Page 84 of Strictly Pretend

“Have you and Emma decided where you’ll live once you’re married?” Grant asks me, taking a mouthful of his beer.

For a minute the question takes me by surprise. That’s how little I’ve thought about this fake thing we have going on. But now, everybody thinks we’re getting married.

Is that such a bad idea?

Yes, it’s a terrible idea. Not just because we all know I’m not marriage material. But because I haven’t even gotten into the details of my infertility with Emma. We just had sex. In terms of relationships, we’re at the beginning, and yet every single person here – except us – thinks we’re about to get married.

“Not sure yet. We need to chat about it.”

“Do you think she will move to the city to be with you?” Grant asks.

My chest feels tight. “I think she’ll want to stay with her granddad. He owns a shop, she runs it.”

“But she won’t have to, right? You can move them both to the city with you? It’s not like you can move out when you have a business to run.”

“Maybe.” I can’t imagine her wanting to leave him. And now I’m thinking about that fucking contract that Luke found. I make a mental note to tell him to shred it. I’m not going to take that place away from her. Not even if it ends up costing me a lot of money.

“Tell you what, just buy her a nice apartment, give her a platinum card, and tell her to furnish it however she likes. That’ll bring her round. Buy an apartment a few blocks away for her grandpa. Or put him in a home, whatever.” The best man shrugs. “It’s amazing how money can make any woman melt.”

I grit my teeth together, stupidly furious at the insinuation that Emma can be bought. I know for a fact she can’t. Hell, even this arrangement was about her agreeing to look at the other place I found. Not actually agreeing to move to it.

“Thanks,” I say wryly. “I’ll give that all the consideration it deserves.” And then I lift my beer to him before stalking over to where Emma and Mia are talking to their friends.

I slide my arms around my girl, my body immediately relaxing as I kiss her soft brow. She turns to me, looking genuinely happy to see me.

“Everything okay?” she asks softly.

“Everything’s fine now,” I tell her gruffly. Because whenever she’s around, it is.

EMMA

When we get back to the yurt, Brooks slides my phone out of my pocket and points to the message from him flashing up on my screen. I frown. I’d forgotten we might be being listened to.

And then I blush, because dear god, I did not keep quiet earlier.

He points at my phone again and I take a deep breath and open it up.

I forgot all about the surveillance. I’ll ask Cassie’s dad to delete any recordings of us or I’ll get a fucking court order to do so. Please try not to worry. And also, please be quiet tonight. – Brooks

I lift a brow at him and he’s smirking, and I think a smirking Brooks Salinger might be my very favorite thing in life.

Of course I’ll be quiet. I’ll be asleep. – Emma

I turn the screen to show it to him, so he doesn’t have to take out his own phone. Instead of taking it from me to reply, he leans down to kiss me and I feel it right to my toes.

“Still feeling sleepy?” he asks me.

“Not really,” I confess.

“It’s a good thing I know how to make you sleepy.” He grins at me.

“And exactly how is that?” I ask, tipping my head to the side. I’ve always been so bad at flirting. Like embarrassingly bad. But he makes it easy.

With him, it’s like breathing.

He slides his hand down my side, pulling me toward him until my chest is pressed against his. I can feel his excitement, hard and thick against me. I feel dizzy at his closeness.

“We’re going swimming,” he tells me.

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