Page 31 of Last Chance Seduction
“Lex?Where’d you go?”
I shook myself out of that thought.The thought of exactly how the hell I would be sleeping tonight, knowing she was so close.
I needed to stop letting my mind go down paths that weren’t good for anybody.
Mercy was a friend.A neighbor, and someone I hadn’t been able to stop dreaming about.
Just the memory of the dream I’d had the night before, knowing I’d have to pull off this farce this evening, had kept me up after I’d woken in a deep sweat at three a.m.
Memories of her hands on my skin, her lips covering my own.The way she would feel as I sank into her.
I tilted away from her slightly, knowing that if she saw the quickly rising hard-on I was about to get, she’d call me a menace.Or run away screaming.Probably the latter.
“Lex?What’s wrong?”The urgency in Mercy’s voice brought me back to the present once again, and I forced a smile and tried not to think about that kiss once again.
“Sorry.Just drifting.Trying to think about exactly how I got into this situation.”A pretty blush covered Mercy’s face, and I held back a curse.“Sorry.”
“No, it is my fault that we’re in this situation.I still can’t believe I did that.”
I snorted.“Honestly same.It’s so unlike us.”
“Well, I want you to win, and I wanted to kick her.And here we are.In a ridiculous situation that could only happen to me.”
“Why do you say that?”I asked, intrigued.
“I have my head in books all day, imagining odd situations that could possibly never happen in real life, so therefore I apparently made one of my own.”
I tilted my head, studying her face.She’d put on full glam makeup—in her words—and wore a dress that went nearly to her knees, knee boots, and thick tights.The dress was long sleeved and cut straight across her collarbone, but she also wore this jacket thing with odd angles, and it just looked damn good on her.
“Well, we’re here now.And I guess we should continue to get our stories straight?”I asked as I looked around the lower lobby area and hoped nobody was truly listening.
“What can I say, boyfriend of mine, I just couldn’t say no.”
A grin covered my face.“Oh yeah?Why is that exactly?”
“Are you searching for compliments?”
I rolled my eyes.“Always.I’m a Montgomery.And a middle child at that.”
“I thought you were the eldest of two.I know Silas.”
“It’s the middle child syndrome of the Montgomerys.All of us were raised as siblings rather than a big group of cousins, second cousins, and third cousins, and I’m in the middle.”
“Aw, poor baby.”
My lips twitched.“You should feel bad for me.”
“Well, don’t look now, but I’m not going to feel bad for you in this moment.”And with that, she slid her arm into mine and leaned against me.
I swallowed hard, my mouth going dry, then I realized it was all for show.
A damn good show.
“Lex, Mercy!You’re here.”Gia ran forward, her husband Samuel at her side.“I was wondering when you guys would show up.”
“We’re just waiting on our room.I know there’s two presentations that we’re going to head to before dinner as well.”
This conference was a large retreat that brought different construction companies, different contractors, and other types of people in the business together with large estate managers that were looking for groups to work with.It was a huge financial tangle, and my parents still didn’t do anything like this in their company.Neither did the Denver Montgomerys.But we were trying something different.If this didn’t work, then we wouldn’t do it again.I was already off to a rocky start considering I had to fake being togethjer with my neighbor that I kept having sex dreams about.
