Her Accidental Boyfriend: A Secret Wishes Novel (Entangled Bliss)

by Robin Bielman

  “That’s why I’m here.” Her gaze dipped to his mouth for one brief second before she focused back on his eyes.

  “Huh?”

  “We’re friends. And you needed a friend tonight after Mia called. I don’t know how often you think about what happened, but it’s pretty obvious you’ve been beating yourself up about it when you do.” Her hand slid off his chest. “I know what that’s like. When my mom died I thought I’d let her down. I thought if I hadn’t gone to play Scrabble with my dad and helped her clean up instead, I would have seen the signs that something was wrong and saved her. I’m here to tell you it’s okay to let it go. One action doesn’t define you. The man I’m looking at is amazing—how else would you explain what you’ve done tonight?”

  Shane gulped. They were friends. Great friends. They shared a bond of mutual affection, had fun together, confided in each other. Laughed. Teased. Looking at Kagan was like looking at the sun, and a heartfelt smile tugged the corners of his mouth up.

  “Feel better?”

  “Not sure.” He didn’t know if he could let the past go no matter how much he wanted to.

  She brushed a piece of his hair away from his face and his damn fingertips tingled. “You will tomorrow.”

  He wasn’t completely on board with her confidence. But for the first time, he thought the odds might be in his favor.

  …

  “If Shane stares at you any harder your clothes are going to disintegrate,” Erin said.

  “He’s not,” Kagan whispered, trying really hard to ignore the fact that her skin hummed everywhere from his attention. She wiped down the bar in the Crown & Anchor and pretended Shane did not turn her topsy-turvy, inside out, and too many shades of red to count.

  “Going to make your clothes disintegrate? I beg to differ.”

  “Staring.”

  “Are you blind?” Erin tied off the large industrial strength garbage bag. She and Kagan, along with several other townspeople, were helping to clean up the pub. While the professionals worked in the kitchen, Milt’s friends wiped up tables and chairs, threw away trash, and restocked the bar.

  Kagan peeked at Shane across the room. He wore black board shorts and a pale yellow T-shirt, his hair was mussed, his strong jaw clean-shaven. He was sweeping—and staring at her like he had x-ray vision. It was a good thing the bar hid her from the waist down or he would’ve noticed her legs wobbling.

  “Okay. Fine. So he wants to undress me.” She wanted to undress him, too, but didn’t plan on sharing that with Erin.

  He nodded, like he’d heard what she said—or read her lips! Either way she spun around so he couldn’t see the blush on her cheeks. Damn him.

  “You telling me he hasn’t?” Erin’s voice held way too much interest. And disbelief.

  Kagan hated to lie to Erin, but this situation sort of demanded it, didn’t it? She and Shane were pretending to be boyfriend and girlfriend and with Shane’s reputation it might draw attention if she didn’t brag a little bit.

  Keeping her back to Erin and wiping a bottle of tequila before putting it back on the shelf, she said, “Oh, he has. He just wants to do it all the time.”

  Erin sighed like she approved so Kagan kept going, moving her rag to the next unopened bottle.

  “He’s always touching me and whispering things in my ear that are sweet and sexy. It’s very hard to resist him. He’s smart and funny too. And his smile is just about the best thing ever and melts my heart every time it’s directed at me. I don’t know why I fought his advances as long as I did, but I’m glad he didn’t give up on me.”

  Truth. Everything she’d just said was the truth. When had she stopped pretending? I never had to pretend.

  She turned around and almost jumped out of her skin. Shane was sitting on a barstool next to Erin, a smile so big spread across his handsome face she wanted to kill him a little bit.

  “Don’t stop now, Jelly Belly. This is just getting good.”

  His elbows were propped on the bar. His hands were under his chin. Erin matched his position, like they’d both been enthralled by her confession. “Sorry,” Erin said. “He shushed me so I couldn’t stop you. But I’m thinking you scored some major girlfriend points, so all is good.”

  “You want him?” Kagan put her hands on her hips.

  Erin burst out laughing.

