by Zoe York
She laughed at that.
And Evan felt like he’d been punched in the stomach. Wow.
Yeah, if Ava Carmichael was braless, drinking, and laughing, even some of the time, these six months would be a piece of cake.
“So what’s the plan?” she asked.
The plan. The thing that was going to solve every problem for every person. Just that.
“Date me for six months.”
“I didn’t think we really…connected,” she said.
Yeah, he hadn’t either. But that didn’t matter. “That’s the thing,” he said, “it doesn’t have to be totally real.”
One eyebrow lifted. “Oh?”
“I mean, it will be real enough,” he amended. “We’ll go out and stuff. I’ll make sure you have some fun and don’t work all the time. We won’t talk business. We won’t hang out with a single person who makes seven figures. We won’t ever say the words hedge fund.” Considering he had no idea what that even was, that would be easy. “That was what was important to Rudy. That you don’t work all the time. That you see that there’s more to life. That you have some fun. I can do all of that. But there won’t be any expectations beyond the six months and really, there won’t be any expectations during those six months. We only have to make it seem like we’re in a relationship. And this way no poor unsuspecting Bliss guy will fall in love and be devastated when you leave.” Evan gave her one of his best come-on-I’m-pretty-cute-right? grins.
“We don’t need to talk and get to know each other? Spend time alone?” she asked.
He shook his head. “Only needs to be public.”
She tipped her head. “What’s in it for you?”
“It takes away one of the things that you’re concerned and frustrated about,” he told her. “Basically, it gets you to Bliss. That’s important. It’s what Rudy wanted.” And will keep Parker from poisoning me slowly and painfully.
“And that’s all you care about? That this would make Rudy happy?” she asked.
Well, and Parker and Noah. And… He took a deep breath. “Okay, there’s also this girl.”
“Ah.” She nodded. “Okay, there is something direct in it for you. You need her to think you’re taken.”
He supposed it was good that Ava know this. So that if his grandmother—or Jill’s—ever walked by and he suddenly grabbed and kissed her, she’d know why. “I need the town to know I’m taken by someone other than her.”
“The town wants you to be taken by her?”
At least part of the town did, Evan thought. Then he realized that no, pretty much the whole town probably did. “Yes.”
“And why can’t you just tell them you’re not interested?”
“Because I’ve known Jill all my life and she’s awesome and any guy would be lucky to have her. Not being interested…now…would make me seem like a commitment-phobic ass. I need a really good reason to not be interested. Like you.” He gave her a wink that worked to soften up the woman he was talking to nine times out of ten. “Because, on paper, Jill and I seem like the perfect couple.”
Ava gave him a look that said I know that you think that wink works for you nine times out of ten. “But you actually are a commitment-phobic ass?”
“It isn’t actually a phobia. Per se,” he protested. “It’s being responsible.”
“Sleeping with women you have no intention of committing to is responsible?”
He stared at her. “How did you know we slept together?”
“Because you’re trying to talk a woman you just met into pretending to be your girlfriend so that your hometown doesn’t think you and this girl, who you’ve known your whole life, should be together now.” She tipped her head. “Something must have changed between the two of you and everyone must know about it.”
Evan blew out a breath. She was good. “Okay, we slept together. But it was mutually a friends-with-benefits thing. She doesn’t want anything more either. But it’s up to me to come up with a really great reason for us to not be together.” Something Ava had said a minute ago occurred to him. “And by the way, never promising to give them anything more than I can deliver is responsible.”
“What can you deliver?” She looked curious. And slightly amused.
He could work with that. “A few laughs and a few orgasms.”
She lifted her shoulder. “Well, that’s not nothing.”
Evan grinned. It felt like he was talking to Cori again. Of course it made sense that Ava and Cori would have things in common. He supposed as triplets even their sense of humor could be crazily similar. That was good. He was attracted to Cori. Which meant, he could be attracted to Ava too.
“You’re just not into serious relationships?” Ava asked.
“Well…” He wanted to be. Or he wanted to want to be. “Mostly, I can’t be responsible for penguins being cared for by a sub-standard vet.”
Ava’s eyes widened. “Penguins?”
“Jill’s a wildlife vet. Specializing in penguins.”
“And there aren’t a lot of penguins in Bliss?”
“Not a one.”
“But there are in…”
“Omaha. At the zoo. It’s her dream job.”
“Ah.” Ava took a breath. “You’re worried that she’ll give it up and you won’t live up to the hype.”
Well, no. Not exactly. Okay, maybe. A little. He lifted a shoulder.
“Was this the first time you’d slept with Jill?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“And why now?”
“It was an unusual situation,” he said carefully. “Normally I wouldn’t have let it happen.”
“What was the situation?”
Evan rolled his neck, but he said, “It was just after your dad’s memorial service. I’d had a few drinks and she brought me lasagna and—”
“Well, that explains it.”
“It does?”
“It’s lasagna.”
Evan would not have pegged Ava Carmichael as a comfort-food girl. But he also wouldn’t have imagined how relaxed and normal she’d look at home. There were some layers here. That could make the next six months much more interesting.
