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“Well, for all you know, they won’t care,” she said, feeling a bit half-hearted herself. She knew for a fact that her mother wouldn’t be thrilled with her choice. She’d been after Teagan for years to get out there and date. Reiterating how silly it was to waste away because of one bad relationship. And honestly, she had tried to get out there. She’d even had a boyfriend or two. But soon after the relationships turned sexual, she broke things off. Mostly to keep from having to go throughthis. This whole rigmarole of introducing her beau to her mother and then having to listen to her mother tear them down.
More than once on this short drive, she’d wondered if admitting she’d been duped by Eric was preferable to bringing Jaxon home as her boyfriend, fake though it may be. But she felt solid in her decision. Her family thinking she was a silly fool yet again wasn’t an option.
Of course, she could keep the whole thing a secret from her parents. She could get Brad and Shea on board easily enough.
But Britt was right. It wasn’t real until your folks knew. And they were playing this off like it was real, weren’t they?
Honestly, Teagan wasn’t even sure anymore.Wasit fake? Their kisses felt real. But they only happened in front of other people, so… The lines had been blurred so much, she didn’t know much of anything other than her crush was back in full force. And the way his mouth plucked at hers didn’t help matters in the slightest.
Sighing, she shook her head. “Even I knowthat’snot true…”
Jaxon sniffed, his mouth crooking up in the corner in one of his trademarked smirks. “Teagan, your mom wasn’t ever thrilled with me. I’ll be fine.”
He was right about that. Mom had never been the biggest fan of Jaxon Lawson. There was a relatively minor incident that stuck out in her mind. He and Brad had been teenagers at the time, but Cassandra Madden never forgot a slight. Real or perceived.
Brad had a little baggie of pot and had been smoking it before driving to pick up Jaxon.
He was apparently driving at a snail’s pace and had gotten pulled over. They weren’t arrested, but the chief of police had called her father. It wasn’t a scandalper se, but when the Region Representative’s son got pulled over while under the influence, word traveled around.
Brad had insisted that the pot had beenhis. Not Jaxon’s. In fact, Jaxon hadn’t even known he was high until he started stopping at stop signs well before the white line.
But Cassandra, never wanting to see anything bad in her oldest son, had convinced herself that Jaxon was at fault for the incident and never forgave him for it.
It didn’t help that he’d started running around with Eric soon after that, and then Dad had to help him out of that wasp’s nest.
Teagan didn’t respond, but it was because she was pulling into the driveway of her family home. There were more important matters than rehashing the past and reiterating a fact they both knew to be true.
Still gripping the steering wheel, she tried to imagine every possible scenario involving her mother today, but her brain felt like it was buzzing.
“Hey…” Jaxon’s hand appeared on hers, squeezing. “You parked. We’re here, Teags.”
When she turned to face him, his eyes looked so kind. So wide. So concerned.
She leaned forward and tangled her hand in the hair on the back of his head, pulling him forward and latching onto him for a searing kiss. He moaned into her mouth, tried to talk. To ask her what the hell she was doing, but she didn’t know.
What came out of her mouth was pure bullshit, though. She gasped words between kisses as she shifted in her seat to reach him better.
“Practicing. So we. Look. Believable.” When he pushed his tongue into her mouth, she sucked on the end of it, causing a heated groan to bubble up out of him and wash over her. She knew she was talking out of her ass because she wasn’t going to suck on Jaxon’s tongue in front of her parents.
He didn’t argue with her, though, just moved closer, his hand creeping up to smooth over the back of her head, anchoring him in place while her kisses became more demanding. More hungry. He met her with equal vigor, teeth dragging over her bottom lip and drawing a needy sound from her with incredible ease.
Her phone buzzed on the dash where she had it streaming music. A quick glance told her it was a text from Shea. Likely asking where they were. She ignored it, tilting her head to give Jaxon better access to her mouth. He moved one hand to the back of her head, threading his fingers through her hair.
The other one moved up her thigh, and she reached down to entwine their fingers.
It buzzed again, but she didn’t even look at it this time because she’d pushed her tongue into Jaxon’s mouth and he’d grunted softly, deepening the kiss like he was trying to drink her up and she couldn’t think about anything else.
Fuck, he was so good at that, keeping her from thinking about anything else.
The phone rang a few seconds later, and she knew she couldn’t ignore it anymore.
She broke off the kiss, but kept her eyes on Jaxon’s when she answered the phone, wondering if she looked as thoroughly debauched as he did. If her lips were pink and swollen like his were.
“Hello?” she spoke into the receiver, a little winded, but hopefully, it wasn’t noticeable.
“What’s your ETA? We’re all waiting here,” Brad asked, not bothering to say hello.
Rolling her eyes, Teagan answered. “I’m driving. Do you want me to wrap this car around a tree? We’ll be there soon.”
