Page 57 of He's The Reason Why

“Fine.” He’d agree to almost anything to end this conversation.

“Having her sleep over is pretty damn close to asking her out,” Marshall pointed out.

“It’s not a date. I’m just being nice. It’s late. You’re sleeping over too, and I’m sure as hell not askingyouout.” Maybe he should make Marshall sleep by the pool.

“She’s spending all day with you too.”

“We’reworking.”

“She’ll be spending all day with you while I’ll be out of town.”

“Yep.”

“Okay, if you want to play it that way, let’s make a deal.”

Marshall’s deals were usually complicated and filled with hidden traps and loopholes, and he almost always won unless Blake got in the first shot.

“Fine. You can’t sleep with Piper while we have an active project, and if you do, I get your vintage Mustang. The cherry-red one.”

“Oh no. It’s not that easy. If I can’t sleep with her, neither can you, untilScorchedwraps. Then it’s free for all, fair game, no rules. Deal?”

“No way.” Blake lowered his voice, just in case. “If we do this, it has to last until afterConned.”

That would give him more time to work with her without fear of her being swept away by Marshall’s vortex of charm.

Marshall gaped. “That’s going to take months.”

“It’s not prison. You aren’t swearing offallwomen. Justthisone.”

Marshall considered him. “You’re saying webothgo hands-off Piper untilConnedwraps.”

“Yes.”

Had he heard footsteps?

It was too dark to tell if there was someone on the porch through the frosted glass. He could check his security feed, but then it would look like he was stalking her or something.

“Fine. For the record, I’m not buying this holier-than-thou attitude you have going. I think you are a hell of a lot more into her than you’re letting on, but whatever. I’m game. We need stakes.”

“She’s coming back any second,” Blake hissed. “We can talk about it later.”

“Then we better nail this down quick,” Marshall said,unmoved. “She’s staying under your roof, there have to be stakes in case you decide to go wandering around in what’s left of the night.”

Blake gestured for him to wrap it up. “It’s your deal. You go first.”

“If you cross the line, you have to…” Marshall tilted his head in thought. A crafty, devious smirk spread across his friend’s face. “I got it. If you screw up, you have to take the buddy role inShe’s All Mine.Shooting starts inSeptember, and they asked me the other day if you’d be interested.”

Blake thought about that. It took him a few seconds to zero in on the catch. “Didn’t you say they were tapping Rachel for the lead?”

“That’s right!” he said with a smug satisfied smile. “You’ll get to be the one Rachel dumps to get to me.”

Blake closed his eyes and counted to five. “This is ridiculous. You can’t just promise to keep your hands off a woman for a couple of months? It’s that hard?”

“I can. I don’t thinkyoucan. I saw the way you looked at her.” Marshall gave him an I-know-you-better-than-you-know-yourself smirk. “If you can’t handle the stakes, then I’m asking her out when she comes back in here.”

“I haven’t said no.” He itched to pull up the camera feeds on his phone. What the hell was she doing out there? “If you so much askissher, even on the cheek, I win and you have to…”

He sifted through all the asinine things they’d done over the years, but none of them fit this situation. Singing karaoke on a plane wasn’t nearly enough to get back at him for this. Neither was streaking down the beach at sunset. Neither was having to drink an entire bottle of hot sauce.

---