by Maggie Marr
He stood and stretched his hands over his head. Well, if Gwen wasn’t going to Anthony and Shelly’s, then he would get cleaned up and go. Definitely stop the rumor mill before the gossip started to spin. Hadn’t Max seen them leave together last night? Plus, if they were both calling in sick? Come on, that sounded lame even to him. He’d simply tell Aubrey that he got off the phone, took a long hot shower, a quick nap, and woke up with his chest congestion gone. It could happen, right?
He dug spending time with his brothers and Mrs. Bello. He could even tolerate the estrogen presence. They tended to flock together in the kitchen anyway, whispering in a conspiratorial group. He shuddered. The only reason he hadn’t wanted to go was that he didn’t want to see Gwen after last night, but if she wasn’t going to be there, he might as well go.
Chapter 4
“You’re here!” Shelly threw her arms around Gwen. “And you brought me an orchid? Where did you find an orchid in the middle of friggin’ winter?”
Gwen smiled. “I have my ways.” Orchids were Shelly’s favorite flower. Gwen suspected (okay, hoped!) they’d be a big part of Shelly’s wedding, because she had already imagined an entire theme she could do around orchids.
“I’m glad you’re here.” Shelly leaned in close to Gwen and whispered, “Nonna is off the rails today.” Shelly rolled her eyes toward the ceiling. “We just got engaged, and already she’s got like my first seven kids named.”
Gwen took off her coat and Shelly slipped it from her hand.
“Seriously, the woman is out of her mind. I mean, come on, I’m a good Catholic girl. At least let me get married before I start pumping out the bambinos.”
Gwen smiled. The Travati family had a whole lot of love, and they were growing exponentially. Already, in six months, they’d gone from only the four Travati brothers—Justin, Leo, Anthony, and Devon—to the four brothers plus Max and Aubrey and the baby on the way and now Shelly. The family had doubled in size. That didn’t even include the extended family that came with Aubrey: her sister Nina and her dad. Shelly had her grandmother, Mrs. Bello, but she was already a surrogate grandmother to the Travatis. How many Travatis would there be by the end of this year?
When she was a kid, Gwen’s family life hadn’t been this exuberant. There’d been her and her father. Her heart ached. Not today. She wouldn’t think of Mama today. Deep breath. Today was for friends and fun and joy and laughter, not for sad memories of a father who never wanted children and a mother she’d desperately loved but tragically lost.
“Hi Mrs. Bello.” Gwen walked toward the fireplace. Mrs. Bello had taken up residence on a comfy chair. With her grey hair and glasses, she looked like the perfect grandmother. Her coffee and a plate of cookies rested beside her on a small end table. Mrs. Bello loved her cookies.
“Gwen, I’m so happy you feel better.” She smiled and tilted her head. “You don’t look sick to me.”
“Maybe too much champagne last night.” Gwen winked. “Actually, I took a hot shower and a nap and I feel much better. It’s like I’m a new person.”
“Amazing what a shower and a nap can do.” Mrs. Bello’s gaze darted beyond Gwen. “Hot shower and a nap seems to work on a lot of people.”
Her belly heated and the hair on her neck stood on end. Oh no. No. No, no, no, no. The heat in her cheeks, they had to be glowing red. Leo was here, just behind her, she could feel it. Being near him was like walking into an electrical field…or in front of an oncoming train.
“Leo said the same thing”—one corner of Mrs. Bello’s mouth lifted into a smile—“hot shower and a nap and he was a new person.”
Gwen pressed her lips into a line and then pushed a giant smile onto her face. “Funny how that works.” She turned and her gaze locked with Leo’s.
Her stomach twisted. Her heart stalled. Her panties grew wet. Her entire body raged in a war between anger and want.
