by Cathryn Fox
His hand closed over hers, big, strong and protective. He went quiet for a long moment, then he finally said, “You really want me to do this?”
She caught the tortured look on his face and felt a moment of guilt. Maybe she was asking too much of him. “Yes, but if you really, really don’t want to, I can try to find someone else to—”
A low groan sounded in his throat, cutting her off. “You are not asking anyone else,” he said through gritted teeth.
“Does that mean—”
“Yes, it means I’ll do it.” His nostrils flared as he sucked in a breath. “I’ll do it, okay?”
“You will?”
“Yes.”
Of course she couldn’t ask for so much without giving him something in return. “I tell you what, in return for helping me, I’ll book four weekends off in a row like you’ve been trying to get me to do, and help you study.”
“No,” he said.
Her stomach dropped, worried that he was suddenly having second thoughts. “No. You won’t do it?”
“Of course I’ll do it. But I want you to do something else for me in exchange.”
She angled her head, her curiosity piqued. “Oh, and what might that be?”
“I want you to book the weekends off, but instead of helping me study, I want you to write.”
Her head came back with a start. She hadn’t talked about her writing in ages and was shocked that Matt had actually brought it up. Publishing a book was a dream, maybe even a foolish one. Reality was her working in her dad’s bar and paying the bills.
“You want me to write?”
“Yeah.”
“I…why?”
He cupped her chin, and the smile he gave her was so warm, soft and caring, it made her feel a little weak in the knees. “It’s your dream isn’t it?”
Her throat felt a little tight, making it difficult to say, “Yes, but—”
“No buts. It’s the only way I’ll help you.”
Surprised by his condition, and a little touched that he’d never forgotten her lost dream, she nodded. “Okay, you have a deal. Tomorrow we’ll start acting different around each other. We’ll take it slow, so it’s believable to our friends. Although Kat and Tallulah will know what we’re up to. This kind of was Kat’s idea.”
He shook his head. “Now why doesn’t that surprise me.”
“She was the one who helped get Tallulah and Garrett together.”
“I know. I was there at the wedding when it all happened, remember?”
“Right.” The wedding she’d missed.
“So what exactly do you want me to do?” he asked.
“Pretend like you’re suddenly seeing me differently I guess.”
He scrubbed his chin, the rasp of his stubble carrying in the calm night. She focused on his big hands, and once again thought about Matt and kink. Damn you, Kat!
“How do I go about doing that, Sky?”
“You know, touch me a lot.”
“You want me to touch you?”
“Yeah.”
He put his hand on her shoulder and brushed his thumb over her cheek. The rough pad feeling oddly erotic as it skidded over her skin. “Like this?”
“Yeah,” she croaked out, hyper-aware of the shiver moving through her.
“What else?”
“Just stay close I guess.” Honestly, she really wasn’t sure what they’d have to do. No guy had ever fallen for her before so she had nothing to draw on except the movies she’d watched. “We should laugh a lot and make it look like we’re having fun together.”
“But we always laugh and have fun together,” he said, his voice sounding a bit deeper than it had seconds ago.
“Then I don’t know. I guess we’ll just have to wing it and try to make it believable.”
“Jack’s a hard guy to fool.”
“Then you’d better brush up on your acting skills and start looking at me like you see me as more than the pigtailed girl on the playground.”
He dipped his head, his eyes moving over her face, a slow, careful perusal that she felt all the way to her core. Why was it suddenly harder to fill her lungs?
“Yeah, like that,” she said, feeling a little breathless.
She sucked in air. Honestly, he was either a quick study, or… A burst of unease moved through her as Kat’s words ripped through her thoughts.
Matt. He likes you.
Kat had to be wrong. She just had to be. Matt wouldn’t be helping her if he liked her.
He wet his lips and his mouth was so close to hers, for a minute she thought he was going to kiss her. “Normally I take the lead with a woman, but I think in this case you better call the shots. I don’t how far you want me to go.”
