by Sara Whitney
“You two are the cutest,” Mabel squealed.
“She’s cute enough for both of us.” Aiden brushed a lock of hair behind Thea’s ear, and she shivered at the whisper-light touch. “See you at the set break.”
He turned and leaped gracefully onto the stage, where Dave was making last-minute adjustments to his guitar and fellow deejay Skip Stevens was strumming his bass. Once Aiden was seated behind his drum kit, Dave welcomed the crowd, and the band launched into the opening lick of “Seven Nation Army.” The audience went nuts, and from there the Moo Daddies ripped through every high-energy song in their repertoire, hitting all their favorites before they lost their guitarist to daddy duty for several months.
Thea bopped away in her seat alongside Mabel while Jake limited his participation to the occasional jiggle of his knee. He only came to life when Dave pulled Mabel up on stage to sing a few songs, in accordance with Moo Daddy tradition and much to the delight of the audience.
“So you and Murdoch, huh?” Jake leaned forward to ask the question as Mabel adjusted the microphone and greeted the crowd.
“Me and Murdoch!” Thea replied brightly. Her gaze fell on Aiden, who was lit up in delight as his sticks flew across his drums. A tiny wave of regret washed over her at the big fat lie they were telling the world, but when he caught her looking and shot her a wink, everything receded. All she could see were his strong, lean forearms flexing as he pounded out a rhythm and his capable fingers curled around the sticks.
God, her fake boyfriend was hot.
At the end of Mabel’s run of songs, the Moo Daddies took a break. Before Aiden was able to unfold himself from behind the drums, Jake had surged to his feet to sweep Mabel off into a secluded corner of the bar. Aiden exited the spotlight more slowly and dropped into the chair Jake had just vacated. “Having a good time?”
“I love watching you play!” Her compliment was immediate and sincere, and he grinned at her until a waitress interrupted to deposit a large glass in front of him.
“Wow, they really have your order down,” Thea said.
“Ice water.” He brought it to his lips. “The drummer isn’t allowed to have alcohol on show nights. If I lose the beat, everything comes crashing to a halt.”
He downed another long swallow while Thea watched his throat work. Just imagine if she were really his girlfriend. She could lean in close, press her nose against that hot skin, and inhale hard. She could brush her lips just under his jaw and enjoy the delicious scrape of stubble. The temptation this man’s body offered was out of control, and she wished like hell she could give in and experience it all for herself.
That last thought had her pulling back and giving her head a sharp shake. God, she was no better than those other women who wanted him only for his body. Shame on her for forgetting he was so much more than a sexual thrill ride—and one she’d agreed she wouldn’t be climbing on board.
“You okay, killer?”
Her eyes snapped to his face. “Y-yeah. Yes.” She raised her glass in a salute. “Just wondering if you take requests.”
“Depends on the request.” He smiled lazily at her, and everything below her waist gave an answering pulse at the invitation in his voice.
He was not making it easy to keep her thoughts pure.
“One Direction!” She blurted the first band name that popped into her head, then just rolled with it. “Let me live out my boy band fantasies through a bunch of grown-ass men.”
He winced comically. “Dave’s gonna veto that hard, but I’ll do my best.”
She laughed, and the temporary weirdness passed, leaving her able to chat with him like a normal person for the next ten minutes before Dave cruised by their table and shouted, “Adonis! Let’s go!”
Aiden rolled his eyes at the nickname but dutifully drained his glass. Before he stood, he took her breath away by wrapping his hand around her neck and pulling her close for a quick kiss. Nothing showy. Just enough pressure to leave her pink and flustered. “Thanks for keeping me company.” He murmured the words against her lips, then broke away and bounded up onto the stage as Mabel and Jake slipped back into their seats.
“You two are killing me with the lovey-dovey.” Mabel slid a glance at her boyfriend. “We’ve got competition in the hottest-couple department, babe.”