“Leo, Aubrey said you weren’t feeling well. Glad to see that you’re better.” She leaned forward and pecked each of his cheeks. Man. Soap. Oranges. Leo smelled of all these things, just as her pillows and sheets at home now did. She pulled back, tilted her head and gave him a sharp wtf look. He’d said he wasn’t coming. He’d said that she should come. He’d said that—
“You seem to be cruising to one hundred percent too. Aubs mentioned you’d come down with what? A cold?” He narrowed his eyes, took a drink of his beer, and glanced toward Aubrey on the far side of the room. “Sure hope you aren’t contagious. Wouldn’t want to get the pregnant lady sick.” He turned back to Gwen. “Maybe you should go home.” He lifted an eyebrow, as if to silently ask what the hell are you doing here.
Gwen bristled at his words. She was not going home. He’d insisted she should come to dinner today so as to squelch any rumors that might have started if they’d both missed the party after leaving Justin and Aubrey’s together last night. That is, if anyone had noticed—please God let no one have noticed. She was here now and she wasn’t going anywhere, not on his say-so.
“I’m pretty sure that I was just a little hung over. All better now.” She shot him an icy glare. “But you? Aubrey said you nearly hacked up a lung. Could it be pneumonia? Maybe you should take a quick run over to urgent care. Might take four or five hours, but you definitely wouldn’t want Aubrey to get pneumonia. Pregnant women have repressed immune systems. It’s science.”
Leo didn’t answer, but a long slow breath and narrowed eyelids indicated his annoyance loudly enough.
Gwen turned back to Mrs. Bello. “I’m going to see if I can help Nina in the kitchen. Can I get you anything, Mrs. Bello?”
“Oh, no, dear, really. Sitting here and watching you two, I’m doing just fine.”
Gwen scrunched her eyebrows together and headed down the hall toward the kitchen. Since when had she and Leo become so entertaining? She’d merely pointed out that if he were truly sick, he was putting Aubrey and baby at risk by staying here. It wasn’t her fault his faux hacking cough and “I’m better after a shower and a nap” routine was so lame. Please. Plus, Leo did not get to tell her what to do. She had caught him sneaking out of her bed this morning. She’d been smart enough to recover some semblance of her pride, and she wasn’t about to surrender that to him now by slinking out of a party because he showed up. For goodness sake, he could disappear and nobody would even notice. Let him go home to his couch and his football and his dog. She wouldn’t be bossed around and she wouldn’t—
A hand clapped over her mouth as an arm snaked around her waist and yanked her into a dark room.
“Hey!”
“Shhh.” Leo pressed one upright finger to his lips and slowly took his hand from Gwen’s mouth.
Her eyes adjusted to the darkness. Leo was so close…oh my goodness, too close. Almost as close as he had been last night, except this time he had his clothes on. She wished that he didn’t.
“Who the hell do you think you are, Jason Bourne?” Gwen shook her head. This was ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous. Leo had her pressed up against the wall in Anthony’s dark den.
Hello. Leo’s rock-hard sex pressed against her hip. She could handle this. Absolutely. She channeled her inner badass, willing her expression to radiate “I really don’t have time for you, so get over yourself.” Damn, the oranges again…and soap…and man…why did he have to smell as sexy as he looked? Who smelled this good? Her body betrayed her, her nipples pebbling beneath her bra, almost like her cells remembered all the pleasure from last night. Tingles shot between her legs. Even as angry as she was, Leo completely turned her on. The pressure of his cock against her hip told her he was turned on too.
Huh. That tidbit of information could be useful. Very very useful.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Leo hissed.
“Attending my best friend’s family’s New Year’s Day party, and you?”
“You said you weren’t coming.”
“And you said the same.” She shifted her body to nudge her hip a little more firmly ag
ainst Leo’s hard cock.
“Ah…I…”
“What was that?” Gwen asked, fluttering her eyelashes.
Leo leaned back, moving his hips away from hers. “When you…ah…decided you weren’t coming”—his gaze drifted from her eyes and down her neck to land on the v-neck of her sweater, which revealed a hint of creamy cleavage.
“Yes?”
His eyes darted back up to hers. “Right, right, when you said you weren’t coming today, I knew one of us needed to be here, otherwise everyone would think we were together.”
His sweet breath caressed her face, his lips intoxicatingly close to hers. His lush… No, no, no…hard-ass woman. She had to focus.
