Page 37 of Caught in the Middle

“Why are you making that face?” he asked.

She pressed her hands on the sides of her neck. “Cam, We. Can. Hear. Them.”

He looked at her in question and leaned forward, speaking just as slowly. “I. Know.”

She stared at him, her eyes growing bigger, waiting for him to get it.

He only stared back.

“If we can hear them, then they can hear us.”

He let out a sigh. “Emma, we aren’t doing anything wrong. And we’ve already been over this. There’s nothing they’ll hear that will indicate this is all fake.”

“Exactly,” she exclaimed. “They aren’t hearing anything from us.”

Dawning crossed his face as the thudding against the wall continued. Followed by a definite male grunt and a giggle. They both scrunched up their faces in disgust.

Emma spoke up again. “If this is going to be believable then we need to sell it.”

She was serious. He could see it plain as day on her face, yet he didn’t think she could mean what he thought she meant.

“Why are you looking at me like I just offended you?”

Cam fixed his face. “Are you suggesting we have sex just so they can hear us?” It wasn’t that he was against the idea, but he would much rather have sex with Emma because she wanted to, not to solidify a lie.

Her head drew back and eyes widened. “What? No!”

He quirked a brow in question.

“I meant like pretend to have sex or something,” she said. “I don’t know, but make it sound like we’re going to pound town too.”

He laughed. “Pound town?”

She ignored him. “We need to make it believable. I was so worried about them overhearing us say something damning that I forgot they’d expect us to be having sex like a normal couple.”

“You realize this is the first night we heard them go to pound town”–he held up air quotes with his fingers–“since being here, right? We don’t have to figure this out tonight.”

She looked at him in fervor. “Of course we need to figure it out tonight. They’ve been together longer than us. We should be in the infatuation stage, plus we’re in a long-distance relationship. They’d assume we wouldn’t be able to keep our hands off of each other.”

Cam grinned. “Maybe they think we’re the quiet type.”

“Asher knows I’m not quiet.”

He lost his grin and humor. “Fine. Then how do you suppose we fake an exhilarating and infatuated sex life?”

Emma was sitting on her knees now, her hands forming a steeple grip as she placed her pointer fingers against her lips and thought. “What about porn?” she asked, looking up. Unfortunately, Cam didn’t look convinced.

“And what? Play it loud against the wall?” He rubbed his temples.

“I don’t know. Maybe? It was just an idea.”

“Are you telling me that Asher expects you to sound like a porn star?” he asked, more terse than he’d meant.

She frowned. “Don’t be a jerk about it. I’m trying to think of something. Maybe you could help.”

He knew she didn’t understand that his frustration had nothing to do with her plans or ideas and everything to do with the image of her and Asher that she unintentionally placed in his head. He was more for the real sex now. At least then Asher and any other man in the vicinity would know no one made Emma as loud as he did.

“We could stream a movie and re-enact the love-making scene,” she suggested, still unaware of his internal conflict. “Maybe rock some furniture against the wall ourselves in time to it.”

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