Chapter 9
CHAPTER NINE
FINN
“I’m too excited; I don’t want to go home yet,” Melanie says, leaning into my side. “Can I take you all to lunch?”
More time with Curtis? Sold.
“Only if you’re paying.” Now the appointment is over, it’s safe to ruffle up her hair.
At least, that’s what I think until I’m hit with a very pointy elbow in the ribs. “You’re so annoying.”
“That hurt,” I whine, rubbing the sore spot.
“I’m sure you’ll survive it.” Then she makes her lunch motive extra clear. “Curtis, will you come too?”
He glances up from his phone and hurriedly tucks it away. “Yeah, I’m starving.”
My brain turns those words dirty, and I warn the skip in my gut to cool it.
I can’t even blame the champagne since I only got to have one.
Curtis is just sexy. He’s the type of guy who radiates a natural confidence, like he’s completely comfortable in his skin, and that’s without taking the porn into account.
That’s just him.
And I’m comfortable in my skin too, but the issue is that I don’t know how to operate my meat suit correctly. It’s beyond my control sometimes, which gets me into some awkward situations. The situations are awkward. Not me.
So I blame this situation when I say, “You should come on me.” My eyes shoot wide as my brain catches up with my mouth. “With. With me. Come with me. In my car. With both of the moms there and everything being taken in the complete PG way.”
Melanie bursts into laughter, Mom’s looking at me like she wants me to stop talking, and Beth has turned away slightly like she’s trying to politely hold in her amusement.
A long sigh seeps out of me. “So that just happened.” At least my voice sounds normal and not at all like it’s trying to choke me from the inside out.
My face feels like it’s on goddamn fire, but there’s nothing else I can do but stand here and meet Curtis’s eyes and try not to crumble under the sly look he’s giving me.
“I’d love to come with you.”
Even with all the PG-assurance, my brain immediately turns that R-rated.
“Wonderful.” I have to push the word out through my teeth as I turn and leave them to hurry after me.
It’s not until the moms climb into the back seat and I close Mom’s door while Curtis closes Beth’s that he looks at me over the top of Melanie’s car.
“Come with you in your car? I think you might be too tall for those logistics.”
“That was a Freudian slip. That’s it.”
“Word of advice: next time you proposition me, try not to mention our moms. It’s a mood killer.”
“I wasn’t—” He’s teasing. Only teasing. The fastest way to get through this is to meet him at his game. “I thought that was off the table?”
“I thought it was too.” He gives me a pointed look. “Then you offered for me to come on you. So stop being so goddamn tempting.”
He gets the final word because I’ve forgotten what words are, and he climbs into the car before I remember. I don’t think I’ve ever, ever been called tempting in my life. The things I usually am are late, ridiculous, and—on one occasion—a goddamn cum dump.
Tempting though?
I think my head grows bigger at that. For the first time when it comes to Curtis slash Gunner, I actually mean the one on my shoulders.
I’m still staring at his vacant spot across the top of the car when my phone vibrates again. I’ve ignored it most of the dress fitting, but this time, I pull it out and—fuck. I ignore all the winky-face emojis Melanie has sent because the other one waiting has my full attention.
Gunner?
I’m in a spiral of holy shit he knows when I open the message and have to read it through twice.
Okay, he’s checking in. Nice, friendly, exactly the type of thing I’d expect from Curtis, except he’s a super-popular porn star and he’s texting me like it’s a totally normal everyday thing to do.
Been thinking about you.
Okay. Wow.
I shove my phone away without replying because I can’t do that with him sitting right there. Gunner is not Curtis. Curtis is not Gunner. For me to get through spending time with him, I need to make that definition very fucking clear.
Pretending to be calm is a whole lot easier than I thought it would be when I climb into the car and get moving.
Thankfully, Melanie was able to drop David at work today and use his car so I’m not getting in the way with borrowing hers.
Tetrising our schedules hasn’t been easy, but she’s still pulling a few remote hours with her old firm while she gets things settled here, which has helped with logistics.
The restaurant we agreed to meet at is fifteen minutes away, in the middle of the city, and it takes two laps of the parking lot to find a space.
The whole time, I’m overly aware of Curtis sitting in the passenger seat, adjusting the radio volume every now and then, bringing that forearm tattoo into my peripheral vision.
I’m way too ready to climb from the car by the time I kill the engine, but I’m so distracted that I’m the last one out. Tilly and Beth walk ahead together, while Curtis falls into step beside me.
“Are you okay, or was that crossing a line back there?”
“Line?”
“The jokes about not being able to hook up or the ones pushing the lines of friendship. Both at bowling, and just now, when it happened, you kind of shut down. Do we need to set boundaries, or are you always this … jittery?”
The irresistible urge to flirt is not why I’m so jittery, but I can’t exactly tell him it’s because I know who his alter ego is, so I might as well be honest while omitting the whole truth. “Only around hot guys.”
His smile stretches like he’s pleased with himself. “You think I’m hot.”
“I have made that abundantly clear.”
“Decided to move back to Chicago yet?”
If it meant having one night with Curtis as Gunner without fucking anything up, I would jump at the chance.
Knowing doing that could affect Melanie’s happiness?
“Not happening.” I force confidence that doesn’t come naturally to me.
“You’ll just have to deal with my temptation.
” Damn, those words sounded way cooler in my head.
Now I sound like some ’60s bodice-ripper diva.
And yes, I used to squirrel away plenty of Mom’s books to know.
Curtis, being the cool guy that he is, doesn’t draw attention to it. “Or maybe we need to confide some non-sexy secrets to each other.”
