Not a girl he’d had a sex dream about where he fucked her hard against his shower wall, and then went down on her until he woke up, hard and aching—and quite embarrassed.
He studied her face, her high cheekbones, her large eyes that made her look innocent, curious, and sexy as hell. Not that he’d ever tell her that. Her hair was a shade of blond that he loved, though he knew the pink tips at the bottom were hidden amongst the curls so only those who knew they were there could notice them and not think they were just a trick of the light.
He loved that she had color in her hair just for her. But he hated the fact that she had hidden it tonight because of her mom and dad.
“What’s up with your parents?” he asked, forgetting that she had told him to keep quiet.
She let out a sigh and shook her head.
“Mark and Maeve McClard come from long lines of good families, good breeding, and sturdy stock.”
Aaron’s eyebrows rose. “Now you sound like you’re literally in the Highlands of Scotland, back in the days of kilts and war.”
“They would never be lowlanders, of course. Only Highlanders,” Madison said with a roll of her eyes. “I only said those words because my mother literally said them to me when she was selling me off to the highest bidder.”
“Selling you?” he asked, grinding his teeth.
“She might not have said that exactly, but why would a man like Guy ever come to my side and even agree to the whole arranged marriage thing if not for that?”
Aaron let out a breath and took a step forward, gripping her shoulders.
“What?” she asked, frowning.
“Never, ever degrade yourself like that in front of me. A man like Guy? Fuck that. How desperate was he that he was willing to do whatever your mother told him to do?”
“Apparently, I do what my mother tells me to do,” she mumbled.
“No, you don’t. You have the job you want. You own a business. And you’re marrying me.”
“No, I’m not,” she said with a laugh, her voice so low he knew it wouldn’t carry.
“Well, my entire family’s going with it, so you may have to continue with the charade.”
“Why did you do it? Why?”
“I don’t know,” Aaron said, lowering his hands before sticking them into his pockets.
“That won’t be a good enough answer for anyone. Especially not me. Why did you lie? Because what the hell am I going to do now?”
“I’m sorry I lied. No, fuck that. I’m not sorry. I heard what she said to you. It was horrible. I couldn’t just stand there and let her continue.”
“I would’ve stood up for myself.”
“Would you?” Aaron asked and immediately regretted the words.
Madison’s expression fell, tears filling her eyes. But she shook her head and blinked them away. “I’d like to think I would have. We’ll never know for sure. However, that’s not the important thing now. The important thing is that my mother and father think we’re getting married. What the fuck? What am I going to do? When you dump me, they’re going to blame me. How could you do this?”
Aaron rubbed his temples and shook his head. “I wanted to help.”
“You didn’t. You made it worse. Now they’re going to blame me, and they’ll lord this over my head forever. I couldn’t even stand up for myself. I should have. Only I didn’t have the guts to do it.”
“Maybe it’s time that someone stood up for you,” Aaron said, his voice low.
Her eyes widened for a moment. He wasn’t sure what he was going to say next. It didn’t matter, because the door opened, and Maeve and Mark McClard stepped out.
Without thinking, knowing it was probably a mistake, Aaron stepped forward, put a hand on either side of Madison’s face, and lowered his mouth to hers.
She let out a soft breath of exclamation as her eyes widened, but then there was nothing else.
Just her taste on his tongue. It was all he could do to not moan and push her against the railing and beg for more. He plundered her mouth, aching, wanting. She was so small, so deserving of being cherished.
And while he might not be the right person for that, he could pretend for the moment. He could imagine.
“Excuse me,” Maeve said with a pointed cough. “We didn’t realize we’d be interrupting.” Aaron heard the smile in her voice, so he moved away, needing to catch his breath anyway.
“Mother,” Madison said, her lips swollen from his kisses, her breath a little choppy.
He’d done that.
Fuck.
That kiss hadn’t been fake, at least not on his end.
And…hell.
“You’re coming to dinner,” Maeve said into the silence.
Aaron frowned. “Excuse me?
“You’ll be coming to dinner. We need to meet the man my precious daughter will be marrying.”
Aaron heard Madison mutter the word precious, and he did his best not to laugh. What the hell was up with this woman? He did not understand this mother-daughter relationship, but he knew that Madison always tried to please her mom, even though he knew the woman didn’t deserve it.
He wasn’t sure Madison understood that, though.
“Dinner?” Aaron said again. “I can do that. What do you say, baby?”
Madison raised a single brow, something that he was never good at. But it looked sexy as hell on her.
He really needed to stop that line of thinking.
“Yes, dinner,” Maeve repeated. “We want to get to know you. After all, you’ll be our son-in-law. Imagine that.” Maeve narrowed her eyes. “Interesting, isn’t it, Madison? That the perfect man just showed up out of nowhere for you, right when we finally found someone that would take you.” Her mother paused. “Very interesting.”
Before Aaron or Madison could say anything in response, both Mark and Maeve left the porch, leaving Aaron and Madison alone.