“O…okay,” she said, realizing she was glimpsing another side of Matt. A dominant side. A side he probably reserved for the bedroom. Her body trembled almost uncontrollably as her thoughts careened in an erotic direction. Unnerved by the things racing through her brain, she quickly shook her head to get it on straight. What the hell was going on with her, and why did she suddenly find the idea of kink so exciting? Was it possible she had deep dark desires that she never knew about? Or perhaps it was just because she hadn’t had sex in a long time. Yeah, that had to be it.
“Are you cold?” he asked, brushing his hands up and down her arms to create friction with heat.
“A bit,” she lied. She wiped a bead of perspiration from her forehead and stepped back from his hold. “I guess I’ll see you in the morning then.”
His gaze shifted to her mouth. “Sure.”
She paused and looked at him standing there on the dock, the moonlight spilling over his half-naked body. “Are you sure you’re okay doing this?” she asked, suddenly not so certain about this half-cocked plan she’d talked him into. “I mean—”
“I’ll do whatever it takes to get you what you want, Sky.”
Her heart squeezed, because Matt really was one of the good guys. “Thanks,” she said and turned to go. Leaving him standing on the dock, she hurried back to the cottage. She slipped into bed beside Kat, and Kat stirred but didn’t wake. For that she was grateful, because she didn’t want to explain why she was in bed with her and not Caleb.
She closed her eyes, willing sleep to come, but her thoughts went to Matt and his condition on him helping her. It really did warm her all over to find out he’d never forgotten her dreams, and no matter what he said, she vowed to help him study, because she wanted to help him fulfill his dreams too. She looked at the woman asleep beside her. Maybe Kat was right. Maybe Matt was the whole package. Sky rolled onto her side, hoping one day Matt would find the girl of his dreams. If he did, she’d do whatever it took to help him get what he wanted.
With that last thought in mind, Sky dozed off, and when she woke to the morning sun streaming in through the crack in the curtains, she found a sleepy Kat staring at her.
“Good morning,” Sky said.
Kat frowned. “I’m guessing it’s not that good. Otherwise you wouldn’t be here with me.”
Sky groaned and put her arm over her head, knowing Kat wouldn’t let her out of that room without explaining. “You’re right. Last night didn’t go down quite like I’d hoped.”
“Aww, I’m sorry, honey.” Kat pulled Sky’s arm away from her face. “Are you okay?”
She nodded as her friend looked at her with sympathetic eyes. “I will be as long as Caleb doesn’t remember laughing at my seduction.”
Kat adjusted her pillow against the headboard and sat up. “He did have a lot to drink.”
“Yeah, that’s what Matt said.”
“Matt?”
“I ran into him at the dock last night. He said Caleb only laughed because he was drinking and probably thought it was a joke.”
“What else did he say?”
She looked at Kat, and a mixture of excitement and nervousness bubbled up inside her. She opened her mouth and found herself spilling the details. “That he’d help me open Cal
eb’s eyes.”
“Oh? Do tell.”
“Remember what you were saying about a man wanting what another man has?”
Kat sat up straighter. “Are you serious? Matt’s agreed to be the other guy, to help you snag Caleb.”
“Yeah.”
“Wow, he’s one hell of a friend, Sky. He must really like you.”
She nodded quickly. “He said he’d do whatever it takes.”
Kat regarded her with wide, all-knowing eyes. “I just bet he will.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“What it means is that you’re going to have to really pour it on thick to convince Caleb.”
Sky puckered her lips. “You think?”
“I know.”
“So what are you suggesting? How thick do you think we’ll have to pour it on?” she asked, curious to learn from her vivacious, bold friend who knew a hell of a lot more about relationships and men than she did.
Kat shuffled on the bed, like she was totally excited by the idea of her and Matt pretending to be an item. “You’ll have to pour it on all the way, my friend.”
Her stomach tightened. “All the way?” she repeated, not really liking the gleam in Kat’s eye or the way she said all the way, because to Sky all the way meant sex.
“Yeah, lots and lots of touching,” Kat explained.
She relaxed a bit. “Yeah, I mentioned that to him.”
