The-Spanish-Love-Deception-www.indianpdf

A part of me wanted to say yes. Yes to the chance of seeing a new side of
him. Perhaps another smile too. “You just bought a date anyway.”
“With your money.”
“Regardless,” he countered. “It’s part of the package deal.”
That pang of unprecedented hurt hit me again, reminding me of what this
was. Part of the deal. That was Aaron, a man of his word.
Aaron’s head reared back, revealing his face. His gaze was searching.
“I …” I hesitated, feeling stupid for considering for just an instant that
maybe he’d offered because he genuinely wanted to take me there. “I just …”
Shit.
Everything that had happened tonight was spinning in my head. Aaron in
a tux. All these … new and different ways I was feeling around him. The
auction. His smile. His laughter. Dancing. My body against his, flushed
together. All of that and then the fact that we would be going to Spain in a
matter of a few weeks.
Everything tangled together in knots that messed with my head.
Aaron kept looking at me, a strange emotion behind his blue eyes. He was
probably waiting for me to say something that wasn’t mumbled words.
“Would that …” I shook my head. “I wouldn’t want to get you in
trouble,” I finally managed to say. “I guess that someone could check if the
auction contract was fulfilled?” I didn’t know if this contract existed. Didn’t
even know if anybody would even check anything. “The last thing I’d want is
to hamper the good that the fundraiser has achieved tonight.” I kept going,
Aaron’s features unchanging, “Nobody needs to know that the date is fake
anyway. Right?”
He kept looking at me in that searching way I didn’t understand. “No.
Nobody needs to know.”
“Or that we are going as friends, right?” That had not sounded right.
Were we even friends?
“Is that what you want to be, Catalina?” Aaron shot back calmly.
“Friends?”
“Yes,” I answered. But did I? We had never been, and that had never had
anything to do with me. That hadn’t been on me. “No,” I rectified,
remembering that one big obstacle that had stood between us since the
beginning. One that Aaron had put there, not me. It had been him, the one
who never liked me, not the other way around. It wasn’t fair of him to ask me
now. “I don’t know, Aaron.” My palms felt clammy and my throat dry, and I