Three Day Fiancee (Animal Attraction)

by Marissa Clarke

  The question didn’t come across like he was gunning to refute her reasons, it was as if he were genuinely interested in what made her tick.

  “You can ask, but I’m not going to answer.” Primarily because she didn’t have an answer. She wasn’t ready to begin dating again. And casual sex wasn’t her style—though this guy made her body beg for a total style makeover. No. No way. He was a player and she didn’t need that grief. Not that she was looking to settle down. Been there. Done that. Badly. She refused to be one of a harem, though.

  “Are you dating someone?” he asked.

  “Are you?” Of course, she already knew the answer to that. She knew of at least three women texting him about love, dinner, and panties.

  He looked surprised by her sharp tone as he held his hands up in surrender. “Okay. No fooling around. We’ll have to have some physical contact in front of my family, though, or it won’t be believable. We can just pretend to be actors in a play or something. Does that work?”

  “Yes.” Okay. So, he’d agreed, and she’d gotten exactly what she’d asked for. She was happy. Right? Totally… Maybe.

  She slipped her purse off her shoulder and set it on a chair near the door. “Your grandmother’s pretty special. I can see why you didn’t want to disappoint her.” She could also tell that the fallout when this charade ended would be terrible. “How do you plan to go forward with this after this weekend?”

  He shrugged. “Not sure. I’ll come up with something.” He unzipped his backpack and pulled out a couple of shirts and other folded items and pitched them in a drawer of a chest against the wall.

  “What’s our story going to be?”

  “The truth—or as close to it as possible. We met when you came by to walk Beau. We’ve only been dating a short while, which will make it more reasonable that we don’t know everything about each other.”

  She was pleased he’d put some thought into this. Though, even if they’d gotten engaged after dating a short while, there were things they’d definitely know. “Do you only have the one sister?”

  “Yeah. You?”

  “Only child. My parents divorced when I was little.”

  He waited, as if hoping she’d go on, as if he were truly interested. When she didn’t say any more, he responded was a curt nod. He slipped out of his coat, which caused her pulse to pound again as she took in how broad his shoulders were.

  “Maybe we should go join the others.” Not that she wanted to deal with his family, but she didn’t want to deal with the way his faded jeans made her heat all over, either. How was she going to do this for three days?

  He hung his coat on the rack by the door, then leaned against the jamb, studying her like he was trying to read her mind. “Staying here for a while leaves room for everyone to jump to an obvious conclusion, which strengthens our story.”

  Oh, great. His whole family would meet her for the first time thinking they’d just been…doing that. Another pointer for the manual on crappy first impressions coming right up.

  She perched on the edge of an overstuffed rocking chair near the foot of the bed and pulled off her gloves. Beau tried to climb in her lap like he was a reasonably sized dog not a one-hundred and fifty plus pound mass of fur and muscle. “Sorry, Beau-Beau. Not enough room for you.” The dog sighed and put his head in her lap, no doubt drooling on her coat. “How long have you had him?”

  Taylor’s face relaxed, making him even more handsome, which she didn’t think possible. “He was a gift from Grams two years ago. He was part of her three-step master plan to end my bachelorhood. Step one: Convince me to move out of the apartment I shared with my buddy, Charlie, by offering me her rent-controlled apartment at a rate I’d be out of my mind not to accept. Step Two: Install Beauregard the Babe Magnet.”

  She laughed. “Babe magnet?” Beau flopped down by the side of her chair and yawned.

  “Gram’s words, not mine, and that plan backfired. He’s more a babe repellant than a magnet. Most women don’t like oversized, slobbery lap dogs.”

  “I do,” she blurted out without thinking.

  One of his dark eyebrows arched. “Yeah, and I like that about you.”

  The intense heated look he gave her made her want to fan herself. “What was step three?”

  “The ring. She told me it had brought her luck and would do the same for me.”

  She looked down at her finger and her chest pinched inside. “It’s really beautiful.”

  “So was their marriage.”

  Her panic from when they first arrived bubbled up, constricting her throat, making it hard to breathe. He’d said the stakes were low, but breaking his grandmother’s heart seemed like pretty high stakes to Caitlin. “I’m not sure I can pull this off, Taylor.”