“Exactly,” he said. “I was sad and drunk and there was a lasagna and she said that she was there for me, anything I needed and…” He trailed off, assuming she could fill in the rest.
Ava groaned. “You Harry-ed her?”
He paused. But no, that didn’t make any sense even when he repeated it in his head. “What?”
“You Harry-ed her,” she said again. When he shook his head, she sighed. “When Harry Met Sally? The movie? Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan? They’re friends forever and she’s really sad one night and he comes over to comfort her and they end up sleeping together and afterward she thinks their relationship has changed, but he doesn’t.”
Evan stared at her.
“You Harry-ed her,” she said again, as if to drive the point home.
“But I was the one that was sad and needed comforting.”
“Well, maybe you Sally-ed her.” Ava scrunched her nose up, thinking.
And he found that adorable.
He sighed. “And neither of us thought the relationship would change. But okay, we screwed up. So, I propose this—you come to Bliss, and we act madly in love, and Jill will act brokenhearted and like she can’t wait to get away from having our happiness rubbed in her face, and everyone will give up on the idea of her and me. Then she’ll escape to Omaha, you’ll fulfill the dating provision in the trust, and I’ll prove that I’m a changed guy who is capable of being with a woman for more than sex.”
“Except that you won’t be a changed man. You’ll be a man trying to get out of a sticky situation.”
He leaned in, propping his elbow on the doorjamb just above her head. “But maybe you can change me.” That tone of voice always worked. And this was a good idea. For both of them.
She didn’t look amused. Or particularly turned on. But she didn’t move away from him eithe
r. She simply asked, “Do you want to change?”
Fine, she should probably know this too. “I need to take things a little more seriously. I’m kind of…the life of the party now. A lot like Cori. I love to have a good time, try new things, make sure everyone around me is having fun. But people want to hang out with me if there’s beer and wings involved, not as much if there are big decisions to be made.”
She tipped her head. “You’re a lawyer, right?”
He grinned. “Yeah, well, I’m very content mediating disagreements between people I’ve known my whole life, helping people draw up land purchase agreements, trademark their homemade soy candles, and adopt babies. Nothing big or fancy or serious.”
“Babies aren’t serious?”
He shook his head, still smiling. “Come on. You know what I mean. I’m a good guy. But I could stand to settle down a little.”
She finally nodded. “Okay, I get it.” She took a deep breath. “But you’re not like Cori.”
Just her name made his heart thump. That could be a problem. “No?”
“Sounds like people love to have you around.”
Evan felt his eyes widen. “What’s that mean?”
She lifted a shoulder. “A little bit of Cori goes a long way.”
He felt his brows pull together. “Rudy always said that Cori was the fun one.” Surely that wouldn’t offend Ava. Surely, she knew.
“Oh, she is. She’s great in small doses.”
A strange surge of protectiveness went through him. That could also be a problem. But it didn’t keep him from saying, “That’s weird. I got a small dose today. And definitely wanted more.”
Her eyes went wide. He probably shouldn’t have said that. But if Ava was going to criticize Cori, they were going to have issues.
Yeah, that was definitely going to be a problem.
“You wanted more from Cori?” Ava asked. Her voice sounded strange.
Absolutely. But that wasn’t going to work. Obviously. If he was dating Ava, he couldn’t even flirt with Cori. Though he wasn’t sure he’d be able to help it. “I found your sister…delightful.”
He wasn’t sure he’d ever used the word delightful ever before. And certainly not in reference to a woman he wanted to sleep with.
“You did?” Ava asked. Her eyes were even wider now.
“I did.”
“It was probably the whipped cream.”
Again, he felt himself frowning and wanting to defend Cori. “It wasn’t the whipped cream.”
She arched a brow.
“It wasn’t just the whipped cream,” he amended.
“Evan—”
“I like your sister,” he said. “But this is part of how I’m going to start changing. We both need this.” Ava was the one to shape him up. Cori was the one to…yeah, that didn’t matter.
She just looked at him for several seconds. Finally, she asked, “Do you cry a lot?”
“Excuse me?”
“Do you get all sad and despondent and in need of lasagna often?” she asked.
“I’m generally a pretty happy person,” he said dryly. “Though I will admit that I’m in need of pasta every once in a while even when I’m in a good mood.”
She nodded. “Noted.”
And he could have sworn she was suddenly fighting a smile.
“No risk of accidental sex, then?” she asked.
“I can honestly say that 99 percent of the sex I have is very on purpose.”
Yeah, she was definitely fighting a smile. And he really liked that. And it made him think about sex. With this woman. It was interesting, and surprising, that he hadn’t really thought about sex with Ava before this. He’d noted that she was gorgeous and that she looked damned good in her heels and that if they’d met in a bar, he probably would have hit on her. But that was as far as that had gone. Because she’d opened her mouth and the frosty-CEO thing didn’t do it for him. He’d actually thought briefly about how a six-month public relationship with her would keep him essentially celibate, but then he’d quickly stopped thinking about that when he’d started to hyperventilate.
