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Pretend
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Chapter 34: Pretend (Adam's POV)
"Stop," she laughed, putting a hand over my mouth while I pulled her in, keeping my arm around her waist.
After I kissed her once, I couldn't stop myself from doing it over and over again. I couldn't keep my hands off of her, I wanted to be touching her all the fucking time, I wanted to kiss her over and over, everywhere. She was mine. Actually mine. I rested my head against the headboard, staring at her as she lowered her hand, trying to climb off but I held her hips down, ensuring that she still straddled me.
"Tomorrow is the wedding, you realize that, right? We have to get up, everyone has to get ready, get to the church. We should be sleeping," she said pointedly.
"Who wants to sleep when they can kiss?" I asked, leaning forward and pressing my lips to hers again.
She smiled against my lips and kissed me back, resting one hand on the back of my neck, pulling me in deeper. She pulled away before I wanted to and gave my cheek a light slap, turning my head the other way. "Okay, that's it. We should go to sleep, come on."
I sighed in defeat, watching her as she got off of me and moved to her side of the bed.
She sat against the headboard and turned to face me. "Stop," she whispered, covering my eyes this time. I heard her turn her lamp off before she pulled her hand away. The room was completely dark now but the white curtains let in enough of the moonlight for me to make out where she was. She shuffled and lay down before I did the same.
"Emmy."
"Hmm?"
I found her waist and pulled her closer to me. "The day we land back in New York," I began, "it's kind of my only real day off from practice. I have a lot to catch up on when I get back."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. So, I wanted to ask if after we land, you'd come home with me. Will you?"
"Where do you stay?"
"Falcon Apartments, Park Avenue."
"Are you serious?"
I paused in confusion. "Yeah... why?"
"I live on 5th Avenue. That's barely ten minutes from you," she chuckled softly.
I blinked in realization. "Were you... were you the redhead? The one in a pink hoodie at a grocery door a few days before we flew out here?"
She turned her lamp back on, staring at me wide-eyed. "Were you there?"
"Yeah. Yeah, I was in line behind you. You pulled the hood on, so I couldn't tell."
"Oh my God," she laughed softly. "And June's Boutique? Were you the reason the paparazzi was there?" she asked.
"You were there? You were the other customer looking for an engagement cocktail dress?" I gawked at her.
"Yeah. I was talking to Remy, asking if she knew where I could buy a dress, and she said Aspen told her that June's Boutique was nice. Now I'm guessing he knows it from you?"
I nodded softly. "Yeah. When he was visiting me I took him there to buy a tux. We were going to a party for a few football teams." We both paused for a minute. "What if I ran into you there?" I questioned. "Do you think things would be different for us on this trip?"
She sighed and then turned her lamp back off, snuggling in closer to me. "Maybe. Maybe we would have talked everything out before we got here. Or maybe we would have had a huge argument. I don't know."
"I can't believe it was you. You were right there, right under my nose. And I had no idea," I mumbled.
She took my jaw, tilting my face down before I felt her lips on mine, soft and gentle and slow. "Well, I think now we both have a pretty good idea of where we stand," she whispered, pulling away from me. "And whatever we don't know yet, I'm sure we'll figure it out along the way. Right?"
I hummed, "Right."
She released a soft breath, throwing her leg over mine.
My hand naturally rested on her thigh and I closed my eyes, resting my cheek on the top of her head. "Let's go to sleep, yeah?" I mumbled.
"Yeah," she agreed and before I knew it, we both had dozed off.
»»———— ➴ ————««
"Adam!"
Both Emmy and I stopped. We were on our way back to the room after breakfast but stopped when Aspen called my name, asking both of us to stay back. It was only after the other left that he told us why.
"All right, look. Remy's not here, obviously, because I'm not supposed to see her, but she passed on a message."
"What's up?" Emmy asked.
"So, that boutique we went to, where we all bought our clothes for today. My suit and Remy's dress were supposed to be sent to the hotel by the boutique after alterations. But as it turns out, they're short on staff and don't have anybody who can deliver it. Someone from here has to go pick it up and Remy's busy getting ready and I have to double-check arrangements with the church. So..."
"So?" I asked, knowingly.
"So, can you both go pick them up? You don't need to do much, just go there, tell them you're there to pick up a dress and a suit for Remy Feye and Aspen Blackwell and they'll give it to you. It's paid for already anyway. Please? Help us out."
Emilia shrugged. "Sure. We'll get them right now. But hey, which room is Remy getting ready in?"