  “I only have eyes for you, Jelly Belly.” Boy, did he ever. And they darkened, twinkled, and flirted all at the same time. How did he do that? And why, oh, why did it make her heart do a hundred yard dash and everything else south of her neck quiver?

  Shane faked it better than anyone. But last night hadn’t been fake. When his body had covered hers on the couch and he’d told her he’d wanted her, she had no doubt he’d meant it. And then to share what had happened with Mia—to let her in? Whatever was going on between them, it wasn’t all for show anymore.

  “For now,” she said, siphoning some of the glitter in those telling eyes.

  “I don’t know,” Erin chimed in. “According to Cascade’s blog poll this morning, ninety-five percent of the voters think you’ve got Shane’s heart for good, and the Fall Fling is still a week and a half away.”

  He reached out and took her elbow, extending her arm so he could hold her hand and rub his thumb over her knuckles. “I think the fine people of Cascade know what they’re talking about.”

  “Oh my God, you’ve got this guy completely crazy about you, Kagan. I can hear the single girls of Cascade all crying,” Erin said.

  Before she or Shane could respond to that, Brett walked into the pub with Mrs. Finnegan and Meredith Crem. The two older women flanked him, their arms around his, but he was definitely the one in control, leading them up to the bar and saying something that had both ladies giggling like schoolgirls.

  Mrs. Finnegan, great-grandmother, self-imposed neighborhood watch president since retiring from the police department, and town jewel.

  Meredith Crem, bakery owner, mischief-maker—thanks in large part to the bachelor/bachelorette cake she’d made for Vanessa Watters—and town favorite.

  Brett Gordon, businessman, Fred Donaldson sidekick, town intruder. He had the sleeves of his dress shirt rolled up to his elbows, and was that a smudge of dirt on his cheek?

  “Hey, babe. Would it be possible to get both of these lovely women a glass of water? They’ve been working hard helping with the cleanup.”

  She bristled at his easy swagger and sociable voice. And the babe? What was he doing? She glared at him. So did Shane.

  “Sure.”

  The tap wasn’t running yet, so Kagan needed to grab a couple of water bottles. Someone had placed them out of reach, though, and on her tiptoes she couldn’t quite get a hand on them.

  “Let me help,” Shane said, coming around the bar. He pressed up against her and reached over her shoulder. As if the feel of his chest on her back and his pelvis to her bottom weren’t bad enough, once he had two water bottles, he kissed the side of her neck before turning around.

  Whirls of pleasure did a slow stretch through her limbs.

  “Bottles okay or shall I pour for you ladies?” Shane asked, his voice playful and sexy, and Kagan twisted to grab a couple of clean glasses from underneath the bar.

  She put them atop the counter rather than wait for an answer because she needed something to do besides drool over Shane.

  He poured. She served.

  “You two make a good pair,” Meredith said, eyeing them like they were some rare species of animal.

  Not for the first time, shame crept up the back of her neck at her and Shane’s duplicity. Lying to Brett was one thing; lying to people she’d grown to care about was something different. She hoped there wouldn’t be any backlash when they parted ways, especially for Shane when she went back to New York.

  “We definitely do.” Shane put his arm around her and nuzzled his nose in her hair before lightly kissing her jaw. “She’s a keeper, and I’m not letting her go.” He looked at Brett as he pulled
her tighter against him.

  Her face tingled, and she prayed the blushing fairies heard her silent plea to keep their distance.

  Brett watched them carefully. “She is quite the catch. Slippery, though, I suspect. Not as easy to hang onto as you’d think. Right, babe?”

  “Brett,” she warned. Mrs. Finnegan, Meredith, and Erin looked between them with raised eyebrows and narrowed eyes.

  “I mean I had my sights on a girl just like you not too long ago. We fit perfectly. Her dad loved me. But she didn’t feel the same way. Broke my heart.”

  “Aww,” Mrs. Finnegan said. She covered Brett’s hand with her smaller, wrinkled one. “Her loss, sweetie.”