“What?”
“You know, like things we’ve done that seriously diminish our sex appeal.”
I wave a hand over myself. “Sorry to say that if this hasn’t done the trick, I don’t know what will.”
“Yes, of course,” he says dryly. “The six-and-a-half-foot sweetheart cutie is a total mood killer. How did I miss that?”
I refuse to blush over that, even though my cheeks are putting up a fight. “Fine. I once got stuck in an airplane seat.”
“You … I’m going to need this one explained to me.”
“Normally, I book the aisle seat so I can stretch my legs out. This girl I was next to was having a panic attack, so I switched places with her to give her more room. Anyway, between my size and my bag at my feet and one of my legs going numb, I had to wait for everyone else to get off before I could pretzel my way out of there.”
Curtis pauses to plant his hands on his hips. “I don’t think you understand the point of this game.”
“What?” Did he not hear a word I said? “I got stuck on a plane.”
“No, you very kindly gave up your seat, knowing you’d be uncomfortable just for someone else to feel better.” He shakes his head like he’s disappointed in me. “At this point, I’m beginning to think you want me to be attracted to you.”
I don’t not want that.
To stop from rolling my eyes at him, I open the front door and gesture for him to go first.
His eyes widen. “And now you’re being a gentleman. Finn, you have got to get on board with this game plan.”
I release the door and throw my hands up. “Do you want me to be an asshole to you?”
“No, because I can’t guarantee that won’t be a turn-on as well.
Come on, dig deep. Like the time I had spinach stuck between my front teeth and met up with a client who didn’t bother to tell me.
It must have been there for hours, and I was walking around, smiling at people, feeling like a ten with a big chunk of leaf between my teeth. ”
I promise myself I won’t laugh, but a small one sneaks out. “Dammit.”
“What?”
“That might have worked a little bit.” I open the door again, and this time, Curtis accepts the gesture with an exasperated expression but no complaints.
“Now you think of something,” he says as we wind our way toward the table. “I want yours before the end of lunch.”
Surely with my lifetime of experience, I can think of something. Hell, with Melanie here, I’m sure she could have a list for us before we’re done eating. If it wasn’t for her actually wanting us to be attracted to each other.
I hate to say it, but she knows me well. Curtis is gorgeous, which is always nice, but beyond that, there’s a lot to like as well. His confidence, his sense of humor, the way he cares about Beth and shows up for David.
His story did absolutely nothing to dull my interest, but I’ll let him think it worked.
Now I have to think of something. Except I really don’t want to.
I know we can’t sleep together, but the confidence boost I get from someone like him being attracted to me? Hello, GQ Man of the Year? I’d like to apply.
“Beth said you got a work call?” Melanie says as soon as we sit down.
I throw Beth a teasing, disappointed look. “Way to give away all of my secrets.”
“I didn’t know it was a secret.”
“Everything with me is a secret. I’m a man of mystery. You’ll figure it out soon enough.”
Mom gives me a flat look over her water glass. “You’ve never been able to keep a secret in your life.” She glances at Beth. “Finn was the child who’d sneak a sweet from the pantry and come to you hours later because the guilt was eating at him.”
“And …” Melanie starts, and I throw a glare her way because her adding to a story about me is never a good thing. “He used to tattle on me when I’d sneak things completely guilt-free.”
“I’m sorry that I didn’t want you to grow up to be a sociopath.” What would they all say if they knew the very large secret I’m currently keeping?
The waiter comes by to take our orders, and as soon as everyone’s attention is on him, Curtis leans in closer. “You need to hurry up and turn me off you because if they keep up these cute stories, I might just have to maul you under the table.”
Heat washes over me, because not only does knowing he wants me turn me the fuck on, but he’s also using his Gunner voice.
Can’t he at least try to take it easy on me?
“The wedding!” I burst out as soon as the waiter is gone. “Tell us more about the wedding.”
My distraction works, and there are no more tales from Finn’s childhood. Bummer, because I’d like some mauling, if I’m honest, but while I might be a horny animal with Curtis around, I also completely agree that hooking up would be bad.
The sex itself would be good, great even, but the complications would be very, very bad.
Food comes while Mel talks about flowers and theme and venue, all of which need to be booked now, even though they’re not looking at getting hitched until next summer, and I’m halfway through my dish when I eye the side salad. The green, leafy salad.
I have an idea to help him with his game, but …
There’s no way …
I can’t …
Urg. I have to if I’m serious about not hooking up with him.
With resigned determination, I pluck up a spinach leaf while Melanie is still talking and wiggle it between my two front teeth. If this doesn’t turn Curtis off, nothing will.
Curtis is taking a sip of his drink when I lean closer and murmur, “I think I’ve found my thing.”
He does a double take at my broad grin and then chokes so hard water shoots from his nose.
Did that just fucking happen?
I sit there frozen as Curtis hacks his way through a coughing fit. One that I caused. I shake off the numbness to thump him on the back, but it takes an uncomfortably long moment for him to catch his breath and swipe the tears from his cheeks.
“You can stop hitting me now,” he manages.
I jerk my hand away.
Then he throws me a look. “Well, now you owe me a second thing since this …” He gestures to the water spots on the tablecloth. “… is apparently mine.”
Yeah, my timing probably could have been better.
“Umm, Finn?” Melanie says, breaking through my shock. “You’ve got something in your teeth.” She points to hers. “Just there.”
I tug the stupid spinach out and toss it back on my plate.
Maybe lunch was a terrible idea after all.