Page 23 of The Omega's Fake Mate

But I wasn't going to tell him that.

Notagain.

He obviously wanted this whole thing to be purely pretend. I could do that, couldn't I? Perhaps there was some way I could also get something out of it.

“One condition,” I said.

“Whatever you want. I'll do anything.”

That got him a raised eyebrow from me.

“Okay, maybe notanything,” he corrected. “What do you want?”

“Come with me to my parent's house for Thanksgiving dinner and pretend to be my boyfriend for the evening.” His eyes widened. I gave him a smile. “You might consider it a test run.”

“Why do you want me to do that?”

“You remember how my parents make their money?”

It took him only a minute to see what I was trying to say. “They want to set you up with someone?”

“Yes, and I'm absolutely not interested.”

Nick grinned. “Is that why you like the book you gave me so much? Because you want to fool your parents too?”

“I guess you could say that.” It wasn't the whole truth, but it was close enough.

“Are they trying to set you up with some idiot?”

“I don't knowwhothey're trying to set me up with, and frankly, I don't care. I'm simply not interested.”

“Oh. I see.” For a fraction of a second, it seemed as though Nick's face fell, but he recovered too quickly for me to tell whether I'd imagined it. “I'm supposed to spend Thanksgiving with my cousin and his family, but I'm sure I can find a way to get out of it.”

“All right. One other thing, although this is more a request than anything.”

“A request?”

“Yes, if you could, I’d like you to help me with some research tomorrow.”

“Research?” Nick shot me a skeptical look. “You know I’m not exactly the academic type.”

“Don’t worry. I’m not going to make you read anything.”

“Now you’re making it sound like I can’t read! But fine. I’ll help you.”

“Great. How does tomorrow at seven sound to you? I’m closing the store around that time, so we shouldn’t be disturbed.”

“Seven sounds fine.”

“It's a date then,” I said, trying not to sound wistful. The Thanksgiving dinner with my parents was probably the closest I’d ever come to having a date with Nick.

“Yeah.” Nick laughed, but something about it sounded off.

Probably just my imagination.

He was getting what he wanted, wasn't he?

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