“No contest,” Jake growled, and Thea turned toward the stage so they could suck face without an audience. Aiden had just finished conferring with Dave, and as he spun around to take his place at his drums, he shot her a quick set of finger guns that would’ve been dorky from any other guy but on him came off as unbearably sexy. Seriously, how did he do that?
“Friends!” Dave shouted into the mic, his round glasses reflecting the bright lights on the stage as he glanced around at the crowd. “Thanks again for coming out to our farewell-for-now show! We’re kicking off this next set with a special request from our drummer’s main squeeze.”
All eyes in the room turned to Aiden, who pointed his sticks right at her with a wink, then launched into the opening riff of 1D’s “What Makes You Beautiful” with a delicious quirk of his lips. Thea screamed in surprised delight and shimmied in her chair with a dopey grin on her face as the band threw itself into the performance.
The second half of the show flew by, and before she knew it, the band was performing its final encore. The raucous audience cheers gave way to a more general buzz as people either hit the bar or headed for the exits, ready to call it a night. Mabel and Jake said a swift goodbye, leaving Thea to make her way to the back of the stage, where Aiden was starting to pack up his equipment.
But a painfully pretty woman in a painfully tiny dress beat her there, gliding up to Aiden with a smile “Hey there, handsome. Got plans after this?”
Thea froze as fear wormed its way into her stomach. This was a test, and she was suddenly terrified he wouldn’t pass. She started to edge away so she wouldn’t have to watch whatever was about to go down, but he just smiled politely.
“I’m waiting for my girlfriend actually.” His head swiveled around the room, and his eyes softened when they landed on her. “Oh, there you are, babe.”
He held out his hand, and she lurched forward to take it, shame flooding her for doubting him.
“You were so great tonight!” she said, acutely aware that the rebuffed woman was looking at her with a distinct “Her? Really?” expression on her face. Thea’s first instinct was to shrink into herself at the incredulous stare, but Aiden was smiling down at her as if she were the only person in the room, so she wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her fingers in his sweat-damp hair. “Ready to get out of here?”
“Absolutely,” he murmured, bending his head to give her a quick, hard kiss.
When she finally pulled back, the “her?” woman was gone.
She giggled. Being the focus of his attention left her feeling buzzed in a way that a gin and tonic couldn’t touch. “I know you picked me because I’m convenient, but this is turning out to be really fun,” she whispered.
“Convenient?” He released her with a frown.
“Well yeah. I was conveniently nearby when you hatched this plan, and now here we are.” She spoke quietly even though the noise of the bar patrons basically ensured that their conversation was private.
He dropped his hands to her shoulders and looked at her with zero mirth on his face. “Hey. Don’t sell yourself short, okay?”
“O-okay.” The intensity in his eyes left her shaky, so she murmured her agreement rather than prolong the conversation.
Once the strange moment passed, it was all business as she helped him pack up the rest of his kit and carry it to his truck. By the time he’d slammed his tailgate shut on all his equipment, the parking lot had emptied quite a bit, although it was nothing like that cold, dark night when this had all started.
“Back at the scene of the crime, huh?” She looked around them with a nervous little laugh.
“Appears so,” he said. “Still need a ride home?�
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She nodded, feeling suddenly shy. They’d agreed that morning that she’d grab a Lyft to the bar so he could drive her home to keep up appearances. But that practical decision suddenly felt fraught with danger under the glow of the lights scattered throughout the lot.
“Here.” He opened the door and gave her a hand up into the too-tall cab, and his observant thoughtfulness just ratcheted up her self-consciousness even more.
Chin up. Boobs out. Smile on.
Yeah, that mantra wasn’t very useful in the cab of his truck, which smelled like sawdust and varnish and aftershave and was the last place she should be thinking about her boobs. When he slid into the driver’s side and fired up the engine, her nerves took over, and her mouth engaged without her brain’s permission.
