“Mr. Collins. What a pleasure to see you.” They were good people, and it made her guilt-meter tick up another notch to lie to them and hide a shotgun wedding.
He beamed at her, and something in the expression made her profoundly uncomfortable, like he knew something she didn’t. “Good to see you. My, you’re prettier than ever. No wonder Aaron has been spending more time with you lately.”
“Yeah…” All she’d told her mother about was the time he took her to dinner, and she’d only divulged slivers of detail to get her off her back. There was no way her mother knew about Jill and Aaron. Was there?
Honestly, it wouldn’t surprise her if she paid her neighbor to keep tabs on her. Or secretly set up a security camera. Although, that last one was a stretch with the whole techno-unsavvy thing.
Aaron appeared in the doorway to the kitchen, nodding and motioning for her to join him in there. “Excuse me, please.”
She bee-lined for the kitchen and found Aaron pacing around the island. “What’s going on? Why is your dad here?” she whispered.
“I don’t know. He said that your mom invited him.”
“Okay. No need to panic.” Yes, there was totally need to panic. Deborah Michaels majored in S and M in college—scheming and manipulation. She was up to something. “Maybe my mom was just trying to be nice. Do the neighborly thing, since you have been helping out here.”
“Maybe.” He didn’t look convinced. Jill wasn’t, either.
“Did you file the paperwork?”
“No. I accidentally left it at home.” Right? She could picture where it should be on the kitchen counter. “And apparently you need to be present.”
“Let’s go next week, then. We have a few weeks until your birthday, and I can’t schedule with the justice of the peace unless the paperwork is in the system.”
She nodded. This all seemed so final—clinical, like a medical chart with checkboxes to tick off.
“Dinner’s ready.” Her mama walked into the kitchen, breaking the moment. “Will you go make sure everyone has something to drink, Jill?”
“Yes, ma’am.” Her mother was up to something, and Jill was going to find out just what.
Five minutes later, everyone was seated, her mother at the head of the table, Emily to Jill’s right, and Aaron and his father across from them. Surprisingly, it hadn’t been too awkward so far. Aaron’s dad was talking about his mom’s latest mishap with a French poodle that nearly bit off her finger during an exam.
“So, how is the business going, Mr. Collins?” Jill asked.
To be honest, it scared Aaron shitless to have his dad be invited to dinner here. His mother was working a late shift at the vet clinic, so she wasn’t able to make it, but something felt off. Deborah smiled at him a little too sharply. It reminded him of those episodes on Shark Week, when a tiger shark was just about to go in for the kill. Somehow, he didn’t think he was the shark in this situation.
“With Aaron’s help, it’s been going great. Nice to have him around for a little longer.” Aaron’s father grinned over at him, and he felt the beginnings of an emotion he no longer wanted to associate with. The reason he hadn’t come back in the first place, when he could have gotten out of the service years ago. Guilt. He’d be sticking around a few more weeks, and that was it. Jill didn’t need him, just his signature on a piece of paper.
“Yeah.”
Emily swirled her pasta onto her fork and said, “My mommy says you’re really good at fixing things.”
His lips twitched. He knew that Jill wanted to keep her daughter out of the equation, but in the past week he’d felt a shift in whatever it was between them. Emily was a good kid. One that deserved a good man in her life. “Is that so?”
“Yep. She was telling Aunt Kate how you fixed her radiator.”
“What was wrong with your radiator?” Jill’s mother chimed in.
He caught Jill’s smile faltering a fraction. She shook her head and said, “Nothing, Mama. Aaron just wanted to make sure everything was working.” He was impressed at how the lie slipped off her tongue easier than butter on toast.
Deborah speared a piece of food on her plate, narrowing her eyes at her daughter. “Doesn’t sound like nothing.” But she let it go, most likely because Aaron’s dad was there.
“These collard greens are divine, Deborah,” Aaron’s dad said, breaking the silence.
“Thank you, Edward.”
