I stared at him, stunned, as the woman beamed wider at us, her hands going to her chest like Cinderella and her tattooed prince had just shown up for their honeymoon.

More like Red and the wolf.

I didn’t have the heart to burst Ann’s romantic bubble. She looked so happy.

“How wonderful! You would’ve been such a beautiful bride,” she said to me.

Manic curled his fingers around the side of my neck and hauled me to him, throwing his arm around my shoulders. “Stole my breath away,” he said.

I wanted to knee him in the nuts, but if I corrected him now, it’d only embarrass the sweet woman still rhapsodizing about how romantic and exciting it all was.

She clapped her hands. “Let me show you to your room, and since you’re newlyweds, you get an upgrade to our honeymoon suite! It has a spectacular view.” She winked. “And an enormous tub.”

Manic grinned and I inwardly groaned. He was loving this. And now, there was no way I could ask for another room without embarrassing our host. We followed her up the stairs and she opened the door to our room with a flourish.

“It’s beautiful,” I said when she looked at me, waiting for my reaction.

Her smile was blinding. “Now, would you like turndown service?”

I opened my mouth to say no—

“Yeah, that’d be awesome, Ann,” Manic said. “I’m taking my wife out for dinner. You got anywhere in town that does a good steak?”

While they talked about steak, I was still stuck on him using the wordwife.

As soon as Ann left, I turned on him. “What are you doing?”

“Finding a place for dinner,” he said as he walked around the room, checking everything out. He opened the bathroom door. “She wasn’t wrong about the tub.”

“You can’t…why would you…” I couldn’t even complete a sentence, at a loss for words.

He turned to me, and the grin was gone. “Just trying to make the best of it, cupcake. We have to convince my family we’re a couple, may as well start now, yeah?” His gaze slid to the bed, then returned to me. “They have to believe it, and they know me well. You need to be comfortable with me touching you, putting my arm around you, kissing you.”

“Kissing? I never agreed to that.” My heart raced like crazy. A night or two of getting down and dirty was one thing, all the other stuff, even if it was pretend, scared the crap out of me.

“You think if we were really together, I’d be able to keep my hands to myself? I’m an affectionate guy and my family knows that. They’ll know something’s up if we don’t go near each other. And we’ve kissed before, babe.” He shrugged. “What’s the big deal? We’re friends, right? You said so yourself?”

Manic did tell Riff that he was…um, done, when you rejected him, like, the twenty-seventh time.

Lila’s words filtered through my head and I inwardly winced.He was done.I doubt that’d changed because I’d offered to play his old lady for the next few days. This really would be all an act for him. Yes, he flirted and teased, but it didn’t mean anything. “You’re right, it’s not a big deal.” I’d said that, and he’d thrown my words back at me several times now. I wasn’t sure why, but I hated it.

“I’m always right.” He winked.

What the hell had I gotten myself into? I was never drinking again. I couldn’t be trusted. A few drinks—okay, more than a few—and I was the queen of bad decisions.

“Glad you came by the other night, Adds.” His gaze lingered on me. “Didn’t like shit being weird between us. You want first shower? I’m hungry as fuck.”

Had we been at the same house? I’d humiliated myself and we’d barely talked. I’d stopped by, freaked out, and thrown brownies everywhere. If anything, the situation between us had gotten weirder.

My stomach dropped and I grabbed my bag. “Yeah, I’ll go first.”

I rushed into the bathroom, locked myself in, and tried to calm my overheated body and pounding heart. This was torture. Manic and I were squarely back into the friend zone, and I still wanted him so bad I could barely think straight. How the hell was I going to get through the next few days? How was I going to stand there while he was tormenting me with kisses in front of his family, then turn it off when no one was looking? It wasn’t possible.

I showered quickly, dried off, and searched through my bag.Jesus. Everything in here was figure-hugging or downright tight. And he’d packed all my special occasion underwear. These were my getting-busy undies, not my everyday stuff. An image of Manic riffling through my underwear drawer flashed through my mind.

OMG!I hadotherthings in there. Things that I used when I was on my own. Things that I’d used when I thought of the man standing right outside the bathroom door.

Heat washed over me. There was no way he hadn’t seen them. My cheeks burned.

Tags: Sherilee Gray Romance
Source: readsnovelonline.net