“We shouldn’t,” she said against my mouth, but she didn’t sound that convinced.
“You mean to say,” I told her, nipping her earlobe, “that the future Mrs. Svensson doesn’t want to indulge in everything she’s entitled to?” I slowly unbuttoned the blouse she was wearing, slipping my hand inside. She moaned as I stroked her breast, rolling the nipple pebble hard with my fingers. One of her hands rose up to cup the back of my head, and she pulled me back down for a kiss. Her legs widened slightly as my hand drifted lower. I wanted to make her come undone.
Her phone beeped with a series of incoming texts, and Avery’s head jerked up, her forehead almost breaking my nose. She hastily straightened her clothes and snatched up her phone. I came around the couch and wrapped my arms around her, kissing her neck.
“That can’t be more important than what we’re doing,” I said. Her shirt was still unbuttoned, and I cupped her tits, but she brushed me off.
“Arg! My sister can’t leave it alone,” she said, pacing around the living room. “She’s still insisting our relationship is fake.”
“So we invite them over,” I said, feeling disappointed as she buttoned her shirt back up.
“Here?” Avery was horrified.
“Sure. We’ll show them what a perfect couple we are. I mean, who do we have to convince? Your grandmother seems on board after that display. Your father will go along with it just so he can disown you. It’s your sister and stepmother who are the problem. We just have to convince them that this is completely different from your other fake relationships. I mean, how many fake boyfriends could you possibly have brought around them?”
Avery squinted and muttered something.
“What was that?”
“Seventeen,” she answered.
“You managed to convince seventeen men to be your fake boyfriend?” I was astounded.
“No, that was just the number I brought around my family.”
“How? Why?”
“We had a lot of family events. Cassie was constantly showing off Trevor, my father would make snide comments, my grandmother would sigh wistfully about how she wanted me to find a man who treated me as well as Trevor treats Cassie—”
“I think I treat you much better than that,” I scoffed.
Avery rolled her eyes. “We cannot keep doing this. It is a disaster in the making.”
“I don’t see why it has to be,” I said, setting my hands on her waist and pulling her to me. “We’re both professionals. This fake relationship is a stressful endeavor. We have to be on our A game to fool all these people. If you’re stressed, you make mistakes. If you think about it,” I said, lightly kissing her jaw and then the corner of her mouth, “sex in a fake relationship could actually be a plus. Let me help you relax. You were the one who said I had magic hands. You can’t tell me you don’t want it.”
She gazed up at me, the soft curves of her body pressed against me, then pressed her mouth against mine. Before I could deepen the kiss, she said, “I do want it. And that is a huge problem.”
35
Avery
“We need to plan your wedding. Now,” Shirley said on the other end of the phone when I picked up early the next morning.
Blade was wrapped around me. After our hot, heavy, and ill-advised make-out session the previous night, he had kept his hands to himself. The part of me that hadn’t had any action in months had been sorely disappointed and had engaged in a drop-down, drag-out fight with the rational part of my brain until I had finally fallen asleep from exhaustion.
“It’s so early…”
“We have to make a statement. Need I remind you that you can forget about planning other people’s weddings if your own is a shit show?”
“At least she has a good-looking groom,” Edward said in the background. “That’s half the battle. You need to make sure he buys you a nicer wedding ring than that monstrosity on your finger, though.”
“We’ll be over at your place in an hour. Make sure you’re dressed,” Shirley said.
“Blade does not have to be dressed!” Edward yelled before Shirley hung up.
Blade murmured and held me closer.
He’s turning into Nathan.
