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I turned my head to face him and glared. “You can leave at any time.”
“You’d be so sad if I actually left. One less potential suitor to play your happy boyfriend. I think I need to know about this anal comment before I agree to anything, though.” He bit back a smile. “I need to know what might get out about me and my backdoor preferences.”
Cyrus snorted. “‘Will do it if the chance ever arises’ is a preference now?”
I faked a gag and held up my hands to stop them from saying anything else that would scar me. “I don’t want or need to know about any of that. Let’s focus here. Which one of you wants to be my date?”
Jude sighed. “Come on, Poppy, it’ll never work. We can’t even talk about sex. There’s no way we could ever convince your family that we’re dating.”
“We can talk about sex.” I cleared my throat and stared at where I had my feet propped on my coffee table. “Sex is great. Look at us, talking about sex.”
Cyrus sat next to me, slung his arm over my shoulder, and then laughed when I moved away. “Oh yeah. We look like a great couple.”
I growled at him. “Do it again. I wasn’t ready.”
He did, and when his arm was snugly over my shoulder, he tugged me into his side. The instant warmth and hardness of his body combined with the scent of his deodorant was too strange, but I ground my teeth together and stayed put.
Sam laughed out loud. “You look like you’re being tortured.”
I forced my way out from under Cyrus’s arm and paced the floor in front of the TV again. “We’ll have to practice or something. I’m telling you right now that I’m not going to this wedding alone. One of you is going to have to toughen up and pretend to date me.”
“You know that just showing up with a date won’t be enough. If you really want to rub it in his face, you’ll have to touch your date. Maybe even kiss your date.” Jude raised his eyebrows at me. “Are you willing to go that far with one of us? Or are you ready to admit that finding a real date is a better plan?”
I held my breath as I processed his words. I’d have to kiss one of them if they were my date. I mean, I wouldn’t technicallyhaveto kiss them, but if I wanted my date to look real, kissing would be a good way to do it. I looked at my three best friends and blew out a hard sigh. “Shit.”
“See?” He shrugged and poured us all more shots that we each immediately took.
I was clearly desperate, because my mouth just started moving and the next thing I knew I was bringing up something we never spoke about. It was a rule, one we’d made at the young age of thirteen. “It’s not like we haven’t kissed before. It wouldn’t have to be a big deal.”
Cyrus stood up and jabbed a finger in my direction. “You’re losing it, PoJo.”
“One time, and we don’t talk about that. Jesus.” Jude ran his hands through his hair and looked over at Sam. “Not a big deal. Not a big deal? She’s crazy.”
“Not only is she crazy, she’s sorely mistaken if she thinks showing up and sharing a painfully awkward kiss with a guy is going to prove anything to anyone.” Sam eased Bogie off his lap and stood up to frown down at me.
“First of all, I’m right here. Second of all, you three clearly don’t understand how desperate I am. I hid the worst of it from you when I was with Andrew. I didn’t tell you or show you how horrible it really was for me. You don’t understand how important it is for me to show him that he didn’t break me. I would make out with all three of you in front of my whole family if it meant proving that I’m okay.”
They were silent for a moment and then Jude sighed heavily. “This is a crazy idea, Poppy. You don’t need a man to prove to him that you’re fine.”
I cut my eyes at him. “Thanks, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. I know I don’t need a man.”
“If we did agree to this, how would you pick?” Sam put his hands on his hips and looked solidly unhappy.
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess I’d take whoever I can fake better with.”
Cyrus’s face was a twisted mask of distaste. “Oh, great. Just what I always wanted.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. Cyrus and I had an interesting relationship, most if it consisting of him giving me shit and me ignoring him. His crankiness didn’t get to me—most days. On the day that I’d run into my ex and found out he was marrying my cousin? It was getting to me. “Cyrus, you’re starting to piss me off.”
“Maybeyou’repissingmeoff.” He crossed his arms over his chest and shrugged. “Maybe you’re pissing us all off.”
“Could you stop acting like kissing me would be the worst thing in the world? We both know it would be fake. Grow up!” I glared down at him before kicking his booted foot. “If I wanted a man to make me feel gross about myself, I could’ve just stayed at the reunion with Andrew.”
Cyrus moved faster than he should’ve been able to for a man his size, but he snapped his arms forward and gripped my hips in a flash before dragging me onto his lap. He growled at me when I struggled to climb off. “What’d you just say to me? Grow up? How about you grow up? If you want one of us to pretend make out with you, you’re going to have to be able to touch us without cringing away.”
Sam and Jude were used to our fighting and just watched while I reached out and smacked Cyrus on the side of the head. Cyrus just caught my hands and held them to his chest, pinning me to his body. I was suddenly very aware of his hard thighs under my ass. He was hard with muscle everywhere and it occurred to me that I could feel a whole lot of those muscles, under my thighs, under my hands.
Panic washed over me as I felt my body responding. It’d been a hell of a long time since I’d been touched by a man, and my stupid body didn’t seem to care that it was Cyrus underneath me. I needed to get off of him as quickly as possible and forget the feel of his thick thighs. I gritted my teeth and decided that the quickest way through hell was straight through it. I knew once I kissed him, he’d probably shove me out of his lap.
