by Amy Brent
“Maybe,” I said, but I seriously considered the idea. Would that be too much to ask? He was already doing so much by letting me live here—paying my rent for the month, covering my food last night and tonight. He was a good guy and my brother was his best friend. He wanted to help me.
But I couldn’t let him pretend to be engaged to me to help me get Jason to leave me alone. I needed to figure out a way to do it on my own. Or may I needed to think about the restraining order again, although at this point, I wasn’t sure if it had been too long since all of this had started. Maybe there was some sort of statute of limitations regarding when you could file a police report. I needed to talk to Dad about that.
Ian frowned and cocked his head to the side. “You want me to be your fake fiancé?” he asked.
“No,” I said quickly. “I couldn’t make you do that.”
Ian shrugged. “I was serious yesterday when I said I’m not interested in playing the field anymore,” he said. “No more one-night stands, so it’s not like it would be hurting my reputation. And it would give me a way to get women to quit trying to get me to go out with them, too. I could tell them I have a fiancée—you.”
“Yeah,” I said slowly.
“We could go on some fake dates. I’ll show you all the best places in the neighborhood. We’ll make it fun.”
I blinked at Ian, wondering if he had really thought through what he was suggesting. He certainly looked serious. I wasn’t sure I could handle going on fake dates with Ian and not making it obvious that I had a crush on him, though.
But at the same time, I wasn’t sure I could handle Jason on my own anymore either.
I smiled at Ian. “Fake fiancés and roommates,” I agreed. As though it were really that simple.
Chapter 6
Ian
I had an early appointment on Tuesday and actually slept until my alarm went off for once. Still half asleep, I rolled out of bed and wandered into the bathroom to pee.
I froze in the doorway, staring. Abigail had just gotten out of the shower and was in the process of wrapping a towel around herself. For a moment, she froze as well, staring at me with her mouth slightly open. My eyes roamed over her milky breasts, dusky nipples, and soft curves. Then they snapped guiltily back up to her face.
“Uh, good morning,” I said, scratching the back of my head and trying to pretend that my morning wood hadn’t just become about ten times harder than it already was.
Abigail quickly finished wrapping the towel around herself. “Sorry,” she said meekly, trying to duck past me, as though she didn’t belong in there.
“No. I’m sorry,” I said, catching her wrist. “I should have knocked. I’m not used to having female roommates.”
“Right,” she said, biting her lower lip.
We were close together, and I wanted to tug that lip out from between her teeth, kiss her, back her up against the sink, and have my way with her. But she was my roommate. As soon as I let go of her wrist, she fled to her room. I shut the door behind her, feeling like an ass. I couldn’t believe I had just done that.
But fuck, she was sexy.
It wasn’t like I was blind; I knew she had grown into a beautiful, curvaceous woman over the years I’d known her. But I had forced myself not to look at her that way, to keep thinking of her as just Zach’s little sister. Seeing her naked in my bathroom that morning, though, made it impossible to think of her as anything but an alluring woman.
I shook my head, forcing myself to go about my normal morning routine. I had three appointments today, and I needed to get my head in the game.
It was a little difficult to keep my thoughts on work when Zach showed up at the gym. I watched him out the corner of my eye while I worked with Mackenzie on a couple new exercises for her routine. While I cleaned things up after the appointment, Zach caught me by surprise, clapping me on the shoulder and making me jump.
“Hey, man. What’s up?” Zach asked. He frowned. “Are you feeling okay?”
“Yeah. I’m fine,” I said. I felt embarrassed, as though Zach could somehow know I had seen his sister’s naked body that morning. As if he knew I was still thinking about those curves every spare moment.
Zach kept talking, but I listened with half an ear. He was just talking about how busy his schedule was, and although as a good friend I wanted to support him, my mind was still focused on Abigail. For that one frozen second there in the bathroom, it had almost seemed like she didn’t mind me catching her naked. Almost.
