Chapter 26 JUNIPER
I stared at him, humiliation and fury boiling over into something colder, sharper, like ice sliding down my spine.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I hissed, hands fisted so tight at my sides my nails bit into my palms.
“You took a photo of me without my consent while I was crying about my dying father, and now you want to use that to blackmail me into pretending to be your girlfriend? What kind of twisted, fucked-up game is this?”
Knox didn’t even blink.
“Oh, come on,” he said, like I was the one being ridiculous.
“Don’t be so dramatic.”
Me? Dramatic?
“Absolutely fucking not,” I snapped, voice cracking with pure disbelief and venom.
“I won’t be your fake girlfriend. Not now. Not ever. You can take your little blackmail photo and shove it straight up your ass."
Knox’s mouth curved into a slow, arrogant smirk, completely unfazed by my outburst. He tilted his head slightly, eyes glinting with dark amusement.
“Don’t get so fucking uptight.” he drawled, the word dripping with condescension as he leaned one shoulder against the sink like we were discussing the weather.
“I’m not asking you out for real, sweetheart. You’ll just play my fake girlfriend for a couple of months. Easy.”
I stepped back until my spine hit the cold tile wall.
“And why,” I asked, crisp and sharp even though my voice wanted to shake,
“would Knox Reyes — campus king, star quarterback, walking ego with a revolving door of girls — suddenly need a fake girlfriend?”
“My dad is pushing me to get back with Tracy because of ‘family connections’ and ‘optics.’ I told him I already had a girlfriend. That I was in love with her. Now he wants to meet her. And since I already told Tracy you’re my girlfriend… duh. Isn’t it obvious?”
The “duh” landed like a slap — casual, condescending, like I was slow connectingthedots.
“Obvious?” I echoed, voice dripping with mocking disbelief.
“Oh, of course. How could I possibly miss it? The great Knox Reyes needs a convenient prop to keep his daddy happy and his ex off his back, so he picks the random hoodie girl he used as a human shield a few days ago. Brilliant plan. Truly genius. And you think I’m just going to smile and play along because you flashed your smile?”
“Tracy’s not my—” he began, but I cut him off, sarcasm sharpening into something colder.
“Oh, wait — that’s right. She’s not your ex? She was just… what? A warm body? A convenient lay? A little side project to keep the donor’s daughter happy until something better came along? How romantic. How noble. You really are a piece of work, you know that? You treat girls like disposable tissues and then act shocked when someone calls you on it. And now you want me to play the role of your fake girlfriend so you can keep your perfect little life intact while my dad is fighting for his? Wow. Just… wow.”
I shook my head, stepping back until my spine pressed harder against the cold tile.
"Look.."
“No. No way. I don’t have time for your stupid games.”
He watched me, that cocky half-smile still lingering like he thought this was all negotiable.
“Jesus, you’re so dramatic,” he said, voice low.
“I’m offering you a way out. Money for treatment. Help with bills. A way to stay in college if you want. All you have to do is let people think we’re together for a few months. No one has to know the truth.”
I let out a short, ugly laugh that scraped my throat raw.
“Well, aren’t you generous. The big, bad quarterback swoops in with his wallet and his smile, offering to ‘help’ the poor hoodie girl. How noble. How convenient. So spare me the savior routine. I’m not for sale."
His eyes stayed locked on mine, serious in a way I’d never seen before — dark, calculating, and completely devoid of the gentleness he’d shown only moments ago.
“Oh, come on—don’t be like that....”
““No.” I cut him off, voice low and brittle.
“I refuse to be yourfake girlfriend. Go to hell.”
He glanced at the door, that private, chilling smile sliding back onto his face — the one that never reached his eyes. Cold. Calculated. Far too confident.
“You want to refuse?” he murmured softly, almost conversationally.
“Then I suppose I’ll be very upset. And when I’m upset, I get very, very talkative.”
He stepped closer until the heat of his body pressed against the cold fear in my chest.
“I have that photo. And I will use it,” he said, voice low and steady.
“I’ll tell everyone you tried to take advantage of me in here. That you wanted to experience the ‘Knox Reyes cock magic’ because you’re desperate for a taste of what all the other girls get.”
I cut him off before he could finish, my voice dripping with bitter, venomous sarcasm.
“Oh, please. The Knox Reyes cock magic?” I scoffed.
“Save the sales pitch for someone who actually wants it.”
He didn’t miss a beat.
“They’ll believe me. I could tell them the moon is made of fairy dust and they’d eat it up. If I say you tried to fuck me in here, they’ll believe that too.”
I glared at him, fury burning hot in my chest.
“Oh, that’s right,” I shot back, words laced with acid.
