by Sara Desai
“Are we engaged or just friends?” Daisy asked.
“They know Brendan, so being engaged might help our case.”
“Long time, dude.” Marco slapped Liam’s hand and he made the introductions.
“This is Daisy Patel, my fiancée.”
“You? Engaged?” Marco snorted. “To her? Get out of here. Who is she really? A client?”
The skin on the back of Liam’s neck prickled in warning. He needed to get Daisy out of there before this went very, very wrong. His shoved a hand in his pocket, feeling for his knife. Not that he needed a weapon, but he needed something to calm him down.
“She’s really my fiancée,” Liam said, struggling to stay calm. Except for his eyes, he didn’t look like his father’s side of the family, but he had inherited their Irish temper. “We met eight months ago, and when you know, you know.”
“Seriously? Weren’t you with that model eight months ago?” Marco frowned. “The one with the legs and the big boobs? Emma? Or Ella? She invited us to that hot tub party on the top of that hotel.”
“The hot tub girl was the one before the one with the legs, and after the one with the boobs,” Dan snorted, weaving slightly on his feet. “And I think he had a couple of models in between from the modeling agency start-up that he was considering adding to his portfolio.”
“I told you we should have invested in that one,” Marco said, making no effort to keep his voice down. “He was swimming in tits and ass.” He looked over at Daisy. “Pardon my French.”
Daisy gave him a cold smile. “Quel salaud!”
Liam didn’t speak French, but from the look on Daisy’s face he suspected what she’d said wasn’t polite.
“So who is she really?” Dan gave him a nudge, keeping his voice low. “I mean, come on, man. You and her?”
“I’m his parole officer.” Daisy grabbed Liam’s arm and tugged him in the opposite direction. “He’s on an escorted day pass. Move aside because I have to have him back in his cell by eleven P.M.”
Dan’s eyes widened. “No shit? What did he do?”
“He swam in the wrong hot tub.” Daisy fixed Dan with a glare. “Next time, check their ID.”
• 22 •
“I’M sorry.”
“I know.” Daisy bit back a sigh. Liam had apologized ten times since their encounter with his friends. Next, he’d try to explain. Again.
“I should have turned the other way, but they’d seen us and . . .”
Daisy turned to Liam as they pulled into her driveway. “If you say it one more time I’m going to slap you.”
“I’m not proud of that time in my life.” He turned off the car and they sat in the dark, staring at the blue garage door that had needed a new coat of paint for the last ten years.
“Apparently that time in your life was only eight months ago, which poses a problem since that’s when our fake relationship was supposed to have started.” Daisy sent a quick text to her neighbor to let her know she was on her way to pick up Max.
“If you hadn’t pulled me away, I would have decked them for insulting you.” His hands tightened around the steering wheel.
“Insulting me?” She raised an eyebrow. “They were insulting you. Of course someone like you wouldn’t be with a beautiful, sexy, curvy, brainiac goddess like myself. How many science fairs did you win in high school? How many math competitions? How many tech companies were beating down your door when you graduated from college with the gold medal? Did you know that the longest English word is 189,819 letters long? Or that the French word for bastard is salaud?”
His lips quivered at the corners. “I knew what you said wasn’t polite.”
“Not in the least.” Daisy chuckled. Liam was much more distraught than she was, but then he’d never been a high school nerd, never been mocked for everything from her intelligence to her clothes. “But they deserved it. Seriously. Who talks like that in front of someone’s fiancée? I’m no victim, Liam. I didn’t need protecting.”
His mouth tightened in a straight line, and he grumbled. “You could have thought of something other than parole officer.”
“Are you sulking now?” Her voice rose in pitch. “Because I quickly and elegantly extracted us from an untenable situation? You should be kissing my feet in gratitude.”
“You could have been my private jet pilot,” he muttered. “Or my personal banker. Now they’re going to think I’m incarcerated.”
Daisy laughed. “Then it will be a big shock when they see you in a few weeks in your outdoor hot tub draped in glamor models and partying like there’s no tomorrow.”
“That’s not who I am,” Liam said. “It’s part of the job, but I don’t enjoy it.”
“Says every man who goes to a strip club.” She folded her arms over her chest. “I’m not upset, Liam. I developed a thick skin in high school. But they raised a good point. Maybe we’re just not believable as a couple. And if that’s the case, we might as well stop this charade. How do you explain going from the type of women you dated before to me? How do I explain going from Orson to you?”
“You developed taste.” He preened in the rearview mirror.
She laughed. “And you lost it?”
“I found perfection.”
He sounded so serious, she almost believed him. Wanted to believe him. “Always the funny guy. What are we going to do? They didn’t believe it. Brendan didn’t believe it. Even your aunt said no one believed you the first time you said you were engaged. Will our fake dates be enough to convince everyone this is real? And more importantly, what about my dad? All he’s known is that I’ve hated you for the last ten years. Will we be able to convince him, too?”
“Do you still hate me?” he asked quietly.
She didn’t have to think about her answer. “No. I haven’t completely forgiven you, but I don’t hate you anymore. I’ve enjoyed our little charade.”
