Real Kind of Love

by Sara Rider

  Jake’s jaw clenched so hard, Clem could see the pulse point ticking in his neck. Her heart thumped against her chest as she waited for him to laugh at her. Or shake his head in disgust. Because there was no way he would actually go through with this.

  She braced herself for rejection as he turned toward her, expression grim. “I’m game if you are.”

  Holy shit. This was the most miraculous answer to her prayers and yet… “No.”

  “No?” Jake expected his offer to be met with gratitude. Relief. Not outright rejection.

  Clem shook her head and flexed her fists at her sides like there was a battle being waged inside her. “I can’t ask you to do that for me.”

  “You’re not asking him to do it for you,” Julia said. “I’m asking you to do it for him. Jake hasn’t been on a vacation in years.”

  “But—”

  “But is there a lake nearby where he can do some fishing?”

  “Yeah, but—”

  “But nothing. Give the man beer and a fishing rod and I’m positive he’ll have a great time.”

  Clem’s green eyes darted back to him. “You don’t really want to do this.” She spoke with so much uncertainty, it sounded like a question.

  All he had to do was be honest and this whole thing would be over and done with. Except the truth was he didn’t think he could say no. He didn’t really want to take time off from the pub, but his protective instincts had surged into overdrive the moment he’d stepped foot into the mess at her place. No one should have to go through the kind of night she’d endured. She needed a break. A chance to heal from whatever trauma those bastards had inflicted on her. And all he could think about was that he wanted to be there to keep her safe and erase the panicked look from her pretty face. “Why not?”

  “Because my family is bonkers. They have no conception of privacy or personal space.”

  “Which is exactly why he’ll be there,” Eli interrupted. “Jake will be your human shield. Whenever you need a break from your family, tell them it’s naked cuddle time and they’ll leave you alone.”

  Clem’s cheeks flushed. “No one would believe that.”

  “Why not?” Jake didn’t intend for it to come out like a challenge, but he didn’t like the way she was looking at him with so much self-doubt. She was smart. Beautiful. Way too good for a screw up like him.

  She bit her lip. “For starters, you’re engaged. And your fiancée didn’t seem like the type who’d be cool with you running off for a week.”

  “Kelly’s not my fiancée,” he growled. “She’s my ex.”

  “Oh. But she said—”

  “I know what she said.”

  He didn’t know what kind vibes he was giving off, but Julia and Eli crept toward the door like a pair of wide-eyed raccoons caught in the incoming daylight. “Yeah, we’re just going to go finish sweeping the kitchen floor,” Julia said, tugging on her brother’s collar.

  Alone in the dining room, Jake still didn’t like the way Clem looked at him. Like he was the cause of the mixture of unpleasant emotions playing out on her face. He sat back down in the wooden chair and waited for her to do the same before speaking. “Kelly just came by the bar today to remind me of what a shitty partner I was when we were together before she marries the guy she cheated on me with. And the thing is, she’s not wrong. I was selfish and inattentive and checked out of the relationship long before she did. But I hate the idea of you being miserable for the next week after what you’ve been through, and I’m pretty sure I’d make a better fake boyfriend than a real one. And as much as I hate to admit it, I need a break from the Holy Grale. A real one. So why not let me help?”

  Her teeth toyed with her full, pink lower lip. “You’re serious?”

  He nodded.

  “My family will put you through the wringer. If I bring you to meet them, they’ll descend on you like a wake of hungry vultures. Are you really prepared for that?”

  “If we do this, I can be whoever you need me to be. Doting boyfriend, standoffish jerk, billionaire with a fetish problem.” He smiled slyly, making her laugh in spite of herself. “Whatever you want.”

  Her naturally pink lips pursed together. “No, just be you.”

  “That’s easy.”

  “They’re going to insist on feeding you. A lot.”

  “Are you still trying to discourage me? Cause if you are, you’re doing a terrible job.”

  She shook her head. “They consider Tater Tots the highest form of cuisine. There will also be Jell-O. Lots and lots of Jell-O.”

