Read Online Make You Blush by Macy Beckett - Free Book Online Page A

his periphery and listening in.
    The two exchanged a stiff hug and a few generic pleasantries. Ryan couldn’t hear the whole conversation, but snippets reached him on the breeze. The man asked Joy if she would be at some gala fund-raiser next week, and she said yes. Then he asked what she was up to tonight, and she told him she was heading home from dinner with friends. When she hooked a thumb at Ryan, her next words nearly stopped his pulse.
    “. . . just ran into one of my physical therapy clients . . .”
    After that, Ryan quit hearing anything at all.
    Once, when he was a kid, he was running bases with a giant wad of bubblegum in his mouth. The gum had somehow gotten wedged in his airway, and for a few terrifying seconds he hadn’t been able to breathe.
    He felt that way now.
    Joy’s casual lie repeated inside his head, followed closely by his friend’s advice from earlier that day:
If she hasn’t made the relationship public, it probably means she’s playing with you
. Ryan didn’t want to believe it, but the prickle of dread creeping over him refused to be ignored.
    His stomach grew heavy as the weight of Joy’s words sank in. Then, like evidence at a jury trial, the facts presented themselves one by one, each more undeniable than the last. Joy hadn’t introduced him to her friends. She hadn’t wanted him at any of her father’s political events. She’d spent two weeks hiding him from the public. And most damning of all, she’d just told someone he was a client.
    Not her boyfriend. A fucking client.
    She was ashamed of him.
    The longer Joy left him there like a discarded napkin, the harder Ryan’s heart pounded. His body heated until he had to unfasten the first four buttons of his shirt. He knew he should feel hurt, but the only emotion racking him was anger.
    Maybe her vanilla boyfriends hadn’t hit the spot, so she’d decided to try a bite of spiced carrot cake—secretly, of course. Because God forbid anyone like Joy be romantically linked with him.
    Ryan’s head swam so fiercely he didn’t notice when Joy and the campaign manager parted ways. The next thing he knew, she was standing in front of him wearing a relieved smile.
    Joy tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and pointed to her eyebrow hoops. “He would’ve lost it if he’d seen me like this.”
    “Or on a date with a lowly tattoo artist, I guess.” Ryan didn’t bother softening the razor-sharp edge of his voice. He couldn’t have, even if he’d tried.
    Her smile faltered as if she hadn’t heard him right. “What are you—”
    “But it’s okay to talk to a
client
, right?”
    When Joy’s mouth dropped into an oval, Ryan knew she hadn’t meant for him to overhear that tidbit. Slowly, she shook her head. “Don’t get mad. It’s not like that.”
    “No?” he asked. “Then what’s it like? I think you don’t want anyone to know we’re dating, because then Daddy might find out. Am I getting warm?”
    “No. You’re jumping to conclusions. There’s noth—”
    “I’m not a felon, Joy!” he barked. When a few onlookers from across the street raised their brows at him, he lowered his voice. “There’s no legitimate reason for you to treat me like your dirty little secret.”
    “That’s not what I’m doing, I promise.”
    “Once again, your words don’t match your actions.”
    Joy reached out for him, but seemed to think better of it. “Ryan, you don’t know my—”
    “What am I to you?” he interrupted. “Your boyfriend? Or a temporary good time?” When she gaped at him, her wide blue eyes shimmering with unshed tears, he took the liberty of answering for her. “Since you don’t seem to know, let me tell you what I’m
not
. I’m not a hoop in your eyebrow that you can remove or hide whenever it suits you.”
    A single tear spilled free, and she splayed her hands as if begging for understanding. “I swear I don’t see you that way.”
    “What am I to you?”
    He didn’t know why he was giving