“Abe. Good to see you.” Garrett straightened some, taking the man’s hand in a solid pump.
Greetings happened all around, with newcomer Garrett visibly less comfortable around Abe Payne than the rest of the guys. Admittedly Gage also felt a pinch of discomfort when Abe settled his navy eyes on him.
“You must be Andrea’s date.”
“Gage Fleming.” He shook Abe’s wide palm, noting the way Andy’s father hulked over him, and Gage wasn’t a short guy.
“Hmm. Surprised she brought someone.”
Gage prepared for a comment like Estelle’s or Vanessa’s had about Andy not being able to scrounge up a date, but Abe surprised him by saying, “She’s usually too independent and discerning to bring a date. Except for this bozo.” He shot a thumb over his shoulder at Matthew, who for once looked nervous.
“How are you, sir?” Matthew extended a hand. A hand Abe ignored before sending a barely tolerant headshake to Gage.
Gage grabbed a cigar from the table behind him. “Cigar?” he offered Abe, suddenly a big fan of Andy’s father.
“Thank you, Gage.” Abe clapped his shoulder. “I think we’re going to get along just fine.”
* * *
“One more, c’mon!” Gwen goaded as she tipped the bottle of chardonnay precariously over Andy’s glass. It was the end of the last bottle, however many that’d been. The waitress had efficiently removed the empties, which made counting hard.
“Fine. But that’s it,” Andy acquiesced as Gwen drained the last few ounces of wine from the bottle to the glass.
The Payne women, with their Irish blood, were no strangers to the drink. Andy’s mother, Estelle, sat rosy-cheeked and laughing, her air of superiority drowned after the first glass. Kelli and Vanessa had relaxed, too, and Carroll and Gwen were punchy and giggly...even more so than usual.
Andy was somewhere in between, as she’d always been with her sisters. She wasn’t as ruthlessly serious as her older sisters, but not as laid-back as the other two. She’d often landed in the middle, and where they’d been comfortably paired off with each other, she supposed it made sense why she’d labeled herself the odd woman out.
“Oh, great, cigars. When did they light those?” Vanessa grumbled, her good mood ebbing.
“Eh, boys.” Kelli threw a hand. “Boyd knows he’s not getting any tonight, anyway.”
“Uh-oh, what’d he do?” Carroll asked playfully. “Forget to iron your socks again?”
Andy and Gwen sat forward in their chairs and laughed heartily at the insult. Even Kelli and Vanessa couldn’t keep from joining in.
It was a true rarity for Andy to have this kind of evening with her sisters. Where every one of them was loose and relaxed and no one was passing judgment. Gwen’s best friend had since collected Matthew and left, so it was only the Paynes and their significant others on the patio. Andy decided to hell with sizing them up. For the remainder of the weekend, she’d just be.
They might’ve been the dominant excuse for her bringing a date in the first place, but Gage had become more than a stand-in so that she could avoid judgment from her family. She now saw that each of them had their own issues, less concerned with Andy than she’d originally imagined. Gage accepted her, liked her, for who she was. It was past time she accepted herself.
“Looks like Gage is abstaining,” Estelle pointed out, tipping her chin toward the group of guys. Sure enough, Gage stood, arms folded, unlit cigar cradled between two fingers. He was participating in the conversation with everyone, but not smoking. Interesting.
“That must mean he and Andy have some sexy plans tonight.” Gwen elbowed Andy in the arm. “Do tell, sister. How is he?”
“How big is he?” Carroll chimed in.
“Girls!” Estelle covered her ears. “I’m not listening to this.” Vanessa pulled their mother’s hands from her ears and then Estelle said, “Unless you’d like to hear details of your father’s—”
“No!” all five sisters called out in unison.
Estelle grinned, pleased that her bluff had worked.
“You don’t have to be graphic,” Carroll stated.
“But be a little graphic.” Vanessa leaned forward in her chair. Even Kelli looked curious.
