One Night Stand-In (Boyfriend Material #3) - Lauren Blakely Page 0,46
times. Three separate occasions.”
“Of course,” I say, dabbing at my lips with a napkin. “Like when a food critic visits a restaurant a few times before reviewing it.”
“Exactly. You want to make sure these are worth going to Hades and back.”
I narrow my brow. “Correct me if I’m wrong. But I’m pretty sure a deal with the devil means you don’t come back.”
He snaps his fingers. “Dammit. You’re right. My brain is in a syrup and pancake fog. No wonder Rowan said these were the best pancakes ever. Because these are the best pancakes ever.”
“Just imagine how good they were for Rowan and Luna,” I say with a naughty glint in my eye. “Sounds like they had pancakes after the nooky.” I glance around the diner, taking in the frayed mint-green polyester booths, the white Formica counters, the red metal stools, and the smell of butter lingering in the air. “Which raises the question . . .”
He raises a stop sign palm. “Don’t say it. Don’t ask it.”
“Oh, come on. That’s why we’re here.” I pat the notebooks, then remind him of the clue. “They had makeup sex here.”
“Or so Harrison says.”
“They obviously did. How else would we have figured out where to go?”
“Maybe they just talked about having makeup sex here,” he says, a little hopeful.
“You’re not squeamish about this, are you?”
He scoffs. “About sex? No. About my little brother? Maybe a little.”
“He’s twenty-five!”
“And he’ll always be a little brother to me.”
“You want your little brother to be virginal?”
“No. I just don’t want to think about where my brother is getting it on. Especially with your sister.”
“News flash: they’re doing it, Lucas. They’re doing it a lot. I bet that’s why neither one has replied to our messages. That whole no cell service on a cruise is probably a cover-up for nonstop banging in the cabin overlooking the Mediterranean.”
He covers his ears. “La la la la. I can’t hear you.”
I lean across the table and yank his hands from his head. “You are hilarious. He’s your brother. Not your kid.” But as soon as those words fall from my lips, I stop teasing him. My heart softens. “You do think of him in some ways like a kid, don’t you?”
He shrugs, a sheepish smile on his lips. “Sort of. It’s silly, I know. We’re only four years apart. But yeah, I do. Yes, he’s a brother, but he also feels like mine. So, I’m sure I have all sorts of weird issues when I think about him having sex.”
“Freud would like to work with you.”
He drags a hand through his hair. “No doubt. But look, I know he’s an adult. I know he’s having sex. I just don’t want to know the details.”
And the devil appears on my shoulder, pushing aside the angel. “Don’t worry. I highly doubt it was this booth.” I pat the seat.
He shoots laser beams at me with his eyes. “You are evil, woman. It better not have been this booth.”
I laugh, loving how wound up he is. I scan the small diner again. “A booth is far too public. I bet it was the bathroom. I’m going to go check it out,” I say, egging him on.
I rise, and he grabs at my arm. “Are you honestly casing the bathroom for a potential public sex site?”
His eyes are blazing, and as they roam down my body then back up, I can tell all thoughts of his brother have fallen by the wayside.
“Sure,” I say, my voice going a little smoky.
“Then I’ll join you in the casing.”
Rising, he reaches into his wallet, tosses some bills on the table, grabs the bag with the notebooks, and follows me to the back of the diner. Framed black-and-white movie posters hang on the wall—Casablanca and Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
I shoot him flirty, dirty eyes as I set a hand on the door to the ladies’ room.
For a few seconds, I leave my palm there, a myriad of thoughts spinning wildly through my brain. Will I fuck Lucas in the bathroom? Will I sleep with Lucas again? And most of all, why does it feel so easy, so natural to even suggest it and walk back here with him?
The answer to the third one is as complicated as the way you feel when you watch Casablanca—it puts your heart through the wringer.
Still, I want to know the answers to one and two. I push open the door.