I shook my head and drew my attention back to Zach just in time to hear him finish a question. “Yeah,” I said, not entirely sure what he’d asked.
“Great!” Zach said, slapping me on the shoulder. “Well, I have one more set I want to do before I head out for the day, and I think your next appointment is waiting for you, so I’ll let you go. See you.”
“See you,” I echoed faintly.
If I’d thought my conversation with Zach was awkward, it was nothing compared to coming home to Abigail that evening. She was in the kitchen when I got there, bouncing around as she cooked and singing along to her music. She looked embarrassed when I caught her, and I couldn’t help thinking how cute she was. Between the show this morning and what I had just witnessed, I was starting to want her. She was everything a woman should have been.
Except she was my best friend’s younger sister.
I cleared my throat. “Hey, Abigail.”
“Hey,” she said, sounding on edge.
I grimaced. “Look, I’m sorry for walking in on you this morning. I should have knocked.” I had already said that, but maybe acknowledging it again when we were both fully dressed would clear the air a little. It was too charged at the moment, too full of tension.
Abigail shrugged. “I should have locked the door,” she pointed out. “Anyway, we’re both adults. I’m sure you’ve seen it all before.”
“True,” I said, not expecting her casual acceptance of it.
She grinned wickedly at me. “Tsk tsk, Ian. That was the point where you were supposed to tell me I’m more beautiful than all the other women you’ve slept with.”
I blinked at her, surprised by the flirtatious tone of her voice. “You are,” I said, maybe a bit too honestly. “Jeez, Abigail, I don’t know how you don’t have a boyfriend.” I laughed like it was still just a joke, but she continued to look at me, her eyes dark with lust.
“Have you been thinking about me all day?” she asked in a low voice, taking a step closer to me.
“Yeah,” I admitted.
“Good,” Abigail said, sounding pleased. She grinned shyly up at me. “I’ve been thinking about you, too. About what might have happened if you’d come in there a couple minutes earlier while I was still in the shower. If maybe you might’ve joined me.”
I swallowed hard, still trying to wrap my head around this. She was totally coming on to me, and she was standing close enough that if I moved, just barely, I would feel her breasts brush up against me. She bit that lower lip again, and this time, I couldn’t hold back.
I grabbed her in my arms, kissing her passionately, a bolt of lust shooting through me as she groaned and pressed up on her tiptoes. Her lips were hot against mine, and I plunged my tongue into her mouth, demanding entrance, not giving her the chance to be coy.
It was like all the tension in the kitchen spilled over into the kiss, bringing us both from zero to a hundred in seconds. I walked her backward until she was pressed up against the fridge and framed her body with my hands. Slowly, I dragged one hand down to cup her breast, feeling the hardness of her pert nipple through the soft fabric of her shirt. She slid her hands into the back pockets of my jeans, pulling me closer like she couldn’t get enough of me.
Before I could take things any further, there was a knock on the front door. A distinctive knock. A knock I knew. Zach’s knock.
I pulled away like lightning, staring down at Abigail. “Shit,” I muttered under my breath, immediately turning and heading for th
e front door, leaving her standing there touching her lips, her hair mussed and her eyes wide and dark. She looked totally fucked out, and I hadn’t even fucked her. God, I had to get that image out of my head.
I imagined all the least sexy things I could, composing myself while Zach knocked again on the front door. I pulled it open.
“Dude, what were you doing?” Zach asked. “Taking a shower?”
I thought back to what I had been doing. Making out with your little sister. He’d punch me in the nuts if he knew. “What’s up?” I asked instead.
Zach snorted and made an exaggerated show of looking at his watch. “It’s six thirty,” he said. When I clearly still didn’t get it, he rolled his eyes. “Remember this afternoon when I dropped by the gym and we agreed to go get drinks tonight, and I said I wanted to go early because I have a busy schedule at work tomorrow, and so we agreed I’d come get you at six thirty?”
