“I won’t.”
He held onto her hand and smiled into her eyes as he said, “As much as I would love to spend the rest of the evening right here, we’re having dinner with Mother and Grandma in about an hour.”
She groaned and rolled away from him, yanking her hand away. “No. Why? We just saw them yesterday.”
“Because I have dinner with them every week.”
She groaned again. “I thought last week’s dinner was just to torture me.”
“I’m afraid it predates you.”
“Well, don’t let me interrupt a long-standing tradition. I’ll just have a night in.”
He stood up, looking around for his pants, and Mackenzie peeked at his naked butt. He looked over his shoulder and said, “Oh, that’s too bad. I was going to say you could stay home if you weren’t looking at my ass.”
“I was just. . . seeing. . .”
“Mm-hm. Maybe you can come up with something on the way to dinner.”
She looked down again and thought it might be a fair trade-off. It was a pretty great ass.
When he went into the bathroom, she jumped up and rushed out the door to her room.
He yelled, “Hey! I wanted to peek, too!”
Mackenzie took a quick shower, trying to erase all signs that she’d spent the last twenty-four hours in bed. She couldn’t erase her bone-deep lethargy. Amazing how good sex relaxed every muscle.
She looked through her small wardrobe unhappily. She just didn’t feel like dressing as a professional woman tonight. Now that she’d thrown caution to the winds, she wanted to look good. And if Ethan wanted to rip off her clothes, she didn’t want it to be because he thought they belonged in the garbage.
And, also, he had no problem destroying any garment he didn’t like. She was going to have to go shopping just to have something to wear.
She threw on the shortest skirt and the highest heels she’d brought and went to find Ethan.
He was waiting for her and he stared down at her legs when he saw her. “You never wore skirts to work.”
He took her coat and held it out for her. She said, “Work is work. Skirts are for fun.”
He cleared his throat. “You know you still owe me a peek.”
She smiled at him over her shoulder and he said, “Oh, the hell with it. We’re going to be late.”
Mackenzie hid in her bathroom with her phone in her hand. She wouldn’t admit it out loud, but she was kind of glad to have it. Maybe she would join the modern world and buy her own when she got back home.
Cassandra answered on the first ring. “Yo.”
“Er. . . Hey.”
“You slept with him! You totally slept with him!”
Ah, best friends. Sometimes you didn’t even have to say a word.
Mackenzie sat down on the rim of the tub and said, “I’m an idiot. A stupid idiot.”
“Up for debate. Personally, I would have called you an idiot for not sleeping with him.”
“You called me an idiot for even thinking of not sleeping with him.”
“And? Was I right?”
Mackenzie closed her eyes and whispered, “God, yes.”
Cassandra laughed. “Tell me he’s as good as he looks.”
Mackenzie sighed loudly. “I really wish I could tell you he wasn’t.”
“Scale of one to ten?”
“I’m not going to rate him.”
“Just tell me that you are now ruined for life.”
“Highly likely.” She would never look at chocolate the same, that was for sure.
Cassandra sighed and Mackenzie gave her a moment to enjoy herself vicariously.
Mackenzie said, “His mother knows I slept with him. She took one look at me and nearly fainted.”
Dinner had been a spectacle, that was for sure. Ethan’s grandma had helped a suddenly woozy Christine into her seat, put a glass of wine in her hand, and had then ordered champagne for the table. And Ethan had sat next to his mother, patted her hand soothingly, and, everyone once in a while, would pet Mackenzie’s knee and send his mother into another glass of alcohol. Mackenzie had almost felt bad for her.
Almost.
Mackenzie said, “His mother could sell passive-aggressive lessons. She called a fashion consultant.”
“Oh, the horror.”
“You weren’t there. This woman was tall, beautiful, had gorgeous red hair, and her boobs jiggled whenever she walked. And she kept leaning them into Ethan.”
“And you ripped her arms off?”
“No. I should have done that. Instead I came home and slept with him.”
“I think that round goes to you.”
Mackenzie was pretty sure that round went to Ethan. “And then his mother called one of Ethan’s ex-girlfriends and told her to show up at dinner.”
There was