by Lili Valente
“How sweet,” Anastasia coos. “You two are adorable.”
Penny blushes. “Thanks, Mom. It’s nice to finally introduce you and Bash. He’s been a big part of my life for a while now.”
“Clearly. I’m so happy for you both. But especially you, baby. You deserve a beautiful man who’s crazy about you.”
I shift my attention Anastasia’s way to find her beaming at Penny with what looks like genuine happiness. I note the soft smile and love filling her eyes and wonder if maybe I misjudged Anastasia Pickett. Maybe she’s not a monster. Or not purely monstrous, anyway.
“Would you mind going to grab your sisters?” Anastasia asks. “And tell them they’re not in trouble for whatever you three were whispering about? I want them to enjoy the festivities, not worry they’re going to lose privileges.”
“Does that mean I can let them steal a cupcake from the dessert table before lunch?” Penny asks. “You know they both hate salmon.”
Her mother’s mouth puckers as it shifts to the side, making her look just like Penny when she’s reluctantly giving up ground. “Fine. But only one. And don’t let them get icing on their dresses. We haven’t had a chance to do any family photos yet.”
“Will do.” Penny tips her head back, grinning up at me. “Want me to kill you a cupcake while I’m hunting, handsome?”
“No, thanks, buttercup. I’m holding out for ice cream.”
“Of course you are.” She laughs before pushing up on tiptoe for a quick kiss. “Be right back, baby.”
I watch her go with a smile that’s not purely for her mother’s benefit. The bounce in her step as she crosses the lawn, seeking out her sisters, is cute as hell. And though she’s clearly oblivious to it, heads are turning as she passes by. They probably always have, she has just been too busy playing Ugly Manatee to her mother’s Self-Indulgent Mermaid to notice.
“I’ll still have the last laugh.” Anastasia shifts to stand beside me, gazing after her daughter. “All the baked goods are organic, vegan, and gluten-free. But I’m not going to tell Penny until she and the girls are finished with their cupcakes.”
“Diabolical,” I say, playing along, more open to giving this woman a chance than I was before. Nothing can make up for the fact that she’s marrying her daughter’s ex-boyfriend. But love goes a long way, and she does seem to love her daughters, a suspicion she confirms when she says—
“Just so you know, Penny doesn’t have access to any of my money. She’s sent back every check I’ve mailed for the past two years and insisted on being cut out of my will. I didn’t want to do it, but after the pain I caused her, I felt I had to honor her wishes.”
I nod slowly, torn between being glad to see Anastasia trying to protect her daughter from a potential gold digger and pissed that she assumes that’s the only way Penny could end up with a devoted partner. “Penny started out working for me as my personal assistant. I’m well aware of her financial situation.”
“Is that so? And what do you do, Mr. Prince?”
“Business consulting,” I say, sticking to the lie Penny and I decided upon. “But I used to work on Wall Street where I had a successful career as a corporate scumbag. I won’t be looking for a house in the Hamptons anytime soon, but I’ve done well. I don’t need to date women for their money.”
“Then I apologize,” she says, inclining her head. “I hope you won’t hold this conversation against me.”
“You shouldn’t apologize to me. You should apologize to her.” I turn to watch as Penny, Edna, and Francis tiptoe toward the dessert table, pausing to whisper to each other every few steps, clearly having turned the quest for cupcakes into a game. My lips curve even as my chest begins to ache.
She’s so good with them, and they clearly adore their big sister. It’s pure bullshit that Anastasia threatened to keep them apart if Penny didn’t show up for this farce of a wedding.
The memory makes my voice cooler as I add, “She’s one of the sweetest, sincerest, funniest people I’ve ever met. But you almost broke her. And that would have been a fucking shame. The world needs people like Penny.”
Anastasia nods. “I know. And believe it or not, I know my daughter. When we were younger, we were like sisters.” Her voice softens. “Or best friends. I know I leaned on her more than a mother should, but I was a teenager when I got pregnant and I had no support from Penny’s father or my family.”
