“I want that house!”
“Literally no one is going to have you plan their wedding now,” Edward said, making a face.
“We don’t have time for hysterics; we have to pivot,” Shirley said, tapping her spoon against the rim of her glass. “We’ll still find you a nice wedding dress. You can wear it at the reception and for pictures.”
“My grandmother will want pictures of me in her dress.”
“We’ll take a second set of pictures.”
“No one really cares about seeing the wedding party,” Edward said. “We just need a nice photo with you and Blade. There will be enough elegant moments that we can scrape up ten to fifteen pictures. People have such short attention spans, it’s not like anyone is going to look through a whole book of wedding photos.”
Shirley nodded. “It’s all about how you sell it, and we are going to sell it hard. Eyes on the prize. I saw your engagement photos. They were super cute! You and Blade will take a nice wedding portrait.”
“And you have to take some sexy honeymoon photos,” Edward said. “Mainly of just Blade for those of us here who like dick.”
“Which is all of us,” Shirley clarified.
“Fine. You help me pull off the fake wedding of the century, and I will provide yummy, shirtless beach pictures of Blade.”
“Have you seen him shirtless?” Shirley asked in excitement.
I went beet red.
“Oh no. Avery, you didn’t sleep with him?” she said, clapping her hands over her mouth.
I nodded reluctantly.
“Nice, Avery,” Edward said, fist bumping me.
“Don’t encourage her,” Shirley scolded. “You know how this is going to turn out!”
“I think Blade has a lot more to lose by turning into a desperate stalker than Nathan did. Besides, if he messes with you, Avery, I’ll take care of him.” Edward pulled a very long knife out of his jacket.
“Put that away,” I hissed. “You almost got arrested when you threatened Nathan—not that it did much good.”
“Is he still stalking you?” Edward demanded loudly.
“Shhh,” I hissed, smiling sheepishly at the waitress when she turned her attention in our direction. “He’s not stalking, he’s just being a dipshit. He’s dating the project manager on the Harris & Schultz project. He probably did it on purpose. Blade has invited a number of ThinkX employees to the wedding, so of course he’s going to be there. He’s convinced that I’m faking being in love with Blade.”
“Which you aren’t,” Shirley said. “Right?”
“No, of course not,” I scoffed. “I’m stupid enough to sleep with him, not fall in love with him.”
* * *
But I was feelingsomething for Blade.
It’s just lust.It had been days since I’d had the big D. I felt like I had shown remarkable self-restraint not to jump Blade’s bones while he was sound asleep. Unfortunately, it was seriously messing with my equilibrium to be that close to him and not straddle him and run my hands down that sinfully muscular chest.
“We are going to practice self-control,” I ordered myself as I punched in the key code to open the door to Blade’s condo. “We’re going to light a candle, do some yoga, and drink some cleansing tea.”
All my wholesome evening plans went out the window when I saw Blade, shirtless, sprawled on the couch in the living room. He was reading some computer magazine, and soft low-fi music was coming from one of the hidden speakers in the room.
“Hey, Avery,” he said in that deep voice that obliterated my self-control. Before I realized what was happening, my shirt was off, and my panties were on the floor.
“Penny called,” he said, not looking up as I stalked over to him. “She said she wanted to know if she could tag along for your bachelorette party. Holy smokes!” He bit his lip as I straddled him, tossed the magazine to the floor, then kissed him.
He quickly got over his surprise and put a hand on the back of my head, crushing our mouths together. His tongue pushed into mine, and his other hand cupped my breast. I greedily ran my hands down his muscular chest, my nails catching on the ridges of muscles. I kissed Blade, feeling gleeful when he hissed. I took his hand and pressed it under my skirt.