“I started cleaning up the flower beds in the front yard since I had some time on my hands. Turns out I know remarkably little about plants for the daughter of a landscaper.” Her inane comment only served to make her sad, and when she tried to laugh it off, what emerged was a watery little bleat. To his credit, Aiden immediately reached for her hand, and when their fingers met, the tightness in her chest eased a tiny bit.
“I still remember what your dad taught me about rosebush maintenance.” He rubbed his thumb over the center of her palm. “I can help you do some pruning.”
“That would be great.”
“Guess I do have more to offer than just sex.” He glanced at her as they idled at a stoplight, but his wry smile didn’t quite reach his eyes.
Shit. He really had been bothered by those women’s comments. Unexpected protectiveness surged in her chest, and she said fiercely, “Of course you do. I hate how those women talked about you before. I’m sorry I stood there and listened to it.”
His jaw clenched as he accelerated through the intersection. “It’s okay. They’re not the only ones who think that.”
“What do you mean?”
He sighed and gave an exaggerated wave at the dark neighborhood they were cruising past. “Everyone around here feels the same way.”
Something in her chest pinched. “None of them know the first thing about you.”
“Oh, I think they know plenty.”
He fell silent, and after a moment she worked up the nerve to ask the obvious question. “So why then?” He raised his brows in a question, so she clarified. “If it bothers you what they think, why do you sleep around? Why no relationships ever?”
He shifted in his seat and didn’t meet her eyes. “I don’t talk about it much, but a woman broke my heart when I was a sophomore in college. An older woman, very sophisticated. I never got over it, and I guess I’ve been compensating for it ever since.”
She gasped softly and reached for his hand, “Oh my God, that’s—”
“Nah, I’m messing with you.” He shot her another glance, this one full of teasing that banished his mournful tone. “There’s really no big story. Sleeping around was fun in high school and easy in college, and when I graduated and moved back home, it just kind of stuck.” He shrugged as he turned in to Prospect Point. “My parents bugged me about settling down for a few years, and I guess I started going out of my way to prove I wasn’t cut out for it.”
He pulled into her driveway and notched the truck into park, turning to face her. “Sometimes I think I did too good a job of convincing them.”
The downward slant of his lips suggested that this sadness wasn’t faked, but in a flash he blinked it away. All she wanted was to throw her arms around him and banish the loneliness pouring off of him, but that was far, far too dangerous in the quiet of his cab.
Instead, she changed the subject. “Okay, why the drums?” She gestured toward the truck bed, hoping his hobby would lighten the vibe a little bit. But if anything, his expression hardened even more.
“Another little rebellion against my parents’ plan for my life. I took music lessons in college as a what the hell elective and kind of fell in love. But my dad convinced me it was pointless to keep going when the family business is nails and two-by-fours.” His voice was casual, but restlessness tinged his words. “When Dave put together a cover band a few years ago, I thought, why not? It keeps me busy. Reminds me I’m more than a cog in the Murdoch machine.”
“You’re so much more than a cog.” She let her head fall against the seat back as she studied the man sitting next to her, handsomer than anybody she’d ever dated for real or pretend.
His plain black T-shirt pulled tight across his broad shoulders and solid chest, and his fingers tapped out a rhythm on the steering wheel as if he was lost in the thought of making music. Her heart broke that too few people bothered to look past his playboy exterior to see what else he had to offer. Because he had so much. So much warmth and humor and thoughtfulness.
Danger.
She reached for the door handle and practically flung herself out of the truck and into the crisp chill of early March, throwing the brakes on this whole encounter. “Um, I should really get to bed. Thanks for the ride.”
She didn’t even wait for him to wish her good night, instead slamming the door and almost sprinting to the safety of her house. She’d been about two seconds away from kissing him for real, which would’ve been a catastrophic breach of their agreement. Once the hobbit door was safely shut and locked behind her, she exhaled hard.
Crisis averted. But for how long?
Thirteen
“Pardon me, Ms. Blackwell.”
