The Engagement Gift An After Dark Standalone Romance - Lauren Blakely Page 0,15

door. He’d taken me in the car in the parking garage of our building, my wrists pinned over my head, my legs wrapped around his waist.

He’d been ravenous and harder than I’d ever felt him before. As if he was just as aroused, just as turned on as I was.

But still, that was only pretend. Simply another aspect of our role-playing.

That didn’t mean we had to act on it.

Or maybe, just maybe, it did.

And perhaps it would bring us even closer.

That possibility sent a wave of heat across my body. But it wasn’t just the physical closeness. It was so much more.

It was true intimacy that I constantly sought with Finn. We had that and I wanted us to keep having it.

Was Nina right?

Was Kate right?

And more so, was Finn not only right, but ready?

I absentmindedly kicked one high-heeled foot back and forth, waiting for Kate in a bar at the Luxe Hotel, a gin in my hand.

I wore a little black dress.

Because that was what fantasies were for.

Little black dresses.

We’d meet Finn at the club, and our friends were coming tonight, too—we operated as a pack.

Kate arrived at the bar, looking fabulous in black strappy sandals, designer jeans, and a silver top.

I gave her an approving whistle. “Sexy babe. You should take the best man home tonight.” I couldn’t resist trying to push her and Jake together. That was what friends did—tried to set up their single friends. Jake would be with us tonight, so why not?

She groaned like she couldn’t take it anymore as she flopped next to me. “Don’t you think if it were going to happen, it would have happened?”

I scoffed. “Things happen when we’re ready for them.”

She set a hand on my elbow, her hazel eyes locking with mine. “Let me level with you. Nothing is going to happen with Jake and me.”

I pouted. “Why not?”

She heaved a sigh. “Lily, do I need to spell this out?”

“Um, maybe you do. Have I mentioned he’s hella hot and so are you and you’d make a great couple?”

“You are relentless.”

“Only because I know you’re right for each other,” I said, goading.

“It’s not in the cards.”

“Why? Tell me why.”

She laughed. “I’m. Not. Attracted. To. Him.”

My jaw came unhinged, then I set the back of my hand on her forehead. “Yes, you do have the flu.”

“Natch, I’m terribly ill for not being into Mr. Tall, Dark, and Handsome.”

“Aha!” I pointed at her like I’d caught her in a web of lies. “So, you do admit he’s good-looking.”

“Just because I can recognize he’s extremely good-looking doesn’t make him my type.” She nudged my waist with her elbow, her voice dipping. “But maybe he’s your type.”

My brow creased. “What?”

“Aww. That’s cute how you act all innocent.”

“It’s not an act.”

She parked her hands on her hips. “Studies have shown that threesomes work best when the third party is someone you all know and trust.”

What had she just said?

Had she said that?

The notion was a gong banging, waking me up.

I blinked. Swallowed. My brain went into overdrive.

Jake?

The best man?

The man we knew?

Could he? Would he? And more so, could I?

My mind supplied the image. The man who’d been nameless, faceless, in my threesome fantasies suddenly became flesh and blood.

He became my fiancé’s best friend.

My pulse soared, and my skin tingled. What if Jake was the other man in my dirty dreams?

Would that work? Could that work? What would it do to their friendship if things went haywire?

I didn’t know any of the answers, but my chest tingled as I pictured a new reel of fantasies.

Fantasies that felt like they could become real.

So damn real.

Kate smirked and twirled her index finger in a circle. “I see the spreadsheet columns in your mind adding up.”

I shook my head. “I don’t speak spreadsheet.” It came out robotically because I was still processing that . . . sum of the columns. That specific sum of the parts.

Had the nameless, faceless man been in front of me all along?

“But I do,” Kate said. “And I can tell the sum of you plus Finn plus Jake is looking pretty damn good.”

I grabbed her arm, whispering, “They’re best friends. Would that be weird? For them?” I had to get her take. She was so smart and sharp. She’d know this. She’d understand it.

Kate’s eyes glinted. “I don’t know. I guess that’s what you’d have to find out. But I don’t think it’d be awkward for them if it’s what Finn wants for you. And I bet it’s what he wants