  “Can we get you something, Brett?” Shane said, his voice rigid.

  We. That one word calmed the resentment seething inside her and she relaxed against Shane a little bit more.

  “I’m fine, thanks.” Oh, but the scowl on his face said otherwise.

  With a step to the side, Kagan moved down the bar so she could continue unpacking new glassware. And breathe a little easier. She hated Brett a little bit more every time she saw him.

  Shane sidled up beside her. “Thought I’d romance you a little this evening. You free?” he muttered.

  The tips of her ears burned. Did he have to say such cute things? “What did you have in mind?”

  “A make-out session.” The burn moved lower, most especially to the parts of her body she so wanted him to make out with.

  “Shane!” Talk at the other end of the bar quieted for a moment. She dropped her voice. “You can’t say things like that to me, and how is that romantic?” Romance meant soft music and candles and…other stuff. She’d never really been romanced.

  He played with a piece of her hair. “I didn’t tell you where. I didn’t tell you for how long. And I didn’t tell you if you should be prepared.”

  “Prepared?”

  “To spend the night together.”

  She grabbed the edge of the bar to steady herself. “Is that what you want?”

  “I’ve already told you what I want. You game?”

  There it was. The one word to extinguish the flames inside her. This was just part of their scheme to fool Brett into going home, to getting her father off her back, to helping her exert her independence. No matter how much she thought Shane might really like her, deep down he’d always be that carefree playboy who shied away from anything serious.

  Live in the moment. Live for right now, she told herself. She’d never done that before, always planning her future per her father’s requests and demands.

  Maybe she didn’t have to figure out her life right this minute. For the first time in her life, she didn’t know what next month would bring, and…she liked that.

  Why not add a fling with Shane to the scenario? She could give him her body and keep her heart out of it.

  Your heart’s already in.

  But just looking at him made it impossible to turn him down. And it wasn’t just his physical looks. She got the best energy from him—the kind that made her feel safe, happy, in the right place. The kind a girl didn’t walk away from without a fight.

  “I’m game,” she said.

  Chapter Eleven

  Kagan wasn’t prepared at all.

  She’d thought the knock on her front door was Shane and bounded to answer it, only to be met by a journalist from the Cascade Gazette. “Kagan Donaldson?” he’d asked, catching her completely off guard and filling her with immediate worry and then shame.

  Telling herself anyone in her position would have slammed the door in the reporter’s face too, she squeezed her eyes shut and took a deep breath as she slid down the wall until her butt hit the floor. How had he found out?

  Only Shane and Brett knew who she was, and Shane had promised to keep her secret. Did Brett think exposing her identity would get her to leave Cascade and head back to New York with him?

  Voices sounded from out front and Kagan crawled over to the window. She peeked over the sill to see exactly how many people stood outside. Looked like three…no, four. And was that a television van pulling up? She ducked when a lady looked her way.

  Her vision blurred and a sharp pain sliced through her head. So much for going unnoticed now. She imagined the whole town had at least heard of her famous father and gossip would travel fast. She’d come to adore Cascade, but the townspeople loved scuttlebutt.

  She could just see the newspaper and blog headline now: “Billionaire Fred Donaldson’s Daughter Right Under Our Noses. Why?” The writer would go on to talk about her standoffish demeanor and unwed status. That’s what all media outlets focused on.

  This time, though, would Shane get mentioned? She bit down on her lip at the thought of him getting dragged into this mess. And what would his family think? Would they hate her for keeping this a secret? Would they be upset with him too?

  She buried her face in her hands and wished she’d kept her distance from Shane like she’d told herself five months ago. She’d known from the second he’d opened that sexy mouth of his, that he was dangerous. Having those roles reversed, that her identity could cause trouble for him, had never occurred to her.

  The doorbell rang. She ignored it. A second later, though, the front door opened. In her fluster, she must’ve forgotten to lock it. She jumped to her feet, ready to push a nosy reporter right back out.

  “Kagan?” Shane called, his body coming into view around the doorframe as he kicked it shut behind him.