He’d told himself he could make it for six months. He was a grown man, for God’s sake. He could sacrifice for a greater good. People went off to war, after all. And into space. And…other places where they couldn’t have sex for long periods of time even if he couldn’t think of one at the moment. But he could be a fucking soldier here. So to speak.
“I assume if we’re putting on this relationship show in your little town, we’re going to have to make it believable,” Ava said.
He nodded. “Definitely. There’s no way anyone will believe that I’m serious about someone I’m not attracted to.”
Evan could have sworn she moved closer. That was…interesting.
“But I’m not sure we have any chemistry,” she said, her voice a little husky now.
He wasn’t sure they did either. But he knew that he liked her in this tank top. And he really loved her smile and her laugh and the way she seemed to know that he was full of shit.
“Well, there’s only one way to know for sure,” he said, to them both. Then he stepped in, wrapped an arm around her waist and drew her up onto her tiptoes and against him.
She took a quick, soft breath, but didn’t seem shocked. And didn’t move to put more space between them.
“So far so good,” he said gruffly as his body responded to having her up against him.
“Yeah,” she said, staring at his mouth.
He had no choice but to cup the back of her head…and kiss her.
Because, seriously, they needed to know how much acting this whole chemistry thing was going to take.
And the answer was clear almost immediately. Not one fucking bit.
Regardless of the hoity-toity attitude, the shoes that cost more than his truck had—and that admittedly made her legs look amazing—and the fact that he really wanted to eat bacon dipped in Nutella with her sister, kissing Ava Carmichael was going to be absolutely no hardship whatsoever.
In fact, the kiss had him thinking about other things to do with Nutella.
And if Cori’s face was the one that flashed through his mind when Ava first dragged her tongue over his bottom lip, then it wasn’t totally his fault. They were identical after all.
Evan curled his fingers into her hair as her hands gripped the front of his shirt. She made a little needy sound at the back of her throat and Evan took the step that put her up against the door and his body more firmly against hers.
Without her heels, she was a little short of the perfect height for making out against a door, so Evan scooped under her ass and lifted her slightly so he could press his suddenly aching cock into the soft apex of her thighs.
She groaned and wrapped her legs around him, her arms slipping around his neck.
He groaned in return.
Yeah, the next six months was going to be just fine.
As their tongues tasted and danced, he memorized the perfect curve of her ass, the feel of her breasts against his chest—also perfect—the smell of her skin, and the way she squeezed him with her thighs, almost as if she was trying to hold him in place.
He had no intention of going anywhere any time soon.
“Hey! Who was at the door?”
Unless of course one of her sisters interrupted.
Evan pulled back and stared down into the big blue eyes that were filled with heat and surprise, if he wasn’t mistaken.
She took a long breath, then called back, “Evan Stone.”
“Oh, is there a problem?” the other voice asked.
Her mouth curled up and her gaze went to his lips. “Well, maybe just a slight one.”
He lifted an eyebrow, but also loosened his hold on her, letting her feet swing to the ground. He stepped back, still able to feel her butt in his palms.
“That didn’t feel like a problem,” he said. “This plan will work.”
She took a deep breath, ran a hand over the front of
her tank, where her nipples were even more prominent now, and said, “There’s just one little thing.”
“What’s that?”
“You’re really going to have to learn to tell us apart.”
Evan felt trepidation skitter down his spine as another beautiful blond appeared at the end of the hallway inside the door.
“Mr. Stone? What can we do for you?”
“He’d like to talk to you about your requirements in the trust,” the woman he’d just been kissing said.
And Evan felt that trepidation sneak around to his gut and form a hard knot.
“Oh?” the other blonde said. The one in a similar tank top and pants. But this top was green. And she was wearing a sports bra. “What about them?”
Evan met the first Carmichael sister’s gaze. He lifted a thumb and ran it over his bottom lip, where she’d nipped him slightly.
“He has an idea,” she said to her sister, even while she returned his stare.
“Well, great,” the one in the green tank said. “What is it?”
“I’ll just leave you and Ava alone,” the sister who was now clearly Cori, said.
Apparently she wasn’t going to mention his mistake. Or the kiss. That was great. He supposed.
Evan watched her as she walked down the hallway and disappeared around the corner. And all he could feel for a few seconds was regret.
Then Ava asked, “What’s your idea?”
And Evan focused on the woman who was going to be his girlfriend for the next six months.
“What’s going on?” Brynn asked as Cori walked to the couch and dropped onto the end cushion.
What was going on? She was knee-deep in a crush on a guy who was, at that very moment, convincing her sister to be his girlfriend.
Her very beautiful, put-together, successful, intelligent, driven sister. Who practically had to date him. While Cori wasn’t supposed to date anyone. She grabbed a throw pillow and hugged it to her stomach.
“Evan Stone has a solution to Ava’s part of the new dating rules around here,” Cori told Brynn.
“Really?” Brynn asked. “He can get us out of that part?”
Cori couldn’t help but smile. Brynn actually looked concerned. “No, you hussy, you still get to try on a bunch of different guys, no worries.”
