He’d have to show Annie he loved her first.
And there was no better time to start than now.
“Maybe being adored didn’t bore you,” Matt said. “Maybe it’s just being adored by the wrong guy. Ever think of that?”
She stamped her foot. “Dammit, Matt, don’t try to confuse me. Not when I finally have my head on straight.” She threw her head back and sighed. “All my life all I wanted was a great guy who loved me, a house in the suburbs with the golden retriever in the yard, and the soccer-mom minivan with three or four kids hanging out every window.”
“Who said there was anything wrong with that?” Matt broke in. Now that he’d finally admitted the only happily-ever-after he’d ever have was if Annie shared it with him, he could go for that scenario, too. All of it. The dog. The kids. Even (gulp) the minivan.
“Me,” Annie said, poking her chest with her finger. “I’m saying there’s something wrong with that fantasy. I finally realized I’ve only been kidding myself to think I’d ever have that kind of life. And that’s why I’m going to stop living with my head in the clouds and focus on my new promotion. So don’t try to confuse me with any of that ‘wrong guy’ crap. Every guy’s the wrong guy for me at this point in my life. Any more questions?”
Matt held his hands up, signaling he was done. “Nope. No more questions. I got the message loud and clear.”
“Good,” she said, and tossed her hair again.
“Wait a minute,” Matt said, sending her a playful grin. “Maybe I do have just one more question.”
She rolled her eyes.
“You haven’t changed your mind about our bing buddy arrangement, have you?”
She stared him down. Matt noticed whatever she was thinking at the moment was doing crazy things to the deep blue of her eyes.
“Why don’t you try me and find out?” she said with a flirty little smile.
Matt laughed. “You mean why don’t I ring you up for a bing in a day or two?”
She shook her head. “I mean right now.”
Matt gulped. “Right now? Seriously? Your place or mine?”
She shook her head again. “I mean right now. Right here.”
Right here?
Matt looked slowly around the vacant parking lot. But when he turned to look back at Annie, she was already walking toward the back door of his Jeep.
Holy hell.
She was actually opening the back door of his Jeep and climbing inside.
Is Annie crazy?
Was she really proposing that they get it on in the backseat of his Jeep? Right in the middle of Groveman’s back parking lot?
Shaking his head, Matt walked over to his Jeep and opened the back door. “Very funny, Annie.”
He wasn’t prepared when she snatched his blazer out of his hand and tossed it over her head. She grabbed his tie and, rather than be choked to death, Matt followed his stretched neck right into the backseat with his determined bing buddy.
“Close the door,” she ordered.
Matt did as she said, more confused than ever.
She pulled her blouse out of the waistband of her skirt and appeared ready to pull it up and over her head. That’s when Matt came to his senses and reached out and grabbed her hand.
“Stop it, Annie. There’s no way I’m going to make love to you in the backseat of a car.”
She stared at him with complete surprise. “Make love? Who said anything about making love? I was under the impression all you and I were having was sex with no stings attached.”
Matt ran a hand through his hair, stalling for time. He knew he had to choose his words wisely or risk Annie putting a quick end to the sex that he hoped to convert into happily-ever-after.
“Sorry,” he said. “Making love was the wrong choice of words.” Then he sent Annie a slightly embarrassed look. “Will you promise not to laugh if I tell you something deeply personal?”
She leaned back against the car seat for a second, thinking it over. “Okay. I promise.”
Matt took a deep breath. “I have this car-sex phobia kinda thing, okay? I was sixteen. Parked at a popular make-out spot. She had her panties off. My pants were down around my ankles. Neither of us realized her older brother had just pulled in beside us. Before I knew what was happening, her brother jerked the back door open, grabbed me by the ankles, and pulled me out of the car with my pants still down around my ankles.”
Matt paused for a moment. “So. What I’m trying to say. With as little embarrassment as possible. Is that even the thought of having sex in a car pretty much takes the lead right out of my pencil, if you know what I mean.”
Annie couldn’t help herself, she burst out laughing.
Matt frowned. “Hey. You promised you wouldn’t laugh.”
Annie grinned. “At least you didn’t throw up all over the poor girl. That’s what I did to my date during my first almost car-sex experience.”
Matt cocked his handsome head to the side. “You really threw up on some guy?”
Annie nodded. “I was also sixteen. We were in his father’s brand-new Cadillac. He couldn’t talk me out of my panties. And then I lost it. Bright red punch. White leather seats. The guy never spoke to me again. I heard his father had to have the seats reupholstered.”
When they both stopped laughing, Matt kept looking at her for one of those longer-than-necessary moments. A few butterflies immediately took flight in her stomach.
He finally broke eye contact and looked down at his watch. “Hey,” he said, “since car sex has been vetoed, why don’t you have dinner with me instead?”
More butterflies fluttered, this time startled by her better judgment screaming she should run for her life.
“I don’t mean a date type of dinner,” Matt said quickly. “We both know where we stand on that subject. But we do have to eat. And I’m starving. How about you?”
Whew!
Matt seemed as eager as she was about sticking to her nonrelationship rules. She politely shoved her better judgment out of the way.
