She still couldn’t believe she got August to agree to come in here last night. After the shower, where they’d gotten clean and worked themselves up again, it had taken very little effort to drag him into her bedroom. Of course, she had been naked, and she was coming to discover the man would do just about anything she asked of him when naked.
Sucker.
She chuckled to herself, knowing she was no better. He didn’t even have to be full commando. Just show her a hint of those scrumptious abs and Mo would probably eat brussels sprouts. Maybe. For brussels sprouts, she might need an ass shot, too.
August grunted in his sleep, his arm tightening around her waist where he’d held her securely all night long. It had honestly been the most restful night of sleep she’d gotten in…ever. A glance to her bedside clock told her she was up before her alarm. That never happened. She had four snooze settings just to make sure she got out of bed.
She reached over to turn the alarm off, since she was already awake. The thing was set to foghorn loud—she really hated getting up in the morning—and she didn’t want to disturb August. He made an adorable sound of protest as she leaned out of his grasp to flick off the alarm setting. Who would have thought Grumpy Gus Gus would be such a cuddler? Not her.
As she started to lay back down in bed, her gaze caught on the pile of laundry by her hamper, or more specifically, the lack of pile. Her hamper appeared full, not a scrap of dirty clothing on the floor anywhere. In fact, as she looked around, her entire bedroom appeared to be straightened up. Shoes were placed neatly in the closet instead of tossed casually about the room. Her books had been organized and…alphabetized? And look at that, they all actually fit on the shelf when they were stacked properly. Who would have guessed?
Even the clutter of makeup she kept on top of her dresser had been tidied. The whole room looked like a magic cleaning fairy had come during the night. Like the times Lilly just couldn’t take it anymore and barged into her room with rubber gloves and a mission to clean. Oh, she missed those times. Missed coming back from the bar to a magically clean room. But since Lilly didn’t live here anymore, there was only one other person who could have done it.
She turned in the bed, rolling over to face the large, redheaded cleaning fairy sleeping peacefully next to her. “Did you clean my room?” she demanded, waffling between annoyance that he touched her things without permission and gratitude that she didn’t have to clean her mess herself.
August made a grunting sound, inhaling deeply, his jaw cracking open with a yawn. “Huh?”
“My room,” she repeated. “It’s clean. Did you get up in the middle of the night and clean it?”
His eyes opened, their hazel depths still hazy with sleep and sexual satisfaction.
He lifted one shoulder in a semi-shrug. “Yeah. I couldn’t sleep in all this mess, so I picked up a bit. Is that okay?”
She couldn’t be mad at a man who sent her to the stars last night and completed her most hated chore. Grateful it was, then.
“You cleaned my room in the middle of the night because it was too dirty to sleep in?” She laughed. “You are such a weirdo.”
“Hey!”
“It’s okay.” She leaned down to kiss his lips because she wanted to and she could. “I’m a weirdo, too.”
“You’re not a weirdo.” He reached out, tugging on a strand of her hair. “You’re unique.”
Which was just another way people said weird. But that was fine. She was okay with being weird. Better than being boring.
“So what’s with the pink?” he asked, twirling her hair around his finger.
“It was up.”
“Up?”
Scooting closer, she reached out a hand to play with the coarse, curly auburn hairs on his chest. Seemed only fair, since he was playing with her hair.
“I like dyeing my hair fun colors. Blonde, brown, black, and red are so boring.”
“Red is boring?” he asked with an arched brown.
“Not natural red,” she said with a wink. “I’m constantly changing up the color, and this time I went pink.”
“How long have you been dyeing streaks in your hair?”
“I think I started when I was about fourteen. You know, the angsty teenager phase.”
August chuckled. “I don’t think you could ever be angsty.”
“You’d be surprised.” Wasn’t every teenager wired with a bit of angst? Sure, she hadn’t gone full-on emo, but most of her allowance had been spent at the local Hot Topic.
“One of my older brothers had a bit of a health scare back then. He’s fine now, but for a while, it seemed like the entire family revolved around his health, doctor visits, stuff like that. I love my brother. I was terrified something bad was going to happen, and yet at the same time I was also a little…not jealous, but maybe angry at all the attention he was getting.”
She ducked her head, still ashamed of the way she’d secretly felt back then.
“Anyway, I started dyeing my hair as an act of rebellion. It was my way of trying to stand out, but also something that was totally in my power, you know? So much of our lives at that point was out of control, and I just wanted something I could do, without life or chance messing it up. Now I just do it for fun. Or when I’m stressed. And I like to match the colors of the weddings we plan, too.”
She glanced up to see August staring at the lock of her hair he still had wrapped around his finger. The stoic gloom was back, and she mentally kicked herself for bringing up such a downer topic after a night of hot sex. Aww, man, she really did know how to kill a mood.
“Sorry, I know that all sounds silly.”