“Right, yeah,” I said, even though I had no recollection of that. It must have been what I had agreed to with that vague “yeah” when I’d been too busy thinking about his sister.
“Dude, we have to get you laid,” Zach said, shaking his head. “You clearly don’t function as a human when you’re not blowing your load every night.”
“Gross,” Abigail said from down the hall where she was just coming out of the kitchen. But she didn’t say anything else as she disappeared into her room, which I was grateful for. Not that I really expected her to beg me not to bring anyone home or something like that. She and I weren’t an item. We had just kissed, and it was never going to happen again. I hoped she realized that.
“How’s that going, you and Abigail?” Zach asked a little while later when we were seated at the bar with our beers.
I took a swig of my beer, pretending to scan the crowd for hot girls even though I still didn’t really feel like going home with anyone random, especially not with Abigail back in my apartment. Even if she and I weren’t ever going to sleep together.
“Things are great,” I said to Zach, wishing the words didn’t sound so hollow to my ears. If Zach noticed anything strange about my tone, though, he didn’t mention it. Nor did he mention how much I was drinking.
I had to drink that night. I had to quit thinking about Abigail, naked or otherwise. No matter how sexy or cute or whatever else she was, dating or kissing or sleeping with her—none of those things were options, not when her brother was my best friend and she was my roommate.
Chapter 7
Abigail
I deleted yet another “thank you for your application, but” email, scowling at my computer screen. It seemed everyone was somehow more qualified than I was, no matter what I applied for. I didn’t know what it was. Was I looking in all the wrong places? Where else could you look for a job? I had applied for everything by now.
And yet, a month later, I still had nothing.
I was beyond the point of frustrated. At this point, I would take anything, even another job in retail or at a restaurant or something that had nothing to do with my degree. As much as I’d love to do something with counseling, particularly counseling for children, I had to accept that anything would do at this point if it meant I had a source of income again.
I just didn’t understand why my degree seemed so useless. I was a certified therapist, and I had a degree from a great university. I had work experience, too. Sure, none of it was in the field that I wanted to eventually have a career in, but how was I supposed to get that experience if no one would hire me in the first place? It was maddening.
On top of that, retail shops should have been bending over backward to hire me. I’d been an assistant manager at my previous shop. That should have counted for something. Instead, they all seemed to think I was overqualified for basic positions and underqualified for managerial positions. So that was no help either.
Frustrated, I called Brittany.
“Hey. What’s up?” she asked. I could hear her switch to talking to someone else, her hand over the phone. “Sorry. This is going to have to be kind of quick. We’ve got a party beginning in an hour—a wedding reception—and we’re missing key things like, I don’t know, chairs.”
“Shit,” I said, instantly feeling bad for having bothered her at work. “I just wanted to check in and see if you’d heard anything back from the catering company regarding some part-time work for me.”
“Still working on that. Sorry.” Brittany sighed. “And I’m still brainstorming other ways I could get you involved here. You know I’d love to work with you, just as much as I’d love for you to just have a job again, anywhere.”
“I know, and thanks for trying,” I said.
“Still nothing, huh?” she asked sympathetically.
“Not yet, but I’m sure I’ll find something,” I said, trying to sound cheerful when, really, I felt more like tearing up all the copies of my resume I had printed. They clearly weren’t doing me any good anyway.
I wished we could keep chatting, but I knew Brittany had to get back to work. “We should get drinks sometime soon,” she said.
“Yeah,” I agreed.
“Maybe with Ian and Zach,” Brittany added. Then I heard her pull the phone away again. “I really have to go.” She sounded apologetic. “I’ll see you soon, okay?”
“Yeah. See you,” I said, hanging up.
Not for the first time, I wished we could go back to a time when things were simpler, but I wasn’t sure when, exactly, I wanted to go back to. I liked who I was now, and I was happy to be living with Ian. I just wished I had a job and could support myself. That was the only thing I wanted to be different.
And maybe to be sleeping with Ian, whispered another part of my mind. I grinned.
