“It’s been almost a year.” She looped the feathered boa around his neck and tugged him toward her heaving chest. “Are you sure this is some noble thing we’re doing? Or are you uncomfortable with me?”
“It’s something we agreed on, and I think it’s honoring you.” Larry removed the feathered boa from around his neck. “If you want to continue the strip act, I won’t stop you.”
“I only wanted to show you how close I was to finishing.” Without starting the music, she shimmied her shoulders and untied the laces on her corset, letting it drop from her chest.
He swallowed hard, knowing he should turn away from her bounteous breasts, yet itching to get his hands on them, except both of her globes were covered with a strapless bikini top.
“See?” She let the corset fall to the floor and hooked her thumbs around the waistband of her bikini bottom.
He’d seen women at the beach wearing less.
“You thought I was naked underneath, didn’t you?” Jenna picked up the discarded corset and held it up to him. “I was this close to getting that shopping trip.”
“Doesn’t matter.” He stuck to his guns. “What matters is that every guy in there thought you were naked, too. Everyone watching TV would think you’d bare it all. They’d get excited watching you, and I can’t have that.”
“I was dancing only for you.” Jenna put on her flirty pout face for him. “It was your bachelor’s party. I didn’t want Connor to hire any other stripper, so I arranged it with the TV show.”
“I never wanted a stripper.” Larry held his dog back from licking Jenna’s corset. “It would have been nice just having the potluck and letting the guys roast me, tell some jokes, and call it done.”
“So you’re saying, it would have been better without me crashing your party?” She crossed her arms. “Sorry for trying to help you score season tickets.”
She just didn’t get it. Either that, or she was purposely goading him. She knew how much he rooted for the hometown team, but at the same time, she was his fiancée, the woman who would be his wife.
Sure, she was in the fashion industry where models exposed themselves for a living, and she designed clothes that were provocative enough for movie stars and singers to strut on the red carpet and be talked about the next day. But he’d like to think that in her personal life, she would be more domestic and modest. After all, if things worked well, she would be the mother of his large brood of children.
And one really couldn’t have a mother figure running around pole dancing or stripping.
“I don’t want to fight about this,” Larry said, putting a consoling arm around her. “Just run things by me the next time you do something for that reality show.”
“Guess you didn’t know, but I’m most likely out of the show,” Jenna said. She picked up a robe and put it on, then slipped her feet into a pair of bunny slippers. “Now, I’ll have to hope one of the other contestants loses her dare. Otherwise, I’ll only have one more appearance. They’ll have a postmortem section where they tell me they’re very sorry, but they’ll also remind me of what I did win—the remodeling for my parents’ new house.”
“At least you won something, and now you can relax for the wedding,” Larry conceded. “I hope you won’t hold this against me.”
“But, there’s a sliver of hope.” She reached up to pat him on the cheek. “If the executive producer extends me a lifeline, I’ll get another go around in double dog dare mode.”
“That sounds bad.”
“Yeah, it does, but the prizes are also doubly better.”
Larry rubbed his hand over Harley’s sagging skin. “The only double dog dare I’ll take is daring you to marry me on Valentine’s Day.”
“Then I double dog dare you to appear on the show with me, if I get that lifeline.” She gave him a smile designed to wrap him around her little finger.
He didn’t want to spoil her fun, and truthfully, they could use whatever money or prizes the show would provide. Maybe he had overreacted. After all, she was wearing a bikini underneath it all, and she had a point about him jumping to conclusions and not trusting her judgment.
“Okay,” he agreed. “I’ll appear on the show, but only on one condition.”
“What’s that?” She hooked her little finger around his for a pinkie promise.
“That Harley boy gets to be on the show, too. Then it would be a triple dog dare.”
Chapter Four
“Tsk, tsk, tsk.” Jenna’s brother, Grady Hart, peeled back a banana and propped his stocking feet on her kitchen table. “I can’t believe Larry’s such a square.”