She sighs. “I should have been the grown-up, but I wasn’t ready. And no matter what kind of support I needed, Penny was always there, offering help before I could think to ask. Sometimes I think she raised me as much as the other way around. That’s why it’s been so hard, to be shut out of her life for the past few years.”
I turn to face her. “And what exactly did you expect?”
She meets my accusing gaze with a level one. “Mistakes were made and the situation was mishandled, but you can’t help who you love, Mr. Prince. Surely you can understand that if you’re as in love with my daughter as you claim to be.”
Before I can assure her that I am head over heels for Penny, that I would kill for her happiness and die for another chance to be buried balls deep in her incomparable pussy, one of the twins screams, “Help! Help! She can’t breathe! Penny can’t breathe!”
I spin to see Edna jumping up and down on the grass, pointing at Penny, whose fingers are wrapped around her throat in the universal sign for choking. Francis is behind her, with her tiny arms wrapped around Penny’s waist, but she’s too short to be in the right position for the Heimlich maneuver and Penny’s face is already bright red, hedging toward blue.
Panic sending my pulse rocketing into overdrive, I sprint across the grass, reaching Penny’s side long before any of the other guests can get close.
“Move, Francis,” I bark, grateful when the little girl quickly steps away.
A moment later, I’m behind Penny with my fist positioned just below her diaphragm, shoving sharply in and up with my other hand. Penny’s lips part with a “humph” as the blockage—something small that flashes in the sun as it arches through the air—is expelled onto the grass.
Startled cries erupt from the crowd that has gathered to observe the drama and one of the other kids attending the party shouts, “Ew, gross!” but I’m too worried about Penny to waste time glaring at the brat.
She pulls in a ragged breath and sags back against me.
“Are you okay?” I run a shaking hand up and down her torso, needing to feel her belly rise and fall to prove to myself that she’s breathing. “Penny? Are you all right? Talk to me.”
“I’m all right.” She turns in my arms, shaking as hard as I am. “But I thought I was going to die, Bash. I really did. I couldn’t breathe.”
“I know.” My heart is still slamming against my ribs as I cup her face in my hands. “You scared the shit out of me. What happened?”
She blinks fast. “I don’t know. One second the girls and I were having a cupcake-eating race and the next there was something hard in my throat and I couldn’t get it out. There must have been something inside the cake.”
“It’s the bride-to-be cupcake.” Edna holds up a soggy-crumb-covered ring between Penny and me. “It means you’re going to be the next person to get married, Penny! You’re so lucky!”
Penny casts an incredulous glance at the gaudy ring with the oversized fake diamond. “That’s me, all right. Lucky.” Her eyes return to mine and that’s all it takes to set us off.
We both burst out laughing, giggling so hard that Penny’s face turns red again and my stomach starts to hurt, but even though we’ve attracted a crowd of curious onlookers, I can’t seem to stop. Every time I think I’m regaining control, I catch her gaze again and I’m off.
We laugh until there are tears in our eyes and we’re leaning on each other for support to keep from falling to the grass, and by the time we finally get a hold of ourselves, I feel like I’ve run a half marathon.
“Jesus, that was painful,” I breathe, pressi
ng a kiss to her forehead. “I’m glad you’re not dead, you crazy person.”
“Me too.” She smiles up at me. “Thanks for saving my life.”
“Anytime, buttercup.” I brush a stray lock of hair tenderly from her face, not wanting to think about a world without Penny in it, and then she says—
“I love you, Bash.”
—and without thinking of the pretend or the reason I’m here or anything but this woman and how much I need her to keep living and breathing, I say—
“I love you, too, Penny.”
And for a second time stops and so does my heart and I wonder if maybe….
Just maybe…
Then I see Penny’s eyes flicker to my left.
I shift my head to catch a glimpse of Phillip’s sun-streaked blond locks fluttering in the wind, and with a pang of displeasure I remember this is all pretend. Pretend for the benefit of a turd burglar, who looks none-too-happy when I pull Penny in for a hug amidst clapping from the assembled guests.
