She flipped her iPad cover shut and stood up. “We could have a pre-nup.”
He gestured for her to open the door to the stairwell. “I imagine anyone who got to marry you would have their own team of lawyers to negotiate all of those details, but that’s not reality for me, princess.”
“Hey!” She huffed a frustrated breath at him as she yanked open the door. “I’m being serious!”
He stopped right beside her and looked down, his expression not quite amused, but at least…soft. Affectionate. “You know what? I bet you are. It’s what I love the most about you. How earnest you are.”
Her cheeks flamed with the accidental compliment. “I don’t need lawyers to get married,” she whispered, her gaze never wavering as she glared up at him in determination. “What if I want to just do this for you? To free you from needing to work for my father?”
“I wouldn’t…” He jerked his head, not finishing the response.Go inside, his body language said.
So she let it be, and they shared dinner in his simple, one bedroom apartment. Then he tugged her to his bed.
“I don’t want you to think I don’t appreciate the offer,” he said as he stripped her down. His touch was rougher than usual, not that she was complaining. She liked the urgency.
And she really liked how he pinned her to his mattress once they were both naked.
She liked the bossy look he gave her, too. It made her feel wild and rebellious. “Maybe it wouldn’t just be for you,” she whispered as he wedged himself between her thighs. “Maybe it would be for the girl inside me who never wants to leave this bed. Who wants everyone to know just how much I love kissing you in the garage.”
He brushed his knuckles over her cheek and gave her a look so soft and so mature it made her feel the weight of their age difference in a whole new way. “That girl deserves to get married for the right reasons.”
Monica resisted the urge to snort. There weren’t any right reasons to get married. Her parents had loved each other desperately—until they didn’t. Her father had loved other women, desperately, madly. Until he didn’t.
Marriage was a legal mechanism to be used like any other—for one’s own best interests. But knowing that in her head didn’t mean her heart didn’t appreciate Josh’s sentiment.
“You’re a romantic,” she breathed.
He gave her a half-grin and hitched her bare thigh over his corded forearm. “Sometimes.”
“Mmm.” She shuddered as he pressed into her. “Okay, you win. I’ll wait for the right guy to come along and—”
He cut her off with a hungry, possessive kiss that matched the way his body was laying claim to her body.
Inside, she crowed. He might not want her to save him with an ill-considered proposal, but he didn’t like the idea of someone else putting a ring on her finger, either.
She shouldn’t like that as much as she did. But she liked it very, very much.
* * *
That night,Josh dreamed of another life, where everything was different, and Monica was his wife. He woke up with her sprawled on top of him, one of his hands spread wide across her back and the other curved around the back of her thigh.
He’d pulled her against him in his sleep.
He never wanted to let her go.
It was probably a warning sign that the affair had already gone on too long. It would only get harder, he told himself. Very reasonable.End it.
He didn’t do that. He did the opposite. He filled every moment he could with her scent, her taste, her clever ideas. He started a TikTok account at her urging and followed other car content creators.Others. As if one day soon, he might also be a content creator.
The thought made him laugh, but she had faith for the both of them.
Another week went by, and their secret stayed a secret.
And then they went to Vegas.
9
It wasthe first out-of-state race for Monica, and when they saw a nice lift for social media follows and engagement for all the accounts she helped with—the team, as well as for the individual drivers—she wanted to celebrate.
