Love Me to Death (7 page)

I am woken up by a bucket of ice cold water being thrown over me. “What the hell!” I scream.

“Morning,” Ned says, holding the empty bucket in one hand and placing the other hand on her hip. I’m mad because I hate being woken up, but she’s wearing a pair of short shorts and a tank top … I’m a little distracted.

Wait … Ned? Why is she here? I look around … this isn’t my apartment. I’m in Ned’s penthouse. What the hell am I doing here? Then an image of last night flashes through my mind. Oh boy … I’m in trouble.

I clear my throat and force my eyes up to her face. “Why would you do that?” I ask, already knowing the answer.

“You really want me to answer that right now?”
No, because I already know the answer but I’ll keep that to myself.

“On a scale of one to ten how mad are you?”

“Eleven.”

“Oh boy,” I whisper.

“Yes,
oh boy.
You broke the terms of our agreement last night.”

“Give me a break; we haven’t even officially started fake-dating yet. What terms could I possibly break?”

“Oh, I don’t know, let’s see: you drank alcohol and you more than likely divulged the private details of our contract to your
friends,
too!” Good point, I did drink and I have no idea what happened last night, let alone what I may or may not have said. “And you were going to take that little floozy home with you.” I smile because I recognize the little twinkle in Ned’s eyes. “Why on earth are you smiling?”

“No reason.”

“Don’t do that crap. You start it; you man up and finish it.”
Ned is hot when she’s mad, but again I’ll keep that thought to myself.

“Well, the drinking bit I get, and I am sorry. I wasn’t in control very much last night, and I could have slipped up about our agreement.”

“Thank you,” she says with a little huff.
So adorable.

“However, the truth is we haven’t even begun fake dating yet so whether I took Lacey—”

“Tracey.” She corrects me. Wow, even my fake girlfriend knows the name of my “almost” one-night stand.

“Yes, Tracey, sorry, even if I took her home it wouldn’t have really affected our agreement. So, I’m left wondering if maybe there’s another reason you’re so mad.”

“Really, and what reason might that be?” she asks sarcastically.

“I don’t know, maybe you’re jealous.” I smirk. She laughs. Loud. “What?”

“You’re cute. Now, get this room sorted out and then go and take a shower. I want to start our first training session in an hour.” Then she leaves while I am left sitting in a puddle of water. And why the hell was she laughing when I said she was jealous?

I jump out of the bed and realize that I’ve only got on my underwear.
That dirty girl stripped me last night.
I turn and see my clothes from last night hanging over the back of the chair. They are washed, ironed, and a fresh pair of boxers is on top of them.
Intriguing.

When I step out of the bathroom that is linked directly to my room — well, Ned’s guest room — I notice two things. The first, being a glass of orange juice, sitting next to two pills on the nightstand. The second, is that there are fresh sheets on the bed. Either Ned has a secret house maid or she actually did it herself. I’ll go with the first option although this girl is full of surprises. I pick up the glass, throw the pills in my mouth and chase them down with the orange juice. Let’s hope Ned wasn’t trying to drug me because I just made it way too easy if she was.

When I emerge from my room I follow the scent of food all the way to the kitchen.

“Hey, where’d the short shorts go? I liked them.” I smirk then pass her my empty glass. I take a seat on one of the stools around the island and watch Ned washing the dishes.
Full of surprises.

“I better burn them then.”

“Ouch, are you always this mean to your fake boyfriends?”

“Nope, you’re my first.”

“What?” I gasp in shock. “Are you saying that I took your ‘fake boyfriend’ virginity? I feel so honored, you should have said.”

I hear her laugh. Best. Sound. Ever. Then my face is covered with a wet dish rag, one she just threw at me. I smile as I peel it off my face and wipe away the excess water with my hand.

“I smell something nice. Did you cook or have you just sent away your secret chef?”

“Very funny. Actually,
I
cooked and if you’re not careful you won’t get to taste my fantastic pancakes.” She turns to me and smiles. Her hair is pulled up in a messy bun. She has on a pair of gray yoga pants and a white tank top. Casual Ned appears to be sexy too.

“And what’s so fantastic about these mysterious pancakes?”

“The secret ingredient.” She leans back on the counter and looks at me playfully.

“Which is?”

“Now, if I told you it wouldn’t be a secret anymore, would it?”

“I can keep secrets.”

“Pfft.”

“You don’t trust me?”

“Nope,” she says, popping the “p” for extra effect.

“Maybe you should draw up a contract then.”

“I agree.” That was not Ned’s voice. My head swings in the direction of the voice, and I don’t like what I see. He’s tall, has messy blond hair, blue eyes, and he’s looking at Ned like he’s already seen her naked.

“Jackson!” She runs up to him and throws her arms around his neck.
Intimate.
He swings her around a couple of times before gently placing her on the ground again. “What are you doing here? How did you get in?”

“Jameson let me in.” Great, Jameson knows him well enough to just grant him access to Ned’s home. And I liked Jameson as well.
Traitor
. “I’m on a short vacation.” Good, he’s not here to stay.

