Faking It To Survive
Chapter 17

Rose

I walk out of Ryan’s bathroom, feeling like I’m on top of the clouds. I want to walk up to the petite, blonde woman who had her hands on him earlier and shout “Ha!” in her face. She’s never going to know what it feels like to be worshipped by Ryan Baker like I just was a few minutes ago.

Ryan’s arm tightens around my waist as we head back to the house party, and the guests swarm us.

“Can’t I just have a minute alone with you?” Ryan mutters low in my ear. It isn’t his joking tone. He really sounds angry, which is unheard of for him.

“We should sneak out and run away,” I whisper back.

His eyes pop. “Really? You don’t mind?”

I shake my head.

He bursts into a huge grin. “Let’s get out of here. I still haven’t shown you all there is to having fun.” He winks at me, and I almost pull him back into the bathroom for a second round. That’s how hot he makes me.

We make a plan on how to get out of the apartment without drawing the guests’ attention. We also have to make sure Travis doesn’t notice. That last part gets more difficult with every passing second. He’s been watching us all throughout the party.

I take matters into my own hands and ask Ryan to pretend to mingle while I head for Trina. She sits at the kitchen island, munching on chips and the most disgusting burger combo I’ve ever seen. Pregnant women have the weirdest cravings.

I don’t look at her plate, keeping my eyes right on her face. “Hey, sorry I left you all alone. Ryan and I had a lot to discuss.” My attempt to keep a straight face doesn’t work out at all when memories of the things Ryan did to me in the bathroom come back

I start to blush profusely, and she gives me a knowing look.

“Sure,” she drawls. “If some woman had her hands on Travis, I would drag him away and have a very long discussion with him, too.” She winks in a way that is eerily similar to how her brother winks.

The more I get to know Ryan’s sister, the more I realize how similar these two are. That’s probably why I adore Trina so much.

I giggle and smooth down my dress. “This dress had a lot to do with it.” I wink back at her. She was the one who insisted I go for this particular dress when we went out shopping the other day. “By the way, I need a favor.”

Trina listens carefully to the plan, and she immediately agrees to distract Travis so Ryan and I will be able to slip out.

“You got it,” she replies as she picks up the bottle of mustard and squeezes a ridiculous amount all over her burger and fries.

My stomach turns. “Do you really need that much mustard on your food? It’s already so …” I trail off. I can’t even begin to put into words what her meal looks like.

She glares at me. “Do you really need your left arm?”

“Okay.” I rear back and raise both hands in surrender. “Pregnant women are really protective of their food, huh?”

“Yes. Now leave before I change my mind.” She sticks her tongue out at me and makes me laugh as I walk away from her.

Just like she promised, Trina manages to distract Travis by practically ordering him to come feel their kicking baby. If I wasn’t so eager to spend some alone time with Ryan, I would have stayed back and enjoyed the sight of tiny Trina ordering her huge billionaire husband around.

Instead, I follow Ryan as we sneak out of the apartment and into the elevator, both laughing at our narrow escape.

The doors barely close before Ryan grabs my face and k****s me. He leaves me completely senseless and so helpless that I fall back against the wall under his weight.

I feel like a rebellious teenager sneaking off with my boyfriend against my parents’ wishes. The feeling is awesome—more so because I never experienced what it felt like to be a normal teenager.

We make out for the entire elevator ride, unable to keep our hands off each other. We only let go when the elevator doors ding on the lowest floor of the building.

Ryan takes my hand and leads me to the underground parking lot, opens the car door for me, and waits for me to get in before he slides into the driver’s seat.

As he drives off into the night with no particular destination in mind, he opens the sunroof of his sleek sports car, letting in the cold night breeze. Throwing caution to the wind, I stand up, push my head outside, and let out a whoop that echoes throughout the street.

We stop at a twenty-four-hour café and order burgers and fries, but these are nothing like the disgusting combination Trina had in front of her back at the apartment. I sip my milkshake through a straw and grin at Ryan when I notice him gazing at me.

He laughs, looking even more gorgeous when the corners of his eyes crinkle up.

“I like seeing you like this,” he says, leaning back in his chair.

“Like how?”

“Carefree, happy, with that sparkle in your eyes. When we first met, you had this tortured look in your eyes. I had this insane urge to replace the person who put it there and kill them for you.”

I freeze, and my smile drains away. I should have known he would sense how damaged I am right from the moment we met. If anyone has ever really been in tune with me, aside from my mother, it’s Ryan Baker.

I can’t answer. All I know is that I don’t want Ryan anywhere near the monster that ruined me. I refuse to let Ryan be tainted by such crippling darkness, but I’m too scared to open up to him. I don’t want him to think I’m weak. I like that Ryan sees me as a strong, independent woman who can fight her way through anything and doesn’t need to be rescued by any man. I like that this is the version of Rose he sees, not the younger, weaker version.

I want to stay like this in his eyes forever—carefree, happy, and sparkling.

He reads my mind, smiles, and changes the subject. “I just realized I haven’t taken you on a real date yet.”

I smile back at him in relief. “You’re slacking, Baker. What if some other man steals me away from you, and I fall hopelessly in love with him?”

Ryan doesn’t take that as a joke. He narrows his eyes and growls through gritted teeth. “Then I’ll make him regret ever touching what’s mine.”

My breath catches at his tone, and a rush of heat lights me up from the inside. But the next instant, he shrugs it off and smiles as happily as before.

“I’ll just have to do my best to treat like the princess you are.”

I chuckle. “Well, that’s definitely the first time a man has ever called me a princess.”

“Yeah?” Ryan leans across the table, the glint in his eyes full of mischief. “Do you like being called princess, Rose?”

“You can call me anything you want. As long as it comes from your lips, I’ll love it.” My words surprise both of us, but I don’t take it back. I mean it. Ryan can call me anything, and I’ll be putty in his hands.

We leave the café and sit on the hood of Ryan’s car in the parking lot. He looks up at the stars and sighs. “I wish we could stay like this forever.”

“Me, too,” I reply, squeezing his hand tighter.

He turns to face me, and his eyes darken with an intensity that wrecks me. “Rose, there’s something I need to tell you—”

My phone dings before he can continue. I pull it out of my purse and stare at the screen to see an email from an anonymous sender, one I know only too well. I’m just about to ignore the email and turn off my phone when something stops me.

The email usually comes in at one particular time in the morning, but now is way too late.

I walk away from the car before I can bring myself to tap on the screen and open the email. It’s not the usual one-sentence. It’s several paragraphs this time.

You seem happy, my beautiful Rose. I really like the smile you’re wearing these days. It makes you shine, just like you did when you were younger.

I have to admit I’m a little jealous. You seem to have forgotten everything. You seem to have forgotten me, and I just can’t let that happen, not when you’ve left a permanent mark on me.

I haven’t forgotten you, Rose. I haven’t forgotten the scar. I’m going to replace you, Rose. I’m gonna make you wish you never left.

My b***d runs cold, and I suddenly feel a thousand eyes watching me from every direction. The air itself feels wrong, and a terrible chill runs down my back.

He found me. The monster has found me, and I have to run … again.