“I see you’ve shortened my last name to just yours.”
“It was kind of long.” That might be true, but maybe I just like hearing my last name attached to her first name, no measure of distance between them. Although if she wants the joint name, I’m okay with that, too. My God, what am I saying? None of this is real. “A bit of a mouthful, don’t you think?”
As soon as those words spill from my lips, her gaze drops, takes in my early morning boner. I laugh. “My God, you are such a sex addict.” I take my cock into my hand and she groans. “This is the first thing you think of when I say mouthful.”
“Yeah, it’s bad,” she says and we both burst out laughing. “As much as I’d like…” she moves her finger in a circle over the mussed up bed. “to do all this again, I really do need to go.”
“All right. Let’s do this,” I say searching the floor for last night’s clothes. “We’ll have to stop at my place. I need to change.”
“Cason, you don’t have to help me. Besides, what do you know about cooking? You’re a hockey player.”
I step up to her, put my hands on her arms and rub gently. “I actually know a lot, Kins. Nina and I…we had to fend for ourselves a lot. My parents were pretty absent in our lives. I mean they loved us and supported us, but they were both investment bankers with busy jobs that kept them at the office for hours. Nina and I did a lot of the cooking. She was better at it than me, but I definitely know how to help out.”
A sadness moves over her face. “I didn’t know that, Cason. I’m sorry they weren’t more involved in your life.”
“It’s okay, we both turned out fine.”
She frowns like she’s not so sure about that, and maybe she’s right. Maybe I didn’t turn out fine, considering I can’t do relationships, can’t really express myself properly.
“Do you see them now?”
“Oh, yeah, every now and then. I mean they love us, gave us everything we wanted, pretty much—outside of their time. They’d love you.” Shit, I didn’t mean to put it that way. “Not that we’re going to tell them we’re married or anything. No point in that. I don’t need a trust fund.” She winces and I say, “That’s not coming out right, Kinsley.”
“It’s fine,” she says and puts her hand on my chest. “I get it. You’re right. There is no sense involving them in this sham of a marriage.” She blinks and her brow pulls together when she asks, “What did you mean they gave you everything you wanted, pretty much?”
Wanting to put a smile back on her face again, I say, “Don’t tell anyone, but when I was young, I secretly wanted an Easy Bake Oven.”
She smiles. “Really?”
r /> “Yeah, really.” I angle my head, take in her expression. “Do you think that’s strange?”
“No. I don’t. I think it’s great. You know Bobby Flay had one growing up, right?”
“No, I didn’t. But I dig it.”
“Did you ever ask for one?”
“My parents put me in hockey, they put Nina in figure skating. Very gender defined roles. I just knew it would be frowned upon if I asked for what they would consider a ‘girl’s’ toy. Sad, but true. That’s how it was in their generation. Change is slow, but it’s coming.”
“My son is getting an easy bake oven, and my daughter is getting a hockey stick,” she says with a tip of her chin.
“This coming from the anti-marriage girl?”
She looks at her ring. “A little too late for that isn’t it?”
I brush the back of my knuckles over her cheek. “It’s never too late for anything, Kins.”
She throws her hands up in the air. “Parents,” she teases, lightening the mood. “They sure know how to do a number on us.”
She’s not wrong. “Do you think your parents believed we were legit?”
“They saw the ring, and Mom wants to throw a party so I think they believed us. What’s not to believe, we really are married.”
“Okay, let’s get moving.” I bend to give her a fast kiss, but it grows, expands, blossoms into something deeper, something warm and affectionate. We both take a fast breath when we part, and I say, “If we don’t go now, I’m going to toss you onto that bed and have my way with you.”
Passion and indecision dances in her eyes. “Can I have a raincheck?”
“Kiss me like that again and you can have anything you want,” I say.