He tapped his cheek with a single finger. “Make it official.”
She rolled her eyes and pressed a chaste kiss to his cheek. “Thank you.”
Before she could move out of arm’s reach, he grabbed her face and planted a big smacker on her lips. “You’re welcome.”
“Congratulations, you’ve got yourself a girlfriend. Now just don’t go getting all clingy on me.”
She meant it as a joke, but when he answered, “I’ll try,” as though it wouldn’t take much effort on his part to stay detached, she forgot to laugh. She did let out a yelp, though, when he dropped his hand and gave her a swift smack on the ass, saying, “Now go on up and make your man a nice big breakfast.”
“I’m going back to bed,” she said, walking up the stairs to her apartment, swaying her hips a little more than usual and making the hem of her robe swish higher up her thighs. Since Marc was below her on the stairs, she was sure he was getting a pretty good view. Sex wasn’t going to happen between them, but she’d be damned if her fake boyfriend didn’t think she was distraction worthy.
Marc groaned. “Even better idea. Let’s go, boy.” He whistled for Wingman, who loped up the stairs and down the hall behind them.
“Alone,” she clarified when she got to the bedroom door. She took one look at Marc, who wasn’t smiling anymore. The man was all but pouting. Even Wingman let out a little whimper when she slammed the door.
“Come on, boy,” she heard him say through the door. “Day one and we’re already couching it.”
Great. Now she felt terrible.
“You know what?” She opened the door, and both boys whipped around to face her. “Maybe some company wouldn’t be so bad.”
She let out a quick whistle, and Wingman barreled toward her and into the bedroom.
“Traitor!” Marc grumbled. Lexi stifled a smile and shut the door.
CHAPTER 8
Marc had a smoking-hot girlfriend. Well, a smoking-hot pretend girlfriend. Problem was, he didn’t know what to do with her.
Women he knew: knew how to charm them, undress them, make them moan with pleasure, and, most importantly, how to get them out of his house before the sun came up. Girlfriends, on the other hand, were a foreign species to him. Lexi had been right, he’d never really committed to any one woman. In fact, it was something he’d successfully avoided for most of his adult life.
Until now, anyway.
He knew what he wanted to do with her, but that violated man law. Needing to get out, take in a view that didn’t include what was across the alley, he grabbed his cleats and gave Gabe a quick call to see if he needed to pick anything up on the way.
In the DeLuca family, every Sunday between September and February was dedicated to family, beer, BBQ, and football. All the other months they swapped out watching football for playing football. It had been that way since they were kids and, thankfully, this week was no different. Marc could really use some brotherly bonding time, especially the part when he got to beat the crap out of Gabe on the field. The thought made him smile.
So when Gabe told him that Sunday football was canceled because Regan wasn’t feeling well, Marc assumed the worst.
“Is she okay?” Because it would have to be pretty bad to cancel a tradition that had been going on since Trey turned three.
“Yeah, she’s just feeling a little cooped up and frustrated. I’ve been so busy trying to get Ryo Wines on track and make sure the deal with Monte goes smoothly that Regan needs some adult time, and Holly is desperate for family time.”
Right, the daily reminder that Gabe had a family outside of his brothers and Abby. Marc should have been pissed, like he usually was. But instead he found himself feeling jealous.
“So what are you guys going to do?” Marc asked, wondering how he had gone from avoiding entanglements with women who called too soon after sex to asking how his brother made his wife feel better. God, he was becoming one of those guys.
Gabe was the last person he wanted to engage in a conversation about women, since it would most likely lead to a lecture on when he was going to grow the hell up. After their dad died, Gabe became more like a father than a brother, and Marc went off the deep end