Thea spun around with her coffeepot in one hand and her travel mug in the other to address the Murdoch Construction employee tromping through the kitchen with an armful of drop-ceiling tiles.
“I told you, it’s Thea,” said as she finished pouring her coffee.
“Whatever you say, Ms. Blackwell.”
He didn’t pause on his way out the front door. Not that she expected anything different by now. The members of Aiden’s crew who’d appeared on her doorstep like magic over the past week insisted on calling her Ms. and ma’am and generally treating her like porcelain when they came and went on their various tasks. It both amused and annoyed her.
Today’s work seemed to be tossing grody carpet and stained ceiling tiles into the dumpster that had been delivered to her driveway as the first step of the renovation process. Aiden hadn’t been kidding; fitting her renovation around other jobs and his packed schedule wasn’t easy, but she was slowly seeing the house’s tacky outer layer being peeled away to reveal its lovely bones underneath.
“Hello, girlfriend,” said a warm voice behind her.
Flutters. Always flutters when Aiden was around. She took a moment to steady herself before turning to greet him. “Good morning!”
Then he shocked the hell out of her by wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her in for a kiss.
The mint of his toothpaste and spice of his aftershave filled her senses as he pressed his lips against hers, soft and unhurried, as if they exchanged sweet kisses like this every morning. When he pulled away, he was smiling, which made her heart pound even harder against her ribs.
“Ben’s outside,” she whispered. “You don’t have to do that.”
He just shrugged and grabbed a mug from the counter behind her, moving to the coffeepot. Since she’d moved in, he’d become as much a fixture in the house as her bedroom set and her grandmother’s dishes, coming and going as time permitted. It was far too easy to forget that this was all an act sometimes, particularly when he relaxed against the kitchen counter, all tall and lean in his flannel shirt over a Murdoch tee. Jokes and affectionate touches were second nature to him, and it made things feel too real sometimes. She was on a perpetual mission to remind herself that he was acting, she was acting, and this would all end.
Still, when she handed him the sugar bowl, knowing by now that he wanted his coffee sweet, their fingers brushed and his gaze traveled down her body.
“You look nice today.”
“Thanks.” Her voice came out bright and happy. He made her bright and happy.<
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She took a step back to get control of her racing pulse and brushed her hands along the front of her black swingy skirt, which she’d paired with heels and a pale yellow blouse that had ruffles marching up the front.
“It’s getting warmer, but I’m still worried about exposing this much leg. The station thermostat is usually set to arctic.” She frowned and tugged at the hem.
When she looked up, Aiden was watching her with an interested light in his eyes, but the expression disappeared when he cleared his throat.
“It’s the perfect amount of leg.” He lifted his mug to his lips. “I can’t believe you haven’t taken control of the thermostat through some kind of bloodless coup.”
“Corporate might object.” She rolled her shoulders to banish her annoyance at the faceless overlords in the Minneapolis HQ. “So anyway, when are you thinking of starting work in the kitchen?” Might as well redirect the conversation toward the reason Aiden was there.
“Right.” He set his mug down. “It’s on the revised schedule I emailed you last week. Next Friday I’ll pull the old cabinets out because the new cabinets should be delivered by then.”
“Oh yay! I’m excited to start organizing in here.” Because the whole of her house was a work in progress, she’d kept everything but the bare essentials packed away since the move-in. As fun as the progress was, it was getting tough to live out of partially unpacked boxes.
“Hope you’re okay with takeout for a while. It’s gonna get messy.”
“That’s cool.” She flipped her hair over her shoulder with a supermodel-ish toss of her head and said huskily, “I was born messy.”
The corners of his eyes crinkled as he smiled. “I believe it. Just give me a few more weeks now that the shag carpet is gone and the last of the drop ceiling goes today. It’ll be in such good shape you’ll be tempted to flip it for a nice little profit.”
“I would never.” She dropped the vamp act and slammed her hands on her hips in outrage. “Don’t even joke! This is my home now.”
