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I grinned at him over the lid of my cup and took another gulp before letting out an obnoxious,“Ah.Delicious.”
He chuckled, the sound of it warming my belly and, with the help of the coffee, calming my frayed nerves. “All right, so about what happened this morning. You were right. It was my fault for blindsiding you the way I did. And even though that was the best kiss of your life—”
I smacked a hand over his mouth. “I never said anything about it being the best of my life.”Even though it was, I added mentally.
His eyes danced as he looked at me. The normally steel gray was a kaleidoscope of different colors: blues mixed with a hint of green silver to make a real thing of beauty. I pulled my hand away when I felt his smile form against my palm, wanting to see if it was dimple worthy. Sure enough, my belly fluttered at the sight of those two tiny divots that bracketed his gorgeous grin.
“As I was saying,” he continued, blowing off my argument, “seeing Vanessa like that threw me. I was standing, there, waiting for our coffees, and she just appeared out of thin fucking air. When she kept trying to touch me—”
The rage that caused me to make those stupid decisions in the first place came rushing back with such force it was a wonder steam didn’t shoot out of my ears. “She tried to touch you?” I gritted out, my jaw clenched so tight I worried I might crack a molar.
“Look, I don’t know why she’s here, but my gut’s telling me I’m not going to like the reason. I’m sorry I put you in the position I did earlier. I just... reacted. If you want to tell everyone the truth, I’m totally fine with that. What I did to you wasn’t okay.” A smirk tugged at his lips again as he shot me a wink. “Even if that kiss fried your brain.”
I blew out a raspberry and rolled my eyes to deflect from the heat building in my cheeks, because he wasn’t wrong. That was one hell of a kiss. It hadn’t only fried my brain, it had rocked my damn world. “Please. If it was the best kiss of anyone’s life, it was yours, and don’t bother lying about it.”
“I’ve never lied to you, Bits, and I’m sure as hell not going to start now.” I’d been teasing... mostly. But the way he answered and the earnestness in his voice stole the air right out of my lungs.
“The last thing I want is to put you in a situation that makes you uncomfortable. I’ll deal with whatever shit Vanessa’s here to throw at my life another way.”
“No.” I let that impulsive voice inside my head take the lead. Gage was the more controlled one of the two of us. “I’m in this.” I held my hand up and shook my head when I saw where the gears turning in his head were taking him. “Not because you forced me or pressured me into anything, but because I want to be.” I lifted my shoulder in a casual shrug, a wry grin spreading across my face. “Besides, I already didn’t like her because of what she’d done to you, but she’s also that nasty bitch from the grocery store last night that I told you about. If you aren’t going to let me scratch her face off—”
“Which I’m not. Mainly because it would be a felony.”
I scoffed. “You’re no fun. Anyway, if I can’t kick her ass, this is the next best thing.” Something dawned on me and I sat up straight, jabbing my finger in his face. “But while I’m playing the role of your fiancée, I have the right to smack a bitch down if she tries to put her hands on you again. You are mine, after all. Right?”
At my question, his nostrils flared and his pupils blew, swallowing up all that beautiful steely gray. The air between us suddenly felt like it was crackling, and the energy in Gage’s living room had shifted, like it was dancing with electric current.
The way he was looking at me made my breathing short and choppy. The heat in my cheeks grew more intense, traveling down to my chest and taking the pink stain with it. When my tongue peeked out to swipe over my bottom lip, his gaze darted down to my mouth, and for a second, I swear I thought he was going to kiss me again.
I cleared my throat, causing him to blink, and just as quickly as the sudden shift had happened he switched back. His back shot straight. He shifted a few inches away as he reached up to scrub a hand over his face. I’d been so lost in the strange moment we’d been having that I hadn’t even realized we’d closed the distance between us.
Needing something to do with my hands, I snatched my coffee cup up and held it in a death grip. “Um, so... we should probably discuss how we’re going to do this, right? I mean, we kind of dropped a very public bomb this morning.”
He scratched at his chin as he thought, the dark blond stubble rasping against the blunt tips of his fingers and drawing my attention. God, how had I never noticed how long his fingers were? How thick they were. I bet they’d feel amazing if he were to reach down—
Jeez, Wynn. Get your freaking head out of the damn gutter.
He spoke then, pulling me out of the haze of horny I seemed to keep slipping into. That damn kiss sure as hell didn’t help things either. “I’ve been thinking about that.” He gave me a knowing look. “We could tell our friends the truth, but what do you think they’d do if they found out we were only faking at being engaged.”
I let out a bark of humorless laughter. “Oh, you know exactly what they’d do. They already try to push us together at every turn.”
He snapped, those dimples pressing back into his cheeks. “Exactly. So the way I figure, this will spare us from that pressure for a while, and when the time comes, we can say we gave it a try and it didn’t work out.”
Hearing that sat in my stomach like a lead weight, but I pushed the sour feeling down and grinned through it. “Smart.” It really was, and I told myself that when that time eventually came, I’d be as on board as he would. I pushed the conversation forward, refusing to dwell. “So, next steps.”
He resumed his earlier position, the picture of relaxation. “What do you have in mind?”
“Well, first, you need to get me a ring.” I lifted my brows and reached over to poke him in the arm. “And don’t cheap out. Our friends know me; they know I’d rake you over the coals if you got me some piece of junk. It doesn’t have to be huge, just not junk.”
His head fell back on a laugh, that cord in his thick neck straining, his Adam’s apple bobbing with the sound. Who knew a freaking Adam’s apple could be so sexy? “A nice ring. Got it. What else?”
“I think we should put something on social media. A post on Facebook or maybe some pictures on Instagram. Make it look more legit, you know?”
“So, a ring and social media. I think we can make that work.” He reached out, looping his arm around my waist.
I jolted and pulled back. “What are you doing?”
His brow furrowed as his head cocked to the side in confusion. “You said you wanted to take some pictures.”
