“I hope so,” he says, and once again my heart breaks for him.
“Maybe you should go on your honeymoon. It’s all booked, and I can’t see the sense in letting it go to waste.”
He turns his head, and I work on his other shoulder. “I don’t even like skiing.”
“I don’t even know how, and will probably break my neck if I tried. But I’ll go with you. If you want. We can take lessons, or find other things to keep ourselves occupied.”
He shifts beneath me, and I go up on my knees as he rolls until I’m straddling him from above. “Oh yeah?”
“Lots of things. We always have fun together, no matter what we do. Besides, if Ari’s stupid enough to postpone the wedding, then she doesn’t deserve to go on any honeymoon with you—skiing or beach,” I blurt out without thinking. Shit, I shouldn’t have said that, but I’m angry, dammit. I might not like Arianna, but Luke is in love with her and that’s all that matters.
I fall forward, and lay my head on his chest, revel in his strong heartbeat beneath my cheek. This is one of my favorite positions with Luke. Many times, over the years, we’ve laid like this, and his heartbeat always makes me feel so safe and secure. His hand goes to my hair and he strokes the damp strands down my back, his calluses scraping against my flesh. I shiver from his touch, and he grabs the blankets and pulls them over me. I close my eyes for a brief second and as sleep pulls at me, I stifle a yawn.
“We booked the honeymoon package,” he whispers, his voice groggy. “Lots of events with other newlyweds.”
“So.”
“I’m not interested in explaining to anyone why I’m on my honeymoon with my best friend, not my new wife.”
“No one has to know. Besides it’s Italy, no one is going to recognize you there.”
Luke’s hand slides lower on my back and his breath is hot on my face when I lift my head to see him. “We could have some fun and pretend we’re the newlyweds,” I say, wanting to lighten his mood. God, I hate seeing him like this.
He rakes a hand through his hair, pushing it off his face. “You want to pretend to be my wife?” he asks, with a quirk of his brow. It’s that sexy look right there that has women throwing their panties onto the ice.
“Sure, why not.” I shrug. “It could be fun, actually.”
“I thought you were anti-marriage,” he says.
I frown. Luke knows all about my father leaving my mother for another woman. It devastated Mom and me, but fortunately Luke was there to help put me back together. He was there again after high school when he was home for Christmas and the guy I was dating at the local technical college fooled around with another one of our classmates. Are there no faithful guys out there? I only know of one, and he’s off limits. Not that I think of him as more, anyway.
“You know I don’t trust guys,” I mumble.
“You trust me, don’t you?”
I yawn, unable to hold it back any longer. “Of course. But you’re not a real guy.”
“Ah, I’m kind of a real guy, Katee.” He lifts his hips, and I feel the Stick Handler’s…stick. Wait, is he semi-hard? Curious, I move a bit, and he groans, shifting me until my weight is half on his leg, half on the bed. With that, I push all thoughts of Luke’s stick out of my mind. The last thing I should be doing is thinking about what’s between my best friend’s legs.
“You know what I mean,” I say.
“Actually, I don’t.”
I sigh. How do I explain this? “You’re the best guy I know, Luke. And the only guy I trust, but—”
“Then maybe you should marry me,” he teases as his hands go to my hips, and his big fingers biting into my skin.
I burst out laughing at that. “…but, I don’t think of you as a real guy,” I say putting emphasis on the word real.
“I could prove to you that I am a real guy.”
“Stop it,” I say, and whack him.
We both go quiet for a long time, then Luke breaks he silence. “You really want to go on my honeymoon?”
I put my chin on his chest and stare up at him. “Yeah, sure. I don’t think I’ll like skiing, but Italy…”
“If you’re pretending be my wife, does that mean I get all the benefits that come with it?” He wags his brows in a suggestive manner, and I’m happy to see him back to his old playful self. “You did say we could find other ways to pass the time.”