The Pretend Fiancé (3 page)

"Good," Aiden replied, nodding to himself.

"But there's actually something I'd love even more," Gwen said, looking up into his eyes.

"And what's that?"

"You and me alone in that big suite. In that big bed. Just the two of us..."

"That would be nice," Aiden said.

"So why don't we ditch this party and head upstairs? No one will notice... Not for a while, at least." The more she thought about it, the more she wanted it. The more she wanted him. "Come on," she said.

"Not yet," Aiden replied.

Gwen didn't know what to say to that. Was he really refusing her?

"Why not?"

"Just wait a little bit longer, for me, please. I promise you it will be worth it," he said.

Ignoring the pain, she went up on her tiptoes so that she could whisper into his ear, "And I promise if you come upstairs with me right now, it will be worth it." She finished by sucking his earlobe in between her teeth and then slowly letting it pull back out.

Aiden shivered, gooseflesh breaking out on his neck, and she knew she had him. Her body responded to his, heat building deep and low inside of her.

"Not yet," he said, crushing her with his words.

"What is wrong with you today?" Gwen said, dropping back down from her tiptoes. Pain lanced up through her calves, making her wince, making her frustration boil over. "I'm going upstairs right now, whether you come with me or not. And if you don't come with me, then I'll let you know that you shouldn't bother coming at all. I think they have some comfy looking couches out in the lobby." Why did men have to be so unbelievably dense sometimes? Well, this time she intended to teach him a lesson.

She pulled away from him, but he managed to catch her wrist before she could make a clean break. "Gwen, please stay."

"No!" she said, tugging away from him just as an usher in a black suit ran up and whispered to him.

She made ready to storm off through the dancing crowd. Except the crowd had stopped dancing. Now they all stood and watched, a few of them whispering excitedly to each other.

Beatrice stood with a guy Gwen didn't recognize. Her friend's eyes were wide, and she kept glancing between Gwen and Aiden. "Holy..." she started, before clapping a hand over her mouth.

Gwen's skin prickled. What was happening? Why was everyone acting so strangely?

The music had stopped, too. And then the lights dimmed and a spotlight came on.

Gwen could feel everyone's eyes on her. The people sitting at the tables around the room had stood to get a better view.

"Gwen..." Aiden said.

Her first thought was that something had gone horribly wrong. That maybe her dress had ripped without her knowing and she'd been dancing mostly in the nude this whole time. That something awful had happened.

"Gwen," Aiden said again.

"Yes?" Gwen said, her eyes skipping around the crowd, looking for some avenue of escape. She tried catching B's eyes, but her friend still looked too shell-shocked to do anything to help her.

"Turn around."

"What's going on?" Gwen said, turning slowly.

Her breath caught in her throat when she saw him. The spotlight illuminated a large circle on the floor, its light showing Aiden down on one knee. He held a hand out to her. "Come closer," he said.

She accepted his outstretched hand, her legs barely wanting to move. The pain in her feet tried catching her attention, but she blocked it out.

"Gwendolyn Browning," Aiden said, giving her a small smile to say he'd skipped her middle name on purpose, "I've never met anyone like you in my life. I've never loved anyone like I love you. When you smile, it lights up my life. Nothing makes me happier than being with you, and I can't even imagine a life without you..."

Aiden reached into his jacket and pulled out a small, dark box. Gwen couldn't take her eyes of it. Part of her desperately wanted to blink, to stop the dryness. That part of her lost to the rest of her, which didn't want to miss even a single heartbeat's worth of this moment.

She felt glued to the spot, rooted there. If the fire alarm went off, she wouldn't have moved.

Aiden opened the box to reveal the ring nestled within. The light from the spotlight glittered and scintillated in the diamonds and a bead of light shifted on the white gold band. It was the most breathtaking, the most beautiful, and the most terrifying piece of jewelry that Gwen had ever laid eyes on.

"You complete me, Gwen. Will you complete me for the rest of our lives? Will you marry me?"

The crowd held its collective breath, all the whispering stopped. Even the valets and ushers and butlers had shifted their trays to more comfortable positions. Not that Gwen really noticed any of that.

The first hot blob of a tear rolled out from the corner of Gwen's eye and down her cheek. "Yes," she said, barely whispering the word. When she realized how quietly she'd spoken, she repeated it, louder.

She couldn't hold her hand steady as Aiden plucked the ring from its box. He took her finger gently, calming her, and slid the ring down. It was a perfect fit. Gwen could feel the weight of it on her hand.

Then Aiden stood and pulled her close and kissed her, his mouth so hot on hers. The room practically exploded with cheers and hoots.

