pretty woman before. I’d seen lots of pretty women. I’d been married to a pretty woman.
But… it was hard to remember all the rest. All those in the past. The past I’d wanted to forget. Right now, Kat was making that really easy.
Usually, she was just needling me and making it her mission to irritate the crap out of me. And aptly succeeding in doing so. Tonight apparently, her mission would be to unknowingly drive me crazy.
I held the door open for her, like a gentleman—like I’d been trained to do automatically in my past life. Old world manners died hard. She walked through the doorway in those clicky heels with glittery straps that snaked up around her thin, sexy ankles. I couldn’t help pressing my hand to the small of her back to guide her though.
She didn’t need it. Probably would never thought of asking for it.
No that small, simple touch was for me. As if to reaffirm to myself that she was real and she was, indeed, this beautiful on top of all her other admirable—and not as visibly obvious—assets.
And that for a short while longer, she was mine.
My fellow co-worker. My sometime partner-in-crime. My erstwhile nemesis. My wife—whom I couldn’t touch. And no, not by some arbitrary law or regulation. Not even by her own insistence. No, that stupid-ass stipulation had come from me and I had no one to blame for suffering with these blue balls but myself.
Unfortunately, I had no time to wallow in my misery. I moved to the passenger side of my midnight blue ‘80s era Mercedes Benz to open the door for her.
“Wow, such a genna’man,” she drawled, surprisingly, with little of her characteristic snark. She looked at me and gave an exaggerated wink.
I had little occasion to drive her places. We only rarely interacted in a social context. Sure, we’d spent nights and nights on top of each other—unfortunately not literally—in the Den during crunch time. We’d done occasional happy hours with the department or a house party. I rarely got the opportunity to show off my own unique skill set to her. But it had been so ingrained in me growing up that I really didn’t have a choice whether or not I wanted to show it off.
As I helped her into the car, I was privy to the wonderful fringe benefit of a full view down the front of her dress. She slid into the seasoned leather seats and smiled up at me, which did nothing for the condition of things below my belt.
No wonder all those little shit bottom-feeders watching her on Twitch had lost their minds today. Shit. She was so goddamn sexy it hurt. Even when just wearing her yoga clothes.
Damned if I wasn’t also secretly gloating at the thought of showing up to the family dinner with this hot as fuck woman on my arm, calling her my wife.
My cousin would openly flirt with her in his usual over-the-top fashion. Father would probably spill his cognac and make quite the mess. Most likely both of them would be thinking dirty old man thoughts the entire time she was present.
But she was mine. Even if it was just on paper. And even if just temporarily.
“So I can’t believe I’ve never asked this but… where do your parents live?”
“South county. Coto de Caza.”
From behind the wheel, I threw a furtive glance at her to see if the name rang a bell, but she didn’t make any sound of recognition. Good. So much the better. Her ignorance of the local geography would serve to make her less nervous. That community easily housed some of the wealthiest people in southern California. She’d figure it out the moment we hit all the massive homes and gated security. Fortunately, by then she’d only have minutes to get worked up about it.
Turning the ignition, I eased out onto the driveway and hit the button to close the garage door. Her sad little ‘90s era Honda Civic sat in the driveway, looking forlorn in this neighborhood amongst all the hybrids, Mercedes and BMWs. Nevertheless, the car still seemed to be holding up.
Soon we were on the freeway. I glanced at her as she watched the dried summer hills of southern California chaparral slide by her window. Her hands were folded quietly in her lap, no sign of fidgeting or nervousness.
“This shouldn’t be too big a deal tonight. My parents have only known for a few days, after all. But they insisted on meeting