The Engagement Gift An After Dark Standalone Romance - Lauren Blakely Page 0,13

squeezed shut. Her expression tightened. That look of approaching bliss spread across her face.

Now was my chance to push, to find out. “Bet you’d even like it if he wanted to take you too.”

She tensed all over, stilled for a long, terrifying moment. Had I gone too far? Suggested too much?

But then she was shaking, falling apart on my hand here in the store with the celebrity lookalike no more than twenty feet away.

I hadn’t gone too far at all.

Her skin was flushed, the sexiest shade of pink I’d ever seen.

When she opened her eyes and I slid my fingers out of her, she trembled, grabbed my arm like she’d fall if she didn’t hold on to me, and simply whispered, “Wow.”

“You liked that, didn’t you?”

She licked her lips. “Do you really have to ask?”

I raised my hand, wiggled my fingers in front of my face, and sucked her juices off, savoring the taste of her.

We bought the silver bullet, the devil costume, and a new dolphin, too, since she said hers was losing power.

In the parking lot, I opened the door for her, then stopped her with a hand on her waist.

I met her eyes. “When I said earlier, before we came here, that you know me so well? Remember that?”

“Of course. It was only an hour ago. My memory is still good.”

My expression went serious. “I meant it, Lily. You know me. I know you. We can share anything.”

She swallowed roughly, a nervous look in her eyes. “Is that what you meant when you said it?”

I nodded fiercely. “Yes, it’s part of it. This is what we can be for each other. We can share. And I don’t just mean whether we should register for a pasta maker, or if we want pop music or hip hop at the wedding. We are so much more than that. We can share hopes, dreams, wishes. I want you to know me. Always.”

“I want that too,” she said, a little husky. Then she quirked up her lips. “Also, we don’t need a pasta maker.”

“Damn straight,” I said with a laugh, then I let go of the laughter. “And there’s something else I want you to know.”

“What is it?” she asked, her voice rising. Maybe with worry. But she didn’t need to worry about a damn thing. I would always take care of her in every single way.

I brushed my thumb along her jaw, lifting her chin, so our eyes locked. “You need to know that with me, you can have anything.”

“I can?” Her voice rose higher than usual, nerves lining it.

“Yes,” I said emphatically. “Anything. All you have to do is ask.”

She didn’t ask for her dirty internet fantasy right then and there. She pressed her lips together, looked off in the distance at the darkening sky, then back at me, meeting my eyes.

“Can you take me to the club? The one where I told you all my fantasies?”

Everything was coming together.

But not that night.

She had an early morning interview with the Yankees general manager via remote, so we agreed to go Thursday night.

By the time Thursday came around, our group of friends had asked what we were up to, and Lily and I turned the night at Edge into a group event, as we often did.

Jake and Kate and Nina and Adam, and plenty of others would join us.

We’d all go.

And that might be just what the dirty doctor ordered.

5

Lily

With me you can have anything.

His words echoed through my head as I went for a morning run.

They clanged in my mind, reverberating.

I wanted everything.

But could we truly have it all?

Could we have the closeness I revered? And the wild nights I longed for? As I rounded a curve along the path in the park, I tried to imagine what that would look like. How it would play out.

The after.

Would we be the same after my darkest fantasies became real?

My heart pounded faster and my legs burned as I looked in the crystal ball of my future.

But it was cloudy. Because you can’t see the future. You have to take chances without knowing the outcome.

That was the issue. Was this a chance worth taking?

Amidst the I dos and the marriage licenses, did I want to push for something else too?

When I finished my run, I showered, dressed for work, and met Nina at our usual coffee shop. She sported her new red glasses.

“See? They are sexy,” I said.

“Want to rear-end me?” she joked.

I chuckled as she grabbed an earl grey latte,