And then someone at the back of the crowd calls for me to, “Put a ring on it, son!” and Phillip’s cold glare turns arctic.
“I just washed it off with water!” Edna says, bouncing up and down with the gigantic ring held over her head. “It doesn’t have crumbs on it anymore! Put it on her finger, Bash!”
“Oh my God,” Penny mumbles against my chest, shoulders beginning to shake all over again.
I nod seriously as I scan the smiling crowd, deliberately avoiding Phillip’s gaze. “All right. I guess when the perfect moment presents itself, you just have to go for it.”
“No way.” Penny squirms free of my embrace, laughing as she points a firm finger at my chest. “Don’t you dare, Bash. Don’t you dare propose with the ring that almost choked me to death.”
“But it’s so romantic,” I tease, taking the ring from Edna. “It’s probably got trace amounts of your DNA lodged in the prongs from where it scraped against your throat on the way out.”
“Ew. No! That’s terrible!” Penny laughs harder before pulling in a deep breath and forcing her eyes wide. “I’m serious, Bash. Don’t! This is not the story I want to tell our grandchildren. It’s too embarrassing.”
“She’s right,” Francis says seriously. “It was scary and the sound she made when it came out was gross.”
“Penny couldn’t be gross if she tried,” I say, but I go ahead and tuck the ring into the front pocket of my pants. “But since it’s two against one…”
“Two against two.” Edna takes my hand, smiling up at me as she adds, “And I almost never vote against Francis.”
“Well, thank you.” My fingers curl around her little palm as I nod, touched by her support. “I appreciate that, Edna.”
“You can call me Eddie, all my friends do.”
“All right, Eddie. But I think I’d better listen to Penny. Since she’s the one I want to say yes.”
“I’ll say yes.” Penny threads her fingers through my free hand. The laughter has vanished from her expression and she’s gazing up at me like I’m the only thing she needs in the entire world. “Offer me any ring that hasn’t been down my throat and I’m yours, Snuggle Butt. For life.”
Eddie launches into peals of laughter. “Snuggle Butt!”
Penny’s lips curve, but the shine in her eyes doesn’t dim. She’s still looking at me like she can’t wait to be mine, and God help me, at this moment I think I would like that. I would like to know that these fingers are going to stay twined through mine and that my hands won’t just be the first to touch her since Phillip broke her heart but the last.
But before I can pull her back into my arms and whisper something crazy that I can’t take back, bells tinkle from the direction of the tables behind us and a deep baritone voice announces over the loudspeaker, “Ladies and gentlemen, if you’ll please take your seats, luncheon is served.”
And then Penny and I are being hustled toward the tables by Edna and Francis, who take the liberty of swapping our placards with the two children seated next to them. We end up eating at the children’s table, surrounded by kids moaning about yucky salmon, tweens making fart jokes, and two frail looking teenagers making uncomfortable eyes at each other, but I don’t mind. I’m grateful for the distraction. I clearly need a reminder about the difference between reality and fantasy.
The reality is that Penny is my employee, my friend, and a woman who has no interest in a relationship beyond that. That was the whole point of getting involved with me. She doesn’t want a bunch of emotional baggage; she just wants to be close to someone again.
Physically close.
This is about sex, plain and simple. And suddenly I’m feeling more like a real gigolo than I ever have before.
“You going to eat your roll?” Eddie asks, reaching over to bury her little finger in the golden ball on my bread plate.
“Nope,” I say. “It’s all yours, Ed. Enjoy.” I feel a hand on my thigh and turn to see Penny smiling up at me. She mouths, “Thank you,” and passes her roll from her plate to mine.
But I don’t want her roll. I’m not sure what I want, but it’s not that roll.
Unfortunately, it’s also probably not something Penny is willing to give, which means this has to stop. Penny and I can enjoy the rest of this weekend, fuck each other until we’ve built up some good memories for a few hundred solo flights, and then things will go back to normal. We’ll go back to the city, back to our separate lives, and I’ll eventually forget that, for a day or two, I was pretty sure I was falling in love with my best friend.
