Strip Search (Tap That)

The alien thought crept in with such randomness and authority Axl jumped back up off the bench.

He didn’t know Leighton. This was a fake engagement. And he was never getting married. “Are you ready?” he asked her.

She shot him a startled look but nodded. “Yes.”

She and Bill chatted, wrapping up their conversation and Leighton getting Bill’s phone number so she could keep him abreast of the plans. Axl stepped out onto the back deck, needing air. He suddenly felt like he was being choked by flowers. Maybe like she had in the bakery. It was too much, crashing in on him. He’d spent the last few years convinced that he wasn’t cut out for marriage and being totally cool with that and now without warning, he wasn’t so sure anymore. He could see how fulfilling and enriching being married to a woman like Leighton could be, and it made him uneasy.

“Are you okay?” she asked him, putting her hand on his elbow.

He glanced down at her, not wanting her to read anything in his expression. He wasn’t even sure how to process what he was feeling and he had no words to share that with her. “Yep. Totally fine. Let’s go and give Bill his peace and quiet.”

Without waiting for her, he took the outside path, not wanting to walk through Soon-ja’s greenhouse again.

For the first time since he had come home from the service he regretted the solitary life he had forged for himself.

Because he was picturing a house on the lake with a garden for Leighton and a whole lot of time spent in bed together or out on his boat.

Which was insane because of all the women in Beaver Bend, he had to go and picture a future with a chick from LA who was faking her relationship with him?

It was stupid.

Leighton was on her phone the whole drive back to his place. She was doing wedding shit. That wasn’t the way she had put it, but it was how he thought of it. It sounded complicated. Lots of details, with flowers being flown in from California overnight and centerpieces from somewhere else. Lots of champagne. The whole thing sounded sadly lacking in beer but that was okay. He wasn’t going to drink when he had a wedding night to look forward to, and when it might be his last time to see her gorgeous naked body.

She glanced up when he pulled in the driveway, so wrapped up she didn’t even realize he hadn’t been driving her to the hotel she was staying at. “Oh, you’re not taking me back to the hotel?”

“I will later if you want.” Axl felt a restless stirring inside him that only she could satisfy. “But my house was closer and I need to fuck you now.”

Her jaw dropped. “I see.”

He wanted her with an urgency that made his balls ache and his dick throb in his pants. His fists clenched on the steering wheel as he turned the truck off. Hell, he wanted to take her right here in the car. The ferocity of the need was overwhelming and unexpected. He wasn’t a man who lost control of himself.

Other than his words, he didn’t now either. He got out of the car, went around, and opened the passenger door for Leighton. She was eyeing him like he was a beast who might throw her on the hood of the truck. If she only knew how close he was to that.

“Are you angry?” she asked, slipping down out of the truck. “Did I do something wrong?”

That made him stop short. He reached out and cupped her cheek. “Of course not. I don’t want to hate fuck you. That’s not my style.”

“Then how do you want to, um, fuck me?” She pursed her lips.

He grinned. He couldn’t help it. She had a way to shaking him loose. Lightening his mood. “How do you want it? Ladies’ choice.”

“Well. I hadn’t been thinking about it in the last five minutes.”

“So, think about it. It’s sixty seconds to my bedroom.” He dropped his hand and laced his fingers through hers. “Come here, babe.”

She came willingly, though she did say, “I’m not sure I like being called ‘babe.’ Isn’t every woman with every hookup called babe? We’re supposed to be engaged.”

“Do you have a nickname?” He didn’t see what was wrong with babe but he could step it up if that’s what she wanted.

Leighton made a face. “My boss calls me Amazon Prime because she says she can get anything from me in two days or less.”

That made him laugh. Axl unlocked his front door. “That’s as bad as what my co-workers call me. Ice Man. It’s so stupid.”

“Why are you Ice Man?” Leighton closed the door behind her as they entered his living room. “I don’t get it.”

“Allegedly I have no feelings. I’m cold.”

Her head actually cocked slightly. “I don’t know you very well, but what I’m seen in just a few days is the exact opposite of that. I wasn’t making up a story when we were talking to Bill. I do think you’re a nice guy. You are very compassionate.”