a Triple G. I’d had everything right before. I should have left earlier. “Do you mind holding this?” I thrust Axel’s crown into her hands.

“It looked good on you,” she said.

“Thanks, Mom. But I’m a little old to play Pretty Pretty Princess.”

She gave me a sad smile.

I’d hit a new low. Even my mom pitied me. “I’m going to go find Soph.”

“I think I saw her dancing,” my mom said. “There she is. Oh my.”

I turned to see Soph grinding against Eli.

At least someone was having a good time. I weaved my way through the dance floor. “Sophie!” I yelled over the music.

She flipped her hair up, turned around, and whispered something to Eli. And then she hurried over to me. “Has your kiss thief struck yet?”

I really didn’t want to talk about this right now. “Have you seen Jacob?”

She winced.

“What?”

She pointed over my shoulder.

I turned around and saw Jacob dancing with Olivia across the dance floor. Olivia was bent over just like Sophie had been a moment ago. Her ass pressed against Jacob and his hands on her hips.

He locked eyes with me.

I quickly spun around and my cheeks puffed up. “I think I’m going to be sick.”

“Take a deep breath.” Sophie put her hands on my shoulders.

“Sophie, I...”

“Deep breaths.”

I followed her instructions and felt tears welling in the corners of my eyes. “I think I love him.”

“I knew it!”

“Then why didn’t you tell me?!”

She laughed. “Scar, I did try to tell you. Several times.”

I groaned. Yeah, she had. “I took forever to realize it. I messed everything up. And now it’s too late...”

“It’s never too late to tell someone the truth, Scar.”

“He loves Olivia.”

She rolled her eyes. “It’s much more likely that my little brother loves Olivia. Speaking of RJ...have you seen him?”

I shook my head.

“It was Liam’s turn to have eyes on you. But I don’t see him anywhere either. I’m going to kill both of them. The kiss thief hasn’t struck yet, has he?”

Or course Operation All Eyes on Baby Doll had failed. That was just the kind of night I was having.

No.

I wasn’t going to let this homecoming suck as much as all the others. I could still turn this around. I just needed to tell Jacob the truth. My stomach churned. “Sophie, I need to get Jacob alone.”

“On it.” She stepped toward them but then turned around. “Good luck, Scar.” She pulled me into a hug. “I’m so proud of you. Best homecoming ever! Team Jacob!” She released me from my hug and went right up to Jacob and Olivia.

I wasn’t sure if she said anything at all, but she grabbed Olivia’s arm and pulled her off of Jacob and started dancing with her.

Luckily Olivia just laughed and kept dancing.

Jacob’s eyes met mine across the room.

I knew he thought I’d lost my confidence. After years of wearing thick glasses and not being allowed to wear contacts. And wearing an ill-fitting uniform to school. And letting Axel constantly stomp on my heart.

But somewhere deep down, I was still that same little girl he’d fallen for when he moved to New York. I stood up a little straighter and took a deep breath. I was still me.

I walked across the dance floor toward him.

And he started walking too.

We met in the middle and I stared up at him. The stars on the ceiling above his head shone extra bright.

“May I have this dance?” I asked.

“I thought you’d never ask.” He smiled and put his hand out for me.

I slid my hand into his and he pulled me in close. The music was fast paced, but we just swayed slowly.

“Jacob, I...”

“Scarlett...” he said at the exact same time.

We both laughed.

“You first,” he said.

This was my chance. The moment I’d been waiting for. I took a deep breath. I was wearing contacts. And the most beautiful dress I’d ever seen. If I was ever going to be confident again, this was the moment.

“You were right,” I said.

“About?”

“Everything, really.”

One of his hands fell from my hip and he tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear. “Anything in particular?”

“I lost my confidence. But I think you helped me find it again. I deserve to be loved out loud.”

“You do, Scarlett.”

He didn’t say that he’d be that person. He just stared at me.

And I already knew how he felt. But I owed him the truth. “Operation Too Hot to Handle is over.”

“So...it worked? I saw you and Axel dancing earlier.”

“No, it didn’t work. And I’m glad it didn’t.”

Jacob raised his eyebrows.

“I’m not in love with Axel. I think maybe I was just in love with the idea of him. The way we used to be. When we were like...five.” I laughed awkwardly. “Axel and I are never going to happen.”

“I’m sorry,” Jacob said.

“I’m not. I’m just sorry it took me so long to wake up.”

Jacob nodded. “You deserve the world, Scarlett.”

I stared at him. Again, he didn’t put himself into his declaration. He wasn’t the one who’d give me the world. And maybe I just needed to take it myself. “And the kiss thief...well...that’s done too. I don’t care who it is. I don’t care about any of it.”

“Really? I find that hard to believe. What about Operation All Eyes on Baby Doll?”

“Done. Just like Operation Too Hot to Handle. I’m done wasting time on a drifter.”

Jacob laughed. “It probably isn’t a drifter.”

“Maybe. But I don’t care.” I stared at him. It didn’t seem like my kiss thief was him. And truly, I didn’t care who it was.