  “And s’mores?”

  She laughed. The sound was throaty and deep and he realized he’d gone years without ever knowing what her laugh sounded like. “Definitely.”

  “Then I’ll bring the beer and we’ll all have a good time.”

  “It’s a one-bedroom place. We’ll be spending a lot of time together.”

  “I know you need your space, Clem. I can respect that.”

  “I plan to spend as many hours as I can reading, I’m cranky if I don’t sleep past eight in the morning, and we break up a week after we get home because we had no chemistry and decided we’d be better off as friends.”

  “No chemistry?”

  She bit her lip. “Not one speck.”

  He nodded. It was better if they both believed that little lie. “So are we doing this?”

  She crossed her arms in front of her chest and expelled a breath before looking up at him with a smile so sunny it almost knocked him off his chair. “Yeah, I guess we are.”

  5

  “Do I need to give you the special talk before you go?”

  Jake hadn’t had enough coffee that morning to deal with Eli’s sense of humor yet, so he chose to ignore his best friend, shoving a gray sweater into his duffel bag.

  Eli grimaced. “Yikes. I’m not trying to tell you what to do, but if you want to get lucky, go with the blue sweater instead. It brings out your eyes.”

  Christ, not even coffee would be enough to get him through the next ten minutes if Eli kept this up. “I’m not trying to get lucky. I’m going to play nice with Clem’s family, enjoy the sun, and hopefully get the chance to do a little fishing.”

  Eli tossed him his toothbrush. “Dude, it’s been ten months.”

  Jake inhaled deeply and yanked the bag’s zipper shut. The less he thought about his failed relationship with Kelly, the better. But thinking about his chocolate-haired customer who he was about to spend the week with might be even worse. Something about Clem had always intrigued him, but until last night, the only thing he really knew about her was that she was an introvert who preferred garden salad to Caesar with her BLT. Discovering she also had the kind of curves that made a man’s knees go weak hiding beneath her oversized clothes had him wanting to unravel more of her mysteries.

  He needed to remember he was going on this trip as a fake boyfriend, because no matter how attractive he found her, there was nothing real in him left to give a woman. He might not know much about Clem, but he was certain she deserved better than a guy who’d permanently closed himself off to relationships of any kind.

  The crunching of tires against the gravel driveway signaled Clem’s arrival. He grabbed his bag and headed out the front door. She opened the driver’s side door of her dark blue Forrester and swung her long, shapely legs out the side. He stopped in his tracks, mesmerized by the inch after inch of soft, bare skin coming into view as she exited the vehicle wearing barely-there cut-offs and a black tank top.

  “Damn, good luck ignoring those legs for the next three hours,” Eli said from behind him, voicing Jake’s unwelcome inner thoughts. “How come we’ve never seen her in shorts before? Remind me when you’re back that we need to crank the heat up in the Holy Grale.”

  Jealousy flared inside him like a gasoline-fuelled fire, but he buried it as deep as he could. He had no claims on the woman and Eli was a single guy. A good guy without any of the baggage of a failed engagement.

  Clem held up
an extra-large coffee and brown bag. “Good morning. I, uh, hope you like coffee and donuts.”

  Eli let out a low whistle. “Mile long legs and brings you sugar in the morning. I guess I don’t need to tell you to have a good trip. It’s already a guarantee.”

  “I’ve left a list of things to get done while I’m gone on the kitchen table,” Jake said, ignoring Eli’s teasing. “Send me a daily email of how things are going and I’ll make sure to check my inbox at least once a day. Probably twice.”

  Eli shook his head, losing all trace of humor in his expression. “You trust me, right?”

  Jake frowned. “Yeah, I do.” There wasn’t a person he trusted more in the world.

  “Then trust me to take care of everything while you’re gone. Julia and I can handle the business just fine. And while you might not like hearing this, you need some time off. Real time off, which means no emails or updates. You haven’t spent more than one day away from the Holy Grale since we opened it three years ago. That’s not healthy, man.”

