Page 228 of Faking the Goal

"But the more attention I paid to her, the more I realized how little any of that actually told me about who Taylor was. And how fucking wrong I'd been about her."

My thumb moves absently along her jaw while I speak.

"Most people see her walk into a room and think they've got her figured out in five minutes. I did too. She makes it easy. She gives you the flirting, the attitude, the smart mouth, all that confidence, and most people never bother looking any closer."

"But I did."

I glance down at her for a moment before continuing.

"It was like looking at a stage with all the lights on. Everything was bright and loud enough to keep your attention exactly where she wanted it, but all it did was make me wonder what else was behind the curtain."

My hand settles more firmly around her waist.

"And the more I saw, the more I wanted to see. Not because I wanted to change her. Not because I thought there was something about her that needed fixing. I just wanted to know her. All of her. The parts everybody got to see and the ones she kept for herself. What mattered to her. What made her happy. What she cared about when nobody else was around to see it."

I pause, trying to put into words something I never really knew how to explain even to myself.

"Somewhere underneath all those layers, there was always something about Taylor that called to me. I know that probably sounds fucking ridiculous, but that's the only way I can describe it. Like some part of me recognized something in her before the rest of me understood what the hell was happening."

A quiet laugh leaves me.

"Maybe that's why she pissed me off so much in the beginning. I kept telling myself she was everything I didn't want, while apparently some other part of me had already decided otherwise."

My gaze drops to her again.

"And no matter how hard I tried to ignore it, I always found myself so fucking drawn to her. Then we started spending more time together because of the feature, and somewhere in all that time together, everything started falling into place. The more I got to know her, the more I wanted to be around her. Then wanting to be around her turned into looking for excuses to see her, and before I knew it..." I let my gaze drift back to Taylor, deliberately taking my time now because the color spreading across her cheeks is too fucking adorable not to enjoy. "I was hooked."

Her lips part around a quiet laugh.

"Completely fucking hooked," I add, reaching up to give her flushed cheek a gentle squeeze before pulling her closer and brushing my nose against hers.

"And apparently, once Taylor Lewis gets her claws into you, there's no getting rid of her." I grin as her cheeks turn an even deeper shade of pink. "Next thing I knew, I was falling pretty fucking hard for her."

"Oh, for fuck's sake," Luke groans.

A balled-up napkin hits me in the shoulder.

"Look at this asshole," Liam says. "You went from the antisocial bastard who wanted everyone to leave him alone to this completely whipped motherfucker."

"Seriously," Cody says. "I almost miss the miserable version of you."

"I don't," Taylor says immediately.

"Nobody asked you."

She flips him off without looking away from me, still grinning so wide that I can't stop myself from laughing.

"Well, you asked," I tell them with a shrug. "Don't complain because you didn't like the answer."

That earns me another chorus of groans, but Taylor is still smiling when she leans closer, her lips brushing the shell of my ear.

"Damn, Ken-chan," she whispers. "That whole spontaneous speech was impressive. You really are getting ridiculously good at this fake-boyfriend thing." She pulls back just enough for me to catch the playful sparkle in her eyes. "For a second there, I almost bought it along with everyone else."

My smile fades.

I keep my arm around her waist and hold her gaze.

"What if I told you I wasn't acting?"