Mister Fake Fiance

Erin

I squirm around. My brain says it’s time to get up. My body says I should stay in bed. It’s warm and soft and…hard?

Confused, I blink and see David’s deliciously chiseled chest. Now, that’s a sight a girl could get used to waking up to.

“Good morning. You still look sleepy and tired,” David says.

“I am. A little.” I snuggle against him with a small yawn.

“Wanna call in sick?” Amusement lightens his tone. “‘Hey, boss, I don’t feel so good,’” he says in a terrible falsetto. Then he uses his normal voice “‘Well, sure, then. You go ahead and stay home. Get some sleep. Recover from last night.’”

Laughing, I gently slap his shoulder. “Yeah, that’ll go over great with HR.”

“I’ll put down something else. Like how you’re overworked. Nobody needs to know the nature of the, uh, work.”

“Just stop. I’m not going to skip work because of sex, no matter how many times we did it. Everyone goes to work after having sex.”

“Yeah, but see, the thing is? I don’t want to go in, either. I want to screw around with you all day,” David says, burying his face in the crook of my neck. His breath tickles.

My toes curl in response. “You’re a terrible temptation, Mr. Darling, but I’m afraid we have to get up. Besides, don’t you think it’ll look weird if both of us miss work?” I try to sound stern and serious, but I end up sounding weak and needy instead.

“The people at the company are smart. They know what’s going on.” He kisses my neck. “They’ll understand that I’m helplessly enslaved to your gorgeous body.”

Oh God. That tingling sensation’s spreading over me again. “Are you trying to score a morning quickie?” I ask breathlessly.

“Mm-hmm.” He licks the spot he kissed. “Is it working?”

“Yeah, if you make it fast so we aren’t late.”

“Deal,” he mumbles.

And he does make it quick, but no less pleasurable.

I close my eyes, my breath ragged. Now I’m really wrung out and want to nap. Does it count as a nap if it’s early morning…?

He kisses the tip of my nose. “Come on, sleepyhead. Have to get up if you don’t want to be late.”

“I’m too tired,” I complain, my eyes half-closed.

“Okay. Just don’t blame me if we’re late…”

“We?”

“Well, I’m not going in without you. When people say, ‘Hey, David, you’re late,’ I’ll say, ‘Yeah, my fiancée kept me in bed all morning. What can a man do?’”

I gasp, horrified and amused at the same time. “You would not.”

“Oh, hell yeah, I would. I have always wanted to say that.”

“Beast.” I add a mock glower, then ruin the effect by smiling at the end. I get up and make my way to the shower.

Regardless of David’s antics, we can’t miss work. There are meetings scheduled, some with the team in Virginia. Rescheduling would be incredibly annoying and troublesome for everyone involved. Unless David and I are down with the flu or worse, I’m not going to let him miss them.

As the hot water relaxes my muscles, I sigh. So this is what a normal relationship is like. It’s fun. I love that we can laugh with each other and nothing’s awkward, even after sex. In my experience, things always get weird after physical intimacy. It got so that I put myself on guard, as though I couldn’t let the guy in beyond a certain point.

But David just…slipped through my emotional defenses. And none of my internal alarms are going off. It’s like he’s simply claiming the spot that’s always been meant for him.

It feels right.