“That’s exactly why I’m here. You texted that you weren’t coming, so I did. I mean, if I’d known you were going to be here, Leo, I most definitely wouldn’t have come. I don’t want to make things awkward for you.” She leaned forward slightly, completely aware of how her décolletage popped from the top of her sweater. If he was going to be an ass, then let him, but she absolutely was going to make him pay for the privilege.
His eyes narrowed in confusion. “Difficult for me?”
Gwen nodded and smiled and gave him her best doe-eyed stare. “Yes, you. I don’t want me being here to be awkward for you.”
His mouth dropped open. Speechless? She had rendered Leo speechless. Score one for the party planner! She was much better at this nonchalance thing than she’d thought.
“Uh…”
“Look, Leo, I mean, it’s me. This is completely my fault. Like I said this morning, you are an amazing guy, but right now I’m completely into my career and I know you are too.” She widened her gaze. Damn, she was laying it on thick, but she had to get out of this room with some pride. Her body, though, couldn’t care less about her pride. All she really wanted to do was close the tiny distance between them, press her lips to his, rip off his clothes, and roll around on the rug like horny wildebeests.
“Right…your career. My career.” He nodded, his gaze distant. She couldn’t quite tell from his look if he was contemplating tomorrow’s hostile takeover at work or her words. “I’m starting to feel like maybe the lady doth protest too much.”
“Shakespeare? You’re going to quote Taming of the Shrew to me?”
“Hamlet”—he lifted his brow and the corner of his mouth—“but who’s keeping track?”
She’d like to kiss that smirk from his face. Gwen leaned back, but Leo tightened his grip around her waist.
His soft, sculpted, kissable lips were a millimeter from Gwen’s. That mouth had pleased her last night, made her moan his name. Her belly tightened and her breathing grew heavy. His breath tangled with hers…jeez, how bad did kung pao scallops smell after a few hours? Of course, she’d brushed her teeth buuuut…
“I know neither of us want a relationship, but maybe this thing between us doesn’t have to be a relationship.”
Gwen swallowed. “Are you asking me for a—”
His lips claimed Gwen’s. Her brain buzzed and did the fuzzy white snow thing that happened when the cable was on the fritz or had been turned off because you couldn’t pay your bill…until this year she’d spent a lot of time with her cable turned off.
Leo’s tongue stroked the seam of her mouth. My God, what the man could do with his tongue. One arm, still circling her waist, pulled her close, but his free hand trailed sneaky fingers up her arm to clasp her neck, then slid back down to the decadent décolletage she’d teased him with.
Bad move on her part. Because now he was using her décolletage the way one might grasp the back of a cat’s neck to paralyze it. As his fingertips gently stroked over the top of her breasts she couldn’t move, heck, she could barely breathe. My God, what could she do? Nothing, nothing but stand here with this insanely sexy man kissing her and try to pretend he had no impact on her at all. His tongue thrust deeper as the hand that had been around her waist slid down and cupped her ass. Oh my, and her ass, it was as though her ass remembered last night, because her hips rolled forward and pressed against his hard cock. Flash of bare skin and hot kisses and his thick shaft sliding into her flooded her mind.
Her hot breasts felt constricted in her bra, and her hips rocked forward and back. Leo’s hand left her breast to move to her jawline. He gently, ever so slowly, pulled back from their kiss.
Was it over? Goodness no, don’t let it be over. She couldn’t open her eyes, not yet.
“Maybe we don’t have a relationship here,” Leo whispered, his lips still so close to hers that his breath tickled them. “Maybe what we have could be called, well, a…convenient arrangement.”
“A convenient arrangement?” Gwen’s eyes fluttered open. While her body wanted to say hell to the yeah, her mind thought a convenient arrangement with Leo sounded like a very bad idea.
“We both acknowledge that we have a mutual attraction for each other.” His hand squeezed her ass and pressed her even tighter to his hard, oh my, very hard cock. “Don’t we?”
She licked her lips and inhaled. “Perhaps.” Her trembling breath made the word sound much less nonchalant than she’d hoped.