She started to pull away, but August wrapped his arm around her, releasing her hair and cupping the back of her neck to bring her face close to his. He gazed into her eyes, an understanding light filling his gaze.
“It’s not silly. I understand feeling invisible to the people who are supposed to see you the most.”
Her breath caught as he offered another tiny glimpse into his life. He’d hinted at a childhood issue before, but she had yet to work it out of him. Odd, considering most people opened up like geysers around her. She’d been told she was very easy to talk to. And she liked listening to people, hearing their stories, helping them solve problems. But August kept everything very close to the chest.
The sexy, muscled chest she was currently petting in soft, soothing circles.
Casually, so as not to make a big deal of his tiny revelation, she tried to prod more out of him. “What do you mean—”
“What color are you planning on going for next?”
Okay. Guess they weren’t going to be sharing today. At least he wasn’t. She knew there was a soft nougaty center to August, if she could just get past this brick wall he surrounded himself in. His playful side had come out last night, but that was during sex. She’d liked it. She wanted to see more. Get to know all of August Porter. And she definitely wanted more nights like last night. But the real question was…
Did he?
Willing to allow him the subject change—for now—she answered, “Orange, probably. Our next wedding has warm fall colors. Which is good because warm colors are comforting.”
And she’d been needing comfort since her friends moved out. Mo was usually very good at going with the flow, but they had been roommates since college. Having them both move out to be with their soul mates over the last year had been a bit more flow than Mo could process.
But look what the universe sent you in exchange.
She snuggled up to August, slowly moving her fingers down his chest to outline those yummy abdominal muscles.
“So,” she said as she teased her finger along a solid ridge. “About last night. It was fun, right?”
His hand stroked down her neck, over her shoulder, and landed on her hip, where he gripped tightly, thumb stroki
ng over her sensitive skin. “Fun isn’t the word I would use.”
“Oh, really?”
He dipped his head, running his lips along her jaw as he murmured, “Phenomenal. Exhilarating. Fucking amazing. Take your pick.”
She picked all three and then some.
Turning her head so his talented lips had access to the sensitive spot on her neck right below her ear, she tried to focus on what she wanted to ask. Hard to do, considering August was blowing everything out of her mind.
“Um, well then, would you like to keep doing it? Doing this? Sex?” she clarified, her brain all fuzzy from the man’s ministrations.
A sound of distress left her lips as he pulled away. Why had he stopped? She’d liked that.
She glanced up to see a look of concern pinching his brow. “You want to continue to have sex? You and me?”
“No, me and the guy who works at the coffee shop down the street. I always ask my last sexual partner for advice on my next one.” She pushed his arm playfully. “Of course you and me, silly.”
At his hesitance, she pressed herself against him, the evidence of desire for her clear. “Obviously all that scratching last night did nothing to alleviate the itch. So why not keep enjoying each other while the chemistry is there?”
August’s thumb absently rubbed her hip, stroking, caressing, driving her wild while the stoic man lay there and pondered her offer. What was there to think about? She was offering him a live-in bone buddy. Who turned that down?
She was about to give up and escape to the bathroom to lick her wounded pride in private when August opened his mouth and spoke.
“Yes.”
She arched one brow. “Yes?”
“Yes, I agree last night didn’t alleviate the…issue.”
She snorted. “The issue? Such a polite way to say raging case of the hornies.”
The hand on her hip moved down over her backside. August gave her cheek a light smack. She let out a small yip. Ooooh, someone was getting feisty. She leaned in closer, giving him a saucy wink.
“Harder next time.”
August tried and failed to hide the smile at her antics. Which was fine by her, because she was seriously starting to love the man’s smile.
“Can you try and be serious for five minutes?”
She shrugged. “I can try, but no promises.”
He sighed, but there was humor in the tone. “As long as we both agree that this thing is what it is, I don’t see why we can’t keep doing it.”
“And what is it?” she asked. “Just so we’re both on the same page.”
Because she was the type of person who skipped to the end of a book to make sure everything ended happily, but she kind of figured Grumpy Gus Gus didn’t believe in the forever type of love.
“We’re two consenting adults enjoying each other’s bodies with no long-term expectations.”
See?
Something inside her cried a little at his words. Not only for herself, but for August, too. What happened in his life to give him such a bleak outlook on love and marriage? She knew he wasn’t the forever type of guy. And he wasn’t the type of guy she envisioned spending her forever with. This was just supposed to be fun and temporary. But she also knew sometimes life handed you unexpected curveballs, and she very much feared August Porter was hers. How hilariously awful would it be if fate decided that her soul mate was the type of person who didn’t believe in them?
“I can agree to that.”
“And we still can’t tell my grandmother.”
Yeah, yeah, because if Agatha got a whiff of this, she’d see wedding bells in their future, and Mr. Commitment-phobe over here couldn’t be a big boy and tell his grandmother he was in a roommates-with-benefits-type situation.
Not that she cared to explain that to Agatha, either.