  He pushed from the door frame and crouched down in front of her, placing his hands on the arms of the rocking chair. “Sure you can. Where’s the woman who basically told me to screw off this morning at my apartment?”

  That woman was reorganizing her steamer trunk full of issues that she lugged around at all times. The trunk that reminded her she was in way over her head. “You were being bossy.”

  “I apologize for that. It’s in my nature.”

  “I don’t like being told what I can or cannot do.”

  His eyes narrowed as if he were trying to read her thoughts, like earlier. “Good to know.” He stood. “So, I won’t tell you that you have to go through with this. Instead I’ll ask you to. Ask you to please do this for me and for my grandmother on her sixty-second anniversary.”

  Well, crap. How could she say no when he worded it that way. When she slid on a glove, he grinned and grabbed his coat.

  “Come on, Beau. It’s time to go show off my amazing fiancée.”

  Chapter Seven

  “Round three! Truth or Dare, Emmett?” Grams challenged as Bethany sat down after taking Mom’s dare to do a cartwheel in the snow. Taylor leaned back in his chair at the large, rough-hewn table, knowing exactly what Dad would choose. He always took the dare.

  “Dare!” Dad crossed his arms as Grams set the hat on the table. Per tradition, they used Granddad’s favorite straw fishing hat that had a couple of his handmade flies still hooked through the band, which made passing it around a challenge.

  Grams poured a hefty amount of Fireball Cinnamon Whisky into a tumbler in front of her and slid it down the table. “Drink up, son!” she said with a grin. “One chug or you lose.”

  He downed the amber liquid, winced, wiped his mouth on his sleeve, and coughed. “My God, I love this game.”

  “You should’ve made him clean the toilet without a brush like you did that one time,” Bethany complained.

  Grams grinned. “That’s a lot more fun after he’s had enough Fireball.”

  From past experience, Taylor knew this was true. Last year, by the time they’d reached the fourth round, Dad had been feeling festive enough to sing “My Heart Will Go On” in his best falsetto to Beauregard, which Bethany videoed and promptly posted to social media. Nothing as noteworthy had happened tonight, but it had been fun to watch Uncle Rock take Caitlin’s dare and dance a jitterbug with Aunt Attie to Bethany’s techno pop track. Their dancing had been worse than the music, and that said something. He fought back a grin as Grams passed the hat to Aunt Attie. So far neither his nor Caitlin’s names had been drawn this round.

  Attie pulled out a slip and bounced excitedly in her chair, causing her thick glasses to slip down her nose. “I drew Caitlin!”

  Bethany had drawn Caitlin’s name in the last round and she’d chosen a dare, probably to avoid any questions she couldn’t answer. Bethany had gone easy on her and had her do the chicken dance while everyone else sang. Red faced, Caitlin had been a great sport, flapping her wings and wiggling, but didn’t have to suffer alone for long. When they got to the second verse, everyone, including Taylor, had gotten up and joined her. By the time they’d gotten through ten or so verses, Caitlin was laughing her head off, wiggling her tail f
eathers in a way that made Taylor dizzy.

  He wondered whether she’d go for dare again or choose truth this time. Part of him hoped she’d pick truth so he could learn more about her. He’d called her boss, Jane, from the jewelers while they resized the ring to let her know he was taking her canine client and her dog walker off the schedule for the weekend. When he’d asked Jane about Caitlin’s history, she wasn’t as forthcoming as he’d have liked, touching only briefly on “Caity’s” crappy family life growing up, a vague mention of an ill-fated marriage to some guy in Georgia, and a short lament over how her friend never dated or did anything fun.

  He could almost see the gears turning in Caitlin’s head as she weighed the pros and cons of choosing which way to go. “Dare.” It came out almost like a question.

  Attie gave a fist pump in the air. “Yeah!”

  Uh-oh. Aunt Attie clearly had already planned this out. Caitlin must have known that too, because she twisted her hands in her lap.

  “I dare yooooou…” Attie dragged it out, clearly enjoying herself. “To kiss your fiancé!”

