An hour into dinner and several drinks deep, everything was going smoothly. Ian had miraculously secured reservations for a private room at MRKT, a highly sought-after local farm-to-table restaurant. Callaghan was slowly warming up to me, even if it was practically requiring backflips and significant self-censoring on my part. And Thayer was charming the pants off Laura and Callaghan’s wife, Lenora. I couldn’t have chosen a better fake fiancée if I tried.
Callaghan watched the three women talking for a moment before turning back to me.
“Alexandra invited me to your engagement party on the eighteenth,” he said. “She told me she’s hosting it with your mother.”
Once Thayer’s mother, Alexandra, entered the picture, our mothers had collectively gotten out of hand. The guest list for our party had tripled, it had been bumped a week later, and the time had moved into the evening. In other words, what was supposed to be a low-key brunch was now a full-on semi-formal soiree. The only thing that hadn’t changed was the venue; it was still being hosted at my parents’ house, like my mother wanted.
“Looking forward to it,” I said. Low-level guilt hummed in the back of my mind like static interference. I hated doing lying to my mother, but I hated the idea of her watching me go bankrupt even more.
CALLAGHAN CUT off another bite of his steak, glancing up at me. “Have you set a date for the nuptials?”
“Just nailing down a date now. We’re thinking early summer.” I’d rehearsed some of these lies in my head so many times that they sounded shockingly natural at this point.
Ian cocked his head thoughtfully. “Did you pick a venue?”
Well-meaning bastard. No, Ian, we hadn’t chosen a venue for our non-existent wedding. We hadn’t even talked about what was going to happen in a few weeks—after Callaghan, after Quinn and Adam’s wedding, after all of our reasons for faking it disappeared.
I wish I could have let Ian in on the truth, like Thayer had with Lola, but Ian was a shitty liar. It was too risky.
“We have a few contenders in mind, but we haven’t decided yet,” I said. “I’m leaving it up to Thayer. Whatever will make her happy.”
Callaghan nodded. “Smart man.”
“Honey,” Lenora called over. “Thayer was telling me they were looking at having their wedding ceremony at that old, converted barn. You know, the one on the way to our acreage.” Barn? What barn? I had no idea what or where this barn was, so I sure as hell hoped someone wasn’t about to ask me for details.
I leaned over, catching Thayer’s eye, and brushed my foot against hers under the table. “That sounds great, Thay. I can’t wait for you to take me there so we can check it out together.”
“Of course.” She gave me a wistful smile, like she was actually looking forward to doing that. “Bennett’s been working a lot lately, so I’ve been checking out venues with Quinn instead. But we’ll make the final decision together, right, hon?”
“Always,” I said.
Bullet dodged. For now.
Another hour later, we were wrapping up dessert with Callaghan all but officially sold. It was so close I could feel it. It helped that Adam wasn’t here to get in the way for once.
Ian set down his fork, swallowing a bite of flourless chocolate torte. “We can have you come by this week to sign all the paperwork.”
My adrenaline spiked, and I ceased breathing. Come on…
Callaghan dabbed his mouth with the white linen napkin. “Actually, we’re going on a quick getaway to Turks and Caicos. Just for ten days. But we’ll be back late next Friday, so let’s sign the papers the following Saturday at Bennett and Thayer’s engagement party. We can get it out of the way early in the evening.”
I’d have strongly preferred to ‘get it out of the way’ now, but it was something. Basically as good as done. I hoped.
“That sounds great,” I told him.
Thayer offered a gracious smile. “We can’t wait to see you there.”
AFTER CLEARING up the bill with Ian, Thayer and I headed into the parking lot, fingers intertwined. I was flying high with no hope of coming down any time soon. Winning over Callaghan was great. But in the immediate future, I only had one thing on my agenda: her.
We came to stand in front of the passenger side door to my black BMW coupe, lit only by the dim glow of the nearby streetlight. Thayer’s eyes dropped to my mouth before lifting back up to meet my eyes, and she gave me a tiny, almost imperceptible smile. By now, I knew exactly what that smile meant.
Leaning in, I brought my mouth down to hers. When our lips connected, she let out a little sigh and parted her lips, granting me access. Our tongues brushed together in a wine-tinted kiss, and everything else around us started to fade away. Somewhere in the distance, a car door slammed and we pulled apart, suddenly remembering where we were.
“Not going to lie,” I said, nuzzling the top of Thayer’s head and breathing in the clean, familiar scent of her shampoo. “I was a little disappointed you didn’t mention Ed Sheeran.” I pushed her up against the car door, my hands pinning her narrow waist beneath her wool peacoat.
Thayer laughed softly, turning to bury her face in my chest. Her arms wrapped around my torso, hugging me against her. “That went perfectly, though. You did it.”
“We did it.” Reaching down, I tilted her face up to mine, taking in her features in the half-light. Her tongue darted out, moistening her full bottom lip. God, I loved those lips. “Now I’m going to do you.”
