Four Day Fling

Yeah. Well. If only being sweaty made him look a lot less worse, because from where I stood, sweaty or not, he was hot as hell with his tight abs and rippled muscles.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s not like I haven’t seen it before.”

Adam glanced up from the menu to shoot me a sexy half-grin. “True. Are you hungry?”

Actually, I was.

I nodded.

“Do you mind ordering while I take a shower?”

“No,” I said. “I don’t mind. What do you want?”

“I’ll have the bacon cheeseburger with a Pepsi,” he replied, handing me the menu. “Give me fifteen minutes.”

I took the menu, nodding and smiling. He disappeared into the bathroom, and I blew out a long breath.

Well, that hadn’t been too awkward. Except for that second where he ripped his shirt off.

I scanned the menu, quickly deciding that the bacon cheeseburger and Pepsi sounded perfect and called through to room service to place the order. The sound of the shower running filled the room, and I dropped onto the sofa with my water. I picked up my phone and texted Rosie that Adam was here, so she could stop freaking out, and sighed.

First things first: when Adam got out of the shower, we needed to figure out the things my mother was going to ask. If we were going to pass him off as my boyfriend, the very basics needed to be nailed down before it could go horribly wrong.

My mother was like a bloodhound. She could sniff out the tiniest lie if you didn’t cover your tracks adequately enough.

The shower stopped running, and I tapped my fingers against the soft material that covered the sofa cushion next to me. How did I bring it up? Did I just go straight to the point, or mention it gently?

“So,” came Adam’s voice. “Have you given any thought about how we convince your family we have a real relationship?”

I turned my head, then froze.

Uhhh.

He was standing in the doorway. Tall. Tanned. Muscular. And wet.

Very, very wet.

His dark hair hung over his forehead, dripping water onto his shoulders where the droplets trailed over his chest. I saw one even trickle right over his abs and into the fluffy white towel he had secured at his waist.

“Red? You listening?”

I jerked my attention from his waist back up to his face. His lips were twisted in a knowing smile, and he wiped his face with another towel.

“I’m listening,” I said. “You asked how we’re going to convince my family this weekend isn’t a ruse.”

“Oh, good. You retained the information. I thought it might have gotten lost somewhere between my shoulders and my cock.”

I glared at him. “I’m regretting this already.”

“Don’t. I’ll remind you later why this is a very good idea.” He winked. “Well? Do you have any ideas?”

“Yes, but, honestly? Please put on some pants. If the person who brings our dinner is a woman, you’ll have her fainting in the hall.”

He stared at me for a second, then burst into laughter and turned back to the room. He emerged again two minutes later, this time wearing light gray sweatpants.

“All right,” he said, sitting with me on the sofa. “What’s the plan?”

“For you to wear more clothes so I stop getting distracted,” I muttered, ignoring his quiet snort. “I think we need to agree on the most basic things: where we met, when we met, and how serious the stage of our relationship is.”

Adam nodded and scratched his jaw. “Well, I vote we stick to the truth where possible. We met in a bar, so let’s actually use that.”

“I agree. But when?”

“Let’s say a few months ago. That’s vague enough to make our relationship serious enough that you’d bring me to a wedding, but not necessarily needed to bring me up in conversation with your family.”

“You’re good at this. Have you done it before?”

“No. Believe it or not, I’m not in the habit of accompanying random, hot women to family weddings.”

I blushed at him referring to me as “hot.” Damn it. He was charming. “Okay, so, we met in a bar a few months ago and just recently stepped toward being more serious. How does that sound?”

He nodded. “I think that’s good. We should be able to deflect any others. The key is to not be split up, and if we are, find each other to fill any gaps. Agreed?”

I took a mouthful of water and returned his nod. “Agreed. Failing that, we pay someone to cause a distraction so we can run away.”

His grin made his eyes sparkle. “I saw those heels in the bedroom. Do you think you’ll be able to run in them?”

Shit. “Absolutely fucking not.”

“Don’t worry, Red. I got you. I’ll throw you over my shoulder and we’ll run into the sunset.”

He looked so damn serious I couldn’t help but laugh. Of course, that made him break the serious persona he had on, and he laughed, too. “No, but seriously, if you can’t run, I’ll handle it.”