“It’s cute,” Harvey said. “I like it. You always did love the stars.”
“What do you mean, play pretend?” I asked, feeling for Harvey’s fingers under the covers.
They curled around mine as soon as I brushed against them.
“I mean, what if we pretend like weareengaged. I don’t mean just for Liam’s benefit,” he said before I could object. “For ours, too. Cut through the bullshit, treat each other like we really are planning on getting married. Just for a little while. Skip the awkward dating part and just go to happily having lots of really great sex and cuddling in front of the fire and… whatever else it is engaged people do.”
“Experience tells me they’ve usually started a sex schedule by then,” I said, thinking of Liam.
He wasn’t a bad person. He just wasn’tmyperson.
Harvey wrinkled his nose. “I’m not writing a schedule. It’s a whirlwind engagement, we’re still in the honeymoon phase.”
I laughed, moving Theo gently off the bed before he fell asleep between me and Harvey.
I loved him, but he could sleep somewhere other than right next to me for one night.
… or a handful of nights, if I took Harvey up on his offer.
My dick definitely wanted me to.
And if it waspretend, if we both knew it was going to be over the moment Harvey left, then I couldn’t get my heart broken. Not for real.
Besides, tonight was the first time I’d felt comfortable out in the world. The whole of Otter Bay knew what’d happened between me and Liam, but for once, with Harvey by my side, I didn’t feel like they all felt sorry for me.
“What do you get out of it?” I asked.
“Aside from the sex?” Harvey asked, raising an eyebrow. “I guess… I’ve never really had a boyfriend, let alone a fiancé. No one would want me, y’know, since I’m always moving around. It’d be nice to feel like I did for a little while. With someone I know I can trust.”
So we were in the same position, then. A little heart-weary and looking for comfort.
We’d always been able to comfort each other before. Why shouldn’t we do it now, like this? What harm could it do?
“I’m gonna want at least one actual sword fight,” I teased, glancing over at Harvey. “I miss playing with you.”
“At least one actual sword fight,” Harvey agreed. “Any other conditions?”
“I want you to kiss me,” I said before I could lose my nerve. “I miss kisses.”
“As many kisses as you want,” Harvey said. “Anything else?”
“I think that’s all. If the sex is implied.”
“It’s implied. No strings, no hard feelings, just fun. Until I gotta go.” Harvey smiled a soft, boyish smile at me, full of wonder and hope, holding his hand up with his little finger extended. “Pinky promise?”
I hadn’t pinky promised anything with anyone other than Harvey in my entire life. Pinky promises wereserious, you could only make them with people you really trusted.
Liam would’ve laughed at me if I tried.
“Pinky promise,” I said, looping my finger around his so we could shake on it.
I trusted Harvey. With my life, with my heart. I knew he’d never hurt me.
He laughed, shuffling forward and rolling me onto my back, pinned to the mattress, lips hovering a half-inch over mine. “How many kisses until you can get it up again?” he murmured.
Judging by the pang of lust that’d just gone straight to my dick? One.
But I wasn’t letting Harvey know that. Now that it was on offer, I wanted everything.
