Page 90 of The Love Bandits

“I’m sorry. My sister’s been a bad influence. I’m ashamed of myself.”

I wrap her into a hug, still laughing, and she hugs me back hard before I pull away. “I’m not mad. But I still don’t want you to tell Nicole. Let’s keep her on her toes. What’s the prize for guessing correctly?”

“The winner has to wear a Bronuts costume of the loser’s design and dance outside the bakery in it for an hour. Damien will basically be bankrolling my theoretical future child’s education if he does it.”

Because he’d be a hot man dressed up like a baked good. The tourists will show up in droves.

“But it would really torment Nicole if she had to do it,” I put in.

Claire and I both laugh at the mental image, before she shakes her head. “It’s too bad you had to go and sleep with him.”

I laugh and give her arm another shove. “I regret nothing.”

She jumps up and down on her feet and actually claps her hands, as if my sex life is a boy band concert. “Oh my God. You confirmed it! I want to know everything. Did you…” She moves her hand in a yada-yada gesture.

“Yes,” I say, seeing movement through the glass in the door—Jake and Declan, coming back toward the house. “But seriously don’t tell her,” I continue in an undertone. “Let’s let her sweat a little. She’d never admit it, but she’s worried she’ll be the one wearing those balls.”

“Okay,” Claire says, her eyes shining as she glances past me through the glass. She reaches out and squeezes my hand. “I’m glad you’re having fun, Lainey. You deserve it.”

She doesn’t ask if it’s more than fun, because Claire probably can’t imagine I’d ever want more with a thief—a man who has made his living on the wrong side of the law. She’s known me as the Lainey who zeroed in on the first rich, handsome, and connected man who crossed my path in college.

A part of me wishes she’d see what I haven’t said, even if she’d only reach the same conclusion I have—that I can only live in the moment with him, because that’s all we’re ever going to get.

Claire and Declan head out to help Rosie pack, but they leave the fire blazing in the pit, so Jake and I stay out there until it’s late, the sky painted entirely black.

We talk about the Love Fixers andMatchmaking Small Town America. We discuss our favorite Thai takeout places in New York, argue about the best place to get bagels, and have a stirring debate about which subway line is the least reliable.

We do not talk about Thursday, or what will happen if and when we locate the necklace.

We do not talk about the text messages he gets every morning from his brother’s captor.

And when our words run out, he keeps looking at me, studying me by the warm light of the fire.

“Why are you staring at me?” I ask.

He smiles and shakes his head. “I can’t seem to stop looking at you. You’re gorgeous.”

My breath catches, but I’m already feeling exposed in a way I’m not used to. With Todd, I was unhappy, but I never felt like he could truly break me—only bend me until I fit a different image. So I clear my throat and say, “If you tell me I look even better than the view, I’m going to throttle you.”

“You can throttle me if you’d like,” he says with a slow, lazy grin that stirs something in me. “In fact, I was just wondering if you’d ever had sex by a campfire before. That seems like the kind of thing that would do it for my little exhibitionist.”

“My best friend lives next door.”

His smile spreads wider. “You’ve assured me they have new windows, and they already did their nightly check-in for Nicole and Damien. So there’s nothing holding us back.”

“You knew?” I ask, laughing, getting up from my chair, pushed up next to his, and climbing into his lap. He slides his hand up the back of my long-sleeved shirt, his eyes softeningonce his flesh is pressed to mine—as if he needs this as much as I do.

“I don’t blame them,” he says, expertly unlatching my bra before sliding his hands around to the front to cup me. “I like that they’re concerned for you. You should have someone out here who’s worried about you.”

I don’t tell him that I’d like that someone to be him—I decide I’d prefer to show him.

It turns out sex outsidedoesdo it for me. Although I have a sinking suspicion that it’s Jake Not-Jeffries who’s the real secret to my sudden ability to orgasm on command.

He stays in my room that night. The three of us do—Jake, me, and Professor X, who falls asleep on top of Jake, not that I blame her.

To my surprise, he’s awake before I am, sketching in his book at the kitchen table. When I come down to the kitchen, I glance over his shoulder and grin when I see that he’s drawing the cookie bouquet. He and I are in the scene too, wearing the costumes from the picture he sketched for the door yesterday.

“You have a gift,” I say, leaning down to press a kiss to his head. He drops the colored pencil and grabs my hand, pulling me into his lap.

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