“I could eat,” she admitted.
She kept telling herself the new Annie could handle sitting there laughing and sharing deep secrets with Matt—even having dinner with him—without spiraling into a tailspin that would take her right back to her old dreaming-dreams-that-never-would-come-true kind of life.
“Where?” Matt said. “I’m up for anything. Italian. Chinese. You name it.”
Annie shrugged. “I really don’t know this part of town. Anything close, I guess. Even a burger would be fine with me.” But just to be safe, it was on the tip of her tongue to remind Matt that she would be driving herself wherever they went.
He saved her the trouble when he grinned and said, “Follow me. One of my favorite sports bars is barely a mile from here. The burgers are delicious. The beer’s cold. And if you behave yourself, I might even let you beat me at a few games of pool.”
You’re dancing with the devil, her better judgment kept warning as Annie followed closely behind Matt’s black Jeep Cherokee. This time, she gave her better judgment a sound punch in the nose.
Dammit, she was looking forward to stopping off for a burger and a few beers. Maybe even a few games of pool. It had been weeks since she’d done anything fun.
Besides, other than Collin, who could be a safer person to hang out with than Matt?
Matt had always been relationship-proof to the core.
She was sure she had nothing whatsoever to worry about.
CHAPTER 14
Hurry,” Annie moaned after she and Matt half fell and half stumbled into her darkened apartment.
They didn’t even stop to turn on the lights. The second Matt had the condom in place, he pushed Annie back against her closed front door, pushed her skirt up, slipped off her thong, and lifted her up so she could wrap her legs tightly around his waist.
“Matt,” Annie gasped when he plunged deeply inside her.
“No idle chitchat,” Matt whispered. “Your rules.”
He covered her mouth with a searing kiss so demanding that Annie feared she might pass out. And when his mouth finally slipped away from her lips and slid down to her neck, Annie sank her fingers into Matt’s short dark hair and held on.
Oh yeah!
She really liked it this way.
Quick and hurried.
Hard and fast.
No time for thinking about now. No time for worrying about later. Just live the bing. Breathe the bing. And taste the bing.
Mercy!
How could any man possibly move like that?
Her hands slid from Matt’s hair down to his broad shoulders. He didn’t even flinch when her fingernails dug into the rock-hard flesh beneath his dress shirt, trying to slow him down.
Please. Please. Please.
She had to slow Matt down.
With every pounding thrust he was already bringing her closer. And closer. And, oh. Man. Closer and closer.
Yes! Yes! Yes!
Her hands left his shoulders and Annie reached up and pulled his head forward. She shivered at the feel of his hot mouth against the sensitive hollow of her neck.
Matt. Oh, Matt. Oh. Matt. Oooooooh, Matt!
“Ahhhhhhhh,” she moaned, unable to wait even one second longer. She smiled into the darkness when she felt Matt shudder only a short second later.
He whispered her name against her hair and her hands searched for his face. She drew his head forward for one long, fabulous kiss. And then Annie let out one loud completely satisfied sigh.
But wait.
Oh. Wow. Oh. Wow. Oh. Wow.
Matt wasn’t even close to stopping.
Annie’s breath caught in her throat.
He was moving again.
Faster. Harder.
Harder. Faster.
The room was starting to spin now.
Oooh. Ahhh. Oh. My.
There.
Right there!
Yes. Definitely there. Yes.
Annie could feel the warm tingle starting up again.
Fan-binging-tastic.
Faster. Faster. Oh, yeah. There it was.
She arched her body and threw her head back against the door—ready—willing—waiting to feel another amazing scrape-you-off-the-ceiling bing.
And just when she swore nothing else had ever felt that wonderful, Matt removed her legs from around his waist, slid down on his knees, and made a complete liar of her.
Annie stretched leisurely when her alarm sounded at 7 a.m. on Tuesday morning. But she remained lying in bed, thinking that her life had never been more perfect.
She’d finally pushed Matt out the door at 1 a.m. Now she was slightly disappointed that she hadn’t let him stay. A little somethin’-somethin’ first thing in the morning could have been exactly what she needed to help her get through another long, exhausting day of filming Joe Video.
No.
Don’t go there.
The last thing she needed was to let her mind wander down that slippery slope. Things between her and Matt were perfect just the way they were.
She couldn’t explain it, but it was liberating not being caught up in all the stress of a relationship. The spontaneity suited her. In fact, she wished she’d had the good sense to adopt her new philosophy ages ago.
There was no pressure. No worry. No angst over where things were going. Because things weren’t going anywhere. That gave her the freedom to embrace nothing but the excitement and the anticipation of their next wonderful no-strings-attached adventure.
She didn’t even feel guilty about still promoting Joe Video to her fellow sisterhood. Every woman deserved at least a fantasy dream guy she could depend on. Joe Video filled that void perfectly.
When she thought about it, maybe her mother had been right after all. The entire concept of Joe Video did have a strong feminist ring to it. With Joe Video, a woman always had complete control.
Control was one of the things she liked best about her new philosophy. She liked being in the driver’s seat and directing and calling the shots. No all-over-the-place emotions. No worrying that life was passing her by. No pressure because she would soon be thirty and her biological clock was ticking like a time bomb waiting to explode.