Grady was her twin brother, and just like her, they’d both left home as soon as they turned eighteen, while the rest of their siblings stuck close to their parents’ San Francisco home.
She’d gone to New York to be a fashion designer, and he’d joined the Forest Service as a smoke jumper. They’d both sown plenty of wild oats, and it could be safely said that they were the only two black sheep in their large, traditional Irish Catholic family.
“Get your feet off my table.” Jenna snapped at him with a dishtowel.
Her brother, who usually spent the winter jumping fires in Australia’s summer fire season, was home this year due to his two sisters’ weddings. Melisa had had a wild New Year’s Eve wedding, with Grady emceeing the after-party, and now, Jenna was due for nuptials on Valentine’s Day.
Since Melisa had moved out of the apartment Jenna had shared with her, Grady was now the resident squatter.
He left his feet on the table and tilted the chair back.
“You’ll leave dents in the linoleum.” Jenna hissed at him. She picked up the banana peel he left on the table and threw it in the trash.
“Sure would have been a nice shopping trip,” Grady said. “I wish I could have seen you strip at the firehouse.”
“Stop goading me. There’s nothing more yucky than watching your own sister strip.”
“Au contraire,” Grady said, keeping his feet stubbornly on her table. “Remember how we used to be fake dates for each other?”
“That was ages ago,” Jenna said.
When she’d first landed in New York, she was getting harassed by a married partner at the design firm who kept asking her out. Even though she and Grady were twins, they looked nothing like each other. She was fair with blond hair and pale green eyes, while his suntanned skin was as swarthy as a pirate’s. The dark brown hair and clear coffee-colored eyes gave him a Latin flair, and it had been easy to fool the men at her job that Gabe Herrero, his alias, meant business if anyone would have messed with her. The fact that he was a badass smoke jumper who knew how to survive in the wilderness and wield an axe kept the smooth-handed city boys at bay.
She’d even gone as far as to put a picture of Grady and her in a romantic pose at her design table. It hadn’t, however, limited her action with the guys she’d secretly slept with, but those were mostly people she traded benefits with: photographers, fashion editors, and fashion show promoters. She didn’t care if they thought she was cheating on Gabe Herrero whose only job was to keep the married creepers away.
“Well, it worked back then, and it’ll work now,” Grady said. “If Larry doesn’t want to pose as your fiancé in the reality show, which truly doesn’t have an iota of realism in it, then I’ll bring back Gabe Herrero, and rack up the truth and dares for you. Believe me, I’ll have no problem with anything they come up with.”
“Sorry, bro,” Jenna grabbed his big bladelike feet and shoved him back, upending the wooden chair. “Larry had a point, and I respect him for it. He didn’t want anyone getting turned on by seeing me strip.”
Grady crashed to the floor and rolled off the chair. “Don’t worry. No one gets turned on while laughing.”
“If you want to be in a reality show, get your own.” She kicked his behind while he was down for good measure. “I can suggest one to the executive producer. He’s always sniffing for new ideas.”
“Following me while I parachute behind a fire line might be too dangerous for the camera crew.”
“I’m sure it is.” Jenna popped a serving of leftover breakfast casserole into the microwave. “But maybe they can think of one such as Bait the Asshole and get you to do stupid stunts.”
“Mention it the next time you see the producer and put in a good word for me.” Grady picked up the fallen chair and pointed at the casserole. “Heat one of those up for me, too.”
Larry was on duty for the next three twenty-four-hour shifts, and he always cooked the day before and divvied up each dish into single serving pieces before putting them into individually labeled plastic containers.
“Do you see any with your name labeled on them?” Jenna opened the refrigerator and pointed at the neatly stacked boxes. “I don’t, so why don’t you go sponge breakfast off Mom and Dad?”
Their parents were still living at their eldest sister, Cait’s place, but the new house was already in the interior decorating stage. Jenna’s prize was going into a state of the art professional kitchen as well as a luxurious master bathroom complete with a built-in spa.
“Saints live there.” He sauntered to the refrigerator and grabbed a bottle of beer. Seriously? So early in the morning. “Sinners hang out here.”