“I’m excusing myself to the ladies’ room.” Estelle threw her hands into the air and hustled off to the restaurant. When she was gone, Andy’s sisters raised expectant eyebrows.
“Gage is...attentive.”
“Oh, I love attentive,” Carroll said, nodding in support.
“Is he a slow kisser? A deep kisser?” Gwen asked, chin in her hands and elbows on her knees.
“Yes to both,” Andy answered, and sighs of delight echoed around her. “I don’t know what’s going to come next. He goes from kissing my mouth, to my neck, to that part behind my ear.”
“I love that part.” Kelli sat up now, too, her attention on Andy.
“What about the first time you ever had sex?” Vanessa asked on a whisper. “Where was it? How long did you wait?”
“Well...it was...more recently than you might think,” Andy said, her tongue loosened from the wine, and yeah, she was caught up in the attention.
“How recent? And where? How did it happen?” Carroll asked rapid-machine-gun-style.
Andy opened her mouth, unsure what would come out of it when a low male voice interjected, “Whoa, whoa, whoa... What did I walk in on?”
Every one of her sisters sat up, backs straight in their chairs as Gage rounded behind them and aimed accusatory looks at each one.
“Leave you alone for a few minutes, and you’re telling all.” Hands on Andy’s shoulders, Gage kneaded her tight muscles. He’d done a good job of loosening her up earlier, but now that easy-breezy feeling ebbed away.
She shut her eyes, mortified that he’d overheard her. This was why she never allowed herself more than two glasses of wine! She became caught up, the wine an elixir urging the truth from her. She’d forgotten that she had a story to keep up with: a pretend boyfriend she was for real sleeping with.
How had the lines gotten so blurry?
“Gage. We were just—” she started, lamely.
“You women are worse than those guys over there,” he said, but she could hear the smile in his voice, the teasing tone that was good-natured and so Gage. “Ready to head back, sweetheart?”
“We noticed you didn’t smoke a cigar,” Kelli said, crossing her legs. She’d recovered from being busted quicker than any of them. Even Ness looked a bit chagrined.
“Not tonight.”
“Oh? Why’s that? Plans with Andrea?” Kelli asked.
Gage took Andy’s hand and helped her stand. When she faced him, he said, “Yes. I have many plans for Andrea tonight.”
Thirteen
“That was a close one.” Andy had been on the spot in front of her sisters. The jig would’ve well and truly been up if she’d even hinted at the fact that hers and Gage’s first time had been today.
“I thought I’d whisk you out of there before you had to make up a story about the first time we had sex. You liked me coming to your rescue.” He tossed their suite’s key card on the counter where they’d had sex hours earlier, and then he gripped her hips, pulling her in front of him. “Admit it.”
He’d been dying to kiss her again all evening, and while he hadn’t minded leaving her sisters with something to chew on, out-and-out PDA seemed over-the-top for Andy.
“I did love it.” She swept her fingers into his hair and toyed with the curled ends. “You claimed me.”
His eyes sought hers, lost in the depths of those earnest blues. Andrea Payne was a woman who was smooth and detached on the outside. A woman who knew what she wanted and how to get it. A woman who, to achieve a goal, would approach a man in a bar and offer him two grand to come with her to a wedding. What she didn’t know about h
erself, and what Gage was trying to show her, was that she was also soft and caring, giving and loving. She was sensitive and demure, and the slightest bit shy, and every one of those attributes did it for him. Especially when they came wrapped in a package of freckles and strawberry hair and blue eyes so bright he could sink into them for days.
He blinked, jerking his chin back in shock. Normally when it came to women he wasn’t this...poetic. Could be the cognac. Could be the setting—love was in the air.
Or it could be that he’d been taking this pretend role of boyfriend to real extremes.
He hadn’t been a boyfriend in a long, long time. The last time he’d escalated to fiancé and that wasn’t something he was interested in repeating. When Laura left, he’d felt filleted. Like someone had stripped out his bones and left him a heap of flesh on the floor.
Yeah, no repeats on that, thanks.
