Page 45 of Going All In

Chapter 9

It was reallyhappening. Darcy was not ready for this and it was going to be a disaster. Jake was going to run screaming after one meal with her family. Which was unfortunate because after their date the other night, she wanted more excuses to kiss him. Not that she planned to tell him that.

Good god, his mouth on hers was the definition of bliss. If they’d been sitting down, she would’ve been tempted to climb into his lap right in front of their friends.

Now it was Sunday night, at her parents’ house, and she wanted to go back to the other night and invite him into her bed so at least she could have the memory of that before it all went insane today. He’d told her it would be fine, but his brief interaction with her mother at the housewarming party was nothing compared to what may come tonight.

“Are you ready to get grilled?” she asked, looking over her shoulder as he followed her up the front walk to the house Darcy had grown up in.

“I’ve handled worse. Try shitty paps in New York when you get caught with the team owner’s daughter.”

“Yeah. I, ah, read about that,” she said, pausing a few feet from the front door.

“Don’t believe everything you read,” he said, his tone short.

“Sorry, but I wanted to know what would drive you to agree to this scheme.”

“All you had to do was ask.”

“Fine. I’m asking now.”

“Now? Right before we walk into your parents’ house?”

“Yep,” she said, unsure of why she was suddenly so combative. It didn’t matter what he did in New York because this wasn’t real. The kisses weren’t real. Enjoyable, and she wanted to repeat them way too often, but not real.

“Uh-oh, fighting already, Darcy?” her sister said from the open front door.

“What? Uh, no,” she said, lacing her fingers through Jake’s for good measure.

“Mom still has that school teacher lined up,” Lydia taunted.

“We were not fighting,” Darcy bit out.

“Definitely not fighting,” Jake said. Then he tugged her back against him, spun her in his arms, and sealed his lips to hers, swallowing her startled gasp.

She had no control over the moan that slipped out as she reached up and tangled her hands in his soft hair, holding him in place as he obliterated whatever they’d been talking about.

“Get a room. Jeez.” Her sister’s voice perforated her current state of bliss and she broke the kiss.

“See. Not fighting,” Darcy said with an implied I told you so. She may have sounded cool and collected, but her heart was somewhere in the vicinity of her stomach, and she wasn’t sure that her feet were on the ground.

“Man. Based on the tonsil hockey that just happened,” Lydia said, waving her hand between them, “the make-up sex when you do fight must be epic.”

Darcy coughed.

“Damn straight,” Jake said with confidence.

“Nice to meet you, Jake,” Lydia said, reaching out and tugging both of them into the house. “This should be fun.”

“I was just telling Darcy the same thing,” he said.

“Oh good, you’re finally here,” her mother said, poking her head into the hallway from the kitchen.

Right. Like the woman hadn’t been watching them through the kitchen window the moment they stepped out of the car.

“Hi, Mom,” Darcy said, giving her mother a quick hug.

“Hello, Mrs. Collins,” Jake said, offering the bottle of wine he’d brought with him.

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