  All color leached from Caitlin’s face and her mouth dropped open in disbelief.

  “Kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss!” his family chanted like middle schoolers at a sleepover.

  “You’re my favorite right now, Aunt Attie,” Taylor said in a loud voice to cover for his supposed fiancée’s clear lack of enthusiasm for this dare. “Come on, Caity,” he said pulling her to her feet, using the pet name he’d heard Jane use. This was a do or die moment, and he noticed that his grandmother was the only one not chanting. Instead, she studied the two of them with her observant, dark eyes. He had to make this good or Grams would figure it out before they even made it through the first night.

  Wrapping his arm around Caitlin’s waist, Taylor pulled her close, and her breath caught. He looked down at her face and knew she was trying to school her features into any expression other than dread. She was doing a terrible job of it but then, something flashed in her eyes. Heat. And his body responded in kind.

  “Caitlin’s not one for public displays of affection, but a dare is a dare.” And as he stared at her, it became abundantly clear that this was not daring at all on his part. He wanted to kiss her. Had wanted to kiss her since the moment he saw her stunned face as Beau ploughed toward her full speed and she dripped rainwater all over his apartment floor. He’d wanted to kiss her then and he wanted to kiss her now. His gaze dropped to her lips and he ran his hand up her back, splaying his fingers between her shoulder blades and she took a shuddering breath. Yeah. He really wanted to kiss her. Her tongue darted across her lower lip and he almost groaned. She wanted this kiss. Too bad it was in front of his whole fucking family.

  Slowly, he lowered his head, stopping well before their lips met, giving her the chance to back out of the dare. Her whole body was rigid, but after a moment she relaxed. Placing her hands on his shoulders, she closed the distance between them, rising up on her tiptoes and tilting her head as her mouth met his. He was stunned by how warm and soft her lips were. He’d intended to make it a simple peck, but her kiss was anything but simple. He couldn’t bring himself to pull away, especially when her lips parted and her grip tightened on his shoulders. He slid the fingers of his free hand into the back pocket of her jeans, and she threaded her fingers though the hair on the back of his neck and scraped her nails across his scalp, nearly causing him to groan out loud in front of his family. Pulling back, he rested his forehead against hers, eyes still closed, struggling to get his shit together. And then she did something he didn’t expect. She sighed. Sighed like he did when he got home from a hard day’s work and melted into his most comfortable chair. And he couldn’t agree with her more.

  Taylor opened his eyes to smiles, including one from Grams.

  “Ew!” Bethany made a gagging sound.

  “Oh hush,” Mom scolded. “It’s not like I didn’t open the back door to find you with that Carmichael boy from down the street in a lip lock.”

  Taylor barked a laugh and Bethany blushed so hard she almost turned purple. “Ew!” he mocked, and she flipped him the bird, which made him laugh even harder.

  While the laughter and talking died down, he reached over and laced his fingers through Caitlin’s. This time, she didn’t pull away. What would he not give to be alone with her right now so that they could talk. Maybe kiss her again without an audience. Maybe do lots of things without an audience. No. He’d made an agreement. No fooling around.

  “Emmett’s next,” Attie said, sliding the hat to him.

  Dad pulled out a slip of paper and grinned at Taylor. Shit. Dad’s dares were challenging. Usually super disgusting or involving hot sauce…or both. “What’s it gonna be, son?”

  With anyone else, he’d have taken the dare. Not with Dad. Hopefully, this wouldn’t be too embarrassing. Caitlin seemed to be hanging in after that kiss—but he didn’t want to have to answer anything off-color in front of her. “Truth.”

  His father’s face dropped in obvious disappointment and he placed a bottle of Demon’s Brew Hot Sauce he’d been hiding under the table in front of him. His mother elbowed Dad hard in the ribs and he cleared his throat. “Your mom and I made a deal that since you are being so tight-lipped, that whichever one of us got you to choose truth would ask you to tell us how you met Caitlin and how you proposed.”

