Otherwise Engaged: A Fake Engagement Romance
Otherwise Engaged: Chapter 32

The minute we stepped out of the restaurant, an ear-splitting crack of thunder echoed, and the sky opened up, drenching the streets like a bucket of water turned upside down. I told Bennett it was a bad omen; he laughed and waved me off, blaming it on the tail end of hurricane season—but he didn’t know what I knew.

Torrential rain poured down as our cab sped back to the resort, traveling down the highway at an alarming speed given the poor road conditions. Quinn and the rest of the girls had stayed behind to shop, but I begged off due to a lack of sleep that had left me dizzy with fatigue. After an afternoon nap, I was going to meet them in Quinn’s room for drinks… not that she was drinking. Why wasn’t she drinking?

Bennett’s deep voice jolted me back to reality, interrupting my train of thought just as it started to go off the rails. “Are you upset about having to cover the bill?”

“What?” I croaked, turning away from the window to face him. His tanned arm was slung around my shoulders, tucking me into him like two pieces of a puzzle, but even the comforting weight of his body wrapped around mine wasn’t enough to stop the spin cycle in my brain. “No, not at all.”

“Are you sure? I’ll pay you back once I move some money around.” He regarded me with a mixture of concern and apprehension—the subtext being, he thought I actually cared about his credit card balance. I’d have been offended, had I possessed the adequate mental bandwidth.

“I promise, Bennett. It isn’t that. It’s just…” My throat snapped shut like a vise, cutting off the words. I drew in a gulp of air, but it felt like all the oxygen had been sucked out of the vehicle. Bennett’s frown deepened as he watched me, waiting for me to finish the sentence. “I noticed that Quinn wasn’t drinking,” I explained.

“So?” He shrugged, pulling me closer. I nestled against his shirt and turned my face toward him slightly, inhaling the heavenly scent of rain mixed with his cologne. “She’s probably hungover.”

If only that was the reason. I rubbed the band of my engagement ring with the pad of my thumb, caressing the smooth polished metal. It was nervous habit I’d picked up at some point on this bizarre journey—a habit I would have to break eventually, which was just another bullet point on my itemized list of problems.

The cab pulled through the wrought iron gates leading to the resort complex, slowly winding along the driveway lined with manicured bushes and colorful arrays of tropical flowers.

“Still want to take a nap when we get back?” Bennett’s other hand slid from my knee, up to my bare thigh, and his long fingers toyed with the lace-trimmed hem of my sundress. A flicker of desire sparked my core, stoking with every small movement he made, but I made an effort to keep my face impassive.

“Why, what did you have in mind?”

He reached up and tugged affectionately at the damp ends of my hair. Ducking his head, he lowered his voice to a velvety hush. “Since we’re already wet, we should put that shower bench to good use.”

“We’ll see.” It was a lie; I didn’t even know what he meant, and I still wanted it.

THE REMAINDER of the trip flew by in a lust-filled, hormone-fueled blur. I was flying so high that Millie and Adam’s presence barely even fazed me. Before I knew it, we’d arrived back home—but everything had changed.

After two more days of very little sleep, lots of sex, and rapidly growing feelings, I was deeper in than I’d ever been before and even less eager to broach the ‘what are we doing’ subject. Sure, Bennett had whispered sweet nothings in my ear in and out of the bedroom all weekend long, but I still didn’t know what any of it meant, and I was fairly certain I was headed for heartache. His track record spoke for itself.

Despite that, the weak part of me was content to enjoy this state of ignorant bliss while it lasted. And by weak part, I meant the part between my legs. Okay, fine. It wasn’t fair to blame it on that. My stupid, traitorous heart was the one driving the bus—and my heart was drunk on him. That was what made it so scary.

Bennett walked me to my front door, and we lingered outside, engaging in the longest goodbye in the history of humankind while I prayed none of my neighbors would walk by and see us making out like teenagers in the hall.

His fingers raked through his hair, cocky post-kiss grin turning sheepish. “I wish I could see you sooner, Thay, but I’m going to be swamped all week. I have to head straight into the office from here to catch up on work. Plus, with what you found…” His smile faded, and his lips pulled into a terse frown. “I have to do some more digging, and I have to do it myself. I can’t risk letting a forensic auditor poke around in the books. For several reasons.”

“It’s okay,” I said, only half-meaning it. “It’s only a couple of days, and I have a ton to catch up on, too.”

Not only did I need to prepare for our grand opening of our third location three months from now, but I also needed to replace a way to talk to Quinn about Adam and our father’s investment in his company. I had to replace an approach that would minimize the fallout. Only, I was fairly certain there wasn’t one. It was going to be a disaster.

The rational part of me also knew some time apart from Bennett would be good. It might give me a chance to catch my breath, clear my head. Maybe I could consider it a detox period, like an addict going cold turkey. Except I’d be right back at square one this Friday, when we were supposed to have dinner at Bennett’s place to strategize before seeing Callaghan for dinner the following evening. I was pretty sure “strategize” was code for something else, especially since we didn’t exactly need to plan or practice the relationship side of things lately. That was coming all too naturally.

Bennett walked me a few steps back until I was pressed up against my front door, leveling me with another scorching kiss before slowly, reluctantly pulling away. With every other man I’d been involved with, I was eager—verging on desperate—for a break after a single night of shared sleeping accommodations. But right now, I felt a different sort of desperation entirely, because I didn’t want him to leave.

“I should go,” he murmured, brushing his lips against mine.

“Okay.”

He groaned, tightening his grip on my waist. “But I don’t want to.”

I laughed. “I’ll see you in three days.”