Chapter 15 #2
“What?” Christine frowns until understanding dawns. “Oh, right! Honey, get the cake!”
David follows Christine’s instructions and returns from the kitchen with a vanilla cake that he sets on the coffee table. On top, messy icing spells out: You’re invited!
“You’re excited?” Killian’s brows furrow. “Excited about what?”
“It says invited.” Christine swats at him. No doubt she was the one who attempted to leave a message scrawled in icing on the cake.
“Invited?” Victoria’s nose scrunches. “Invited to what?”
“We’re going on a trip for our thirtieth anniversary!” Christine claps her hands together while David wraps an arm around her waist, both of them beaming at us. “Seven days in a cabin in the mountains! And you’re all invited, all-expenses paid!”
“All of us?” Victoria scans the room. “Even Aries? And Summer? We barely know her.”
Victoria studies me like she suspects me of moonlighting as a serial killer.
“Of course everyone!” Christine beams at me. “Summer is practically family now, and if you barely know her, then you two can get better acquainted on the trip.”
My gaze locks with Noah’s, who wears a smile that’s almost a grimace. We can’t go on a trip with his family. Not when I was planning to end our whole fake relationship schtick tonight after dinner. I really don’t want to keep putting on an act for his family, especially not for a week straight.
“Oh, I couldn’t impose.” I shake my head, mustering a grateful smile for Christine and David. They are so kind, and honestly, in any other circumstances, I’d probably accept their invitation just to hang out with them, even if Noah couldn’t go.
“I couldn’t either.” Aries’s rumbling voice chimes in, arms folded while he hovers awkwardly near the sofa. “That’s far too generous.”
Christine waves us off. “You can’t impose because we’re inviting you.” She grabs Aries’s arm and squeezes. “You’re all coming on the trip. No excuses. So ask for time off work and enjoy a free vacation.”
Her tone confirms that none of us are getting out of this. Even Victoria doesn’t bother objecting again. Carson doesn’t look at all thrilled, but an all-expenses-paid vacation to the mountains, away from the stressors of everyday life, sounds like heaven to me.
“That’s so generous of you both. Thank you so much.” I stand and clear my throat. “If you’ll just excuse me for a moment, I’m going to grab some water.”
Before Christine can send David to get the water for me, I scurry to the kitchen, brain buzzing.
I fire off a text to Hazel.
Summer
I may have just agreed to go on vacation with him and his family.
I search through the cupboards, and before I can find the glasses, Noah steps into the room. I jump.
“You don’t have to go on the trip.” He grabs a glass from a cupboard and fills it with water from the fridge before holding it out to me.
“My parents put you on the spot. You haven’t known any of us for long, so if you’re not comfortable with it, I’ll come up with an excuse later to get you out of it. ”
I pour half the glass of water down my throat before setting it on the counter and shaking my head. “I want to go.”
“Really?” His face lights up, and it’s now I realize that I would do anything to make this man happy. To make him look at me like this every day.
“A whole week with you?” I close the distance between us, grinning up at him. The memory of his mouth on mine a mere hour ago makes my lips tingle. “Sign me up.”
An unusual seriousness morphs Noah’s features, smile slipping away as a new intensity burns in his gaze. As he studies my lips. “Summer—”
For the second time tonight, I launch myself at him. My lips collide with his, and he’s holding me to him in an instant, his mouth opening to let me in.
I meant every single word of those texts I sent him. If he does everything I want him to, everything he claimed he would, I’ll fall for him. I might already be falling.
My hands fist in Noah’s hair, so impossibly soft, and his huge, steady palms graze down my back until they stop just above the curve of my ass. I want to feel him everywhere. I want all of him. Now.
None of this is fake anymore. Maybe it never has been.
A startled yelp breaks our kiss and sends us leaping apart.
Killian shields his eyes with his arm like the sight of us is lava to his retinas. “Wow! Okay, I assumed you two were sexually active, but I didn’t need a demonstration!”
“Everyone’s clothes are still on, Killian,” Noah grumbles and straightens his shirt, warmth coloring his cheeks.
Despite the slight blush, his eyes don’t contain a hint of embarrassment or shame. In fact, that sultry slant to his lids tells me that once he gets me alone again, he’ll have me screaming his name so loudly, I won’t be able to speak the next day.
“So? That doesn’t mean shit,” Killian objects. “You know how many times I’ve had sex while fully clothed?”
“Once.”
“Exactly. So I know it can be done, and I didn’t need to see my brother doing it.”
Noah rolls his eyes, but an amused smile plays at his lips as he tugs me close by the hip. His warmth wraps around me, and I’m exactly where I want to be. I belong here. In his arms. “You saw your brother kissing his girlfriend. Nothing more.”
I’m starting to love the easy way Noah refers to me as his girlfriend. The label feels more comfortable than the old sweats I slip into when I’m drawing.
But what if he doesn’t feel the same way?
Noah doesn’t want to be with his ex, that much is clear.
But that was also an incredibly unhealthy relationship that he hasn’t had much time to heal from.
What if he’s not ready for something serious again?
What if this is nothing more than physical to him? A fun way to rebound?
He hasn’t asked to end the fake relationship charade. He’s never said he wants more. Maybe I’m the only one who does.
Insanely, I’m more afraid of that possibility than I was when I first discovered I had a stalker.
Killian groans and rubs his eyes. “I need to find a way to erase that from my memory.” He leans out of the doorway to shout to the rest of his family. “Who here knows how to perform a lobotomy?”