Page 12 of Save Your Breath

Mia frowned, looking at her hands before she shook her head and lifted her gaze to mine again. For a moment, I thought she was going to lie to me. But she sighed, like she knew better, and she hit me with the truth.

“I just want to be free of Austin, of Garrett, of all this stupid criticism over a breakup that happened more than a year ago. I want people to listen to my music and hear it for what it is — not what those two menthinkit is.” She swallowed. “I love this album. And I want it to have a fighting chance.”

My jaw was tight as I listened to her. Fuck both of those men for making her feel small, for taking away something she worked her ass off for. Austin got to bask in the glow of their breakup while she tried to escape the rubble of it unscathed. That douchebag reporter friend of his didn’t help.

I wanted to squash them both like the bugs they were.

“And my role?”

Mia held her chin a bit higher. “Prove them all wrong. Show them I’m different than what they think. I’m not just the crazy ex-girlfriend still hung up on Austin. I’m…” She flushed. “Desirable. Sexy. Talented. I’m alluring enough to capture the NHL’s bad boy. I’m good enough for him to want to stay.”

Her words sucker-punched me square in the ribs, my next breath halting in my chest before slowly leaking out. The fact that she didn’t already feel that way about herself, that she didn’t see it…

I nodded, leaning back in my chair again.

I wouldn’t just deliver on what she’d asked.

I’d also make that punk ass bitch of an ex-boyfriend of hers wish he’d never fucked with my girl.

I’d make him wish he’d never been born.

“I’m in,” I said.

Mia blinked. “Really?”

A slight tilt of my lips was all I gave her in answer, and I thought I saw that beautiful skin of hers flush as Isabella and Giana continued talking over details. They were already discussing NDAs and plotting our next public appearances, going back and forth about how we’d lay the groundwork, and discussing when the proposal should be.

They landed on August — just a month away.

I kept my eyes on Mia.

And thought of all the excuses I’d have to touch her now.

Crooked Halo

Mia

Later that night, I ran a hot bath and sank into the water along with my complete disbelief of what had transpired.

Aleks Suter was officially my fake boyfriend.

And soon — my fake fiancé.

It was surreal, enough so that I was having one of those out-of-body experiences where the day didn’t feel real. It was almost as if I were floating above my body and watching in a heated daze as the bubbles rose higher in the bath around me, like I was watching a TV show of someone else’s life.

I turned the water off with my toes once it was high enough, sighing a bit as I plunged farther in. My phone sat on a small wooden table next to the bath along with a hand towel and a glass of white wine — something buttery and delicious that Cora had poured for me before retiring for the evening.

I’d turned my phone face down to keep myself from staring at the screen the entire time I was supposed to be relaxing in the tub, but it taunted me.

Because within an hour of our phone call, rumors had started to fly — and now Aleks and I were all over the Internet.

It started with a fan account of mine with millions of followers posting a video with a montage of press videos and photos showing all the times Aleks and I had been spotted together over the years. That one had been courtesy of Isabella.We knew that fan well enough to know she’d run with any information that was leaked to her.

I had to admit, the photos and videos Isabella had scrounged up were pretty convincing. Aleks wrapping me up in his big arms after his win in New York, us laughing at a restaurant with my parents last summer, his hand on the small of my back before the benefit concert last month…

From the outside, it looked like he was protective of me, that he wanted me, maybe evenlovedme.

Of course, I knew the truth.