  “That’s two truths!” Taylor protested, giving a beseeching look to Grams, who was the judge of every game. Depending on how many more rounds they played, he wanted to spread all the choice news out to keep them from asking the question about what he was doing when he wrecked the family minivan the night of his senior prom for the tenth consecutive year. The story was a family favorite, and one he’d rather not recount in front of Caitlin, that involved the perils of driving while distracted by your prom date.

  “Stop whining and get to truth-ing, Taylor Blankenship,” Grams replied.

  “Dish!” Attie shouted, raising her wineglass.

  “Dish, dish, dish…” The rest of the family joined in the chant.

  He held up his hands. “Okay, okay. Quiet down and listen up while I tell you the story of how I was knocked flat on my ass by a total stranger.”

  …

  Caitlin rubbed her thumb over her bottom lip again, still trying to shake the sensation of Taylor’s kiss. There hadn’t even been any tongue, but that kiss had rocked her more than any she could remember. As his family quieted, Caitlin held her breath, half thrilled, half horrified as Taylor launched into his story. Their story. A complete and total fiction. Just like their kiss had been.

  “It all happened very recently,” he started.

  “How recently?” Bethany asked.

  He gave her a quelling look. “Hold all questions until the end. No interruptions or I’m clamming up.”

  Bethany made a zip-her-lips motion. As Caitlin looked around the table, everyone was leaning forward expectantly, as if Taylor were reading a book at a kindergarten storytime. She shifted in her chair, hoping nobody could hear her heart hammering.

  Taylor cleared his throat, obviously enjoying the power of having 100 percent of everyone’s attention—the polar opposite of her roommate, Fiona, who would shrink up and wither away were she the focus of this many eyes.

  “It all happened very recently, as I said before.” He shot Bethany a look. “I was running late for work because Beauregard had swallowed a foreign object. I was trying to catch him, which, as lazy as he is, you’d think would be an easy thing.”

  As if on cue, Beau stopped snoring and lifted his head from where he was sprawled out on a rug in front of the fireplace, then drifted back off to sleep.

  “But catching Beau’s not easy if he doesn’t want to be caught,” Taylor continued.

  “Like you!” Bethany said. The rest of the family gave her warning looks. “What?” She said. “I’m only saying what all of you have complained about for freaking ever! Taylor never dates seriously because he doesn’t want to get caug
ht.”

  “Well, he’s caught now!” Rock said, saluting him with his coffee mug. Caitlin sunk lower in her chair. Without looking at them, she could feel his family’s eyes on her. As if he could sense her unease, Taylor reached under the table and covered her hand with his, which sent her sitting bolt upright from the unexpected contact.

  “Caitlin works for Animal Attraction, Beau’s dog walking company. We’d never met in person because she would arrive after I left for work. Well, one day, just like every day, she unlocked my door and came on in, assuming I’d already be gone, but I wasn’t. I was chasing Beau around my living room wearing nothing but a bath towel.”

  A collective “woo-hoo” came from the group, and as she remembered him hurdling the couch clutching that towel, she almost gave a woo-hoo of her own.

  “So she got a look at the goods and decided she’d keep you!” Grams said.

  “No. I got a look at her and decided…” His eyes met hers and she nearly gasped at the sincerity in the dark brown depths. “I decided that if I didn’t get to work I was gonna get my towel-clad ass fired.”

  Laughter erupted, and Caitlin couldn’t fight her smile. Nor could she deny the guy was charming. And fun. She hadn’t had fun in a long time. Again, she ran a finger over her bottom lip.

  “No, seriously,” he said holding up both hands. Once everyone fell silent again, he continued. “Grams told me that when she met Granddad, she just knew. That it was like a lightning strike that short-circuited her brain, making it where she couldn’t think of anything else. I took one look at this woman, drenched from rain, boots covered in mud, and I knew.”

  For a moment, he held her eyes and Caitlin could almost believe his total crock of…

  “Nah! You were just horny!” Rock shouted.

  Laughter again.

  “Yeah, that too,” Taylor agreed. “But then, she basically told me to take a hike—”

  “You go, Caitlin!” Bethany made a fist pump in the air.

  “—and that got me curious.” His focus looked far away, almost like he was really buying into his own fairy tale. His gaze moved to her lips. “And then I kissed her for the first time.”