"Our room. I'm borrowing another room for the time being. Just keep my suit in your room, I'll come and get it, all right?" He glanced at his watch. "Right now, I have to go check out the church and the decorations. Remember, the wedding ceremony starts at five o'clock, we need to be there by four. And the reception right after that, okay?"
We both nodded.
"All right. Thank you so much, see you around."
After he left, we turned to each other. "Let's go," she said as I took her hand. We left the hotel, got a taxi, and went back to the boutique.
When we walked in, everything was the same except for the employee at the counter. It wasn't the owner or one of the few that were here last time. It was somebody else. It was an older lady with her glasses sitting low on her nose while she read the newspaper. She put it aside when we walked to the table. "Yes?" she asked grumpily.
"Um," Emilia cleared her throat. "Hi, we're to pick up a wedding dress and a suit for Aspen Blackwell and Remy Feye."
She stared at us blankly.
"It was supposed to be delivered, but we were asked to come pick it up since you're short on staff. Could you please give them to us? We need to head back soon," I said.
She sighed, flipping through a register. "Is it paid for?"
"Yes," I nodded.
"And you both are Aspen Blackwell and Remy Feye, yes?" She looked back up at us, closing the register after double-checking for names.
Emmy and I looked at each other hesitantly.
"Unless you confirm that you are Aspen and Remy, I cannot hand over the clothes to you. I need signs in this register to prove that you did indeed pick them up." She turned it around, putting a pen between the pages and sliding it over to us.
"Uh..." Emmy shifted on her feet. "Actually—"
"We'll sign," I nodded, nudging Emilia's elbow gently.
"All right. You do that, I'll go get your clothes." She stood up with a huff and disappeared.
"What are you doing?" Rubes hissed at me.
"I'm doing what Aspen asked me to. Picking up their clothes."
"You're pretending to be your brother. That's illegal, I'm pretty sure."
I shrugged. "She won't give it to us otherwise and the wedding might be delayed. Just make a fake signature. Come on." I scribbled down Aspen's name with a few extra swoops and then handed her the pen.
She sighed and reluctantly did the same thing as me, writing down Remy Feye as the lady came back with two big plastic bags that had the dress and suit in them.
Before she handed them over, she took back the register and as Emmy handed her the pen, her eyes, unluckily, landed on Emilia's other hand and the bare ring finger on it. "You're not wearing a ring?" she asked, suddenly getting so suspicious of us and even pulling the bags away before I could take them.
"Oh, I took it off for the wedding ceremony," Emilia lied casually, touching her bare finger. "It's funny, I was just telling him about how bare it feels," she chuckled, looking at me. "Wasn't I?"
I nodded, snaking an arm around Emmy's waist. "She was, actually. On our way here, we were just talking about it."
"Mm-hmm?" The lady lifted a sharp brow at us.
She's taking a lot of convincing.
"All right... While I print the receipt, you can wait."
I grabbed Emilia's hand and pulled her over to pretend and make it seem like we were looking at more dresses for her. "Why is she being so difficult?" Emilia whispered.
I glanced at the woman and she was watching us like a hawk. "I don't know. There isn't even an employee here. I guess she's a bit of a grump." We stopped and faced each other.
"What if she calls someone from our family to double-check that it was Remy and Aspen who came to collect the clothes?" Emmy whispered.
"Then we better tell Remy and Aspen when we get back," I shrugged, pulling her into me.
She stared up at me. I leaned in to kiss her but she stopped me. "You're thinking of kissing at a time like this? We could get in trouble." She seemed so nervous, it was kind of cute. Not just kind of, it was cute.
I chuckled, "If anything, she'll believe us more if we kiss. Plus, we are together. We're just not Remy and Aspen. Give me a kiss, Rubes." I puckered my lips.
She bit back a smile and watched me in amusement. "You're so annoying," she laughed before coming up on her toes and kissing me, looping her arms around my neck.
Before we could even really get into it, we were interrupted. "All right, here!"
I pulled away, rolling my eyes and we walked back to her. I took both the bags while Emilia thanked her before we left.
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Chapter 34
I'm just letting y'all know in advance, the changes I made for Tainted Hearts, like the ones I can tell you right now are that I changed Adrianna and Jason's last names and she's a New York gal instead of Boston like Emmy and Vanessa because New York just has more vibes that go along w her
next chapter: married
also, this book might not be 38-40 chapters, maybe a bit less than that