“Why the sudden change of heart?” he asked.

“Because I realized something important.”

“And what is that?”

I took a deep breath. “That I don’t want my fake boyfriend to be fake anymore.

That I want it to be real.” There. I’d said it.

God, the truth felt so good to get off my chest. But his silence did not feel nearly as good.

Shit. “I know you like Olivia. Obviously. She’s gorgeous.

And I mean...I get it.” I gestured to my chest. RJ said my breasts were great, but what did he know.

He was my cousin. And Olivia was obviously very well endowed there.

“I probably shouldn’t have even said anything,” I added.

“I want you to be happy. And you two make a very cute couple. Like...the picture perfect high school sweethearts, really. I just wanted you to know how I felt. And I know it took me too long. And that you obviously don’t feel the same way.

Obviously. Because you’re not saying anything.

And you already told me you didn’t like me anymore.

So...” my voice trailed off. I wished my dad would cause a scene right about now.

How had he not discovered the spiked water bottles yet?

Jacob smiled down at me. Like he was holding back laughter at my confession.

God, couldn’t someone come kill me? “I’m sorry,” I said.

“I shouldn’t have just word vomited all over you.

You like Olivia. I get it. I know you don’t like me.

You laughed at our first kiss. You were just doing me a solid by fake dating me.

Because we’re friends. And we’ll always be friends.

God, I hope we’ll still be friends after this confession.

Can we just pretend I didn’t say I was in love with you?

” My eyes grew round. What the hell did I just say?

In all the words that had fallen out of my mouth, “I love you” hadn’t been one of them until two seconds ago. Screw me.

“Took you long enough.”

“What?”

“Scarlett.” He pulled me in a little closer. “I haven’t been faking any of this.”

“What?” I said again.

“You put me in a tough spot after you totally freaked out after our first kiss...”

“Because you laughed at me!”

He smiled. “Yes, it was a bad kiss...”

“And you laughed at our second kiss too.”

“Of course it was going to be awkward at first. We’ve been friends our whole lives. But I could tell you were freaking out about it. I knew we just needed to give it more time. So...I came up with the fake dating thing. So we could ease into it.”

I just stared at him.

“How could you possibly think that any of this was fake?” he asked.

“Because you said it was!”

He silenced me with a kiss.

A kiss that wasn’t at all awkward. Because it hadn’t been awkward in a long time.

He slowly pulled back. “Nothing about this was ever fake to me.”

“But you said you didn’t like me anymore.”

“Well...I lied.” He shrugged.

“You’re an asshole.”

He laughed. “So you’re in love with an asshole?”

“I never said I was in love with you.”

“You kind of did though.”

“I’m drunk,” I said.

He smiled. “I don’t think you’re drunk.”

I slowly shook my head. “You’re right. I’m not.” But I wasn’t ready to say those words again right now. “Wait, what about Olivia?”

“What about her?”

“You seemed so excited that she was in our limo. And you told her we were fake dating. And you danced with her during the couples’ dance. And she was bent over grinding on you just a minute ago.”

“I could tell you were jealous of her, so I thought I could use that to my advantage.”

“Psh.”

He smiled. “So I asked her to come over and interrupt us and say all that. You’ve been torturing me all night, Scarlett.

Dancing with everyone but me. I couldn’t wait any longer for you to wake up.

So I used my own Operation Too Hot to Handle against you.

” He frowned. “That sounded weird. But you were trying to make Axel jealous. So I decided to make you jealous instead.”

“So you don’t like Olivia?”

“No. I like you .”

I opened my mouth and closed it again. “I can’t believe you used that operation against me,” I said. “I...I can’t believe you lied to me.”

“I knew I just needed some time to make you realize what was right in front of you.”

He was right. I think I’d needed to be jealous to finally wake up. He was right about all of it. I slid my hands to the back of his neck. “I’m sorry it took me so long.”

“I would have waited my whole life for you, Scarlett.”

I felt tears welling in the corners of my eyes. I stood on my tiptoes and pressed my lips against his.

How on earth could I have ever thought this was fake? I looked up at the stars above us. They reminded me of the glow in the dark one he’d given me for my ceiling.

He followed my gaze. “You know, my dad always used to say something to my mom when I was little.”

“What did he used to say?”

He was staring down at me instead of at the stars above us now. “That they were written in the stars.”

His words made my chest feel tight.

“I know I wasn’t your first choice, Scarlett. But my mom dated Coach in high school. And my dad wasn’t her first choice either.”

“I’m sure that’s not true...”

“I’m not sure it matters whether it is or isn’t. What matters is that they had an amazing life together. All I remember from our lake house was...happiness.”

I nodded.

“When we left the lake house, I wasn’t sure I’d ever be happy again. But then I met you at the zoo.”

I wished I’d known all that when I was little. And that I hadn’t wasted so much time on the wrong boy. “You’re not my second choice, Jacob. Not in a million years.”

He smiled down at me.

“So...does this mean you’re not my fake boyfriend?”

He shook his head. “No, Scarlett. I’m your real boyfriend.”