“Yes, they’re fantastic, ma’am,” Aaron said.
“This is just so nice, sitting down as a family.”
Say what? Was he imagining what he just heard? By the drop of Jill’s jaw, he wasn’t. “Yes. Very nice.” Aaron’s father gave Deborah a large smile.
What the hell was going on? Why was his father looking at her like…shit. Did he find out? There was no way Jill would have let anything slip.
“I’m done. Can I be excused?” Emily said, after taking two bites of her food.
Jill took her fork and scooted three more pieces of food closer to her daughter. “How about—”
“Let her go, Jillian.” Jill’s mom turned to Emily. “You can play in the den, sugar snap.”
“Thanks, Mimi.” And then Jill’s daughter was out in blur of blonde curls.
“Gage still coming this weekend?” Jill asked.
Aaron hadn’t seen Gage in years. They’d only been friends in passing in high school, but he was a nice enough guy.
“So he says. He’s out in California visiting that girlfriend of his. Said he’d be back late Saturday on the red-eye.”
“Great,” Jill muttered.
Her mother shot her a look, but Jill kept stuffing collard greens into her mouth. Aaron held back a chuckle. This was so fucking awkward.
Aaron’s dad started back in. “It’s just so nice to see the two of you together again. I knew you were meant for each other.”
Jill cut a glance to Aaron again. This was getting weird. Aaron was under the assumption that his dad had been invited to dinner as a thank-you and a neighborly thing. This felt more like an interrogation. Hell, he’d been in on interrogations, and they weren’t this tense.
“Mr. Collins, I’m sorry, but what are you talking about?” Jill asked. She mashed her lips together and lightly scraped the tines of her fork across a collard green. Aaron wanted to shove the plates to the floor and take her right there on the table when she did that with her mouth.
“Your mama called me with the good news. I just wish I’d heard it from Aaron first.”
“What news?” Aaron asked. His stomach dropped.
Comments about “family.” Good news. Yeah, he knew where this was headed, and it wasn’t going to be pretty.
His father’s brows pulled together. “The wedding of course. See, you don’t stay with us while you’re home visiting, and now your mother and I are in the dark about your love life.”
Aaron choked on a piece of chicken. He reached for his water and was sure he hadn’t heard his dad right. No one knew about this except for him and Jill.
“I—what?” She shot a look at Aaron. He shrugged. Yeah, don’t look at me. Hell if he knew what was going on.
“When were you going to tell us?” Jill’s mom asked.
“About…”
“Don’t play coy with me. I saw the paperwork in Emily’s backpack. I mean, honestly, when were you going to tell us about the engagement? We would have thrown you a party. I didn’t even know you were seeing each other.”
Jill turned a shade of purple that Aaron was pretty sure meant she’d pass out in the next few seconds. He didn’t want her to take the heat for this. She had enough on her plate. He cleared his throat and took one for the team. “It was because of me. I wanted the timing to be right. I proposed to your daughter and wanted to find the perfect time to tell everyone.”
Deborah looked him up and down, and he could physically feel her calculating the pros and cons. “Are you embarrassed to be seeing my daughter?”
“If anything, it�
��s the other way around,” he joked, trying to keep the mood light.
“And you plan to treat her properly. And Emily.” There was a silent promise in there that if Aaron hurt either of them, the deepest pit of hell would seem like a tropical vacation compared to what she’d do to him.
He’d do it to himself if he ever hurt the two of them. “Always.” The conviction in his voice surprised him.
In fact, everyone at the table looked at him with wide eyes. He couldn’t even look at Jill because he was afraid that one word said too much. That he was starting to fall, and the endgame scared the shit out of him.
Everyone was quiet for a moment, then Deborah was the first one to break the silence. She clapped her hands together and said, “Well, why didn’t you say so? I’m just so happy you found someone, Jill. And you couldn’t have found a better man. Someone who’s taking over his daddy’s business. Good stability in this one.”
