AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Here, let me,” she says, pulling on the towel to move me closer. Positioning myself in front of her, I let her wet a corner of the towel, then start wiping it along my jaw.
“I got it. We met online, have been dating long-distance for two months, per your requested timeline, and you begged me to marry you while you were visiting Vegas.”
“Begged?” She scoffs.
I shrug, enjoying messing with her.
“I was on the fence. Convincing was required.”
“Very funny. I didn’t realize I married a comedian.”
“Isn’t that the problem? You don’t know who you married?” I mean it to be teasing, but the second my words land, I can tell by Emma’s weak smile that it wasn’t funny.
“Hey. I was trying to make light of the situation. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”
“No, you’re right. We don’t know each other. And we only have ten days until the interview with Kandi Kline. We’ll have to be better prepared than we were tonight.” She continues talking as she wipes.
With resolute concentration, Emma inches closer, her focus on the left side of my face where she’s working hard to clean frosting out of my ear.
Her proximity is intoxicating. With no makeup on now, I can see the freckles on her nose, the mole above her lip. She’s beautiful. My hands find her wrists, encircling the smooth, sensitive skin there before pressing in closer to her. Her gaze shifts to mine and her work with the towel slows.
I watch as the column of her neck bobs as she swallows.
Right now, I’m dying to close the inches between us. To take my time kissing her. Touch every inch of her. Taste her again. My head between her thighs in Vegas was merely an appetizer. I want the main dish. Every. Last. Bite.
Emma’s head tilts, her eyelids flutter closed. Her body readying itself for my descent.
I’m almost there, ready to capture her full lips, but I stop myself.
I have to be careful with Emma. It’s dangerous how easily she draws me in. How being near her makes me quickly forget the reason I’m here. That regardless of what our marriage license says, we don’t really belong to each other. Being here with her is a detour. A bump in the steady path that I’ve been on, and once I’ve done what she needs, I’ll be going home.
It’s one thing to fall into the role of husband when we’re in front of her family and friends. We’ll need to touch each other, to kiss, like a real couple would. But, when we’re alone, I need to keep my distance. For her sake and for mine. When this charade is over, I’ll be walking away. Returning to Las Vegas to do what I’ve been waiting years to do—watch Sophie graduate college and move forward withmylife.
There’s no question, I have to set boundaries.
“Griffin?” Emma’s lids lift, her eyes searching mine.
I lower her arms, setting them in her lap as I back up. Her brows furrow with my retreat.
“I think we should keep things between us platonic.”
“Oh.” Her lips twitch like she’s thinking seriously before she nods in agreement. “No, you’re right. That’s probably best.”
“Good. We’ll kiss or touch if we need to in public, but otherwise we’ll be friends.”
“Friends,” she echoes. I watch as Emma processes our agreement. Her eyes drop to my lips for the briefest of seconds before returning to mine. The question behind her brown eyes is as obvious as the sexual tension between us right now. How do we forget about my head between her thighs? I think about our night together, how palpable the chemistry was between us. How caught off guard I was that I couldn’t fight my attraction to her. She was like a wave crashing over me, pulling me under, with no hope for escape. It’s like I had been walking around in a world filled with repelling magnets, and Emma comes out of nowhere with her attracting magnetic force. I can’t tell her that simply looking at her knocks the wind out of me. None of these confessions will be helpful to our situation, but I don’t want to lie to her. I search for something in between.
“Yesterday morning, I wanted to make you feel better. I didn’t think I was going to see you again,” I say.
They are both true statements, only omitting the fact that the reason why I licked her pussy was because I thought it would be my only opportunity. That before it was discovered that our marriage was a headline inPage Six, the thought of walking out of that hotel room without tasting her, without watching her come apart under my tongue, was unbearable. At the time, I was desperate to collect the memory. Now, it’s going to haunt me for the next three weeks. More likely, forever.
“Wow.” She blinks. “Okay.” Emma pushes off the counter and past me.
I’m playing my words back and realize I sound like an asshole. Fuck.
I don’t want to hurt her, but selfishly I need to make sure she thinks I’m not interested. That our attraction to each other Saturday night was fueled by alcohol and loneliness, the desire to have a fun night, nothing more.
I try again.
