Then he reached down and pulled her into a standing position beside him, and she did something she’d never dreamed she’d be able to do: she reached out and hugged Aiden Murdoch. Arms around his waist. Cheek against his chest. Torsos smashed together.
“Thank you,” she whispered. “For helping me get my house.”
After a pause, his arms wrapped around her shoulders. “Happy to,” he murmured back, arms briefly tightening around her before she pulled away, cheeks flushed yet again. Their eyes caught and held, and for a split second, he leaned toward her. Was he going to kiss her again? Seal their wild, ridiculous bargain with another tangle of mouths and tongues that would give her a second dose of fantasy fodder?
But he didn’t close the distance between them, and self-consciousness creeped in. She stepped away and said brightly, “I’ve gotta call Melinda right now. Tell her to put in an offer.”
It broke the spell, and Aiden moved to snag his coat from the rack. “Do you want my advice on negotiating, or are you good?”
“Yes, please! You’re the house expert.” She whipped out her phone and opened her notes app to take down whatever information he was willing to impart.
He spoke as he pulled on his coat. “I think you ought to offer $5,000 less than the asking price. Make sure Melinda tells the sellers that the kitchen’s gonna be a real bitch for your hardworking and immensely talented contractor.”
Excitement swelled in her chest and almost drowned out the Aiden flutters. Almost. Then he went and winked at her, and it was all over. “The trick’ll be putting up with me for that long. Before this is over, I’ll know how you take your coffee in the mornings and what side of the bed you sleep on.”
His casual mention of her bed knocked the air from her lungs. “The bed?” She was amazed she’d been able to get the words out without hyperventilating. Even if it was all going to be pretend, the very idea of her and Aiden and a bed left her breathless.
But he replied innocently, “If you decide to add that skylight in the bedroom, I need to know where you’ll be sleeping so I can position it perfectly.”
Oh. The skylight. Of course. “If I can afford a skylight. And if I even get the house.” She bit her lip. “That’s a lot of ifs.”
“I have faith in you.” He lifted his hand to her face and brushed his thumb gently over her cheek, eyes fixed on hers. Then the intensity in his expression vanished, replaced by his usual laid-back hot-guy vibe. “Go get ’em, killer.” He was gone with a final flash of white teeth, leaving her to sag against the wall as her knees threatened to give out.
That night Thea learned that making an offer on your first home is a piece of cake when your brain is buzzing about the fact that a handsome man asked for your hand in fake girlfriend-dom.
Nine
“You coming in?”
Thea’s voice beckoned from the master bath, and the splashing sounds clued him in on what to expect. He closed his laptop and set it on the bedside table, then walked directly into the adjacent room, his dick already hardening.
She was in the enormous tub, wearing nothing but a smile. Fluffy mounds of fragrant bubbles covered her to her shoulders, but the long expanse of neck he could see was flushed pink with the heat of the water, and her dark hair curled at her temples in the humidity. With an inviting flash of her eyes, she slowly lifted one foot out of the water and pressed a button with her toe. The jets of the whirlpool tub kicked on, and she gave a little shiver.
“Oooh, that’s nice.” Her teeth sank into her lower lip. “Not as nice as your tongue though. Get in.”
A frantic bolt of lust raced through him at her words, at the command in her voice, and touching her warm, wet skin became the only thing in the world that mattered. Yet his chest rose and fell as he stood frozen in the doorway, struck by the tableau: Thea in the bathroom he’d renovated with his own hands, waiting for him to strip and join her.
When he didn’t move, she frowned and leaned back against the far slope of the tub, the bubbles shifting to give him tantalizing peeks at a curve of a breast here, a dusky nipple there.
“What’s the matter? I’m not a little kid anymore.”
He sucked in a deep breath before he finally found his voice. “Don’t I fucking know it.” He reached for the button on his jeans and yanked it free, desperate to join her in the—
“Hi! Trip said I could find you here.”
The fantasy shattered, leaving Aiden with an erection in his jeans and his new fake girlfriend in his office.
“You okay?” Thea frowned at him. “I can come back.”
He ran a hand through his hair as he brought his breathing under control. Had his wild and unexpected daydream conjured her somehow? This Thea wasn’t warm and wet and covered in bubbles though; she was zipped into a puffy coat and holding a striped knit hat in her hands, the tip of her nose red from the cold.
“No! Please stay.” He shot to his feet, then sat right back down again. His body needed a little more time to chill the fuck out. “I was just reviewing whirlpool tub options for some clients.”
True. He’d been looking at suggestions for the Sappersteins, but his mind had galloped away from him, and what the hell was that all about anyway? The bargain they’d struck last night hadn’t changed anything between them, just like that damn hockey-game kiss hadn’t changed anything.
Means to an end. His end was a thriving family business. Hers was a house she could call home. Out-of-left-field hot tub fantasies had absolutely no place in his plan to deal with the woman he’d known his whole life. The same woman who’d looked ready to puke when she thought he was including sexual favors in their bargain.
That same woman was currently staring at him like he’d suddenly sprouted antennae.