“Good to know.”
She looked over at him, his hands clenched on the steering wheel, face distant and forlorn. She couldn’t send him home to brood. “Do you want to come in and meet Max? Mehar Auntie dropped him off with my neighbor because she was going out for dinner.”
Liam sighed. “What if he doesn’t like me? You said it would all be over.”
“I think he will like you.”
“Hmm.” He unbuckled his seat belt, his face brightening. “I am very likable.”
“You are.”
“And I probably should meet him since you are my fake fiancée and he’s very important in your life,” he continued, his mouth serious but his tone light. “What if he has unusual markings or a strange bark and I get asked questions about him and get them wrong?”
Heat radiated through her chest at the return of his good humor. “It would be terrible. People would know our relationship was a sham, and all this time we’ve put into setting it up would have gone to waste.”
Liam nodded, his eyes sparkling. “I suppose I should meet him if you think it’s important for our fake relationship.”
“I do.”
He reached behind his seat and pulled out a plastic bag with the name of a popular pet store on the front. “Good thing I came prepared.”
Daisy didn’t know whether to be amused or indignant as he showed her all the dog toys he’d bought for Max. “How did you know I would invite you in?”
“I didn’t know.” He flashed her a lopsided grin. “I hoped.”
Daisy unlocked the front door for him before going to collect Max. Her elderly neighbor stayed up late and was always happy to have a little company.
Max was back to his old self, wriggling happily in her arms and covering her with licks and kisses as she walked back to the house.
Liam was seated on the living room floor when she walked in, the new toys spread around him. “I washed them all.” He held out his han
d when she put a curious Max on the floor. “I wanted to be sure he was safely bribed.”
Max walked over and sniffed Liam’s hand, his tail wagging. He gave a happy bark and let Liam give him a rub before turning his attention to his new toys.
“You spoiled him.” Daisy crouched down beside Liam when Max brought her a KONG to inspect. “Now he’s going to expect toys from every stranger who comes into the house.”
“I’m not a stranger.” Liam pulled her onto his lap. “You’ve known me for a very long time.”
“I’m beginning to realize that I knew you and didn’t know you at the same time.” She cupped his jaw, rough with a five-o’clock shadow. “You had a whole life outside of this house that I didn’t know much about, except for the year we were in school together when you were either in the principal’s office or making out with one of the senior girls in the hallways.”
“That’s because I couldn’t make out with you.” He nuzzled her neck, his breath warm on her skin. Max dropped his KONG and jumped on her lap to see what was going on. Daisy gave him a reassuring pat and he went back to inspecting his new toys.
“I would have been thrilled if you had made out with me,” she said. “That’s all I thought about.”
“You were Sanjay’s little sister. There was a bro code I couldn’t break, and I couldn’t get my head around the fact that you were suddenly not a little girl. I had to ask him if I could take you to the prom, and even then he threatened me with all sorts of violence if I did anything more than hold your hand.”
“That doesn’t sound like Sanjay.” She nuzzled his neck, breathing in the scent of him. “He barely knew I existed.”
“He had his own issues, but don’t think he didn’t care about you.”
She sat up so she could study his face. “What happened on prom night, Liam? You said you would tell me.”
He leaned back against the wall, and pulled her against him, her back to his chest, his arms around her waist, his breath warm on her hair. “My mother gave me the money to buy a tux,” he said softly. “I had every intention of taking you. I was looking forward to it.”
“Me, too.” She watched Max carry his new toys to his basket, one by one, as if he were afraid someone was going to take them away if he didn’t have them near.
“I didn’t have a car, and I couldn’t carry the tux on my motorcycle, so a friend offered to take me to pick it up,” Liam continued, his voice growing fainter. “He showed up in a car that I knew wasn’t his, but he told me had permission to drive it. We got the tux, and on the way home, he decided to see how fast it could go. He lost control of the car and it hit a lamppost.”
Daisy gasped, looked up, but his gaze was far away. “Were you hurt?”
“The airbags saved us, although our faces were pretty banged up. By the time the police got there, we were already out of the car to check the damage. I didn’t realize that my friend was high when he picked me up. He told me right after the crash, but before that nothing about his behavior made me think he’d been using. Even the police didn’t suspect anything, but then they ran the plate and discovered the car was stolen.” His hands tightened around her and she covered them with her own. “He was a good guy, a great friend.” His voice thickened. “He didn’t deserve to lose everything because of one mistake. He’d done so much for me over the years, I couldn’t let him throw his life away.”
“Oh, Liam . . .” Knowing what he was going to say, she looked up again, saw his pulse throb in the hollow at the base of his neck.
“Drugs, plus a stolen car . . . it would have been the end of the career that he’d been dreaming about all his life.” He let out a ragged breath. “So I told the police I’d been driving. They took me to the station and threw me in jail. I needed my one phone call for a lawyer, or I would have called you.”
“All these years I thought you didn’t care.” Her voice wavered with guilt at the memory of all her unkind thoughts. “You were just being a good friend. I hope he knew how lucky he was.”
