Page 13 of Playing Hard to Hate

TATUM

PRESENT

This wasn’t happening. I kept repeating that to myself over and over, even pinched myself in hopes of waking from this absolutely absurd dream, but alas, this was my reality .

“Ms. Grace, can you put your hand on his arm like this?” the photographer asked, adjusting my hand to be clasped around Griffin’s toned-to-perfection forearm. At this angle, I was showing off a very sparkly bracelet, watch, and engagement ring. Yes. Engagement ring.

We were expected to look like a newly engaged couple. I had to pretend to be surprised and excited when he got down on one knee.

Mind you, this was the practice shoot. The real shoot would be in a week, where I had to fit into a tiny white dress, and he was supposed to wear some expensive suit. Go figure.

I smiled and did as I was asked, modeled a few different pieces, and had a ring and bracelet sized.

Then they took the jewelry away, made us sign some NDA agreement since the pieces hadn’t been released to the public, and then gave us the address of where the shoot would be held.

Seemed beyond extravagant to me, but that was coming from a girl who had never been fazed by shiny things.

Not to mention, there wasn’t a damn thing in that place I could afford.

Griffin and I walked out of the jeweler, and I sucked in the fresh air greedily. It was so stuffy in that small shop, but really it was Griffin who had sucked all the air from the room, as I tried hard to focus on anything other than my hand on his arm, his hand on my hip.

“What are the odds?” he asked, walking with me toward the parking lot.

“Slim to none. I’ll see you next week.” I went toward my beat-up piece of crap sedan while he walked over to a sleek black BMW.

“No kiss goodbye, fiancée?” He chuckled, and I rolled my eyes, giving him the finger.

“I hate you, Silver.”

“Nothing new, Grace. Nothing new.”

Getting into the car, I slammed the door shut, jammed the key into the ignition, and screamed. I put in the directions for the next meeting at some new up-and-coming swimwear company, reversed out of the spot, and joined traffic, ignoring the sports car that seemed to be following me.

If I didn’t look, he wasn’t there. Not like I could see him through his stupid tinted glass. Was that even legal?

Arriving at the boutique early, I pulled up Millie’s name in my messages, knowing she’d be in the middle of a class right now.

Tatum

I hate Griffin. I fucking hate him. He’s the male model at the jewelry store. I am going to shoot myself.

Shoving the phone into my bag, I stepped out of the car and patted my hair down as a few stray wisps started to curl from the humidity.

I hadn’t noticed the black sports car that was parked next to me or the man who was oh-so-casually leaning against it.

But when I did, I jerked to a halt and shook my head. “No.”

“Swimwear shoot?” He grinned so deliciously evil, I wanted to smack him and kiss him at the same time.

“This has to be a joke. Did Millie put you up to this? I know you saw her this morning.” I jabbed a finger in his chest and glared up at him. He reached for one of my curls, letting it around his finger.

“She really can’t keep her mouth shut. I asked her not to tell you,” he whispered.

“She’s my best friend. Of course she’s going to tell me.” I slapped his hand away from my hair. “Don’t touch my hair. It took me an hour to blow it out.”

“It’s prettier natural,” he said, looking right into my eyes and acting completely normal, like him telling me my hair was pretty was normal, everyday conversation when it was, in fact, not.

It was like we hadn’t just had some bullshit fight literally less than an hour ago, and he knew exactly how to make every hair on my body raise while making the skin underneath it boil like hot lava.

He knew exactly what he was doing, and he didn’t even act like he cared.

Was I just here to be his punching bag?

Was I always going to be his boredom fix?

The more I saw of him, the more I felt like he had purposely come back into my life.

Why now? Why was he being so nice yet so distant?

“Cut it out,” I gritted out.

“Can’t a guy compliment a pretty woman?” He reached for that curl again, and I slapped him away again.

He called me pretty.

Do not melt.

Everyone calls you pretty.

Do not cave.

Look in a mirror. You are pretty. You worked hard for it.

Remember he’s a monster.

Do not let him worm his way in.

He’s playing with you.

Remember when he made you cry in high school?

Remember when he didn’t come when your mom died?

Remember when you cried in the bathroom after seeing him kiss another girl?

Remember when he promised never to leave?

My resolve had hardened as I looked him over. He wasn’t anything special. Just a famous athlete. A very sexy, dangerously gorgeous athlete who was towering over me, with perfect gray eyes and very kissable lips, but nothing special.

“You’re making me late, and I worked my ass off for this gig. Not everything is just handed to me.” I brushed past him into the boutique where the owners were waiting for Griffin and me.

The owner’s two sons and daughter fawned over Griffin like he was cooler than ice cream, but the one son kept checking me out, and I kept noting how much it seemed to piss off Griffin, which was new.

He never cared before, but on the same token, none of the boys ever approached me. I still hadn’t had my first kiss.

Not that he needed to ever know that.

“First and foremost, thank you both for being here and supporting us. We’ve gone through a lot of applicants and are very excited to be working with the two best models around.

We would like to launch a new couple’s collection for this upcoming season.

We have ten different pieces, with matching his-and-her sets.

Is that all right with you two?” I nodded because hell, if they asked me to go topless and just model the bottoms, I would do it.

I needed not only the coverage, but the money.

Surprisingly, it was Griffin who hesitated.

“Does my agent know about this?” he asked gruffly.

“Aw, scared to be seen with me?” I couldn’t help the sarcastic little retort.

“You two know each other?” the daughter asked, already forming a whole love story in her head from the dreamy look in her gaze.

“Childhood friends.”

“Went to school together.”

