Diamonds and Dirt Roads

by Erin Nicholas

  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 promin
ent 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.”

  Brynn tucked her hair behind her ear as her cheeks got pink. “I wasn’t worried.”

  “You know, you could still start dating a bunch. Even if it wasn’t mandated in some stupid trust,” Cori said. “There are lots of ways to meet nice guys.”

  Okay, there were lots of ways to meet guys. There were a few ways to meet nice guys. But doing it in Bliss, Kansas seemed like one of those ways. Evan Stone sounded like he was a bit of a player and even he was nice.

  “But the trust thing is such a great excuse, right?” Brynn asked with a grin.

  Cori laughed. “Well, I guess if you need an excuse, then yeah.”

  “Honestly, I’ve never needed an excuse, because I’ve never really wanted to date,” Brynn said.

  “No?” Cori had always assumed that Brynn was just shy and a workaholic. Not in the same way Ava was, of course. Ava did it because she was proving herself. Brynn did it because she honestly loved what she did.

  Brynn shrugged. “I guess I’ve always assumed when I met the right guy, I would just know. And he’d be it.”

  “The first guy you date will be the last guy you date?” Cori asked. That was…a completely absurd idea.

  But Brynn nodded. “I guess going out to dinner and the movies with someone I’m not sure of seems like a waste of time.”

  Cori got more comfortable on the couch. This was fascinating. “But how do you know you’re sure, or not sure, until you spend some time together?”

  “I’m just not the type to meet a guy in a bar or something and spend time getting to know him. I think I’m more likely to end up with someone I already know from work or a research team or through one of the forums I’m a part of or something. I think I’ll really know the guy before we go on a date. And then that will be it.”

  Cori thought about that. Wow. That would be really nice actually.

  “How’s Evan going to help Ava?” Brynn asked.

  “He’s going to play my boyfriend for the next six months,” Ava said, coming into the room. Alone.

  Well, that hadn’t taken very long. Why had it taken him more time to tell Cori about the plan? Oh, yeah, because there had been flirting. And making out.

  “What are you talking about?” Brynn asked.

  Ava reclaimed her seat, put her head back, and her feet up. “Yep. This is perfect actually.” She yawned.

  “Perfect?” Cori echoed. “Really?”

  Was Ava feeling an attraction to Evan too? And why did that idea make Cori’s stomach feel weird? Just because Ava wasn’t as fun or spontaneous or flirtatious as Cori and Cori really wanted that to be Evan’s type? That wasn’t fair. Ava was awesome. And there were extenuating circumstances here, for both of them. And Cori wasn’t supposed to date anyway.

  But, seriously, how was she supposed to embrace the not-dating thing after a kiss like that? Sure, the idea of spending a few Saturday nights on the couch with the Hallmark Channel on was really appealing. But she was really going to miss kissing. Maybe Hallmark wouldn’t be the best choice. Too much romance. She might have to rent some thrillers. Scary stuff. Like the idea of never having Evan Stone’s mouth on hers again.

  Fuck. She was in trouble.

  Ava rolled her head to look at Cori. She was clearly still a little tipsy. “It’s perfect because it’s easy. And fastest. The six-month clock starts right away. This way it will be over sooner. Meeting a guy, establishing a relationship that could last six months, but not longer, would all be complicated. But Evan knows what’s going on so we can just do the minimum to meet the requirements—go out a few times, maybe have fun, do…something…date-ish.”

  Ava frowned and Cori laughed, in spite of the fact that Ava was talking about doing something date-ish with Evan. “You do know how to date, right?” she asked. “I mean, you do go out with guys.”

  Ava sighed. “Yeah, but I guess maybe Dad was right. I don’t date just for fun. And I pick guys based on things like their job and their future prospects. And I like to multitask. Which means that I like to go to dinner at restaurants where other CEOs, or senators, or foundation presidents will also be having dinner. And I like to talk about PR plans and investments while we run. And I love when we have mid-week drinks and he can introduce me to new contacts. And I like gallery openings, because they’re great opportunities for business conversations that don’t feel like business conversations. And I love weekend getaways skiing or at the lake where I have access to influential people for an entire forty-eight hours while they’re ‘relaxed’ and happy and a little drunk.”

  Ava used air quotes around “relaxed” and Cori shook her head. “Do you ever actually spend time alone with any of these guys?”

  “I said we run,” Ava replied.

  “And talk business the whole time,” Cori said.

  Ava shrugged.

  “Do you talk about the stock market while you’re having sex too?” Cori asked.

  Ava didn’t respond right away. Cori felt her eyes widen. “Don’t tell me that the words ‘market shares’ and ‘depreciation’ get you going.”

  “Of course not,” Ava said. She paused. “But ‘cash flow’ and ‘acquisition’? Definitely.”

  Cori threw the pillow at her. “Stop. That makes me sad. Foreplay should include words like ‘tonight I’ll be the professor and you be the grad student’ and ‘all fours then cowgirl’ and ‘naked waffles’.”

  There was no response and Cori looked from Brynn to Ava. They were staring at her, their cheeks pink.

  “What?” she asked. “I like to role-play.” She really did.

  “Naked waffles?” Ava finally asked.

  “Yeah. That’s not really role-playing but it’s fun. One of you is the waffle. Then there’s butter and syrup and—
”

  “Yep, got it,” Ava said. She looked at Brynn. “I don’t…”

  “What?” Cori asked.

  Ava shook her head. “I don’t have sex like that.”

  I’ll bet Evan Stone does. Okay, that was a completely inappropriate thought. Cori shook it out of her head and focused on her sister. “Do you have sex at all?” she asked Ava.

  Ava shrugged. “Of course.”

  Cori was pretty sure how that went. “Let me guess. You like to be on top and you get up afterward and check your email.”

  Ava rolled her eyes. “I don’t get up afterward to check email.” She paused. “I can check it on my phone from bed.”

  Cori laughed. But for some reason it was really important to Cori that her sisters, both of them, have good sex more than sometimes. She swallowed hard and ignored the twist in her stomach and said, “Maybe you won’t want to check email when you’re with Evan.”

  Ava sat up quickly, then groaned slightly. But she shook her head. “I’m not going to sleep with Evan Stone.”

  “Why not?” Cori asked, legitimately confused. “He’s hot and funny and I think he’d go for naked waffles.” Or Nutella and bacon.

  “You and your food,” Ava muttered.

  Yeah, well. “I’m just saying that sex should be fun,” Cori said. “And satisfying. And something that makes you forget about your email. At least for the night.”

  “Nothing can make me forget about my email.” Ava slumped back into the couch.

  Evan Stone totally could. But she’d already done the bigger-person thing by saying he was hot and funny and even mentioning the idea of Ava and Evan and naked waffles in the same sentence. Now she was shutting up.

  “I guess that means Dad was right,” Ava said.

  Hearing about Ava’s dating life, Cori couldn’t disagree. “So, we’re going?”

  Ava sighed. “It’s still crazy.”

  “Maybe that’s what we need,” Brynn said. “I have to admit that there’s been a severe lack of crazy…and naked waffles…in my life.”

  Cori almost laughed. But then a thought hit her. “And maybe I’ve had too many naked waffles.” Maybe the fact that her mind went from the idea of dating, straight to naked waffles and role-playing, meant that she wasn’t doing so great at basic dating and getting to know people either. Or even really dating at all. She didn’t make business deals during fancy-schmancy wine tastings and art shows, but she didn’t go to the movies or on picnics in the park either. Maybe a step back from incorporating butter and syrup into her sex life wasn’t a horrible idea.