“Agreed.” She frowned at all the secrets currently rolling around in her head. If she kept any more, they’d start knocking into each other, and she might lose track of who she wasn’t supposed to tell what. “But I don’t like lying to Agatha.”
Or him. Or anyone, for that matter. Mo believed in honesty in all things. But with the Porter family, it seemed no one wanted to explain anything to each other.
“It’s not lying,” August said. “It’s just keeping our personal lives personal.”
And just so they were clear on the personal part of their lives, she cleared her throat. “Um, this might sound kind of unfair, but as long as we’re doing…this, can I ask you not to bring home any other women for the night?”
He hadn’t brought any home yet, so she didn’t know why she wanted to put down a hard and fast rule. All she knew was the thought of August being intimate with another woman made her want to bake a whole batch of her nonna’s special laxative brownies and shove them down his throat.
She didn’t begrudge the man his liaisons. He’d been pretty clear about this just being fun. But she didn’t want to be a firsthand witness to them.
August’s brow pinched, a frown marring his beautiful face as he stared down at her. “I’m not planning on sleeping with anyone else as long as I’m with you, Mo.”
Wait, what?
“I might not be looking for anything long-term, but I don’t hop beds.”
“Oh.” She just assumed he played the field, since he didn’t want anything serious.
“Maybe that should be another rule for this thing.” His face softened, hand coming up to cup her cheek as he gazed into her eyes. “You and me for the time being. No one else. Okay?”
For a guy who protested commitment so much, this sure as heck felt like a relationship. But she wasn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth.
“Okay.” She smiled. “Just you and me.”
He grinned, leaning in to speak against her lips, “Good. Now that that’s all settled…”
She wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him on top of her as he kissed every doubt regarding this new agreement of theirs right out of her brain. But before their good morning could turn into a great one, the alarm on her cell went off.
“Crap!” She’d forgotten she put a just-in-case alarm on her phone. “I have to get ready for work.”
As much as she’d like to stay in bed with August, cementing their new arrangement, this was the last-chance alarm. She’d even missed her opportunity for a shower. Which meant she had to use an abundance of perfume today, because if Pru or Lilly smelled last night’s escapades on her, she’d be toast.
“Damn, so do I,” August grumbled.
He rose from the bed, walking blessedly naked to her bedroom door. Now there was a sight she could stare at all day. He opened her bedroom door and paused, looking over his shoulder with a smirk when he caught her staring at his ass.
“See you after work, Sunshine.”
Then he left, closing the door behind him. Never before in her life had she wished a workday to be over so much. Her body vibrated with a mix of anticipation and anxiety. This thing with August was going to get tricky, but she just couldn’t help herself around him.
Hopefully, this wouldn’t come back to bite her in the ass.
Chapter Fourteen
“August, dear, could you grab the centerpiece for the bridal table from the van, please?”
August set down the box of vases holding the bridesmaids’ bouquets on a nearby table in the event hall and nodded to his grandmother. “Sure thing, Gran.”
He was helping his grandmother deliver a flower order to a wedding today. Normally, she had her part-time worker handle deliveries, but Chris had twisted his ankle in a mountain biking accident and couldn’t drive for the next few weeks, so the guy was back tending to the shop while August helped out with the deliveries. He didn’t mind. In fact, he liked doing this a whole lot better than sitting in the shop waiting for someone to buy something.
Service with a smile wasn’t really in August’s wheelhouse. He much preferred the business side: filling orders, handling accounts, and of course, the growing of the flowers themselves. Something he sorely missed since leaving the last flower farm he’d worked at to come to Denver and help his grandmother.
He looked around the large event hall filled with people running about putting cream-colored silk cloths over tables and tying ribbons on chairs. Most of them were event hall staff, identified by their crisp black pants and pressed white button-up shirts. He did spot a few women dressed in sweats with curlers in their hair all talking at once arguing about how the candles were supposed to be set up or something. Bridesmaids, he assumed.
He never understood why people made such a big deal over one day. They’d spend tons of money, going into debt sometimes, make this big fuss about minor details no one ever really cared about, and then half the time the marriage didn’t even last anyway. Call him a pessimist, but he just didn’t see the point. But since he knew his future business would rely heavily on large flower orders—like the one made for a wedding—he kept his mouth shut and his opinions to himself.
The van was parked in back of the building right outside the kitchen door, so August walked through the busy kitchen, moving swiftly and carefully so as not to get in the way of the staff busily prepping the wedding feast. He had no idea what the couple had picked for their meals, but something sure as hell smelled good. He should have had more than a protein shake this morning. Normally, that was all he needed, but the last few nights had drained him.
In the best of ways.
A small smile tugged at the corner of his lips every time he remembered the feel of Mo. Her smell, the cute little noises she made when he touched her in a way meant to drive her wild. And it had been wild. Every time. Surprising not only because the woman was dynamite in bed, but also because he’d thought once would be enough to purge her from his system.
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