Page 6 of Fake Fiancé, Real Wedding
I spin around just as she draws level with me. “You’re a real piece of work,” she mutters without slowing down, like she’s sharing an angry secret with me. “You know that, right?”
The jibe punches at my heart, even as base want lashes through me. Bristling, I temper my strides, keeping at her side. She’s shorter than I remember. The top of her head barely reaches my solar plexus, and I have the strange urge to check the difference with my hand, just to be sure. I’m aware of my height in a way I’ve never been before. Aware of the breadth of my shoulders, the span of my arms. The way I could fold her into me and hide her from view. From any other man who might look at her, admire her…
“I’m surprised you made it here,” I shoot back. Her arm brushes mine, and I fight to keep my stare straight ahead. How did we get so close? Did I do it? Or did she? “Did you have to push your car?”
“Ha ha.” She snorts, and this time it’s our fingers that scrape. “You’re hilarious. I could spend the rest of my life laughing at your jokes.”
I could spend the rest of my life worshipping your body.
“Fine by me,” I snip back. Why is my heart thumping so hard? I’m barely moving. “Shall we start tonight?”
Or will I wake you tomorrow morning?
She spins to a halt in front of me, blocking my path. So close her body’s heat seeps into mine. So close I can see the chips of sapphire in her eyes. “Who do you think you are?” she asks. “Some kind ofantihero?” Her voice is low and husky. I have to bring my head down to hers to hear her.
No, you don’t.
Bending a little closer, I let my lips crook into a lopsided smile. “Why?” I murmur. “You got an itch to be saved, princess?”
Her breath turns ragged. Shallow. She sways toward me. A little. Or am I imagining it? Wanting it to be so? Wantingher.
Fuck, I want her. In every possible filthy way.
I want to strip her naked, spread her out and?—
“Mr. McKenzie?”
I snap upright at the call of my name.
An elderly couple stroll toward us—him with a cane, her with her hand looped around his elbow. The setting sun stretches their shadows across the lawn but doesn’t hide their beaming smiles.
“We were worried.” Angus Stafford, proprietor of Cloudkiss Resort, waves his cane in my direction. “Thought you might have changed your mind.”
“Hush, Angus. He’s here now.” Beryl, his wife, pats his arm as she slides her smile from me to the exasperating vixen driving me crazy with lust. “Andhe’s not alone.” Her smile widens as she turns back to me. “I’m so glad. We’ve turned down so many single men who’ve wanted to buy our little part of heaven here in the mountains. We really didn’t want to do it with you.”
An icy itch slithers over my scalp.
Turned down so many single men.
“Oh?” I ask, fixing a relaxed smile on my face. “Why’s that?”
Beryl pats her husband’s arm again. “Angus here bought it for me as a wedding present. The thought of it being run by someone who doesn’t understand what love means…” She shudders, face pinched like she’s sucked on a lemon.
My chest tightens.Fuck.
With a sniff and a soft giggle, she directs her smile to the vixen at my side. “Nice to meet you, dear. You are…”
“My fiancée,” I burst out, almost shouting. “This is my fiancée. She’s my fiancée. I love her.Welove each other.” I smooth my hand over the small of the vixen’s back and lock my stare with hers. “Don’t we, princess?”
Chapter Five
Del
Err…
My heart pounds in my ears like a frenzied metronome.
“Right?” he says with a smile thatcouldbe considered playful and adorable if it wasn’t for the unreadable emotion burning in his eyes.