  As much as he hated to admit it, Eli was right. “Grab those cases of beer for me?”

  He threw his bag and the beer in the back of the SUV, and gratefully accepted the coffee. With her dark, wavy hair pulled back in a loose ponytail, Clem’s bright smile was on full display. She looked more optimistic than she did yesterday, but the shadows beneath her eyes suggested she hadn’t slept all that well last night despite her sunnier disposition.

  She hesitated before getting back in the vehicle, fidgeting with the keys. “Um, I know this is a bit weird, but would you mind driving? I swear I’m a good driver, but I didn’t get much sleep again last night and I get really nervous and distracted when other people are in the car.”

  “Not a problem.” What was it about this woman that set off his protective instincts? He slipped the keys out of her shaking hand. She sucked in a breath when their fingers made contact, but recovered quickly with another sweet smile. The truth was he preferred to be the one in the driver’s seat. The one in control.

  Fifteen minutes later, they’d waved goodbye to Eli and were on the highway headed east. The road was quiet leading them away from town, not surprising considering most people didn’t start their holiday during the work week. That thought made him realize he had no idea what she did for a living since he’d fired her all those years ago.

  “Strawberry jelly, cruller or bagel?” She held up the brown bag, pulling him from his thoughts.

  “Whatever you don’t want.”

  “Nope. You have to choose. We’re going to have to get to know each other a little better for this whole thing to work, and I believe your Dunkin Donuts choice is like a window to your soul.”

  “Cruller.”

  “Your loss.”

  “So what does my choice say about me?”

  “That you don’t like happiness.” He raised an eyebrow and she let out a husky laugh. “I’m kidding. Mostly. But I’m guessing it means you prefer things neat and orderly. Straightforward. There’s no clean way to eat a jelly donut.”

  Huh. He’d known her for three years and never heard her make a joke before. “Can’t argue with any of that.” The assessment of his personality or the sheer messiness of jelly donuts.

  “Nothing wrong with crullers. But for the record, if you’d chosen the bagel, I would have forced you to turn the car around and never speak to me again. People who don’t like donuts can’t be trusted.” She handed him his cruller, covering the bottom half with the small, square napkin, then took a bite of the other powder-covered pastry. The sound that escaped her lips as she swallowed the sugary concoction could only be described as a cross between a purr and a throaty sigh. She stretched out her legs, rubbing her thighs together in a way that almost made him run the car right off the road. “There’s something about road trips that make junk food taste even better, don’t you think?”

  He tightened his left hand around the wheel. “Yep.”

  There was also something about the deep, husky tone of her voice that made everything she said sound like a euphemism for sex. He tried to keep his eyes on the road, but he was helpless to stop them from wandering toward her when she made that purring sound again.

  She had a dab of powdered sugar on her nose.

  Christ, he should just run them into a ditch now to get it over with because there was no way he was going to survive another three hours on the road if she kept that up. In all the years he’d known her, she’d pretty much kept to herself, working on her tablet or notebook with her head down in a way that signaled to everyone around her she just wanted to be left alone. Seeing her now in a different environment—one where she wasn’t distracted by her work—forced him to recognize just how attractive she was. And that he had no idea what he’d just signed himself up for. “Tell me about your family. How bad can they be that you need a human shield?”

  “Picture a giant fluffle of rainbow-colored bunnies surrounding you in a group hug that never, ever ends. Ever. It’s so warm and cozy, you’d don’t even realize you’re being smothered to death.”

  “That’s…not what I expected you to say.”

  She laughed ruefully. “I know it sounds over-the-top but so is my family. They’re really big on togetherness, not so good on boundaries. Usually I can handle it, but after everything that happened this weekend…” Her words trailed off.

  “Why not just be honest and tell them you need some space? Wouldn’t that be easier than lying to them?”

