Page 32 of Pretend

“From the safety of solid ground?” she suggested, sounding hopeful as she once again found herself looking back over her shoulder and-

Oh, God…

“And I’m going to need you to let go of all the bullshit and just enjoy this lovely present that I got for you,” Eric said as Morgan stood there, hanging onto the rope for dear life as she watched the man that really didn’t look happy that he had to wait, take another step onto the bridge that wasn’t built to hold eight people.

“I can do that,” Morgan said, more than happy to agree to anything if that meant living to see another day. “Can we please go now?”

“We could, but wouldn’t you rather watch the sunset? I bet it’s beautiful from up here,” Eric said with a satisfied sigh.

“I would rather throw you off this bridge,” Morgan mumbled hollowly as she watched the wife gesture for her husband to go.

“That does sound like fun, but I was thinking that we could seal this deal,” Eric said, drawing her attention to find him watching her.

“How?” she asked, only to mumble, whimper, and do a weird combination of the two when the bridge started swaying again.

“With a kiss,” Eric said with a satisfied sigh.

She opened her mouth only to gasp, forget how to breathe, and finally managed a tightly murmured, “Fine,” when the bridge started shaking in a way that didn’t feel promising.

“Unfortunately, you took too long to decide, so now it’s going to cost you two kisses, one here and one at the end of the bridge,” Eric said with a long-suffering sigh and a sad shake of his head as though this somehow pained him.

She was going to push him off this damn bridge.

“And if I say no?” Morgan demanded, even though she’d be lying if she said that she didn’t want to kiss him again, but it was the principle of the thing, she didn’t like being screwed with and he knew it.

“Well, then, I guess we’ll find out how many people this bridge can hold,” Eric drawled with a pointed look past her.

Frowning, Morgan followed his gaze only to feel her stomach drop as she watched the family of six start to make their way towards them. Not really in the mood to see how this ended, she turned around, reached up with one hand and cupped the back of Eric’s neck, yanking him down for that kiss.

As soon as her lips touched his, she felt herself melting, wishing that she could enjoy the groan that he released, but at the moment, Morgan had more pressing issues to deal with. With one last brush of her lips, she released her hold on him and gestured for him to move his ass. With an incredibly sexy grin and a wink, he took her trembling hand in his and led her towards the other end of the bridge while she mumbled, “Please move faster,” over and over again until they finally reached the other side.

As soon as her feet touched solid ground again, Morgan released his hand, moved to put as much distance as she could between her and that bridge, only to remember the deal. Grumbling, she turned around, grabbed hold of Eric’s shirt and yanked him down for another kiss before releasing him so that she could kick his shin. Ignoring his pained grunt, Morgan turned around and walked away, more determined than ever to find out what he was up to and-

“Worth it.”

-felt her lips twitch, damn him!

CHAPTER19

She was about to break, Eric thought, taking a sip of his beer to hide his smile as he watched the woman that had been struggling to find a way around his rules since this morning drop down on the chair across from him.

He watched as Morgan narrowed her eyes on him, shifted to get comfortable, crossed her arms over her chest, only to rethink the move and settled for drumming her fingertips against the antique table that she still hadn’t figured out that his great-grandfather built and settled for trying to intimidate him with a glare. God, she was so fucking cute, Eric thought as he waited for her next move.

She didn’t say anything, but then again, he didn’t expect her to.

Morgan had a system, one that never worked but that never stopped her from trying. For whatever reason, she thought that she could break him with silence, glares, and when that didn’t work, she moved onto the interrogation stage. The only thing stopping her from moving onto the interrogation stage this time was his rules.

She couldn’t bring up Baker House and he knew that she desperately wanted to bring it up, which meant…

“Start talking,” Morgan said, and when he didn’t say anything, she gestured for him to get on with it, hoping that it would be enough to get him to talk and letting him know everything that he needed to know.

It was his turn.

“We could always talk about all of those things that you’ve been hiding from me,” Eric suggested, watching as she went still seconds before the panicked look that he’d been waiting for all day took over, confirming his suspicions.

“What makes you think that I’m hiding something?” Morgan asked, not quite able to meet his gaze as she noticeably struggled not to shift in her seat, knowing that it would give her away.

“Because I know you,” Eric said, watching her closely as he debated how he wanted to do this, but then again, that depended on her next move.

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