Guys never worried about those things.
Especially not guys like Matt. Matt lived strictly for the moment. And now, so did she. Just like Matt, she intended to seize each and every opportunity, grab life by the horns, and have a freaking blast.
Good-time Annie.
That was going to be her new nickname.
She lifted her arms above her head and stretched, thinking that they did have such fun yesterday. Sitting in Matt’s Jeep laughing at each other’s embarrassing teenage stories. Talking nonstop about nothing in particular over burgers and beer. Playing pool at the sports bar. Which is how they’d eventually ended up back at her apartment. Matt had insisted the winner of each game got the privilege of naming both the time and the place of their next big bing.
Annie smiled happily to herself.
The big dummy didn’t have a clue she’d purposely let him win all four games.
Her bedside phone ringing at such an early hour surprised her. The name on caller ID didn’t.
“This call better be work-related,” Annie said when she answered. “You know the rules.”
She heard him chuckle before he said, “Don’t panic. This call is definitely work-related. I wanted to make sure you could do without me if I skipped today’s filming.”
“Is the golf course calling your name?” Annie teased.
“Just a few personal things I need to take care of if you can spare me,” Matt said.
“I don’t see why that would be a problem,” Annie said. “Gretchen has everything under control.”
There was a slight pause before he added, “One other thing, bing-related. Do I need to remind you that I won all four games of pool last night?”
Annie laughed. “Since you reminded me of that fact about every five minutes last night? No, Matt. I’m well aware you won all four games.”
“Good,” he said. “Because I’m calling in my marker for bing number two. Tonight. Park at the back of the building where you did yesterday. I’ll be waiting when you finish filming. No excuses.”
“It could be another late night,” Annie warned.
“No excuses,” Matt said.
Annie laughed when Matt hung up before she could argue.
Matt tossed the phone aside, swung his legs over the side of his bed, and headed for the shower. He couldn’t help but be pleased at his own ingenuity. He had three more guaranteed chances to prove to Annie that he could be her dream guy. The fact that she hadn’t tried to renege on their pool-playing bet gave him hope he’d be able to complete his new mission with success.
Annie wanted car sex. He’d see she got it. Tonight. But on his terms. And with a lot more class than in the backseat of his Jeep Cherokee.
Then on Wednesday night, his plans for bing number three would only take a quick phone call to his old golfing buddy, Bart. The successful stockbroker had a downtown penthouse apartment that was the envy of every single guy in the city. Rooftop Jacuzzi. Total privacy. Breathtaking view of Atlanta at night. Annie was bound to be impressed.
He’d wait until Thursday night for bing number four, however, before he proposed to Annie that they should negotiate a new deal. He’d make that suggestion in the privacy of his own apartment that—after today—would be the perfect setting.
Matt actually laughed as he stepped under the hot shower spray. Had anyone told him he’d ever be taking a day off from work to “feminize” his apartment, he would have blown a gasket. Yet that’s what the personal business he’d mentioned to Annie was all about. He was going to get in touch with his (gulp) feminine side.
He’d need help, of course, which wouldn’t be a problem. The wife of one of his racquetball buddies was the manager at a nearby Pier 1. Wasn’t that one of the most popular female-focused stores? At leas
t according to Collin’s sainted Queer Eye boys.
Out of curiosity, he’d watched the program a time or two. Enough to get the message that if a guy had any hopes of the lady in his life hanging out at his apartment, he needed to make it more female-friendly. Matt hoped Annie would agree to spending all of her time at his place.
As he gave his hair a good scrubbing, Matt assured himself he wasn’t going to let the thought of (grimace) a gazillion scented candles and a bunch of poofy cuddly pillows strewn across his manly leather sofa give him a heart attack. He assured himself he didn’t mind shelling out extra bucks for some suitable wineglasses, tableware, and even some (groan) matching placemats and napkins. He might even consider some of those (be strong here) pleated fabric lampshades if it would further his cause.
An overhaul in the bedroom wouldn’t be a bad idea either. Satin sheets would be a nice touch. Yes, definitely satin sheets. He mentally added those to his list.
He’d been forced to sit through enough of Collin’s damn menu planning that he could probably open a catering service himself. He wasn’t totally clueless when it came to the culinary side of his plans for Thursday night. What was the name of Collin’s favorite to-die-for caterer downtown? Ganache? Yes, that’s it. Someone there could easily help him choose something more appropriate to dazzle Annie than last night’s burgers and beer. According to Collin, Ganache not only delivered, they also arranged and displayed their catered meals to perfection, so he couldn’t go wrong there.
As far as the music for Thursday night’s big finale, he would take the sounds from his own collection.
R&B all the way.
Barry White. Al Green. Michael McDonald’s entire Motown album. Maybe even a little Luther Vandross thrown in for good measure. Soulful and sexy was bound to be perfect.
Whatever it took, that’s what Matt was willing to do.
Besides, he had the entire day to make all of the arrangements. Surely he could become at least one woman’s dream guy if he had the entire day to get in touch with his (double gulp) feminine side.
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