Page 42 of Misadventures With My Fake Fiancé

“Or something,” he replied, smiling back.

The tense mood broke. The unknown about the job in New York was put to the side. For now. His friend was still gone, Mike—and anyone else so far from a hospital—unable to save him. After years of schooling, Mike must have learned not everyone could be saved. Even I knew that and I could only apply a Band-Aid to a cut. That didn't make the loss of a friend any easier to bear or the feeling of helplessness to lessen. Was he continuing to strive for more, career-wise, as atonement? Was he considering moving to New York because he really hadn't come to terms with his friend's death?

Mike had given me a glimpse into his cache of emotions, seeing more of him than I ever had before. What made him tick. What made him the man he was today. The more I learned, the more I liked who he'd become. I darted a glance at him. He was backlit by the sun that bled through a hole in the clouds, his face set in dark shadows, but his smile, his straight white teeth were unmistakable. He hadn't changed much; a few laugh lines, stronger jaw, and more facial hair than at eighteen.More.

I wanted him. Wanted a relationship that was based on more than assumptions and youthful fantasy. But was sex worth it? I couldn't have a one night stand, especially with Mike. Emotions were involved. Hell, emotions had always been involved. But any kind of casual relationship, if only for a few weeks before he left me again, was still that—casual. I was terrible at casual.

A deep rut in the road brought me out of my depressing thoughts. I grabbed the “oh, shit” bar as we went over a patch of potholes and upheaved pavement from what appeared to have been a washout. Mud and small rocks covered the road.

“I love my uncle's truck. Winters can be rough here and he likes to hunt. It's man-sized. Not like that?—”

“Clown car,” I added.

“—clown car of a rental,” he finished off with angst. This Monster Truck was his kind of vehicle. In fact, he had one similarly sized at home.

The interior was decked out with leather seats, a center console with enough gadgets to coordinate a space launch, and spacious enough for three lumberjacks side-by-side, I could still pick up Mike's scent. It was as if it had been hard coded on my brain graduation night. Soap, fabric softener and pure male. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

In the window of time before this trip and since Mike had moved back to Bozeman, we'd run into each other occasionally, at a party or a wedding. Veronica was a close friend, so we went out as a group here and there. But we hadn't been alone together since...since graduation night. We'd been in a truck then, too. And he'd given me a much different ride. Maybe he was hard coded to other parts of my body, too, because I felt tingles in all the right places. I shouldn't want him. It would only lead to heartache, but my body seemed to think differently, or didn't care. I was in big trouble.

“I've been waiting to hear about this book of yours.”

Oh, crap.

I waved my hand in the air with fake nonchalance. “It's nothing.”

“When someone who reads the book needs new panties, it's not nothing.”

I glanced at him, felt my cheeks heat. “You remember Goldie saying that?”

“I'm a man. How could I forget?”

I stared at the scenery for a minute or two, getting up enough nerve to spill the beans. “Goldie talked me into writing a romance novel. I guess she shared it with someone on her flight. That's it.”

“And the panties?”

I rolled my eyes and mumbled, “One track mind.” I paused. “Fine. It's what some people might consider erotic.”

Mike turned to glance at me. Smiled. “Really? That's pretty hot.”

“You think everything is hot.”

He ignored my comment. “Can I read it?”

“Hell, no.”

He studied me for a second before watching the road again. “You seem...embarrassed by it.”

“Absolutely. It's personal and I feel...exposed...knowing Goldie shared it with others.”

“Will you read it to me instead?”

I just gave him the evil eye as he grinned. “We're clearly not headed back to town,” I said, changing the subject.

“I'm taking you into the wilds of Alaska to give you what you want.”

Yes, please!

My mouth fell open, a current of heated energy coursed through me as if I was zapped by a live wire. My nipples hardened and other places got damp at the very thought of Mike giving me what I wanted. “Oh?” I asked breathlessly. “And what might that be?”

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