“Because I’m not your type, right? I’m not the one you’d chase and fuck. I’m the desperate kind. Plain, invisible little Juniper throwing herself at the big bad quarterback in a bathroom because I couldn’t help myself. Poor, pathetic me — finally getting a chance to taste the legendary dick everyone’s so obsessed with.”
Knox’s mouth curved into a slow, humorless smirk.
“Exactly. And everyone will believe me. Because that’s the story that makes sense to them.”
My stomach twisted. The casual cruelty in his tone made my skin crawl.
“Look,” he continued,
“I’m trying to solve your problem while you solve mine. You need money for your dad’s treatment. I’m fucking sure it’s not cheap — hospital bills, chemo, scans, all that shit adds up fast. And you don’t need to drop out of college to scrape by on three dead-end jobs. I’ll pay you whatever you want. Name your price. I just need you to play the part of my girlfriend so Tracy and the rest of them finally back the fuck off. It’s simple. Mutual benefit.”
I stared at him, heart pounding so hard it hurt, each beat echoing in my ears like a warning drum.
The warmth that had briefly bloomed in my chest when he wiped my tears was long gone, replaced by ice-cold anger and raw disbelief.
“You’re disgusting,” I whispered.
The words came out weaker than I wanted, almost pathetic, because deep down the worst part was that he wasn’t entirely wrong. I did need the money.
ASAP.
Dad’s treatment had to start desperately — every day we waited made it worse.
And Knox knew it.
He could see it all over my face.
Fuck.
I needed the money.
Bad.
I drew in a slow, shaky breath, then let it out through my nose, forcing my spine to straighten.
“OK. Fine. But I have my rules,” I said, voice steadier now, even if my hands still trembled at my sides.
He didn’t move. Didn’t blink.
His eyes stayed locked on mine.
“Okay,” he said slowly.
“I’m listening. But I’ll decide if they’re worth following.”
I squared my shoulders, refusing to let him see how rattled I was.
“You don’t touch me. And you don’t humiliate me in front of people.”
“You do that well enough yourself,” he muttered, eyes sliding over my baggy hoodie and sweats.
My glare snapped up, sharp enough to cut, and he lifted his hands in a small, almost apologetic gesture.
“I’m not trying to piss you off,” he said, quieter now.
“And I’m not exactly dying to touch you either.”
That stung more than I wanted it to.
“But,” he continued, voice dropping into something more serious,
“If we’re going to convince people you’re my girlfriend, I’ll have to show some affection. Not because I want to. Because it’s what people expect. If we’re doing this, it has to look real.”
He paused, letting the words sink in.
“You set your boundaries. I’ll respect them. But don’t expect me to act like we’re strangers in public. That’s not how this works.”
His voice softened, just barely.
“You want this deal? Then you have to meet me halfway.”
“Fine,” I said, arms crossed tight over my chest.
“But we keep this clean.”
He raised a brow, slow and deliberate.
“Define clean.”
“You know what I mean,” I snapped.
“Just holding hands, smiling, pretending we’re in love — without anything else.”
A low, raspy sound slipped out of him — not flirtatious, just maddeningly confident.
“Oh, that type of clean,” he said, the smirk tugging harder at the corner of his mouth, turning dark and filthy.
“You mean no messy shit like tongue-fucking your throat in public, sucking on your tongue until you’re moaning into my mouth, or sliding my hand up your skirt so everyone watching knows exactly how wet I can make you in thirty seconds flat.”
My jaw tightened so hard it ached. Heat flooded my face — half fury, half unwanted embarrassment.
“Knox,” I warned, voice low and sharp.
He looked at my mouth the moment his name left my lips, like I’d accidentally handed him something private he wasn’t supposed to have. His gaze lingered there, dark and intent.
“Speckles.”
“My name is not fucking Speckles.”
He shrugged, completely unbothered, the corner of his mouth still curved in that infuriating half-smirk.
I lifted my chin, trying to reclaim some control.
“And you delete the photo. Right now.”
His eyes flickered — something colder and more calculating. He stepped closer, close enough that I could feel the heat rolling off him.
“I will,” he said, voice steady and annoyingly calm.
“But not until we’re in this together. Fully. No half-assing it. No disappearing the second things get uncomfortable.”
I swallowed hard.
“Delete. The. Photo.”
“I said I will.” He held my stare without blinking.
“But you don’t get to dictate every single term. You want boundaries? Fine. I’ll respect them. But if we’re selling a relationship, we sell it convincingly.”
He paused, the smirk fading into something more serious, almost businesslike.
“You want clean? I can do clean. But believable comes first. Three months. That’s all I ask.”
My pulse jumped violently. “And after the three months are over?”
His jaw flexed once. “After three months, you walk away with your life intact, your dad’s bills handled, and the photo gone. That’s the deal.”
I hated how reasonable it sounded.
I hated that he knew exactly how desperate I was.
I hated that, deep down, I was already considering it.
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