Strawberry Kisses Phavy Prieto (bookstand for reading TXT) 📖

Tell me, do you also find me as handsome and attractive as those guys?" he said half-seriously.

"Do you want the truth or a vile lie?" I replied with another question in an attempt to make myself interesting.

"A vile lie," he chose, staring at me in the dark of the cabin, still with the engine off.

"You're uglier than a foot," I said looking away and biting my lip to contain my laughter.

Why was I behaving like this with that man? I was usually quite cold, distant and even formal with all my previous dates. But Adonis was able to make me feel uninhibited like no one else before, as if something had started flowing inside me again, revealing my true nature.

"That means you find me handsome, doesn't it?" he replied laughing.

He started the engine, drove out of the parking lot and headed towards his house. Or so I supposed. The thought of returning to his place, where I had left my car parked, made all the sirens go off and the red lights turned on in my head: was the lingerie that I had chosen adequate? Yes, of course it was.

"I've already admitted that you weren't ugly, so don't push your luck!" I said without telling him what I really thought of him.

It seemed to me that Damian Devoir was somewhat a vain man. But, man! How could he not be with that tremendous body and that angel's face? I admitted it: if I had been in his place, I too would have had an ego that would have reached Saturn. I still didn't understand how Rebecca, that brainless busty giraffe, had decided to ditch him. Maybe she suffered from cataracts at an early age. I couldn’t find any other plausible answer because I wouldn’t change that six pack abs, that passionate and seductive gaze and, of course, that killer smile not even for all the gold in the world.

"Okay, okay," he replied with a hint of a smile.

Damian could be vain, but he was also quite a nice and outspoken guy, who had nothing to do with those pretentious and proud executives who always kept a cold and detached facade towards everyone, as if they were carrying a sign with the words: "I am untouchable". On the contrary, Damian seemed a down-to-earth, personable and spontaneous person. Almost from the first minute I had the feeling that the guy wasn't a jerk and that was a problem for my fragile little heart. "What if I take you straight home and pick you up to take you to work tomorrow? I’d rather you didn’t drive at this time of the night."

"Better not. I have the briefcase with my planner in the car and I'd like to..."

"I don’t think you should go over any reports tonight. Also, I forbid you to work outside your work hours. I'm your boss and I can tell you this," he replied, interrupting my speech.

I needed my planner! I didn't know how to live without my planner!

"I really appreciate it, but I prefer to go to work on my own or everyone will think that..."

"Let them think what they want," he interrupted me again. "Besides, sooner or later, rumors will spread at the office about the fact that you are my fiancée and that reminds me that from now on you will have to wear the engagement ring, whether you like it or not. Open the glove compartment," he said as if it were an order I couldn't disobey.

I opened the glove compartment with delicacy and saw the velvet box. Had he not returned it? Obviously not, since that precious ring was right there in front of me.

"You know this isn't right," I said as I slid the ring back on my finger, hoping that my words were a warning for me too. "We are making fun of everyone and I feel terribly guilty about it," I underlined.

I was aware that every further step in that direction would involve me emotionally more and more.

"I have something to propose to you," he said as he slowed down until we stopped in a street with little traffic. I sensed that he had something important to tell me.

"What?" I asked worried by his silence.

"Let's pretend it is true, that all this is real," he began as if he was proposing it seriously. "Imagine that, for whatever reason, neither of us will ever find the person who we would want to marry or move in with and start a family," he continued. "Imagine that what we want and what we are about to pretend to be, will never happen to us in future, that we will never have it," he said as if it was a real possibility. "Why can't we just pretend it's all true now?"

"Maybe because it's not true at all!" I exclaimed incredulously.

"Who says it isn't?" he asked, getting so close that I felt his breath. "Don't you think it's possible that I'm madly in love with you? Or that you drive me so crazy that I want to spend the rest of my life by your side? You might be that person," he whispered in a deep, velvety voice that made me shiver.

"But you don't even know me!" I exclaimed trying to be rational so as not to get carried away by his words. I needed a good dose of realism and not daydreams adorned with romance.

"I know you perfectly and I know that your problem is that you are unable to let yourself go: for once in your life, let yourself be carried away. Show me that you are not a coward and that you are capable of accepting what I propose to you."

What the hell was that all about? Pretending he was really my fiancée? Telling everyone that we were getting married and assuming that all that shit was real?