The Practice Boyfriend (The Boyfriend Series Book 1)

by Christina Benjamin

  She nodded.

  “Tell me what you want.”

  Hannah’s breath caught in her throat when he pulled her closer, running his hands seductively down her sides. Her body came alive in a way she’d never experienced before, pulsing with heat and desire as her chest pushed against Cody’s. She stiffened and melted all at once under his touch. She couldn’t believe she was standing in such close proximity to him in nothing but her underwear. And she didn’t hate it. That thought alone terrified her.

  “Hannah, tell me what you want me to do.”

  She nodded.

  He smirked. “That means use your words.”

  There was the mockery she was used to.

  She rolled her eyes. “I don’t know what I want. That’s the problem. I’m no good at this.”

  “You’re doing fine. You’re just wound up. You need to chill. What do you do in a tennis match when you need to stay calm?”

  She shook her head.

  “Tell me.”

  “No. You’re going to make fun of me.”

  “I promise I won’t.”

  She sighed. “I breathe and make mental lists.”

  Cody cocked an eyebrow.

  “Don’t judge, it works.”

  “Okay, give it a whirl,” he said pulling her closer to him.

  Her breath hitched instantly when he pressed his body into hers.

  “Breathe,” Cody reminded her.

  She closed her eyes and took a deep steadying breath and mentally repeated her mantra.

  Keep your eye on the prize, Hannah.

  Get the key.

  Get the guy.

  Make memories.

  High school perfection.

  When she opened her eyes, Cody’s handsome face filled her vision. God, he was gorgeous. Hannah began to second-guess her decision to choose such an attractive boy to practice these things with. Being this close to Cody made it impossible to focus. She had to close her eyes and start her list all over again. This time she reminded herself of who he was, training her mind to see the boy with no future who owed her.

  This time when she opened her eyes, her head remained clear and she knew exactly what she wanted—perfection. She would settle for nothing less.

  When Hannah opened her eyes she looked different, confident. Her technique had worked.

  “What do you want to practice, Hannah. The ball’s in your court.”

  She looked up at him assertively. “This,” she whispered, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him.

  It only took Cody a second to respond. His arms circled her slender waist and he kissed her back with passion. Hannah parted her lips, teasing his tongue with hers. Cody eagerly answered by pressing her harder against him, nearly pulling her off her feet.

  She stood on her tiptoes and wound her fingers through his thick dark hair. He groaned into her mouth and her body responded. Her heat rushed to him, her heart hammering against Cody’s erratically. His hands gripped her tightly. She was like a ball of rubber bands, he could feel each touch winding tighter and tighter.

  Hannah leaned into Cody as his hands roamed down to her hips. She moved her trembling fingers down his bare chest and timidly hooked them into the waist of his jeans. But as soon as she touched his scorching skin, his muscles tensed and he pulled away, breaking the frantic spell they’d been under.

  Cody’s eyes were wide as he watched Hannah nervously touch her lips.

  “Was that good?” she asked.

  “That’s enough for today,” Cody said grabbing his clothes. “Get dressed. I’ll meet you in the car,” he grumbled before storming from the fitting room.

  He left Hannah gaping at him in shock. The sound of the slamming door barely audible above the turmoil screaming beneath his veins.

  13

  Hannah lay on her bed wondering what the hell she’d done wrong? The ride home with Cody had been awkward and silent. After he fled from the fitting room like he discovered she had smallpox, she stumbled around trying to find her clothes amongst the expensive apparel littering the floor. It didn’t seem right to leave the gorgeous fabrics lying around so Hannah did her best to hang them back up.

  A million thoughts had raced through her mind as she tidied up the fitting room. The most prevalent one was that kissing her was probably some sort of cruel and unusual form of punishment for Cody. He was used to beautiful, well-practiced girls. Maybe asking him to be her practice boyfriend wasn’t fair. He owed her, but she was starting to feel like she was taking things too far. With how fast he’d bolted she was worried she was causing him to be physically ill.

