Page 70 of Seduction in Spades

None.

What. So. Ever.

“I shouldn’t have come. Why don’t you put me up in a hotel for the weekend? You said there was no way anyone would be able to track us here with both of us using fake IDs.” One of his SEAL team picked us up and drove us to the airport under the guise of a driver with the casino’s hospitality shuttle service. Nolan and Trey have gone to great measures to keep us safe.

“The nearest hotel to my parents’ is twenty minutes away.”

“Perfect. That’s about how long it takes to get to my apartment from the casino.”

“Your apartment is less than three miles. The hotel is close to twenty miles away.”

“Twenty miles? How redneck are you?” My attempt at humor falls flat. “Kidding. Well, you and Trey put me into this position, so you figure it out.”

Nolan nods and starts the car. We drive in silence for more than thirty minutes before he turns off the highway, and it’s nothing but dark, windy roads. We come to a four-way stop and no one else is on the road.

Pretty dead town for eight o’clock at night.

Nolan puts the car in park and turns toward me. “We’re dating.”

“What? That’s not how it works. You don’t just tell someone you’re dating. It’s called asking.”

Shit. If he asks, I’ll have to turn him down, no matter how tempting it would be to say yes. I fidget with my fingers in my lap.

He rubs his hand across his face. “It’s what we’ll tell my family. We’ve just started seeing each other, and I asked you to come with me.”

I snort and shake my head. “That’s not very believable. What guy brings a woman to meet his family if they’ve only started dating?” I tap my fingers against my thigh. “How many girlfriends have you brought home?”

“None.”

My breath catches in my throat.Shit.This is too much pressure. “Yeah. So, that’s a hard no then.”

“Why? My family will love you.”

“Why?” I turn to him. “You’ve never brought a girlfriend home before, like, ever?”

He shakes his head.

“So bringing me, a supposed girlfriend, to meet the family is a lot. Like a fucking lot. They’ll think we’re... more than dating. And if your family actuallydoeslove me, then it will feel even more dishonest when they eventually find out we’re not...”

Hell, I can’t say it. I want more with Nolan. So much more. And that scares me. It goes against my plan. He’s a freaking distraction from my job, which I was hellbent on avoiding when I moved to Boston. My entire life I’ve had to be a responsible adult, carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders. I’m finally able to be free from responsibilities other than myself, and then Nolan stepped into my life.

Even if I was ready to take on the added pressure of a relationship, it can’t be with Nolan. There’s too much pressure because of my brother. When the time comes that Nolan is no longer interested in me, I worry he’ll stay because he doesn’t want to hurt my brother. He hates going behind Trey’s back, and if his family believes we’re in a relationship, he’ll keepdatingme to make his family happy. He’s that kind of guy.

When I’m ready, if I’m ever ready, I want my first honest-to-goodness relationship with a man to be genuine.

He pinches the back of his neck, clearly frustrated with me. “We can paint you as a damsel in distress. I’m helping you out by removing you from a bad situation. It’s the truth, only my family will think it’s about another man, which, in reality, it is. Only, the other man is trying to...”

“Kill me,” I whisper, dropping my chin to my chest. “I don’t want to bring fear to your family, especially on your niece’s birthday.”

“Okay.” He puts the car in motion and drives down two more back roads before turning onto a dead end. He pulls into a driveway and shuts the rental off. I look up and take in the stereotypical middle-class two-story home.

It sits on a nice piece of property, the neighboring house not so close to hear all the conversations from the backyard, but close enough in case of an emergency.

The front porch lights are on, as are the lights in the front room. The glow from a television flickers. An upstairs light goes off, and another one downstairs turns on. A moment later, the front door opens.

“Fair warning. My mom gets really excited when I come home.” An adorably petite woman waves vigorously at the door.

Nolan gets out of the car, and I watch as he rounds the hood to my side. When he opens my door and offers his hand, I take it, too nervous not to. He squeezes my hand and guides me to the front of the house.

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