“That asshole!” Terri bit out.
Lily’s face looked concerned. “Okay, so maybe now we need to talk about you and my brother.”
“She wants to seduce Tucker and marry him.”
I shot Terri a dirty look.
Closing her eyes, Lily fell back against the chair. “This is not going to turn out well.”
“What are you talking about, Lil? They both like each other, yet they are too stubborn to admit it. Hey, speaking of, the kiss this morning?”
My chest squeezed as I thought back to the moment we shared together. With a smile, I bit into my lower lip, still feeling it tingle.
“Holy shit, Charlie,” Lily whispered.
My eyes lifted to hers. “I have no desire to get married. My life has always been about CMI, drilled into my head that I needed to be married to that, not a man. So, when Terri mentioned Tucker and I saw his business degree last night, I got an idea.” I gave a small shrug, knowing this could go one of two ways. My best friends would think it was an amazing idea, or they would tell me I was insane.
“The only man I could ever imagine being married to is … Tucker. This morning I woke up in his bed naked. Which, by the way, thanks for helping me out last night, Terri. You totally broke the girl code on that one. Never leave a friend down like that!”
Lily sighed. “Can we please get back to you being at my brother’s house naked?”
I nodded. “Right. Well he was washing my clothes because I had thrown up on them. Anyway, he told me to put something of his on. I grabbed a T-shirt and then remembered how much it turned him on that weekend we were together when I wore his shirt. I thought maybe if I could win him back over … seduce him … we could start dating. And … and then … we could …”
“Get married,” Terri finished.
Chewing on my finger, I nodded. “Anyway, I’m such an idiot around Tucker, always have been. I walked into the kitchen and tried to put my sexy on, but damn it all to hell, he looked sexy standing there, and it threw me all off balance. Then he smiled at me, his dimples popping out, and the next thing I knew I was on the floor in pain, then on his island while he looked at my knees. And then … we kissed.”
“A small kiss?” Terri asked.
My cheeks heated. “No. Far from small. Big. Fire hot. Like, he was up all against me, and I swear, if that bitch hadn’t showed up we would have been …”
“Stop! Ewww, gross. Please, I already have a visual in my head, thank you very much.”
I chuckled.
“So why did he look so mad at you when I picked you up? I get why you were upset, you thought he had a girlfriend after he kissed you.”
Terri chuckled. “You mean after they were all up in each other’s business?”
Lily threw a dirty look Terri’s way. “Shut. Up.”
“He wanted to talk to me, but I was still reeling over what had happened and the thought that he had a girlfriend. I might have said something about regretting the kiss.”
Lily and Terri both sighed. “God, Charlie. Way to break the guy’s heart again,” Terri said as she got up and headed into my kitchen.
“What? I thought he had a girlfriend!” I fell back onto the sofa and stared up at the ceiling. “Ugh. This whole thing sucks. How in the hell am I going to seduce a man who probably hates me even more now? It took seven years to get him to even touch me again. I only have a few months to win him
over, get him to ask me to marry him, and show the board it’s a real relationship.”
Lily stood over me with a frown on her face. “Here’s an idea. Why don’t you tell Tucker the truth?”
I sat up and spun around to look at her. “The truth?”
“Yeah, Charlie. If you tell him what’s going on, maybe he’ll agree to it.”
Laughing, I looked between them. “Where have you both been the last seven years? If I told Tucker I needed him to pretend to be my boyfriend, then we had to get married and stay married for a least a year, he would laugh in my face. He’d probably enjoy watching my pain and suffering.”
Lily placed her hands on her hips. “Or … he would do it because deep down inside you’re both crazy about each other.”