His voice hitched and he shuddered beneath her. “He’s the one who sold his car to bail me out two days later. The owner of the stolen vehicle was someone he knew and he convinced the dude not to press charges. I got off without a record. He even gave me back the tux. But I couldn’t come and see you.”
“I would have understood, Liam. Dad and Sanjay, too. You made an incredible sacrifice to save a friend. No one could fault you for that.”
He dropped his forehead to her hair, squeezing her so tight she almost lost her breath. “I felt sick at the thought that I’d hurt you, and I was ashamed I’d been in jail. You were smart, beautiful, and ambitious and you had your whole life ahead of you—an incredible future with an amazing career and a partner who could give you the world. And I was everything my dad had said I was. No direction. No motivation. No prospects. That night I got a taste of my future, and I didn’t want you in it. I didn’t want to drag you down. I thought it was better if I left with you hating me than if I came to say goodbye.”
Tears welled up in her eyes as she relived the emotions of that night, knowing now that he was nothing like her mother, that he’d left because he’d thought he wasn’t good enough and not because she wasn’t good enough for him.
Turning in his arms, forcing him to release her, she pulled his head up, framing his face with her hands. “Thank you for telling me. It doesn’t take that pain away, but it makes all the difference now that I understand.”
Sensing her emotional distress, Max squeezed in between them, tail wagging, up on his hind legs, pawing at her shirt with his forelegs, trying to lick her tears away.
Liam gave him a rub. “I wish I’d had a Max back then.”
“He’s the best.” She gave Max a reassuring cuddle and reached for one of his new toys. “He also won’t leave us alone now. Emotional Daisy usually gives him a lot of attention.”
“We could . . .” He jerked his head toward the stairwell. “Go upstairs.”
“Hmmm.” She pressed a soft kiss to his lips. “I was planning to seduce you here, but it might be easier without Max watching.”
He smiled, and the last of the shadows that had darkened his face slid away. “I am delighted to be seduced anywhere by you.”
Daisy took Max to his basket in the kitchen with all his new toys and gave him a good-night cuddle. Liam was waiting at the top of the stairs when she was done. He dragged her against him and captured her mouth, devoured it, holding her so close she could feel his heart pound.
Sliding her arms around his neck, she walked him backward, reveling in the feeling of being in control. “Prepare yourself. Nothing has changed in my bedroom since I was a teenager.”
He slid one hand down to squeeze her ass. “I don’t plan on spending a lot of time looking at the décor.”
“The rules still apply,” she said. “One time. No obligations. No feelings. No expectations. No sleeping over. This is my make-up-for-prom fantasy. It’s all I want.”
Disappointment flickered across his face so fast, she wondered if she’d seen it. “I’ll take you any way I can get you.” He gave her a slow, sensual smile. “But I promise, one night with me won’t be enough.”
“We’ll see about that.” Once in her bedroom, she backed him up to her bed. Daisy had never had a man in her room before. It was her sanctuary, the one place she could truly be herself. Over the years, she’d traded the princess décor for shabby chic, but the white country-style furniture remained the same.
“What do you think?” she asked.
“I like the contrast of Avengers posters on pink walls.” He nodded at the bed. “And the pink cover is very . . . girlie.”
Daisy laughed. “I’ve never been able to bring myself to change it. My mother decorated it for me before she left. I didn’t realize it was because she was planning to say goodbye. I kept it the same way hoping she’d come back.
And when she did, she wasn’t even interested in seeing it. I should have redecorated it then, but I couldn’t be bothered.”
“Time for a change.” Liam sat on the edge of her bed. “Wipe the slate clean.”
“I’ve never seduced a man before.” She closed the door in case a curious Max came looking for her. “How am I doing?”
Liam gestured her forward, then pulled her into a straddle over his lap. “You’ve got me on the bed. I’d say you are ninety-eight percent there.”
“I want to see you.” She tugged on his Sharks jersey, and he obliged her by pulling it over his head.
Daisy licked her lips as she took in the hard planes and angles of his broad chest, the ripples of his six-pack and the narrow trail of hair leading below his belt.
“Sweetheart . . .” His voice dropped to a husky growl. “If you keep looking at me like that, you won’t have to seduce me. All you’ll have to do is take off your clothes.”
Daisy lifted an eyebrow. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you.”
“Very much.”
She ran her hands possessively over his chest. “You’ll have to wait. I’m enjoying my prom fantasy.”
“You might enjoy it more if you took off my jeans.”
“Don’t make me laugh. I’m trying to concentrate.” She leaned forward and nuzzled his jaw.
“You want serious sex?” He reached for her shirt, but she gently knocked his hands away.
“No touching.”
Liam groaned. “You’re killing me.”
“I know.” She pulled the shirt over her head and grinned when his eyes widened.
“I see I have some competition.” He studied her black bra with the Hulk’s face printed on each cup. “Is that a challenge? Because not even the Hulk is going to stop me now that I have you on the bed.”
“The Hulk is pretty strong,” she teased.
“I’ve got something he doesn’t have.”
“What’s that?”
He moved quickly, grabbing her around the waist and tumbling with her back onto the bed. “You.”