“Your mother’s a piece of work,” Aaron said softly.
“I know. Yet I still love her. And I have no idea why.”
“I don’t know what to say to that,” Aaron said honestly.
“She has good moments. Times when she’s not this person. They just seem to be kind of few and far between these days. I don’t know. What are we going to do, Aaron?”
“Well, it looks like we’re going to dinner.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“I don’t know. I said it to take the pressure off you and to prove that you could have anyone you wanted. Though I sort of put myself out there on a platter, didn’t I?”
“It’s going to blow up in our faces. And we both know it.”
He turned to her then and tucked her hair behind her ears. She looked flushed, confused, hurt, and even a little angry.
He was afraid he was the reason for every one of those.
“How about I come over tomorrow, and we talk it out? We’ll figure out what to do.”
“I don’t want your family to hate me.”
He blinked, shocked. “How could they? They love you, Madison.”
“But we’re going to be lying to them. If we do this. We’re going to be lying to them.”
“If we do this, it’ll be my lie. And they will all understand. They’ll just blame romantic, silly-headed Aaron Montgomery. Not you.”
“There’s nothing silly about you, Aaron.”
They were both silent for a moment as Aaron tried to think through her words, as he tried to figure out exactly what he was thinking.
Instead, he sighed and shook his head. “We’ll figure this out. Together. I don’t know how long we can keep it up, but maybe we can. I didn’t like the way she talked to you.”
“I didn’t like it either. I don’t like it. And I’m going to stand up for myself.”
“Good,” he said. “And while you’re figuring out what to say, I’ll be right beside you. And we’ll get Guy off your back, too.”
“I guess we’re engaged, then?” Madison asked, laughing.
“Hey, now you can be a Montgomery. What do you say about that?”
“I say you’re moving far too fast. I don’t know what I’m going to do, but I need the night to think. Because if we go to Mother right now and tell her it’s a lie, she’ll never let me hear the end of it. And I can’t deal with that. Even if it’s your fault.”
Hurt sliced through him, and he felt as if he’d ruined things—something he’d been good at doing recently. “I’m sorry, Madison.”
“No, I am. Because you’re going to be sorrier when this all blows up in our faces. No one’s ever going to believe that you dumped me. My parents sure won’t.” And with that, she turned on her heel and walked away, leaving him standing there, wondering what the hell he was doing.
Because she had been hurt and bruised and battered for far longer than even he had known her. And he hadn’t been able to see the pain until her mother drew it out.
He wanted to fix it. Like so much in his life, he needed to fix it.
But he had no idea how to go about it.
And, honestly, he didn’t know if he was the right man to do it.
But if he hurt Madison more than she already was? He would never forgive himself.
And he knew his family would never forgive him either.
Chapter 3
“I’ve always wanted you.”
“You’ve always wanted what?” Madison asked, her breath hitching, her palms damp.
Aaron leaned forward, his breath warm against her lips. “You. I’ve always wanted you. And now I get to have you. Every curve, every single sexy inch of you. And soon, you’ll be riding my cock as I pump into you, my hands digging into your flesh, leaving marks just for you and me.”
“You’re going to what?” she asked, her voice even breathier.
“I’m going to fuck you. And you’re going to like it. You’re going to want it. And you’ll beg for more. This whole thing? It’s what you’ve always wanted. And now, you have it.”
Aaron slid his hand up her thigh, her dress rising over her hips. When he slowly dipped his finger into her wetness, she gasped and then groaned—just as the alarm went off.
She rolled over onto her stomach, tried to blink the sleep out of her eyes, and slowly reached for her phone to turn off the alarm.
“That did not just happen,” she mumbled, her voice groggy, her throat dry. “That couldn’t have happened,” she repeated.
She did not have sex dreams about Aaron Montgomery.
Madison got out of bed and slowly made her way to the shower to get ready for the day and pretend that she hadn’t just had a weird-ass dream about somebody she didn’t even really know.
Somebody she might be engaged to.
That was neither here nor there.
She wasn’t opening up the café this morning; her staff was doing it for her. Brynn was wonderful at what she did, and Madison was grateful that she always had the other woman to help. Having someone she trusted meant that she wasn’t the only person who could open and close the shop, and she didn’t have to be a micromanager. Only it was weird to let go of the reins sometimes and not be at the place she had given her heart and soul to.
Even if her parents never understood.
That is enough of that thinking.
Madison quickly got ready for the day and did her best to try and look presentable, even though she hadn’t really slept well. She left her hair up, not bothering to do it fully since she couldn’t focus. She could try to blame Aaron for the dreams, but she couldn’t do that either since that very vivid and detailed dream about him hadn’t been the only one she’d had.
No, her dreams had been a little complicated all night. Mostly stress dreams and nightmares where she lost her teeth and things like that. It told her that she needed to focus on the now and not worry about the horror that seemed to be everything else in her life.
Her parents might be awful, but they weren’t always.
By the time she was ready to go, she realized that she hadn’t even had a sip of coffee and blamed it on the dream.