We answered at the same time. You can probably guess who said what, but in case you couldn’t, he was the one who said childhood friends. Like, okay buddy, that’s the game you want to play? Liar pants on fucking fire.

Childhood friends didn’t break promises, jackass.

Griffin cleared his throat when I opened my mouth, and I shut it from the dark look in his eyes. Something was wrong. He wasn’t happy with this situation for some reason.

“If you could give us a moment, please,” he said, grabbing my elbow and yanking me to the other side of the store.

“What the hell?” I yanked my arm from him and glared up at his fucking smug grin.

“Are you sure this is a good idea, Tate? Two campaigns where we are a couple? One where we’re fucking engaged, and now this matching his-and-her line bullshit,” he whisper yelled.

“Look, I need this gig. I need the other one. I get that you may not need them, but this isn’t only about you anymore, Griff. If you don’t want to be seen with me, that’s on you. Just don’t blow this for me.”

“It’s not that I want to ruin anything. It’s that the tabloids, the fans, everyone might think something of this. ”

“It’s two random shoots. There’s no way people will even notice.”

“Oh, yeah, just like how no one noticed when you screamed at me in the coffee shop this morning. You know the barista tried her luck with me not once but three times after that, but wait, you wouldn’t know because you were too busy running away.

Do you know who I am in the public eye, Tatum?

I’m not just the kid next door anymore. You may think you know me but newsflash.

It’s not so black and white for me anymore, and the worst part is, I never asked for this.

” Was he really insulting my intelligence?

It didn’t take a rocket scientist to know who Griffin Silver was.

“I’m going to pretend like you didn’t just say that to me. Are you in or not?”

He sighed, rolled his eyes, and then grabbed my elbow again, yanking me back to the very confused family.

“Sorry about that. We had to make sure there wouldn’t be any conflicts of interest is all.

We will do it. We just need to make sure the release date for this shoot isn’t the same as the other one we are doing.

If you could coordinate the dates with my agent, that would be perfect.

Are these the his-and-hers collection we’ll be modeling? ”

“Are you two dating?” the daughter asked, looking all mischievous and dreamy-like.

“No.”

“Ha, please that’s ridiculous.” I pushed out from deep in my chest, and she laughed.

“Oh, I get it. It’s that whole ‘you hate each other but can’t even think about talking to someone else situation.’ Don’t they have a word for it? An enemies-to-lovers situation I think it’s called.”

“He did something wrong when you were kids, and you haven’t forgiven him, kind of romance,” she pressed, and I looked between her and Griffin.

Well, she was onto something. Griffin’s jaw started to tighten, his cheek muscle pulsing, with this girl called him out in front of everyone. “I read a lot,” she admitted, blushing.

“We’re just friends, nothing else,” Griffin assured the owners and their daughter.

“For now,” she whispered, not intending for anyone to hear her, but I did, and a small, very tiny, almost minuscule part of me wished she was right.

“You are not wearing that,” Griffin gritted out through very clenched teeth.

We were both trying on the matching swimsuits, and the one I had been given was very strappy, leave very little to the imagination kind of piece.

I grimaced at the full-body mirror in the changing area. Thankfully, the owners were in the other room, completely out of earshot, finding our sizes in the other his-and-her sets.

My entire ass was on full display, with just a piece of string between my butt cheeks, and a tiny scrap of material covering my nipples.

This wasn’t exactly what I had in mind when I signed up for this.

Griffin was failing at keeping eye contact as his gaze kept drifting to my ass, but in his defense, I was standing in front of him hogging the mirror.

“Not up to you,” I told him, turning to look at myself at every angle. I needed to work on my back muscles a bit, make them more defined before the official shoot.

“You’re practically naked, Tate.” He grimaced. “Fucking naked. ”

I did a 180-degree spin and got up on my tippy toes to whisper into his neck.

“Good thing I’m not yours to worry about.

” I playfully removed my hand as I pushed off his chest, swatting it as I went to move past him, pleasantly surprised by the light dusting of hair that was now covering his pecs. That was new.

“Tatum, tell them you won’t do it,” he growled, grabbing me and holding me to his chest, dropping his lips to my ear. Chills skated down my spine in the most delicious way.

“Or what?” I taunted.

“I won’t let you do it…I mean, is this really what you want?”

“You can’t stop me.”

“I don’t want anyone to see you like this.”

“Like what, Griff?” I whispered, leaning into him.

“Tatum, don’t make me beg. This isn’t you.”

“Oh, but I love it when men beg. It turns me on.”

“Tatum…I…” he groaned, and desire pooled in my stomach at the way my name sounded.

“Griffin.”

“Only your husband should see you like this. This is too much, Grace.”

Silence swept the air as we both stood in a five-second gaze that felt like eternity

“Look…Tate.”

“Are you going to marry me? Because you’ve looked, a lot.”

“You were supposed to be mine,” he whispered, and I pushed him away. What were we doing?

“I don’t belong to you or anyone. You don’t get a say in the piece, so I suggest you get rid of the thing between your legs, and I will pretend like you never said anything.”

“Why are you cold as fucking ice? Can’t you just let me in and stop this? We have a shoot to finish,” he grumbled, shaking his head and heading back into the changing room just as the owners brought the next pieces.

We tried on the rest of the pieces. There were a few more revealing ones I had to wear, and Griffin grunted, cleared his throat, and did very little to avert his eyes.

It seemed like the two sons had the same problem, and Griff did not like that.

He glared at them for staring at me, and while it was sweet, it was also very annoying. He wasn’t my damn white knight.

I didn’t need saving.

I had saved myself.

But the whole drive home, all I could think about were his pained words and what they meant.

You should have been mine.