  The odd thing was, before he’d run out, she had felt something. Kissing him didn’t seem like practice at all. It felt . . . right. More than right, it was amazing. Hannah had never experienced such a rush of nervous excitement before.

  She touched her lips at the memory of their kiss and sighed. She was being stupid. She couldn’t possibly have felt anything for Cody. That’s why she’d picked him. He was safe. She’d never fall for someone as screwed up as he was. And she was certain he didn’t feel anything for her. He’d barely said two words the whole car ride home. He was already up the stairs to his massive house when she shouted, “pick you up tomorrow.”

  His only response was a wave. He didn’t even bother to look back at her.

  “Ugh! What a jerk!”

  Hannah sat up and punched her pillow, frustrated that her plan was falling apart because Cody was being a flake. All he’d done was force feed her caffeine, subject her to torturous primping, make her take her clothes off, tell her she needed new ones and then left without letting her get any. She reminded herself she didn’t pick him for his charm. She was just going to have to suck it up and try harder. She wasn’t going to let Cody Matthews stand in the way of her perfect high school résumé.

  Dressed in her favorite oversized gray sweatshirt from Brown and plaid pajama bottoms, Hannah hunched in front of her computer screen. She was studying graduation speeches again when she heard the doorbell ring. She didn’t flinch. She knew her father would answer. He was a night owl. Running his own tech company allowed him to work from home, but that meant he pretty much worked 24/7.

  Hannah glanced at the clock. Odd. Who would be stopping by so late? It was 10 pm. Way past her bedtime! But she was too restless to sleep. Stupid vanilla latte!

  The knock at her door startled her.

  “Hannah?” Her father’s voice called softly in the hallway. “Are you awake?”

  She strode to the door and creaked it open. “I’m up. What’s going on, Dad?”

  “A currier just delivered a bunch of bags for you,” he said holding up six gigantic silver bags. Each one with the words, Neiman Marcus, printed on the side. “There’s more downstairs.”

  “Oh!” Hannah’s heart skipped as she grabbed the bags from her father.

  Cody came through!

  “Thanks.” Hannah quickly stashed the bags in her room and ran down to the foyer with her father trailing behind her. She spotted three more Neiman Marcus bags, half a dozen garment bags and a short, wide white bag with the words LA PERLA stamped on the side in bold silver letters. There was an envelope attached to the handle with her name on it.

  “What is all of this for?” her father asked.

  “School project,” she snapped, scooping up the bags and running back up to her bedroom.

  Hannah locked the door and breathlessly looked at the sea of department store bags covering her floor. Where to start? She went to the LA PERLA bag first since she was most curious about the note. Maybe Cody was apologizing for running out on her. Maybe he really was sick. Oh god, maybe it was too hard for him to be around all the champagne. There was a bottle on ice in her fitting room. She’d been drinking it. Did she taste like champagne when she kissed him?

  She fumbled with the envelope praying she hadn’t inadvertently sent him back to rehab.

  ‘To conquer the world.’ - C

  Hannah flipped the card
over and peered into the empty envelope, but that was it. There was nothing else. She unwrapped the white tissue paper inside and pulled out an extremely lacey, extremely see-through, sexy black bra. Hannah’s cheeks burned scarlet when she pulled out the matching panties—thongs of course. The bag was full of six more identical sets in white, pale blue, soft pink, nude, red and gray.

  “Holy hell!” Hannah exclaimed when she caught the price tag on the skimpy panties. She scanned the rest of the lingerie and did a quick calculation. She gasped out loud. There was over $5000 in underwear sprawled out on her bed!

  “This is insane,” she whispered.

  She pawed through the rest of the bags, pulling out the lavish items and carefully laying them on her bed. Cody purchased every item from the fitting room! It was a small fortune. It would cover her entire tuition to Brown—not that she was paying to go there. She’d never be able to afford Brown if she hadn’t gotten a full scholarship. But that wasn’t the point. It was the principle. It made no sense to Hannah to spend that kind of money on clothes! No wonder it was impossible to reach Golden status at Stanton. If it required shopping habits like this there was no way Hannah would ever earn a way in on her own.

