Page 60 of Lie With Me

She might as well be wearing a wedding gown. Her dress is all satin with beaded embellishments, hugging every curve with a slit up the side that nearly reaches her thigh.

“I can’t believe Margo picked out this dress. I absolutely love it, and I hate that,” she grumbles.

“Oh, come on now, I helped a little. Sent her in the right direction after the first few she sent me pictures of,” Ginny tells her, turning to loop their arms together.

“Oh, but I thought she just found them while she was out shopping,” Lenni impersonates in a high-pitched tone.

I have no idea what she’s talking about. It’s news to me that my mother picked out her dress, and a little surprising she’d pick out something so showy, but it’s very Lenni. “You look beautiful.”

Her eyes find mine reluctantly. “Thank you. You don’t look so bad yourself.”

“We’re going to go down to the car and let you two talk for a moment,” Ginny exclaims, grabbing Jackson’s hand and leading him to the elevator.

“Can I fuck you in the car while we wait for them?” he asks her.

I don’t hear her response as Lenni walks closer to me, leaving about a foot of space between us. “How are you?” she asks.

“I’m okay.”

Silence infuses the space between us, somehow filling the empty penthouse and making it louder than words. She looks anywhere but at me until, finally, I sweep forward and pull her into my arms, burying my face in her loose waves. “I missed you.” I breathe into her hair.

Eventually, I feel her arms wrap around me, her body relaxing into my embrace. “Me too.”

Pulling back, I thread my fingers through her hair and tilt her head back so I can kiss her. Our bodies melt into each other, the overwhelming feeling ofhomecoursing through me as she kisses me back with equal fervor.

When we pull away, I rest my forehead on hers. “Can we not go a week without seeing each other again? I hated every single second of the past seven days.”

Her lips thin into a melancholy smile. “Yeah, it sucked, didn’t it?”

“You believe me, don’t you? That nothing happened with that woman?” My fingers grip her skin like I’m afraid she will disappear at any moment.

Removing her arms from around my neck, she runs her hands down my chest, the diamond on her finger sparkling brightly against my black suit jacket. “Yeah, I believe you.”

“Good.” I kiss her forehead. “Are you ready for the circus?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be, I think. Thank you for agreeing to go with Ginny and Jackson. They’re the only people I’m going to know there. Besides your parents, obviously.” She steps out of my arms to retrieve a beaded cream purse, then turns and reaches her hand out to me.

Taking it, I pull her into my side as we head for the elevator. “Of course. I want you to feel comfortable. Don’t feel like you need to pretend to be someone else tonight. Just be you. Everyone will love you.”

Just like I do.

When we exit the car, I’m pleased that there isn’t a red carpet or a crowd of paparazzi waiting for us.

“Wow, no red carpet entrance? Your engagement party sits lower on the social scale than her birthday,” Ginny muses as Jackson helps her out of the other side of the car.

Mother likes to make a huge deal out of her parties, but Lenni expressed she’d rather skip the tabloid pictures if we could help it. As much as Lenni wanted my mother to think our relationship wouldn’t last far enough to get us to the actual altar, I’m starting to think she’s having the opposite effect.

“I didn’t want any of that. Margo obliged me since I let her have control over basically everything else,” Lenni says as she anxiously dusts imaginary lint from her dress. She was so nervous on the way here that I had to hold both of her hands in the car so she’d stop picking at her newly manicured fingernails.

“Everything is going to be fine,” I whisper to her, squeezing her hand as I kiss her temple.

“There’s a great little spot up on the balcony for stress relief, if you know what I mean,” Jackson jests as they walk past us, and Ginny smacks his shoulder in response.

“I knew you two did something when you went out there on Mom’s birthday!” The last time we were here, sans Lenni, they disappeared outside for a while. When they came back, it was only to say a quick goodbye before they left.

“Ooh yeah, I forgot about the balcony! Ginny told me all about it. I didn’t think you’d be into voyeurism, Jackson,” Lenni responds, looping her arm through mine as we ascend the stairs.

“No one saw us,” he tells her.

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