Aaron swallowed hard. He wouldn’t be taking over anything. The hope in his father’s eyes as Jill’s mother said that was another kick to the gut.
His mind spun as Jill’s mom rattled off people she was going to call, while his dad nodded along.
Aaron couldn’t stand one more damn minute sitting at that table. This had gone too far. “Please excuse me,” he said while moving around the table. A minute later, he was in the kitchen, and Jill had joined him.
He’d rounded the kitchen island for the twelfth time when he finally said, “What the fuck was that?”
Jill gripped the counter and shut her eyes, expelling a loud breath from her nose. “I don’t know. Emily must have grabbed the forms instead of her field trip slip today. I’m sorry.”
Shit. His mother would go ballistic. How was he going to explain to his dad this was all a sham? This was so much easier when everything was a damn secret.
“Do you want me to go back out there and tell them it’s a lie?”
“No.” He’d do right by her. Even if his parents would be disappointed that the marriage would be over before they even had time to celebrate anything. He’d make it up to them. Somehow.
For the first time since coming up with this plan, he felt like the bottom had been ripped out from underneath him. What the hell came next?
Chapter Nine
“Poppy seed lemon or lavender-infused truffle?”
What the hell? Where were the normal flavors? Chocolate? Vanilla? Aaron could even get on board with double-chocolate with enough persuasion. Jill had brought samples home from the local bakery her mother had called last week. Seven different cake samples sat on her counter, and Aaron looked at each of them. None of them screamed wedding cake. Not that he’d been to many weddings, but he didn’t envision his own involving the words “lemon,” or “orange zest.” It was the exact reason he didn’t put himself in serious relationships in the first place. This shit was complicated, and honestly, he didn’t care about a fucking cake flavor. It was fake, so why did it matter? Pick a flavor, eat it, be done with it, divorce in two months. The end.
The last week had been a circus. Jill’s mom had insisted that they have a proper wedding and managed to get a church, an officiant, and centerpieces lined up in under forty-eight hours. My daughter will not be getting married in a courthouse was the phrase that played on repeat until Jill finally caved.
“What the hell is this stuff?” He pointed his fork at one of the abominations in front of him. “This bakery never heard of just plain chocolate?”
“Sorry,” Jill whispered. “You know my mother. She has to have the best of everything.”
“Yes.” But Aaron couldn’t help but laugh. Of course, Jill’s mom had found out. The woman was a bloodhound. Give her a scrap and she’d have the whole thing figured out in less than a day. Although, most people could connect the dots with a marriage license application.
“I promise I’ll make it up to you.” She gave him a pleading smile that made his dick twitch. Her teeth raked across her lip as she slid her hand up his leg.
“Is that so?” He scooted closer to her at the counter. Emily was over at her grandmother’s for the next few hours, and Aaron wasn’t going to waste any more time talking about cake flavors. “How about we start right now?”
“I think that’s a good idea.” Her fingers worked over his cock, and Aaron bit back a groan as she wrapped her fingers around him. “If you play your cards right, you might get your cake flavor for the reception.”
He folded his hand over hers, stilling her motions. “Shouldn’t we tell them that this is fake? Wouldn’t it make it a lot easier two months down the road?”
“Do you want to be the person to tell Deborah Michaels that you are fake-marrying her daughter?”
That’d be “Fuck No” for a thousand, Alex. “Nope.”
“The ship has sailed, my friend. The only saving grace is that she’s been oddly supportive.”
That was what bugged Aaron to begin with. Her mother was so desperate to marry Jill off, it didn’t seem to matter to who. That was something Jill needed to work out with her mother, but it just wasn’t right. She deserved a good man. One that could be there for her, not one blazing out of town to start a new job once he got everything settled in Charleston. Sam had told him to take his time, but he’d have to leave soon if he wanted to keep the job. And he did want the job. It was made for him.
“I think that means we’re in need of extra chocolate.” He arched a suggestive brow. He might not be able to be around for her long-term, but he sure as hell was going to make her remember who could take her to the brink of insanity. He was a selfish bastard.