Maybe I wanted that as well. Even though I knew I really, really shouldn’t do anything about it. Ian wasn’t the kind of guy I could just mess around with and forget about, even if I was the type of girl who did that. Which I wasn’t. I cared about him, first of all, as my brother’s best friend. What was more, for as long as he and Zach were friends, I was going to have to deal with Ian. I could move out of this apartment if things got awkward, but I couldn’t avoid him forever.
I had to get out of the apartment, I decided, so I got up and headed for the door. As I passed the kitchen, I tried not to think about Tuesday night. That had been totally unexpected. I didn’t know when I had decided it was okay to flirt with Ian, but there had been something hungry in his gaze that morning when he’d caught me on my way out of the shower. I’d mainly just been curious to see if he was actually interested in me.
From the way he had kissed me, I had to conclude that yes, he was interested. Now I just had to figure out what to do with that information. I could tell he was holding back, and I was sure Zach had something to do with it. To be honest, I wasn’t sure I should be kissing Ian, all things considered.
But I couldn’t seem to help it. He was sexy and he was nice and he cheered me up, and I’d had a crush on him for years now, whether I wanted to admit it or not.
I shook my head and headed out to the coffee shop on the corner, bringing my old laptop with me. I could at least get a change of scenery while I kept searching for jobs, right?
I had just sent off another job application when someone dropped into the seat across from me. I blinked over at him, immediately frowning. Jason.
“What do you want?” I asked him, trying to make my tone hostile. I folded my arms across my chest, hoping he understood that my body language said I didn’t want to have a conversation with him.
“Is Ian really your fiancé?” Jason asked.
“Yeah, he is.”
Jason shook his head. “There is no way Ian is a better guy for you than me,” he said.
I gave a harsh laugh. “Well, he doesn’t cheat on me. That’s for sure.”
“You still haven’t forgiven me for that?” Jason asked. “That all happened ages ago, Abigail. I’ve spent the past year working on myself, and I’m ready to be there for you. I’
m ready to be the perfect man for you, just the way you need me to be.”
I shook my head, not buying it. “Just go away and leave me alone, Jason. I’m engaged to someone else.”
“I don’t believe you,” Jason said.
I stood up, shoving my laptop back into my bag. “I don’t really care what you believe,” I told him flatly, leaving the coffee shop. But Jason followed me.
“Come on, let’s at least get a drink. Let’s have coffee. Let’s talk. You owe me.”
“I don’t owe you a damn thing,” I snapped. “Leave me alone.”
I turned and stalked off, but Jason still followed me. I started to feel a little panicky, wondering what he was planning. At least it was the middle of the afternoon in broad daylight. That meant that if I started screaming, people were bound to notice.
What if they didn’t do anything, though?
I walked quickly, aware of Jason still lurking behind me. Every time I glanced back over my shoulder, he was there. I wanted to run, but I didn’t want him to know I was afraid of him. Instead, I went as fast as I could toward the gym where Ian worked.
I walked inside, blinking after the bright sunlight outside. My eyes quickly scanned the place for Ian. Fortunately, he was still here, just finishing up with a client at the front desk. I went immediately to his side, putting a hand on his arm.
Ian glanced down at me with a quizzical look and then looked back at his client. “Melanie, it was good to see you again. Glad you’re feeling better, and hope I get to see you again on Saturday.”
“You will,” Melanie said, smiling at him and flipping her hair back. She gave me a look, mildly interested, and then bounced off toward the locker room.
“What’s up?” Ian asked me. Then he caught sight of Jason. His face hardened in anger, but then he glanced around. I wondered if he was checking to make sure Zach wasn’t here. I knew my brother usually came to the same gym. I hadn’t even thought that he might be here.
Ian brushed back a lock of my hair and then kissed me soundly. It wasn’t like the kiss we’d shared in the kitchen. This was much more PG with no tongues involved and definitely no groping. It only lasted a matter of seconds, but I still felt breathless when he pulled away.