Page 109 of Undeniably Enemies

“Fine. I’ll take your warning under advisement.” He turns back to me with a devilish smirk that does wild things to my insides. “Or we can just stay up late reading them together.”

He leans in and drops a kiss on the corner of my lips while simultaneously giving my hand that he’s holding a squeeze. We’re out in the open in the freaking mall together. Anyone could see us like this, but he’s holding my hand, and I like it too much to pull away or stop it. Jack and I ate dinner in front of the TV last night while we bickered over what movie to watch. He ate from my plate because he said my food tasted better than his, even though it was the same thing. After, we went to bed for more hot, dirty sex, talked for hours, and then he slept over.

But he didn’t just sleep in my bed.

The bastard held me all night. After he said, “Good night, beautiful Wren. I love you.” Then, of course, there was rolling around in bed this morning followed by the run from hell.

We’re doing this. Like full-on, in a relationship doing this. At least that’s what he says, and the whiplash is something else. I’ve trained myself to hate this man for years. Not love him. But what I told him was the truth. This is the grown woman,you pulled a trick play and snuck your puck past my goalie and into my net and scored on mekind of love.

It’s thewhere is this going, want to scream about it from the rooftops and talk about it all day long to the point where I annoy the fuck out of my girlfriends, I’m way too into himkind of love. And I don’t want that kind of love again. Not with him. I mean, I do. I do want it. Only like he said to me last night, I’m scared of it.

But I’m trying not to be.

I’m trying to have faith that this time, I won’t get railroaded and crushed. Same as him.

So I’m holding his hand as we’re book shopping and then going out for lunch because that’s what couples do on Saturdays. At least I think that’s what they do. I’m not sure I’ve ever had a healthy relationship before, and that alone gives me pause and makes me consider what this is a little harder.

“And here we are. What should our next read be? I likeaudio for while I’m working out or running, but I like a paperback for night.”

I laugh lightly, shaking my head at his incorrigible smile that never fails to make my belly swoop and flutter. “What tropes do you want?”

His face pinches up. “We’re back there, huh?”

“It’s an important topic for any romance book lover.”

“Wren, I’ll be honest with you. I have no clue what tropes are what. I read the story and the sex is hot. That’s it.”

I contain my smirk. “But what about microtropes, though?”

His eyes bulge. “You’re fucking with me, right?”

I giggle and bite into my lip. “Not even a little.”

He drags a hand across his face and back through his hair as he dauntingly stares at the romance section. “They’re just books.”

“Oh no,” I correct him with a hand on his chest, my other panned toward the stacks of books. “These are notjust books. These are feels. These are swoons. These are screams. These are strength. These areoh my fucking god, did he just do that? These areholy shit, I want that done to me. These areI’ll never be the same after reading that, and this now lives rent-free in my head for eternity.”

“Shit. I’m so out of my league here. You pick.”

“I picked the last two. Your turn.”

He stares balefully at the hundreds of books before us and nervously turns back to me. “I have no clue where to start. I just continued the series because I didn’t know who else I’d like or what would be good.” Then he laughs. “Maybe I should ask Owen. I remember Katy put a few books like this on his bookshelves for him to read.”

I scrunch my nose. “Um, no. And can we just not? That’s my brother.”

He glances around, and when he’s sure the coast is clear, he drags me into his chest and his mouth into my neck. “Thanksfor the reminder.” He kisses me, a warm trail of them up and down my sensitive skin that leaves goose bumps in their wake. “Do you like suspense or action?”

I shrug against him. “I’ve never tried it, but I’m sorta indifferent if not meh.”

“Oh, baby. Don’t knock it till you try it.” He nibbles on my pulse—it’s one of his favorite spots. “Let’s go with a suspense one because typically that’s what I’ve read in the past. Without the hot and heavy sex, but I’m positive we can find one that incorporates both. The other we’ll go with…”

“Something funny. I could use a romcom to balance out the suspense and action.”

He kisses just beneath my ear, his arms wrapped around my stomach as he holds me close. “Perfect.” He squeezes my boobs. “Like these.”

I swat his hands away, but he’s gone before I can even get a good hit in, already at the shelves and digging through in search of the perfect book.

We end up with two. One titledCatching Sin,where she’s under a mob boss’s thumb, and he plants her in a casino to work for the people who run it, except she ends up falling for her boss there, who’s a lot older than her and a bit of a golden retriever alpha hero, which I like. There’s also no scary ex in it, so that’s a win for me. The romcom we pick up is a Christmas book about an Irish rock star or something. I don’t know, but it sounded adorable and steamy.

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