“No one would’ve believed we waited eight months before making love on a countertop at my sister’s wedding retreat.” She played with his hair some more. “We didn’t wait more than a few weeks before we caved.”
“Two weeks too long,” he admitted, his earlier reminiscing forgotten.
Right now was about right now.
He’d didn’t typically worry about the future and he’d be damned if he ruined the weekend with it now. He moved her hair over her shoulder. “When you came at me like a lioness in that bar, I’d decided to take you home and damn the consequences.”
“Is that so?” She tilted one eyebrow. “What about that cute bartender you’d been flirting with all evening? Did you swap her for me so easily?”
“You were watching me.” He narrowed his eyes in accusation.
“I—” Her mouth gaped for a second. “Only between bouts of my date talking incessantly about himself.”
“What did you see when you looked across the room at me, Andy?”
“You mean other than an opportunity?”
He smirked at her deflection. “How’d you know the bartender wasn’t my girlfriend?”
“I didn’t. I...assumed.”
“And you also assumed I was a sorry sap in dire need of two thousand dollars.”
She squeezed her eyes closed, her cheeks going the sweetest tinge of pink. “I didn’t think you needed two thousand dollars.” When her eyes reopened, she looked up at him with such raw vulnerability, his heart clutched. “I thought it’d take two thousand dollars to convince you to say yes...to me.”
He gripped her chin and lifted her face just enough to keep her eyes on him while he made sure what he said next sank in.
“Honey, I was going to take you home based on one look. Based on you stalking toward me like you wanted to make a meal out of me. And trust me when I say, I have a very good reason for not liking that look on a woman.”
“Sounds like a story.”
“For another day,” he said. “I liked your determination. You saw what you wanted and you were coming to get it. Certainty, honesty, is a huge turn-on for me.”
“But you said no.” Her eyebrows pinched.
“You offered to pay me!” He let out a chortle, his fingers threading in her hair. “Tell me if I’d have offered you the same you would’ve gladly accepted.”
“Oh. No. Of course I wouldn’t have... I’d never...” Her fingers came up to cover her lips as she pushed his arms aside. Between her hands she said, “Gage, I’m so sorry I made you feel...cheap.”
“You made me feel confused, Andy. Not cheap. In no way should you have ever felt like you couldn’t earn a yes from me instead of buying it.” He tugged her hands from her mouth and kissed her fingers. “You’re worth it.”
In the distance of Gage’s mind he was aware that this was how he gave women the wrong impression: by being likable. By being honest about what he liked about them. But he couldn’t help being likable any more than he could help liking Andy a bit too much. A bit more than common sense suggested he should...
Her hand came to rest on his chest and she gave him a push. “You like me determined, Fleming?” she asked, her voice hard and unyielding.
His lips twitched, but he didn’t dare smile. “Yes, ma’am.”
At her playful shove, he walked a few steps backward toward the bedroom.
“Good. There are things I want from you,” she stated.
“Oh?” He was intrigued as hell. “What things?”
“I want to taste you.” Her fingers trickled down his button-down shirt. “I want to feel you hard and heavy in my mouth.”
His eyes zoomed in on her plush lips as she—God help him—swiped her bottom lip with her tongue. Slowly. His cock gave an insistent twitch from behind his fly.
“Take off your pants,” she commanded.
Gage wouldn’t allow her to do all the commanding. He had things he wanted to do to her as well. Instead of obeying, he cupped her jaw with both hands and kissed her sweetly. The sweet turned to hard, the hard to long, the long to soft. When he pulled away, she whimpered her protestation at losing his mouth. He took advantage of her being dazed and unbuttoned her pants, sliding his hand into her panties to find her damp and inviting.
Against her parted lips, he whispered, “You first.”
* * *
Waves of pleasure streaked up her spine as Andy came at Gage’s command. He hadn’t even taken her pants off yet. Instead, he’d rooted them to the spot on the floor and moved from stroking her to sliding a finger deep inside of her. When a second finger joined the first, her talented wedding date thumbed her clitoris once, twice...and the third time was a charm.