Leo’s wicked smile accented the glimmer in his eyes as he leaned back a bit to observe her expression. “Perhaps? Okay, perhaps there’s an attraction.” It wasn’t much of an admission for him to make, Gwen thought. No matter what, he couldn’t hide the erection that pressed against her. Hiding that was like trying to put King Kong in a two-car garage. Nope. No hiding that giant. He leaned forward and kissed her neck.
Her knees wobbled and he tightened his arm around her.
“We both acknowledge that neither of us want a relationship,” he whispered in that sinful voice. “Yes?” Gwen’s heart beat hard against her ribs. She did want a relationship…but it was far too late to say so. She’d played the “you can’t hurt me because I don’t care card” earlier today. She couldn’t go back now. To admit that her I-am-woman-hear-me-roar act had been just that, only an act, would mean feeling horribly uncomfortable whenever she ran into Leo, which seemed to be, right now, every day. So basically for the rest of her life.
“Exactly.” Gwen lifted her chin to look steadily at Leo. “No time, no need, no desire for a relationship. Not that it’s you, Leo. I mean you’re definitely a man with obvious talents.” Gwen gave him the kind of flirtatious-but-detached smile she imagined a practiced vixen would bestow. “But I simply can’t get sidetracked right now. I’m sure you understand what I mean.”
“Really?” Leo said. “You’re completely uninterested? Because last night”—he leaned forward again, his lips so close—“Gwen, you seemed more than a little—”
“Last night was a mistake.” Gwen placed a hand flat on his chest and pushed to create a little breathing room between them. My God, the man’s pecs were made of steel. The desire to dig her fingers into his sweater, yank him forward, and suction her lips to his nearly overwhelmed her. Yowza. Instead, she took a deep breath and pushed even harder against the wall of nearly perfect flesh in front of her. “We both agreed that we wouldn’t talk about it.”
“A mistake only because we didn’t have clarity around the situation.” Leo tilted his head and leaned closer. “Now that we have clarity, I can see that we could, in fact, reach an agreement that could be mutually beneficial.” He shifted his pelvis firmly against hers. King Kong rubbed her kitty.
“Mutually—” A gasp passed over her lips. Electrical pulses tingled through her lady parts and made forming words impossible. She cleared her throat. “Mutually beneficial?”
“You don’t want a relationship, I don’t want a relationship. But this—” Again he ground himself gently against her. My God, if she didn’t have on clothes they’d be doing the vertical mambo. “But you do feel this, right?”
Oh good God, did she feel it. She felt it right between her thighs, pressed against her sensitive lady bits. Her eyelids fluttered closed. Jeez, could she feel more? Her body tightened, her breathing shortened, and—<
br />
“Yeah, you feel it too.”
Gwen’s eyelids flipped open. Yes, yes she did feel him, and the electric pleasure that went with his touch, but she certainly didn’t want to. Okay, she wanted to, but she didn’t want the train wreck of what his “mutually beneficial” convenient arrangement would mean, or the inevitable heartbreak to follow. Because while she was ready to play nonchalant tough girl when she saw Leo in public at Travati events and parties and functions, she definitely couldn’t play nonchalant tough girl if she was sleeping with him on the side, like the insatiably horny bunny she actually was where he was concerned.
“Nope, I don’t think so.” Gwen said. She pulled her hips back, loosening Leo’s grasp on her ass and King Kong’s pressure on her kitty. “Too risky. I mean yes, of course I do feel this attraction that we share, Leo.” She threw him a kind of patronizing but noncommittal smile, as if their attraction to each other was an ordinary thing. Such a lie. “But I really don’t want to skulk about and hide this from my friends and your family. You know if any of them discovered that we were in a ‘convenient arrangement,’ they’d never leave us alone. Ever. For the rest of our lives. They’d assume—erroneously, of course—that we were meant for each other. Imagine Aubrey. She’d be unmerciful. It would just lead to the very type of attention we’d be trying to avoid.”
“Seems like an excellent reason to say no to my offer.”
She smiled. Ding, a winner! She’d played this entire scenario perfectly even while her hips had attempted to betray her.