  She shifted in her seat, shoulders dropping like she would have curled herself into a ball were it not for the seatbelt. “I have tried, but they don’t get it. We’re talking about the people who purposely named me Clementine so that everyone I meet would feel compelled to sing that stupid song. The idea of actually wanting to be alone sometimes is so foreign to them, they can’t comprehend it. For the first three months of college, my parents showed up at my dorm every morning to walk me to class because they were worried I’d be lonely until one day when I completely lost it on them and told them they were embarrassing me. It was the first time I made my mom cry, and I’ll never forget the hurt the look in my dad’s eyes. The thing is, they’re really good people with huge hearts. Amazing people. I’m the weirdo who doesn’t fit in. It’s exhausting to be around them, but trying to get a little distance is even harder.”

  “You’re not a weirdo, Clem. You’re just an introvert.”

  She shrugged. “What about your family? Are you close?”

  “Not anymore.”

  “How come?”

  “It’s not the kind of story that pairs well with coffee and donuts.” He’d tried to keep his voice casual, but she must have sensed the tension coiling inside him. The sympathetic look she gave him wasn’t something he needed or wanted. Unlike her, he’d come to grips with the fact he was the black sheep of the family, and while he didn’t mind talking about it, he didn’t think it would do anything to improve her mood. The whole point of this trip was to help her catch a break while keeping his mind off the shit-storm of a wedding taking place at the Holy Grale this week.

  A heavy, awkward silence filled the vehicle, squashing whatever easy comfort they seemed to have a few minutes ago. He flicked on the radio to cut some of the tension, but it wasn’t a song that came on.

  She dropped to her knees, looking up at him with a mixture of fear and awe.

  “Oh god.” Clem’s body snapped forward like a mousetrap. She reached for the radio button, but he caught her hand, stopping her from turning it off.

  “Is that you?” The rich, husky voice was unmistakable.

  She nodded, cheeks flushed bright red.

  Her mouth parted as if on instinct, waiting for him with a desire she couldn’t rationalize. “Open wider,” he commanded. How could she be reacting like this to a man she hated? A man who held the power to ruin her life? And yet, she couldn’t stop her lips from parting further. “That’s a good girl. Now touch yourself. Tell me just how wet—

  His sh
oulder slammed into the door as he nearly careened them off the road, correcting at the last second. She lurched forward and killed the sound, mumbling “Oh my god” over and over between her rapid breaths.

  She wasn’t the only one breathing a little harder.

  “So,” she said after clearing her throat. “Now you know I read books. Out loud. For a living.”

  “They, uh, put that kind of stuff in books?” He asked, still shell-shocked by what he’d just heard.

  “They do in romance novels. But it’s not gratuitous, I swear. It’s a really feminist genre and it’s more about the swoon and the sensuality, not the mechanics of the sex, although there’s quite a range in heat levels and oh my god why am I still talking?”

  “No, it’s cool. Really.” He was lying. All he could think about was the dirty talk coming out of that sultry mouth. His cock strained against his jeans but there was no way to make himself more comfortable without drawing attention to it.

  Things were awkward enough.

  “I know it’s weird to listen to my own work, but it helps me if I do. I’ve had a lot of success with science fiction and fantasy novels and I wanted to challenge myself some more by moving into the romance genre, which is what you just heard. I’m working on this book about a billionaire who falls in love with a woman who was wrongly accused of robbing his art gallery, and I can’t quite nail the male character’s voice in this one. I was hoping this trip would clear my head and help me figure it out. So, ah, don’t be weirded out if you hear me talking to myself over the next few days.”

  “That’s what you’re doing when you’re hanging out at the Holy Grale? Reading this kind of stuff?”

  She nodded again.

  Holy fuck. How was he supposed to deal with the knowledge that every time those full lips opened, it was to silently articulate the kind of erotic fantasy that would make every grown man in the room blush?

  He forced his concentration back to the road to pass a slow moving semi-trailer, but he couldn’t shut out the millions of questions inside his head. He opted for the most innocent one. “How’d you get started doing that? Are you an actress?”