“And don’t forget the kissing.”
“You think we have to kiss?”
“Sure. Couples who are crazy about each other, and especially ones in a new relationship, kiss all the time. You saw Luke and Emery last night, didn’t you? Those two couldn’t keep their hands off each other.”
“Yeah but if we go from zero to hundred overnight, don’t you think that’s going to be a bit unbelievable? I told Matt we needed to take it slow.”
“There’s no time for slow, Sky.” She clapped her hands together, three quick rhythmic slaps. “This is the twenty-first century. Everything happens fast these days.”
“Don’t you think it will shock everyone? Make them wonder what’s really going on? Matt and I have been best friends forever, if all of a sudden we start kissing—”
“Oh, don’t worry,” Kat said, a knowing smirk on her face. “I’m pretty sure it won’t shock anyone.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing.” Kat bit her bottom lip and gave Sky a look that said she knew something Sky didn’t. Sky eyed her friend and was about to push when Kat said, “I just think there should be lots and lots of kissing.”
She’d kissed Matt before, of course. On the cheek. Like a brother. Although there was that one time when they all played spin the bottle. She’d kissed him on the lips then, but they were two clumsy tweens who didn’t know what they were doing.
“I don’t know, Kat.”
“Well, I do, and if you want to make this work, you should listen to me. Don’t worry, it will be fun.”
“Fun?”
“Sure, even if it is pretend, you’re in for a good time.” Kat grabbed one of the throw pillows and pulled it to her chest for a hug. “Because I can tell he’s a great kisser.” She looked at the ceiling and briefly closed her eyes. “And if you have to kiss someone, and make it really convincing, then you definitely want a guy who knows what he’s doing. Matt was the best choice for this little ruse.”
Sky ran her tongue over her bottom lip. She’d have to kiss Matt? She felt a quick flash of panic. “I don’t know, Kat. I still think this is taking things too far too fast.”
“You do want Caleb, right?”
“Yeah.” Her thoughts traveled to the man in the room next to theirs. She was pretty confident he wouldn’t remember her botched seduction when he woke up. If he did, Matt would no doubt jump in and play it off as a joke. He was good at coming to her rescue.
“Then it’s no holds barred. I mean come on, Sky, the man calls you Skywalker. Short of a good swift kick to the balls to get his attention, you’ll have to really throw herself into your role with Matt.”
She bit her bottom lip. “Maybe I’m making a mistake. Maybe I should call this whole thing off.”
“Don’t even think about it. This plan is brilliant actually.” Kat nodded thoughtfully. “Oh yeah, once you and Matt start touching, kissing and sneaking off to bed like lovers, it’s going to open a lot of eyes.”
“You think so?”
“Uh huh.” Kat’s head continued to bob, and she curled a long strand of her hair around her index finger as she went quiet for a moment, like she was lost in her own thoughts. Sky took that time to think about this plan, what Kat was suggesting.
“Wait!” Sky sat up and shimmied backward to rest against the headboard. “What did you mean by sneaking off to bed like lovers?”
“Once you start kissing in front of everyone, they’re going to expect you two to share a room. Like I said, things happen fast these days, and we are all adults, you know. And adults do adult things.”
She took a moment to entertain the idea of sneaking off to bed with Matt. The sound of Tallulah and Garrett entering the cottage snapped her back to the moment. What the hell was she doing? “I’m not going to do…that.”
“I’m not saying you have to do anything behind closed doors. Unless of course you want to.” Kat studied her carefully, like she was gauging her reaction. “I really hope you want to though. Then I can live vicariously through you.” She squirmed beside her, clearly excited by the prospect of Sky sleeping with Matt. “You can tell me how awesome he is, how his hands feel on your body…slapping your ass.”
Oh gawd.
Sky’s mind took that moment to conjure up images of her and Matt in bed. Despite her best efforts to push them away, she visualized herself up on her knees, Matt behind her doing naughty, delicious…kinky things with his hands. A small wheezing sound escaped her throat and she started fussing with the bedding to pretend all this salacious talk wasn’t getting to her. She was a vanilla girl and it was crazy to think how much this all intrigued her.
