DAKOTA
I had no clue Axel was about to find out my favorite sexual position was TBD. I think it was the worst way this possibly could have gone.
I suppose drinking wine in advance of having to do this thing was a bad idea, but it was the only way I was getting through Operation Get to Know You. My goal? Survive this interrogation as fast as possible, then get to bed and forget Axel Pierce had learned things about me I never wanted to tell him.
Funny. Back when I had first met him, all those years ago, I had dreamed about getting the chance to sit across from Axel and learn everything about him. I wanted to reach my fingers into his brain and find out every secret, every hidden fantasy, every fact. He was like a puzzle I wanted to assemble, all thousand pieces, one at a time, and each one I wanted to savor.
Fast-forward to right now. The thought of learning about him didn’t bother me. It was the thought of exposing parts of myself to him that had me all sorts of anxious.
The fire crackled in his living room fireplace, casting dancing shadows across the walls. I was curled up on one end of his ridiculously expensive leather couch, wineglass in hand, while he sat on the opposite end like we were in some kind of standoff. Which, let’s be honest, we were.
Axel was dressed in a black T-shirt that accentuated his muscles, flattened along his frustratingly flat abs, and gray sweats that not only showed off his legs, but notably … well, what was between them.
I mean, wow.Focus, Dakota. Wine. Drink more wine.
“Okay. Ready for this?” he asked.
Not really.
We’d pivoted and posted our stupidYay! We’re engaged!photo online and were once again “spotted” at dinner together. Looking lost in love. To follow that, we stopped by a place for dessert. More in love. To my equal parts pleasure and horror, it seemed to be working. The public seemed to be buying it, and as Rebecca predicted, they were thirsting for more. More us. More of the backstory.
And my brand deal wasn’t officially dead anymore. The rep “loved” what she was seeing online, citing how authentic our “flawed” love story was. #Irony. I just had to keep it up, I guess, but that was about to get a whole lot harder. And riskier because the reps at that brand deal had somehow sniffed out this dinner from hell and snagged an invite. I bet my money it was Rebecca’s doing, but I couldn’t blame her for helping me, now could I?
In any case, if each of our public events and subsequent posts had been like football games, the Super Bowl was looming ahead of us. A live event, where we’d have to think on the fly, make sure our story was airtight and impenetrable.
God. Help. Us.
Thus us sitting here now.
“You’re my brother’s best friend. You know me.” I pushed back, taking a generous gulp of my cabernet.
“First of all, you’re guarded as hell. Second, you were a completely different person back then. And third?” His eyes narrowed. “You’ve hated me ever since.”
“I don’t hate you.” I took another sip.Liquid courage, don’t fail me now.
His gaze remained locked on mine, and for a heartbeat, I thought it actually mattered to him that I didn’t hate him.(By the way, why exactly did I admit that again?)And, hello, was it just me, or was he trying to see straight into my soul right now? But then he cleared his throat and chucked whatever moment we’d just had aside.
“Right. Let’s start with something easy. When we first met.”
I glared at him over my wineglass. “We already know this information. We need to fill in the gaps between then and now.”
“One of the first questions couples get asked is how they met,” Axel said, settling back against the couch cushions like he had all the time in the world.
“Yeah, well, we’re not a normal couple. We met forever ago, and we’re just now engaged. Because apparently, I have terrible judgment.” I gestured with my wineglass for emphasis.
“And we need a story about that timeline.” He leaned forward, the firelight playing across his features. “We need to romanticize our first meeting. Make it sound like there was something there we didn’t act on. Sexual tension we ignored.”
Oh, there was tension all right.“Okay, fine. Let’s get this over with.” I drained half my glass.
“Tell me about the first time you saw me, and I’ll tell you about the first time I saw you.”
The memory warmed my cheeks despite my best efforts.Great. Now I’m blushing.“I came to visit Knox in college. First year, you were his roommate.”
“And when you walked in and saw me, you thought …?”
I thought you were the hottest guy I’d ever seen in my life. You were sprawled across your bed in a white T-shirt and gray athletic shorts, no shoes, scrolling through your phone like you owned the world. Which, let’s be honest, you probably thought you did.
“I don’t remember. You were just some random dude on a bed.” I took another gulp of wine.
