Page 13 of Doing It for Love

I kick him in the leg. “Can we fight about this later and get back to what we were talking about?”

“What? The no sex thing and how that somehow equals fun?”

“Yes, smart-ass. Sometimes delayed gratification gets my rocks off. You remember when you vacationed for a month?”

He grins a wicked grin and runs a hand up the inside of my shorts. “Mmhmm…”

“It’ll be like that,” I say as his fingers make a naughty trail across my underwear line, and I gulp so loud it echoes in my ears. “Only better because it’ll be months and months.”

“I told you,” he whispers as he leans in. “I’m okay with it. I just don’t think you’ll last.”

“I bet I’ll last longer than you.”

His eyebrows rise, and there’s a tilt of his lips that he always gets when he’s thinking “challenge accepted.” It’s one of the sexiest expressions he has, and I clench my jaw, refusing to look at his mouth and lose this thing before it starts.

“Okay.” He slips his hand out of my shorts.

“Okay what?”

“Okay, I’ll take that bet.” He takes his hat off my head and sets it on his. “And when I win, I get Sundance.”

I pull my feet under my butt and stare him down. His eyes flick to my lack of bra, and he gulps. Too easy.

“Then we should establish rules, right? Like hands off the ladies.” I gesture to my breasts, and he laughs. “And none of the lower lady touching either.”

“Then you can’t touch Lord Landon,” he fires back. Like that’ll be hard for me.

“Neither can you.”

He jerks back. “Wait…what?”

“The whole point of this is to get ourselves revved up. How can we do that if you spend the sex-free five months with a box of tissues?”

He purses his lips, like he’s thinkingwhat the hell have we started, and I cross my arms, challenging him to give up a minute in. After a few seconds, he sighs and says, “You can’t touch yourself either.”

“Okay.”Cake. “And whoever breaks the rules loses.”

“You won’t last a week.”

I nearly snort. Yeah, I’m usually the instigator of sex, but I know him. I’ll be surprised if he lasts the day.

“Does that mean you’re in?”

Landon pauses, staring me down while I do the same. He playfully grins, and asks, “I can still kiss you?”

“Yes.”

“Anywhere that isn’t ‘the ladies,’ right?”

I tilt my head, considering. “Yeah.”

His smile grows, and he leans forward. “Then I’m in.”

He pushes his forehead against mine, gently giving me Eskimo kisses. I reach up to hold his face, give him a goodbye kiss since I’ve made him incredibly late for work, but he catches my hand. My eyes flick down as he slides the diamond on my ring finger.

“Did I do okay?” he asks, twisting the ring. My mouth splits open into a wide grin, and I throw my arms around his neck and leap into his lap.

“Where did you hide it?” I squeal, my hand stretched out behind his back as I stare at the beautiful diamond, eyes watering because it feels incrediblyrealnow. I’m getting married!

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