“I haven’t sinned since I started dating Larry.” Jenna stopped the beeping microwave and retrieved the heated portion. She set it on the table in front of her brother who’d gone back to his spot. “Sounds like there’s a story behind what you just said. So here’s a peace offering in exchange for you spilling.”
“Oh, no, you eat it. I’ll take my laptop and go to the Love Bean, order coffee and a breakfast omelet and pretend I’m a lovesick writer.” Grady glugged the beer, which belonged to Larry. “Speaking of spilling, I’ve seen how uptight you and Larry are around each other. Are you two getting cold feet?”
“The only cold feet I have is yours in my spare bedroom.” Jenna darted him a glare as he lifted his feet and immediately put them back down on the floor. “Seriously, what’s really going on? Ever since you turned eighteen, you haven’t spent more than one or two days visiting us. Now, you’re practically squatting in my apartment.”
“I prefer to think of it as chaperoning. Cait told me about you and Larry’s sweet vow to keep the sanctity of your wedding bed.”
“Cait has a big mouth.” Jenna sighed. She picked off a small corner of the breakfast casserole and put it in her mouth. That was all she would eat, since she was designing her wedding gown for the new, thinner Jenna, and not the curvy version she was a year ago.
Grady dug into the casserole. “She still hasn’t forgiven me of accusing Brian of being a horrible husband.”
“Yeah, well, it takes an outsider to see what’s plainly in front of your nose.” Jenna poured herself a glass of water. “When I returned from New York, I realized Cait was in an unhappy marriage, but no one would listen to me, so I decided to leave it alone.”
“At least everything’s finally out in the open and it looks like they’re back on track,” Grady said. “I’m frankly surprised Brian had it in him to change.”
“He didn’t truly change. He just tried harder, and Cait accepted his way of showing love without demanding him to be someone else, like lovesick Connor.” Jenna knocked back the water, and spurted it out of her nostrils as she guffawed.
Their once proud and independent brother Connor, the fire chief, was now carrying purses for his pregnant wife and following in her footsteps like a dutiful servant. Soon, he would be loaded down with diaper bags and pushing a stroller.
“Connor was always lovesick.” Grady snorted. “Remember the torch he held for Dr. Elaine Woo?”
He shook his head as if Connor were beyond understanding.
“About you. Why are you here?” Jenna sat down and placed her elbows on the table and her chin in her palms, while staring at Grady in a way that would make him share his moods with her. Despite looking like night and day, they were still twins, and that twin connection meant she could sense her brother was extremely unhappy.
“I couldn’t miss both of my dear sisters’ weddings, so I took a leave of absence,” Grady said, blinking and averting his gaze.
“Why? Is something wrong?”
“Nothing. Nothing at all. I missed the family. Is there something wrong with that?” he practically shouted.
Now that she thought about it, her brother had been louder and more boisterous than before. He also seemed to drink more, and he would go on long rants. He seemed disgruntled.
She gave his muscular shoulders a squeeze. “You know me. I won’t judge.”
“Yeah, I know, but now that you’re going goody-two-shoes on me, I feel isolated.”
“True. I haven’t seen you hooking up.” Jenna gave his shoulder a slight push. “Unless you’re doing quickies in bathrooms.”
“That’s disgusting even for me.” He shook his head so drolly, that she let it go. Whatever was eating at her brother would come out eventually. In the meantime, she welcomed his presence because, as sexually frustrating as it was to not sleep with Larry, having her brother around took the pressure off her.
She could convince herself that she had no opportunity and no privacy, rather than entertain the disturbing thought that either Larry wasn’t physically attracted to her, or even worse, that they were simply not sexually compatible.
She was a try before she bought kind of girl, and she shopped only at places with liberal return policies.
Marrying Larry without sampling his prowess could be the biggest mistake of her life, but could she complain to her Irish Catholic family? Not when all the other children were saints, besides the two black sheep twins.
