“What is your opinion?” Jemma wanted to know.
If Lexie had her wits about her she might have intervened before Sean answered, “He must have a small dick if he needs a TV show to get women.”
But her wits were nowhere near the Fairmont Hotel, and she could only gasp, “Sean!”
“Luckily that will get bleeped out in production.” Jemma gave a bark of laughter and was joined by a few of the girls across the stage.
“That’s not true!” Pete defended himself and turned red in the face. “I didn’t need the show to find women.”
Sean looked at him and grinned like they were standing in the face-off circle at the Key, and he was going to drop his gloves the second the whistle blew. “Some of us don’t need a TV show. We’re good on our own.”
If Lexie didn’t know better, she might think he was jealous, but she did know better. This was all an act. One she’d outlined for him, including sections, subsections, and bullet points.
He squeezed her hand and said against the side of her forehead, “You know it’s true.”
Lexie didn’t know what was true anymore. Not him or her or her pointy heart.
Jemma cleared her throat and continued, “It sounds like you don’t like reality TV.”
“It’s fine.”
“Sean doesn’t like chaos and drama,” Lexie provided for him. He glanced at her out of the corners of his eyes and she added, “I’ve given him both and I am sorry for that.”
“You two look like a couple in love,” Jemma said with a sigh.
“Yes.” She’d really done it this time. Despite her notes and memos and knowing better, her heart twisted and turned and gutted her from the inside out.
She was in trouble. Deep, deep trouble. She sat between her fake ex-fiancé on one side and her pretend boyfriend on the other:
She’d tried to love Pete. a. That had ended in disaster.
She’d tried not to love Sean. a. That was a disaster waiting to happen.
It didn’t matter. She’d gone ahead and done it. She’d gone ahead and fallen in love with Sean Knox.
Chapter 13
•love to love you, baby
“That looks like a good bush.” Sean pointed to the shrubbery outside his apartment building. “Take a leak on that.” The white dog sniffed and moved to a different shrub altogether. Sean still couldn’t believe there was an actual dog at the end of the blue leash. Let alone one with only three legs. Growing up, he’d never had a pet, no matter how many legs, because his mother thought all animals were filthy.
Now she was upstairs with a “migraine” and he was on poop duty with Buddy. The dog kind of hopped and walked at the same time, and Sean did feel sort of sorry for the little thing. Together they moved down the street a little ways, stopping when Buddy sniffed a tree.
His mother had told him that the idea for a “therapy dog” had been hers, but he had his doubts. She’d spent a few days with Lexie and came back with a disabled dog. This had Lexie’s fingerprints all over it.
Buddy circled the tree and Sean followed. After the reunion show yesterday, he’d wanted to put his fingerprints all over her.
“Come home with me,” he’d whispered in her ear as they once again found themselves in a parking lot. When they’d first made their agreement, they’d decided not to have sex. Well, she’d mostly decided and he’d gone along with it because he hadn’t known that almost every time he was near her, his body would react. He wanted her again. Naked like before, and she could deny it all day, but she wanted it, too.
“I can’t go home with you.” They’d stood at the back of his SUV and he’d had to fight an urge to open the hatch and stuff her inside. “We’d end up in bed.”
“It’s gonna happen sooner or later.” Her eyes hid behind black sunglasses and he pushed them to the top of her head. “I vote for sooner.”
“We can’t,” she said, but with little conviction. He pulled her long body against him and pressed her into his chest and belly. He let her feel how much he wanted her, and he took advantage of her gasp and opened his mouth over hers. Everything about Lexie turned him on. The touch of her hands sliding up his chest. The smell of her neck and taste of her lips. She opened her warm mouth a little wider, and her slick tongue tangled with his, drawing him in deeper. The suction got a little tighter, the kiss a little wetter, the world around them a whole lot hotter.
Raw lust pulsed through his body and hers. So good he slid his hands to her behind and pressed her into his erection. She felt so good and he could hardly control the sharp edge of desire slicing through him.
He lifted his head and gasped for air. “Let’s take this to a bed.”