  As dedicated as she was to her cause, Hannah was starting to feel uncomfortable with her and Cody’s arrangement. At this rate, she was going to be the one who owed him.

  “Not going to happen,” she muttered grabbing her phone. She tapped out a quick text to Cody and hit send.

  GOT THE BAGS. WAY TOO MUCH. I’M SENDING THEM BACK. – HANNAH

  A bubble appeared on her screen. Cody was texting back.

  RULE #2. LESSON #3. – CODY

  “He can shove his ridiculous rules,” Hannah muttered hitting the call button.

  Cody answered on the first ring. “Hello, doll face.”

  “Cody, they’re going back. All that stuff cost way too much money. I’m not comfortable with it.”

  “So you’re okay with blackmail, but you draw the line at expensive apparel?” he mocked.

  “It’s absurd to spend that much money on clothes! And I can by my own underwear, thank you very much.”

  “Oh give it a rest, Hannah. You go to Stanton for Christ sake. You obviously have the means, so stop pretending to be offended by wealth. I’m over the whole innocent bit. And everyone knows you can’t return lingerie, so deal with it.”

  Hannah was speechless.

  “Hell-o?” Cody taunted when she didn’t reply. “You still there?”

  “Yeah,” was all she could manage.

  “Good. Then I expect to see you dressed accordingly tomorrow morning and put your game face on so we can get this over as quickly as possible.”

  Click.

  Hannah sat in stunned silence after Cody hung up on her. She wasn’t used to being caught off guard. But what had she expected? No one knew she attended Stanton Prep for free. Her father could never afford the steep tuition, but he wanted the best for her and always led by example. She still remembered the day he’d told her that he’d enrolled her in Stanton. “If you want something, you make it happen,” he’d said.

  When she attended her interview with the dean she’d found out the only way she’d been allowed to attend Stanton was because her father donated his company’s software for the entire campus so she could attend for free. She felt horrible, knowing that he was giving away his hard work for free. Plus, it made her feel like an intruder. Even as a sixth grader, she knew that if her pauper status got around at Stanton she’d never fit in. So she kept to herself, focused on academics and made sure no one ever learned her secret.

  Hearing Cody say she had money should have eased her nerves. It was further proof that she’d successfully managed to survive Stanton without anyone knowing she couldn’t afford to be there. So why was it bothering her so much? It wasn’t so much Cody’s statement, but the way he’d said it. Implying that because she had money that she didn’t need to value it. She hated the venomous entitlement in his voice.

  Hannah squared her shoulders and walked to her closet to make room for her new wardrobe. What’s done was done, she thought. If Cody was going to be pigheaded and arrogant she wasn’t going to let the clothes go to waste. She’d call it an investment in her future. And a reminder to not turn into a Golden in her quest to conquer them.

  She folded Cody’s note and put it in her desk drawer, before hopping into bed.

  “To conquer the world, indeed,” she grumbled switching off the light.

  14

  Cody felt bad after he hung up on Hannah. But just hearing her voice on the phone was enough to make him lose his resolve to continue their charade. After the fitting room incident he’d decided he was done. Graduating wasn’t worth the emotional turmoil he’d gone through today. He’d nearly had a panic attack on the car ride home. He was barely holding it together as it was. The last thing he needed was some girl messing with his head and sending him straight back to rehab. All that would do was make certain he didn’t graduate with his classmates.

  But did he even care? The kids he’d known since grammar school, and considered his friends, dropped him like a bad habit the second being his friend became inconvenient to their social status. So screw them. He didn’t need them. He didn’t need anyone.