She made her way into her kitchen and started her cup when the doorbell rang.
She froze, tension running up her body as her palms turned sweaty—like they had been in that dream.
She let her cup brew and went to the front door, wondering what she should say. What should she do? Aaron was early. They were supposed to talk about this whole marriage thing, even though they weren’t going to get married. And here he was, at her house. Early.
Right after she’d had a sex dream about him.
Or at least a near-sex dream.
A foreplay dream?
No, enough of that.
She opened the door and then blinked, relief crushing her, even as she swallowed the disappointment she didn’t want to feel.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Lincoln asked as her cousin made his way into her house, kissing her on the forehead as he passed.
“I didn’t know you were going to be here today.” Madison closed the door behind him, locking it, wondering why she felt disappointed. She shouldn’t. It wasn’t like she really wanted Aaron to be here. If she did, then she’d have to think about exactly what they were doing about this whole fake engagement thing.
Dear God, she was fake engaged. Why had she said yes?
“I am here because of what happened last night.”
“What? The fact that you sold nearly all of your art? Or that you are an amazing artist who is kicking ass and becoming so famous that I feel like I should bow or something because you’re in my house?” she asked glibly.
“Okay, you always were a brat, but you’re just getting brattier.” He paused, raising a single brow. “Must be what happens when you get engaged to a Montgomery.”
She coughed and shook her head. “It’s not what you think.”
“I thought that Aaron tried to make things better because your mom was a bitch like normal. Sorry for using the word bitch, you know I hate it. But come on, she’s a bitch.”
“You’re welcome to use that word when it comes to my mother.” Madison shrugged, knowing that she hated the word too, but anyone who had met her mother knew what she was. And there was no changing that.
“As I was saying, I figured Aaron was trying to get your family off your back after they probably said things to you that were rude, crude, and something that I probably would have hit them for. Since I wasn’t there, Aaron stepped up to the plate. And, because he is Aaron, and a romantic at heart, he assumed that saying you were taken would get you off the hook.”
“Well, aren’t you just perfect in every single way? And a great guesser.” She knew she grumbled, but she couldn’t help it. She didn’t like that her family acted so terribly, or that her reactions to her parents were so rote at this point, he knew the routine.
“Who was that man near your mom? What happened?”
“My mother called me some horrible things, like usual, and said it was time I lived up to the family name and did something with my life.”
Madison didn’t mention anything about what her mother had said about Lincoln. He’d heard it all before, and there was no reason for her to repeat the cruel words and hurt the man Madison adored like a brother.
“And what does that mean?” Lincoln asked.
“She explained it was time for me to get married. Said she had found me the perfect man who could deal with my…let’s say, flaws.”
Lincoln’s gaze darkened. “I’m going to kill her.”
“She’s your aunt. You can’t kill her.”
“No, I think that gives me more of a right.”
“I don’t think the law would agree.”
“Fuck the law. That woman. I do not understand how she can be related to the rest of your family.”
“My dad isn’t much better. But that’s just...whatever.”
“He wants you to marry that man like your mom does? What is his name anyway?”
“Guy.”
“If you can
’t remember his name, that’s fine. But you don’t need to call him guy. Though he doesn’t need a name, considering he went along with this whole thing with your mother.”
That made Madison laugh. “No, his name is Guy. He really is that guy.”
Lincoln’s eyes went comically wide before he laughed. “Now it really is a farce. And you’re engaged to my brother-in-law.”
“Fake engaged. I think. It doesn’t matter because Aaron will be here shortly, and we’re going to go over exactly what he was thinking and what I was thinking, going along with it. It’ll all be over soon, and then Mother will go on another tirade and call me a liar or whatever she feels like. Maybe a charlatan. She does like that word.”
“Or a harlot. She hasn’t called you that in a bit.”
“You know, she just might. I don’t think she’s called me that in a while because I haven’t been out with anybody. Hence the whole Guy thing.”
“I hate her for you.”
“I don’t like her most days, either.”
“Then what are you going to do?” Lincoln asked, his voice soft.
“I have no idea. But it’s going to be fine. We’re going to laugh about it in the end, and everybody will continue thinking that Aaron Montgomery is the best, and that he tried to save the day. But we all know that my parents will never truly believe it, even if they want to nab a Montgomery.”
“That was a lot. But first, I nabbed a Montgomery and Holland. So your parents can go fuck themselves.”
Madison winced, images filling her head that never needed to be there. “Please do not mention my parents and fucking ever again in the same sentence.”
“Deal. Also, should we talk about the fact that you seem to have an idea about Aaron Montgomery that I’m not aware of?”
“What?” she asked, truly confused.
Lincoln shook his head.
“Never mind. Clearly, I’m just reading too much into the situation because…hello, you’re engaged.”
“Fake engaged. And it’s going to end soon.”
“And then what are you going to do?”
Seduced in Ink: A Montgomery Ink: Boulder Novel Page 3