She opened her eyes, her breathing erratic, her palms resting on his shoulders. She might topple over if she didn’t hold on to him. But she didn’t find a pleased smile on Gage’s face, no. He was all heat and seriousness when he lowered his lips to hers. His whisper was hot, his breath coasting over her lips when he said, “That was beautiful to watch.”
She’d never been with anyone like him. Someone so confident and easygoing, and...well, who liked her, quite frankly. She’d never liked someone as much as he liked her back, so the mutual attraction was brand-new.
“Thank you,” she breathed.
That brought forth his brilliant smile. “Show, don’t tell, Ms. Payne.”
She bit the inside of her cheek, knowing what he was referring to. She’d made him a promise. Reaching for his hard-on, she massaged him and earned a deep kiss for her efforts. In a blur of movement, Gage maneuvered them backward into the bedroom while keeping their lips sealed. She unfastened his pants as he tore at her shirt, leaving them in a pile on the floor.
When he reached the bed, she undid his shirt one button at a time, revealing his chest and smoothing her fingers over the scant hair whorling around flat male nipples, dusting his clenching abs, and finally to that trail of hair that disappeared into his black boxers.
“I’ve never been so excited to have someone naked before,” she said, half surprised she’d said it aloud.
“Honey, have at it.” He thumbed her cheek as a deep breath lifted his shoulders and broadened his bare chest. Anticipation hung heavy in the air between them. She let it linger for a few agonizing seconds and then dropped to her knees and tugged on his boxers.
“Look at me when you do it.” He wound her long hair around his fist and held it away from her face.
She licked her lips and his hips surged forward. He was suddenly intense, not the same playful guy from earlier. She couldn’t wait to experience his flavor, and was trying to decide if she would linger at the head or pepper the shaft with kisses.
She started with a sweet kiss to the tip. His answering groan spurred her on, bolstering her confidence and making her sit a little taller. When she opened her mouth to accommodate him, she did as he asked and turned her eyes up to his...
* * *
Gage typically held off coming
by reciting the last quarter’s sales numbers in silence, but with Andy’s eyes zeroed in on him, he couldn’t concoct a single thought that didn’t involve her. On her knees, her fingers lightly tickling his balls, and those blue, blue eyes fastened to him and holding him hostage.
He locked his thigh muscles as she took him deeply into her mouth again and again. He didn’t think of sales numbers or baseball stats, or any other helpful distraction that might keep his release at bay. He didn’t want to miss a single second of Andy making love to him with her mouth.
She was a glorious sight. Her pink-tipped breasts bare as she knelt there in nothing but a pair of black panties. The way she gripped his shaft with nails painted the same color red as her shirt had been.
Mercy.
She’d be his undoing. He was sure of it. He wasn’t sure what that meant yet, and he wasn’t sure he would’ve changed a damn thing if he’d known before now, but she was not unlike a female praying mantis. He was willingly, gladly allowing himself to be devoured.
Thoughts of cannibal insects and his imminent doom faded away when she swirled her tongue and took him deep. His hand that had been holding her hair out of the way tightened into a fist and he let out a grunt, followed by a plea.
“Can’t...believe I’m...saying this...”
She let him go before slowly taking him deep again and his brain blanked. Seriously, he had nothing in his head during the next slick slide, but his memory returned when the telltale tingle of his pending orgasm shimmied up his spine.
“Stop, sweetheart. I need to be inside you. Now.”
He watched as she let him go, his length slipping from her wet, parted mouth.
God.
Damn.
He blinked. Hard. Resetting his brain and hopefully gaining a modicum of restraint. He lifted her by the elbows, helping himself to exploring her plush mouth when it reached his.
“You are so hot it’s ridiculous,” he panted. “You could lead me around with that move, you know that?”
She offered a pleased grin as he worked her panties down her legs. “Does that mean you’re my sex slave now?”
Temporary To Tempted (The Bachelor Pact Book 2) Page 9