CHAPTER THIRTY
As the party winds to a close two hours later, we say our goodbyes to Edna and Francis, thank Anastasia for a lovely time, and wander toward the car.
As soon as we’re safely inside, Penny throws her arms around my neck and squeals, “We did it! Oh my God, it was so perfect, Bash, I can hardly believe it. Phillip bought it hook, line, and sinker. Did you see the way he pouted all the way through lunch?”
“I saw.” I hug her close, ignoring the sad, churning feeling in my gut. There’s no sense in telling Penny about my decision to end the sexual part of our relationship as soon as we leave Long Island, not when she’s happy and celebrating her well-earned victory.
This is what I’m here to deliver, a positive revenge experience for a woman whose old lover did her wrong. I should be celebrating right along with her not wallowing in my own current lover angst.
In an effort to be more festive, I suggest, “Want to head into town, grab a gallon of ice cream, and get crazy with some mint chocolate chip in honor of your success?”
“No.” She eases back into her seat but keeps her arms looped around my neck. The look in her eyes is pure, sexy trouble. “I would rather get crazy with you. I’ve never gotten naked with a hero before.”
“I’m not a hero,” I say, even as I twist the key in the ignition, ready to be back at the cottage, naked with Penny, ten minutes ago. If I’ve only got a few more days, I’m going to make the most of every minute I have alone with her. “There were two doctors there today. If I hadn’t gotten to you first, one of them would have done the honors.”
“Bash, you saved my life.” She twines her fingers through mine as I steer the car up the paved road leading away from the bay. “Maybe that’s not a big deal to you, but it is to me.”
“Of course it’s a big deal. I can’t imagine life without you.” I squeeze her hand. “Actually, that’s a lie. I can imagine it, and I don’t like it. You’re no longer allowed to die. I’m adding that to your contract.”
“Sounds good,” she says with a happy sigh. “We make a good team.”
“The best,” I agree, ignoring the pang in my chest as I add, “You were perfect today. Nailed it and then some. If I didn’t know better, I would think we really were going to be the next couple down the aisle.”
“I know.” Her feet tap happily on the floor as she giggles. “I’m never going to forget the look on Phillip’s face after I said that
I loved you. He looked like someone had stolen his balloon and popped it right in front of him.”
And I’m never going to forget the way the lines blurred when you said those three little words.
“And I owe it all to you,” she continues. “Thank you for the best time I’ve had in ages.” Leaning in, she presses a kiss to my cheek before whispering against my skin, “Now get us home fast, Snuggle Butt. I can’t wait to be with you. I’ve been daydreaming about your cock all day.”
Focusing on her sexy words, and the hard-on they inspire, I reach over, sliding her dress high enough for me to get a hand wrapped around her bare thigh. “Your wish is my command, Googly Bear.”
Screw feelings. There will be time for feelings and regrets later, after I’ve had Penny against the wall and on the floor and bent over the back of the couch with her beautiful ass in the air.
I push the speed limit all the way back to the cottage and as soon as I cut the engine, Penny and I are out of the car, racing each other up the steps.
The moment the door closes behind us, we crash into each other, mouths meeting with an urgency worthy of two shipwreck victims marooned on separate islands. My tongue sweeps between her lips and her fingers claw into my shoulders, and within seconds, I’ve got her panties off and her legs hitched around my waist as I press her back against the wall.
“Yes, now,” she says in a pained, breathless voice. Her hand dips between us, reaching for the close of my pants, brushing against where I’m hard enough to shatter glass. “I need you. Right now. Slow later.”
“I don’t want to hurt you.” I groan as my hand finds the heaven between her legs and my fingers slide through where she’s already weeping for me. “Fuck, Penny. You’re so wet.”
“I told you, I’ve been thinking about this all day.” She drives her fingers into my hair, nails scratching my scalp as she bucks against my hand. “About you and me and how perfect it is. How incredible it feels to have you inside me.” Her breath rushes out across my lips, smelling like the strawberries and champagne she had for dessert, making me ache for another taste of her. “Please, Bash, I—”