She shook her head to clear it, and all dirty thoughts came to a screeching halt. Okay, she was definitely getting in over her head here. Maybe this was a stupid plan that would blow up in her face.
“I don’t think—”
“Sky,” Kat started, cutting her off with a huff. “If you want him, you have to do whatever it takes. Even if that means kissing and touching Matt intimately.”
“Okay, kissing and touching I can handle. But I’m not doing anything behind closed doors. It doesn’t ever have to come to that.”
Sky caught the mischievous gleam backlighting Kat’s green eyes. “Of course it doesn’t.”
“Oh, I get it.” She laughed and playfully whacked her friend. “You were just messing with me. You had me worried for a minute there.”
Kat arched a brow. “Worried? I’m not so sure it was worry I saw in your eyes.”
“You did. Matt and I are friends. Nothing more,” she assured Kat.
“Whatever you say.”
“I told you. He doesn’t like me like that.”
Kat slid from the bed and stretched. “So you’ve said.”
“If he did, he wouldn’t go through with the plan. He thinks Caleb and I would be great together. He said it a few times now. He wants us together.”
“I’m not arguing with you, Sky. I get it. You’re friends.” Kat blew a wispy strand of hair from her forehead, but there was a gleam when she turned back to Sky and added, “I’m just not sure who you’re trying to convince here. Me or you.”
“I’m trying to convince you, of course.” She and Matt were friends. Of that she was certain. Even if she did have to start touching and kissing him, it didn’t mean anything. And she wasn’t going to give another second thought to sleeping with him, or how naughty he was behind closed doors.
She didn’t think.
* * * * *
Matt rolled onto his side. After a sleepless n
ight, he prayed come the light of day Sky would see the folly behind her plan. Otherwise he’d have to go through with touching her and…God knows what else. He was pretty damn certain stepping on an IED would be less painful.
The boat swayed against the dock and he could hear laughing coming from the cottage. He stole a glance at his watch and guessed everyone was up and getting ready to plan the day. He kicked his sheet off and glanced down to see little Matt—or rather big Matt at this time of the morning—standing at half-mast. Shit. What the hell was going to happen when Sky started playing up to him? How the hell would he be able to keep his feelings for her hidden? He was like Pavlov’s dog for Christ sakes. His dick was conditioned to rise to the occasion whenever Sky got close.
He jumped to his feet and ran his hands though his hair, finger-combing it in place. After a quick trip to the small bathroom, he made his way to the cottage. He stepped into the kitchen and looked over the counter to find everyone sitting around the living room drinking coffee and nibbling on last night’s birthday cake. Emery and Luke were at the stove, flipping pancakes.
“Morning,” he said to Luke and Emery when they turned to see him.
“Look what the cat dragged in,” Luke said, slapping Matt on the shoulder.
“Fuck off,” Matt said, then turned to Emery. Shit. He gave her a sheepish look. “Sorry.” In an attempt to be one hundred percent opposite from his old man, Matt showed respect to women. He cringed thinking about the women that had come and gone from his father’s life when Matt was young, and the disgusting display of foul language aimed their way after his father had found the bottom of his bottle.
“Such a gentleman,” Emery said, and whacked Luke with the spatula. “You could take a lesson from him.”
Luke grabbed her and pulled her to him, sliding his hands around her back to cup her ass as Kat stepped up to the coffee pot. “Oh, yeah, you didn’t seem to mind my un-gentlemanly ways last night.” He gave her a light tap on her backside and she squealed, but from the gleam in her eyes Matt could tell it was from excitement, not pain. Her arms went around Luke’s neck and the two started kissing.
“Get a room already,” he mumbled as he met Jack’s smirk from the other side of the cottage. There was no hiding anything from that guy. Which might actually be a good thing. At least that was one less person they’d have to convince. Although the breakup might be a little harder to explain, and that’s when Matt would really have to start acting.