  Maybe he could just get his GED. But he dismissed the thought instantly, knowing it would kill his father. He wasn’t around much, but he’d sacrificed a lot to make sure Cody had every opportunity—including his marriage. Cody wasn’t quite sure what happened between his parents. He was so young when they divorced. But it was clear that Cody was an unpleasant reminder of their failure. He couldn’t let them down by adding more failure. He’d already done enough damage. It was time for him to grow up.

  Cody had been more than happy to go through the motions for the next few weeks so he could put his high school nightmare to rest once and for all and move on. That was until Hannah screwed everything up.

  How hard could it be, Cody? Give the girl your key, dress her up, introduce her to the douche bags that will be at the party and you’re free. All you have to do is pretend to care about helping her for a few days.

  “Pretend!” he scolded himself.

  He didn’t think it would be hard. Sure she was hot, but so was every girl at his school. But none of them were, Elena. None of them knew him or gave a shit about him. No one could fix what she had broken.

  Elena’s death had destroyed him and after rehab Cody vowed he would never let anyone in again. And it was working just fine until fucking Hannah Stark, with her big doe eyes and perky innocent breasts offered herself to him on a silver platter. He didn’t need this shit. Hadn’t he been through enough?

  By the time he’d gotten out of Hannah’s car Cody had convinced himself that he didn’t care if she got her perfect high school experience or if he didn’t graduate. But then he checked his phone. Mistake. The socialsphere was a twitter with talk about Cody and Hannah.

  Spotted at school.

  Spotted at Starbucks.

  Definitely sleeping together.

  Did you hear he got her pregnant too?

  How long before he kills her?

  OMG she deserves to die. Have you seen how she dressed?

  What a slut.

  And it went on and on. Cody was livid by the time he put his phone down. He paced back and forth in his sterile, empty home.

  “This is all my fault.”

  Why the hell did he think he could help Hannah infiltrate the Goldens?

  Sure he’d been one of them. But in the time he’d been away he’d quickly forgotten how ruthless they were. They would never accept her. And now that he’d practically drawn a target on her back by pretending to date her, he’d ensure that the last few weeks of high school would probably destroy her.

  “Not this time.”

  He’d be damned if he let those bastards destroy another innocent life. Cody blamed the Goldens and their stupid secret parties for tearing him and Elena apart. That’s w
here they’d been the night of their stupid fight. The night they’d gotten drunk and said all kinds of things they couldn’t take back. The night she’d died.

  Cody picked up his phone and texted Bianca. Then he’d taken a long shower and plotted revenge. When he’d gotten out his phone was buzzing with texts.

  One from Bianca.

  One from Hannah.

  Texts he could handle. But then she called. And her sincere voice sent shivers through him. He was right back in the fitting room. Hannah half naked, doe eyes staring up at him after their electrifying kiss, asking if she was good enough. Shit! He needed to get her out of his head. The last thing he needed was to go feeling something for a girl like Hannah. He needed to get off the phone.

  He’d been harsh with her. But that was the only way this was going to work. Cody needed to stay disconnected.

  15

  The next morning Hannah skipped up the massive stone steps to Cody’s house wearing one of her new, and ridiculously expensive, workout outfits courtesy of Bianca’s fine taste and Cody’s deep wallet. Underneath it—her lacey LA PERLA lingerie clung to her skin like it was designed for her body alone. Hannah had to admit, maybe there was something to paying an obscene amount for clothing. Because she currently felt like she could conquer anything!

  She rang the doorbell with confidence. When the butler answered, she smiled brightly. “Good morning.”

  “Here for Master Cody?”

  “Yes. I’ll show myself to his room.”

  It seemed all Cody needed was a good night’s sleep because he was in a great mood when Hannah waltzed into his room. Fresh out of the shower, he was wearing nothing but a towel. Hannah’s eyes darted straight to his glistening abs, following the sculpted V-shape muscles that disappeared beneath the towel.

  “Doll face!” he exclaimed when she walked in. “You look ravishing.”

  “Well you’re in a good mood this morning.”