the very well defined muscles of his chest beneath it. Not to mention those biceps.
Holy hell. It was like he was carrying two cannon balls around inside his shirt sleeves.
Jenny was going to eat him up. That thought alone cheered Alicia as she reached for her keys on the side table.
“These are for you.”
Alicia’s eyes flew wide as a bouquet of roses appeared in front of her. Her gaze shot up to Brian’s face. “What . . . what are these for?”
“It’s Valentine’s Day,” he said, still holding the flowers she had yet to take. When she stared from the roses to him again, he added, “In case your sister asks what I got you. You can say roses.”
“Oh. Yeah. Good. Thanks.” Flustered she finally reached out and took the bouquet, still unable to comprehend her fake boyfriend had just bought her real flowers.
“You want to stick those in water and then we can go?” he asked.
Water. She seemed incapable of even basic reasoning at the moment. Whether that was from the crazy hot man at her door or the gorgeous red roses, she wasn’t sure.
“Yes. Of course. Be right back.” She spun and trotted toward the kitchen, leaving him standing in the open doorway.
Finding a vase was beyond her. Did she even own one? That question in itself was a testament to how few times a man had given her flowers.
She finally settled on grabbing a big pot, filled it under the faucet and stuck the flowers inside. She left the whole mess in the kitchen sink to deal with later.
Back at the front door, Brian still waited, not moving.
Alicia once again reached for the car keys on the side table. “We can take my car.”
He shook his head. “Nuh, uh. I’ll drive.”
She frowned. “Why can’t I?”
Brian lifted a brow. “For one, no self-respecting man lets the woman drive.”
Alicia rolled her eyes. “What are you, from the nineteen-fifties?”
“And second,” he continued, ignoring her comment. “If I get called in, I need my own wheels. It’s unlikely but it happens. If it does, I’ll have to head directly to base. There won’t be time to stop here to get my vehicle.”
She couldn’t argue with that. She watched that show SEAL Team on television. She knew the deal with SEALs getting called in on no notice.
Alicia let out a sigh as she pulled the door closed. “Fine. You drive.”
“Thank you.” He waved her ahead of him on the path and she made a beeline for—surprise, surprise—a shiny black Jeep with tires that looked bigger than normal.
He was such a stereotype, right down to his choice of cars.
She pictured this guy in board shorts and a tank-top, driving the Jeep, top off, on the beach with his surfboard, a six-pack of beer and not a care in the world.
He had a Peter Pan complex, no doubt. Never grow up. Never make commitments.
That was fine since she wasn’t dating him for real, but after all this planning, he’d better be able to fake it. She was depending on him.
She eyed him sideways as he turned the key in the ignition. “You ready for this?”
“I was born ready.” He grinned.
The quip didn’t do much to build her confidence in his abilities.
“You have to be convincing or Jen—”
“We will be convincing.” He’d stressed the word we, as if reminding her that she had to hold up her side of things as well. “I already successfully started this sham before I picked you up.”
“What do you mean you already started?” She frowned.
“One of my teammates asked where I was going. I told him I was attending a party with a woman I met at McP’s.”
“That’s not convincing. And it doesn’t sound like we’re dating.”
“Of course not. He’s on my team. I’ve been with him twenty-four-seven in—uh—out of the country for months. He knows I didn’t have a girlfriend for all that time. I have to build the story slowly. First, we meet at McP’s. Then we go to the party. Then things can get serious between us.”
Serious. Meaning sex, no doubt. She had a feeling their fake sex life would feature prominently in his future lies to his teammates, even though she’d told him she didn’t agree to any fake sex.
She glanced at him. His hands gripped the wheel and his muscles flexed as he steered the Jeep into the lane.
The lips she’d been staring at twitched up in a crooked smile as he turned his head to glance briefly at her. “Don’t worry. We got