  “Hey,” she said, relieved and absorbing every inch of him, from his cargo shorts to his white collared shirt to his windblown hair. A flicker of something she hadn’t seen in his eyes before—possessiveness or devotion maybe—had her rushing into his arms.

  He dropped the large brown bag in his hands and held her tight. His warmth wrapped around her in a sleeve she never wanted to leave. I’m safe here. In Shane’s arms nothing can touch me. His wide chest against the side of her face might have been the best pillow ever. And he smelled so good. All man and clean scent with a touch of mint and something else distinctly him she wanted to inhale forever.

  Then with a tender touch, he lifted her face. She bit her lip again to tamp down the desire swirling through her like warm, gentle wisps of sunshine. He looked at her like she belonged to him.

  God, how she wanted him to kiss her and make her forget everything but the two of them.

  And then he did just that. In the blink of an eye, the touch of their lips took that swirl inside her and magnified it a thousand times. She was lost, so wonderfully lost to the way Shane’s kisses sent electric charges through her bloodstream and made her hungry for everything he had to offer.

  His mouth on hers, his tongue a sweet invasion, heightened every one of her senses. This kiss was even better than the last one, his tongue darting repeatedly inside her mouth between nibbles at her wet lips.

  She moved her arms around his neck and pressed against him. One of his hands splayed across her lower back while the other cradled her head. They drank each other, deep exploration turning to soft caresses and then returning to hard, thorough kisses until they broke apart nearly breathless.

  “I’m sorry about the crap outside,” he whispered.

  “It’s not your fault.” She stepped back, but he kept his arm around her waist so she couldn’t move too far.

  “I talked to Jeremy, and he’s getting everyone to back off.”

  “Jeremy?”

  Shane stroked her hair. “He works for the Gazette. I asked him to leave and take the others with him.”

  “And he said yes, just like that?”

  “Well.” He paused. “I did have to promise him something in exchange.”

  A lump lodged in her throat. “What kind of something.”

  “I told him when you’re ready, I’d talk to you about giving him an exclusive interview.”

  “Shane!” She wiggled free of his hold. “I don’t talk to the media. Ever. They’ve never liked me. They’ve never cut
me any slack or cared about anything other than stirring up controversy.”

  “Kay.” He took hold of her hand. “That’s in New York. I know Jeremy. He’s a good guy and only wants to get to know you. This town adores you. You don’t have to worry about a war of words here.”

  She turned and paced around the living room, glancing out the window to see that yep, everyone was leaving. “You don’t know that for sure. You have no idea how people react to Kagan Donaldson.” She let out a crestfallen sigh. “I can’t believe Brett did this.”

  “So you saw.”

  She froze. “Saw what?”

  He pulled his phone from his pocket and worked his fingers across the small screen. “Candace Brewer has a post up on Cascade’s blog. I only know because Erin texted me. It seems Brett decided to play dirty.”

  With legs shaking she accepted the phone. The headline read Big City Exec With Father’s Blessing Takes On Hometown Heartthrob

  She stopped reading after that and collapsed onto the couch.

  Shane took the spot next to her. “We won’t let him win. And beyond his bragging, I know how people react to Kagan Owens, and that’s who you are. That’s the girl my sister and mom and Erin and everyone who comes into the Crown & Anchor, and everyone who’s bought bracelets from you thinks is smart and kind and helpful and warmhearted.” He traced his finger up and down her bare arm. That combined with his kind words sent a shiver shimmying down her spine.

  “Trust me when I tell you Kagan Donaldson will be thought of the same way. This town may like gossip, but they don’t judge.”

  “I hope you’re right.” She lifted her gaze from his hand to his eyes.

  He grinned. “I’m always right, Jelly Belly.” He got to his feet. “Now I’m going to make you forget the last twenty minutes. You ready? You look ready. Have I told you how much I love that you’re always in dresses?”

  Kagan looked down at her knee-length striped knit dress. The light material hugged what curves she had, and she’d hoped Shane would like it. “No, but thank you.”