She drew in a soft inhale, voice turning breathy. “Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah.” My fingers walked up her bare thigh, pausing when they reached the hemline of her little black dress. Her pupils dilated as I slid one finger beneath the fabric. I traced back and forth against her bare skin, feeling goosebumps pop up in response. “What color are your panties?” I was always curious, because I hadn’t seen a repeat set of lingerie on her yet. Perk of her job, I suppose.
“Black,” she said. “Lace. They’re new, and they’re very, very tiny.”
All the blood vacated my brain with a whoosh, going straight to my other head. I removed my hand from beneath her dress and grabbed the handle, opening the car door for her. “We’d better get out of here before we’re not allowed back.” If she didn’t get in the vehicle, I was going to do something indecent to her in the middle of the parking lot.
After closing her door, I walked around to the driver’s side and started the engine, easing out of the parking stall. I signaled and pulled onto the street, thoughts circling straight back to what I was going to do when we got back to her place. It was a pity the local freeway didn’t have an unrestricted speed limit like the Autobahn so I could make the trip home that much faster. Getting arrested for reckless driving would be a definite mood-killer.
“Speaking of your underwear,” I said, “I’m going to tear them off the minute we walk through the door.”
Thayer raised an eyebrow. “You wreck them, you pay for them.”
“Money well spent. What should I do to you after that? Should I fuck you against your front door, or should I push you against the wall and go down on you first?” In the dim light, I could see her squirm slightly as a pink flush spread across her cheeks. I loved talking dirty to Thayer. Seeing her get worked up because of me was a massive turn-on. And when she got a little dirty back, it was even better.
“I like the second one.” Thayer reached over, slowly stroking my thigh. My cock silently begged for her to move a little higher and to the left, but she didn’t. “What else?”
What wasn’t I going to do? At this point, I was going to keep her up until dawn working my way down the list. Her neighbors might not be too pleased, but too bad. That’s what earplugs are for.
“For round two, I’m going to pin your wrists over your head and—” I stopped short when Thayer removed her hand from my leg. In my peripheral vision, she hiked up the hem of her dress and shifted in her seat, reaching beneath her legs. My cock twitched, breath stilling. Was she… no. Was she taking off her underwear?
“What are you doing?” I murmured, stealing a glance at her.
Thayer batted her eyelashes at me. “Nothing.” Reaching over, she placed the tiny, delicate scrap of black lace in the center console, laying it directly on top of my cellphone—a visual reminder that she was bare beneath her dress. “You were saying?”
My grip tightened around the steering wheel. “I’m going to…”
“Going to what?” Her fingers slid up her bare inner thigh, inching higher and higher.
My gaze darted over to her again briefly before returning to the task at hand: driving. Or trying to, at least.
“Bend you over my bed,” I continued.
She leaned back in the passenger seat and her fingers curled, disappearing beneath the hem of her dress. “Mmm…” Her moan was low and throaty, practically vibrating against my dick. Thayer’s eyes drifted shut and her hand moved beneath her dress again. While I couldn’t quite see what she was doing, I knew—and it was torture. With Thayer pleasuring herself next to me, it was impossible to think straight, let alone safely operate heavy machinery.
“Then what?” her voice was husky. “Keep talking so I can pretend you’re the one touching me.”
Fuck me. I wasn’t going to get us home in one piece.
“Are you trying to get us into an accident?” I rasped, steering the car back into the right-hand lane from where it had started to drift onto the shoulder. Maybe there was a rest stop coming up where I could pull over and could rail her.
“What do you mean?” Thayer opened her eyes, giving me a pouty little frown. “You’re the one talking dirty. You don’t want me to react?”
“I want you, all right. I want to fuck you until I feel your pussy clench around my cock.”
“Yes, please.” She stroked herself again and drew in a jagged breath, arching her back against the leather seat. I reached over and placed my hand over top of hers, feeling her fingers plunge inside her pussy. Instant blue balls. I withdrew my hand and shifted in my seat, readjusting myself, but it was impossible to get comfortable.
We passed a roadside sign indicating we had twenty-one miles until her exit. I was looking at a minimum of more than twenty more minutes until we got to her place, even if I disregarded the speed limit. Probably closer to thirty, factoring in traffic lights and construction. Unacceptable. My manhood would fall off before then.
Fortunately, the next exit was a great alternative.
“You want to play like that? Fine.” I signaled and made a sharp left, pulling onto a single-lane side road paved with gravel. My blue-white LED headlights cut into the inky darkness, and the rough surface rumbled noisily beneath my tires, small rocks pinging off the car’s exterior.
“Where are we going?” Thayer asked.
“We’re taking a little detour.” I needed her naked, now. Needed her skin against mine, needed to be buried inside her, needed her moaning my name in my ear.
She broke into a curious smile. “Why?”
“Because we’re half an hour from your place, and I can’t wait that long.”