“You know, sis,” Grady said, getting up and putting his plate in the sink. “I truly hope this marriage to Larry works out. I mean it, but I don’t see much chemistry between you two. It’s icky of me to say it, but we had more cha-cha-cha when we did the Gabe and Jenna act.”
“I love Larry,” Jenna said. “He’s a hero. He saved children from a burning building. How many guys would go back in after being commanded to leave? He also saved me from a house fire. He’s a really good, honest, and dependable guy.”
“I’m sure he is, but he and that old basset hound seem more suited for slipper commercials than dancing the night away at a salsa club. He wasn’t even at Melisa’s wedding night party. Did he even kiss you in the countdown?”
“I, uh, ah …” Jenna stammered. “Why were you looking at me and not kissing whichever waitress you were hitting on?”
“Because I’m trying out the celibacy thing.” Grady winked. “I’m retiring to my man cave to live my solitary existence. You don’t want to hear my attitudes about women, at least the ones outside of this family.”
“Whatever happened to you?”
Grunting, he grabbed his laptop bag and jacket. “Thanks for breakfast, sis. Hope your feet get warmer tonight.”
Chapter Five
Friday night was date night, and Larry had finished napping after getting off his three-day work shift. He hadn’t seen Jenna since the night of his bachelor’s party, and she’d been busy designing and stitching Cait’s bridesmaid dress, as well as making prototypes of her own wedding dress.
He’d failed to score tickets to the San Francisco Symphony, and Jenna claimed to be exhausted from her round-the-clock designing and redesigning activities. So they were looking forward to a quiet evening at his apartment—away from her grouchy brother, Grady, who’d decided to hibernate at her place and generally disrupt her already hectic life.
It was a blustery, cold day that alternated between high wind and driving rain. Larry zipped up his raincoat and hunkered his shoulders down as he held the umbrella against the wind threatening to turn it inside out.
Harley, of course, needed to go to the bathroom, but the one-year-old basset hound was taking his own sweet time. His nose wiggled busily, examining all sorts of interesting scents, despite the
wetness surrounding him.
“Come on, boy, can you move a little faster?” Larry led the way while Harley let his ears drag in the wet grass. He needed to pick up Jenna’s favorite dessert, a combination of pistachio, raspberry, and dark chocolate gelato, and the tiny shop oftentimes ran out of their most popular flavors.
Harley sniffed and waddled, looking not at all interested in getting out of the rain. His belly dragged on the wet grass and he had to be thoroughly soaked, but when Larry lengthened his strides and walked faster, Harley obediently picked up the pace. Although for a short-legged, long-bodied dog, he appeared like he was swimming through the grass like a sea serpent.
Finally, the dog found a spot, and after he was finished, Larry dug through the long grass with his hand wrapped inside a plastic bag to pick up the droppings. Even though it was raining hard, he didn’t want anyone else to have a nasty surprise should they set foot on this spot where all the stars had lined up for the dog.
“Okay, let’s get going.” Larry tied a knot in the bag and hefted it into a nearby trash can at the soccer field parking lot.
Harley dawdled, his tongue lolling happily, until Larry had finally had enough. With one scoop, he lifted the fat dog into his arms and trudged with him out of the park.
He was usually a lot more patient with Harley and his lagging habits, but his fight with Jenna had him on the edge.
Ever since he’d met her, she’d pushed for a more physical relationship than he was comfortable with. She’d been curious about his scars, and in the guise of kissing them, she’d tried touching in a way to turn him on and seduce him.
She’d accidentally slip into the bathroom when he was showering and chance seeing parts of his body he didn’t want shown, at least not until after they were married, and he’d yelled at her for not respecting his privacy.
It wasn’t as if he was a virgin. That wasn’t the problem, and he’d been engaged before to a wildly physical woman before he was injured. He’d thought she was the one for him. She was a dance instructor who was constantly trying out for gigs, and she’d loved taking him out on the town to show off her agile and fun-loving firefighter boyfriend.
Valentine Wedding Hound Page 3
