Page 33 of Wren's Winter

Despite her ticking all the boxes, out of towner, no ties to this place? This wasn’t some dalliance for me. There had been flings, more than I wanted to share, but nothing about how I felt for her seemed fleeting. There was a shift in me while in her presence. I wanted to buy her dinner and have her meet my friends. I wanted to lay her down on my bed and feast on her body until she couldn’t scream any longer.

I didn’t know what to call this, but I knew it wasn’t a fling.

“Let me worry about complicated. I want you to come out and have fun, no strings, no obligations.”

The words tasted wrong on my tongue, but I allowed them anyway. Who was I hurting but myself?

Hesitating, she pulled her lower lip between her teeth. I reached over, pulling that lip out, running the pad of my thumb over it.

“I bet you that you’ll have more fun tonight than in the last six months.”

She smiled at me, pressing a kiss to my thumb. “What do I get if I win?”

“I’ll make crepes tomorrow morning and deliver them to the front door of the cabin.”

A small smirk ticked up on the corner of her mouth. “And if you win?”

“I’ll make your crepes, but they’ll be delivered to you in my bed.”

Sliding her hand from its spot on my lower back, she placed it between us. “Shake on it.”

The bet secured. She glanced down at herself. “If I’m meeting your friends tonight, I need to go back home and change.”

“Why? You look good in my shirt.”

She laughed, loud and warm. “Nice try. You might think this is cute, but I can assure you it is not. When are we leaving?”

I checked the clock on my phone. We had napped for the better part of three hours. “In an hour and a half?”

She slid out from under my arm. “I better get to work, then. See you back here soon.”

With an ear scratch for Maizie and a searing kiss, she left me alone on the couch. When the door shut behind her, I picked up my phone to call Tam.

“I need to add another person to the reservation.”

Tam paused, a heavy metal hitting metal sounding. Likely a tool for fixing the pipe. “Who?”

“Someone I want you to meet. Her name is Wren.”

Tam was silent on the other end for a moment before the metal clanged again. “Okay, cool. See you there.”

That’s what I liked about my best friend. He didn’t interrogate me.

Wren

What are you supposed to wear to dinner with the friends of your one-night stand? Is that even an apt description of what Adrian and I had going on? It was fully in a vacation fling territory, but he wasn’t on vacation. This was his hometown, his friends.

Not that I brought a ton of options. Pulling out a blue sweater and then a gray one, I laid them on the four-poster bed, considering my options.

Why would he want me to meet his friends?

The blue one was softer and low cut, but I liked the way the light-gray one had a low back.

What would they think of me?

If I wore my lacy camisole with the gray one, that could be pretty.

Did he often have women meet his friends?

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