“I’m so glad you’re here.” I’m glad somebody is. “We have so much to catch up on.”

“Great but first I heard something about your famous pancakes.” He laughs. She smiles. I scowl. Great, he’s tasted her pancakes before me.

“Oh gosh, yeah. I’m so sorry … Cole this is Jackson. Jackson, meet Cole.”

He walks up to me with a friendly smile on his face and stretches his hand out to me. I take it firmly in mine and shake it.

“Hi,” I force out.

“Hi, it’s nice to meet you.” He turns to Ned and smiles before saying, “Any friend of Neddie’s is a friend of mine.”
I don’t like him.

“I’m sure,” I mumble so only I can hear. However, the look Ned gives me tells me she heard too.

“So, how do you guys know each other?” he asks casually.

“I’m her boyfriend,” I say before Ned can answer.

“Oh, wow, that’s great. Neddie never mentioned a boyfriend on any of our phone calls.” And there it is, right there, the reason I hate this jerk already.

“It’s recent.” Ned jumps in. “Anyway, enough about me, does Misty know you’re here?”

“No, I’m planning to go and surprise her once I leave here.”
Don’t let us keep you.

“She’ll love that,” she says before turning to face me. “Jackson and Misty are cousins,” she explains.

“Nice,” I say as I shrug my shoulders. She gives me a funny look before turning back toward Jackson, the pancake-breakfast-slayer.

“Well anyway, I just wanted to let you know that I am here. It’d be great if we could go for lunch or dinner to catch up,” he says.

“Yeah, I’d love that.”
Yeah, I’m sure he will too.

“Great, well I’ll leave you both to it and go and see Misty. I’ll call you about meeting up.”

“Perfect.” She smiles up at him.

“Cale, it was great meeting you.”

“It’s Cole.”
Actually, it’s Brennan but whatever.

“Sorry.” Course you are.

“No problem,” I say before Ned walks him to the door. While she is off entertaining
Jackson
I go on a pancake hunt. It doesn’t take long since she’s laid them out on two plates and covered them with foil. I take one of the plates and sit back down on the stool. Peeling back the foil gives me the most delicious waft of pancake I have ever smelled. I break off a piece, and I’m pretty sure the pancake just made love to my mouth. That is some secret ingredient. After I’ve demolished the first pancake on my plate I rip a piece off the second. That’s the moment when Ned walks back in with a stupid smile on her face.

“So, how long were you two sleeping together?” I ask with a mouth full of pancake.

“Excuse me?” That stops her in her tracks. I sit back and watch her curiously as I take another bite of my pancake.

“Does Misty know that you were banging her cousin?”

“That is none of your business,” she says angrily as she rounds the island toward her plate of pancakes.

“So, that’s a yes then?”

“I don’t think that the details of my sex life have anything to do with you,” she growls.

“Seriously, because you are always interested in mine.”

“
Always?
I met you yesterday and the difference is that you gave your sex life to me in your contract.”

“I did?” I raise an eyebrow.

She goes red. Is little Miss Christina Grey embarrassed? “That came out wrong. I meant … you know what I meant.”

“No, no I don’t, please elaborate,” I say with a smirk.

“You signed your sex life away, Cole, that’s the deal.”

“True but it would seem that your sex life is wide open for the taking since there was no ‘Ned’s sex life’ section in the contract.”

“Number one, you’re a moron. Number two, I obviously can’t sleep with anyone if I’m supposed to be dating you, can I? And number three, yes I’ve slept with Jackson but that was a long time ago, not that it’s any of your business!”

“Good,” I say calmly. She stares at me for a couple of seconds.

“I said a lot of things, which bit are you referring to?”

“The part where you said it was a long time ago.” I smile. Not that it bothers me, but if I have to commit to the contract then so does she.

“Right.”

“And for the record, if you stick to what you just said about not sleeping with anyone during our contract then you are going to die a
very
sexually frustrated woman.”

She looks at me for a couple of seconds before I see the side of her lip twitching. Then she laughs and we’re right back to where we were before
Jackson
arrived.

“Look, Ned it doesn’t have to be that way, I am more than happy to prevent sexual frustration from ever entering your life. Just say the word.”

She rolls her eyes. “Pancakes?” I look at her quizzically and she blows out a frustrated breath. “Did you like my pancakes?” She explains slowly.

“Not quite the word I was looking for but yes, I loved them.”

“Good.”

“You keep cooking like that and you’ll soon be the best fake girlfriend I have ever had.”

“How many have you had?”

“So far? Just you.”

“Then who are you comparing me to?”

“Babe, there are multiple personalities inside that hot little body of yours. I’m comparing you to yourself …
all of you
.”

I’m not surprised when I feel the slap of the wet dish rag on my face again. What does surprise me is the giggle I can hear coming out of Ned. That is a sound I wouldn’t mind hearing every morning and that is not good at all.