He wound his way around the kitchen island and opened the cupboard next to the stove. He’d been over here so often the last few weeks, he knew his way around her kitchen. That alone should be sending alarms blaring in his head. But the pull of her, the way he sometimes couldn’t even think in coherent sentences when she was around, well, that was enough to push those other feelings aside. He reached for the chocolate syrup on the shelf and turned around. If he was going to be stuck picking this stuff out like it was a real wedding, he might as well enjoy the perks of his bride-to-be.
Jill looked at him curiously. “Making me chocolate milk?”
“I’m having my own chocolate sundae. Take off your top.”
…
The piece of cake Jill had been chewing dropped out of her mouth and onto the countertop.
“Why?” Did she just hear Aaron correctly? The ache spreading between her legs said yes.
“Don’t want to get anything on it.”
He stared at her as she unbuttoned her blouse button by button, with her heart about to beat out of her chest. Her nipples puckered underneath the thin fabric of her bra, and Aaron’s eyes dilated as he watched her unabashedly. She’d never been one to flaunt what she had—it made her feel silly and self-conscious—but the way Aaron looked at her made her want to put it all on display. Those looks made her feel sexy, something that hadn’t crossed her mind in a very long time.
He strode over to her in quick, confident strides, the bottle still in his hands.
“What are you doing?”
“Getting my chocolate fix.” And with that, he popped open the bottle and drizzled a thin line of syrup along the swells of her breasts. He gave her one of his dimpled grins and bent to her chest. His tongue swept across her skin, lighting a fire wherever he touched.
“Jill, this may just be a fake engagement and marriage, but I sure as hell don’t think there’s anything fake about the way you make me feel when I’m around you.” She groaned as his tongue swirled around her nipple, and almost fell off of the barstool. “You taste so fucking good. I can’t keep my mouth off you.”
“I think that’s the chocolate syrup.”
“You’d taste just as sweet without the Hershey’s.”
“Flattery will get you everywhere.” Her eyes rolled to the back of her head when his tongue flicked across her hardened peak again. “You’re seriously too good for
me. I can’t believe you’re putting up with this scheme now that my mother is involved.”
“I think you mean that makes me insane.” His tongue continued its hot pursuit, traveling south.
“It’s a real possibility. We might need to send you to therapy after this. It is my mother we’re talking about, after all.” Hell, he might need a fund set up for his funeral after both their parents murdered them.
“At least I’ll know someone coming into a lot of money who can pay for that sort of thing,” he teased, taking her nipple between his teeth while rolling the other one between his fingers.
“What can I do to make this up to you?” He was being thrown into this crazy situation, and her guilty conscience would do anything to make this right.
“Get on the counter.”
She did as he said. When he used that authoritative tone, she’d do just about anything he told her to do.
“What now?”
He unbuttoned her jeans and pulled them off along with her panties, until her bare ass dug into the counter. A shiver consumed her. Whether it was because she was mostly naked or just the anticipation of whatever he was going to do to her, she didn’t know.
“Spread your legs.” He looked down at her, a smirk on his face. Oh, he really had changed from the boy she once knew. This person in front of her was all man. One she’d gladly be on her knees for. One that, she realized, was still the same sweet guy, who was great with her daughter, and yet discombobulated every thought bouncing around in her head.
Dammit. Those words shouldn’t turn her on so much. But the prickle of heat ignited between her thighs told a different story. She ached for him. Every part of him.
She liked not having to think about a million different things at one time. Just Aaron at this moment, looking down at her with hooded eyes that melted her insides. She realized then that she’d do anything for this man. She trusted him—something that she hadn’t done in, well, ever. That ship had long since sailed when Jake came in like a wrecking ball. And not the Miley Cyrus kind, but the kind that left damage no one but she could feel. Those pieces had been swept away, bit by bit, every moment she spent with Aaron.
Falling for the Fake Fiance (Snowpocalypse) Page 12