"I knew it! Let me see!" Beatrice said, elbowing her way through the crowd of well-wishers and grabbing Gwen's hand to get a better look. "Look at those rocks!"

Gwen didn't say much, mostly because she had to keep wiping away tears. And also because her face hurt from the enormous smile glued to it.

Soon enough, Aiden forced a path through the crowd and led her through it.

***

J
udith Manning was not impressed. Not impressed at all. She'd been the only person in the ballroom not to stand up and watch the show. She'd already known what was going to happen. Only a moron couldn't have figured it out.

Though she had noted the way that Gwen girl's eyes popped when she saw that gaudy, pricey engagement ring that Aiden had been so obviously carrying around in his pocket this whole time.

The girl practically had dollar signs glued to her eyeballs like from some old cartoon.

And her parents!
Judith spared a glance over at the very unhappy couple. Awful people. Insufferable. No wonder Gwen had turned out like she had with parents like that.

Turned out to be quite the little gold digger, that is.

"Isn't this just great!" a young man said as he sauntered by with a champagne flute sloshing in his hand. "They're just so perfect for each other!"

When he saw the expression on Judith's face, the levity left his expression and he hurried back into the crowd, the champagne spilling over the rim to spatter on his wrist.

She hefted her manila folder again and set it on the table. Her fingertips brushed against the smooth flap and she smiled.
They could have this one night together
, she thought. She could put an end to all of this just as easily tomorrow morning.

G
wen couldn't remember getting up to their suite. It was all a series of broken images to her. Kissing in the elevator, Aiden pressing her against the hallway wall, his hands doing devilish things to her body.

Gwen didn't even know if anyone had seen them or not. And she didn't really care, either.

They got into their suite after a few fumbling attempts with the keycard, neither of them able to keep their hands off the other.

"I love you so much," Gwen said, jumping up onto him as the door closed, wrapping her legs around his body. He caught her before she could slip off, his lips eager and warm against her throat.

Gwen wasn't sure of the mechanics of it, but she managed to shove his tux jacket off and began undoing his shirt buttons even as Aiden mounted the stairs to get up to the king-sized bed.

It was a bouncy, dangerous ride that Gwen loved every second of. Aiden kept one hand on the rail while the other hiked her dress up so to better squeeze her thigh and bottom.

Catching sight of her glinting engagement ring as they reached the top of the stairs increased her vigor. She grabbed his face in her hands and pulled it to hers, forcing him into a deep, wet kiss.

Even Aiden's knees went weak at that, nearly causing an annulment of the engagement via staircase.

Through some Herculean effort, he hauled them up the last couple steps and staggered over to the bed.

"Aiden..." Gwen said, loving the feel of his weight over her as they writhed together on the massive mattress. She threaded her fingers through his hair, her back arching up as he left a line of hot kisses along her neck and shoulder. His desire pressed against her, hard and eager.

"This was your plan all along, wasn't it?" Gwen said smiling as Aiden's kissing traveled down her neck, exploring every bit of skin left bare by that modest dress.

"Get you into bed tonight?" Aiden said in a brief break from kissing.

"The proposal!" Gwen said, giving his shoulder a light slap and then stretching out her left hand so as to better admire that amazing (and heavy!) ring. The diamonds looked flawless and perfectly cut. Just like Aiden. "This whole big elaborate European vacation. This was your goal the whole time, wasn't it?"

"I'm diabolical that way," Aiden said.

She couldn't take all this waiting anymore. She had to be with him, right then. Of course, some part of her thought that this was so romantic, and that they should have a slow, sweet lovemaking session to celebrate their engagement. That part of her got ran out of town pretty quickly.

"Why do you have so much clothes on?" Gwen complained as she pushed him off the foot of the bed so that he stood before her. She stripped off his shirt, pulling the tails up out of his slacks. This revealed the white cotton undershirt he had on. They both made quick work of that, hauling it up and off.

His expensive tailored tuxedo ended up in an undignified heap on the floor, and he scuffed one of his shoes trying to pull it off.

Then he pulled her to her feet as well. She gave him a smoldering look before running her lips along his bare collarbone, then down his sculpted chest. Aiden sucked in a breath when her lips touched his equally sculpted abs.

Her mouth teased lower and lower before she started back up. Aiden couldn't wait until she reached his lips again, crushing her against him and pulling her into another kiss.

His fingers quickly found the zipper on her dress and he pushed it down, baring her naked flesh as quickly as he could.

Soon they both stood naked, Gwen now significantly shorter than Aiden again after kicking her pumps at the wall. Their eyes locked.

"I can't believe this is happening," Gwen said, looking up into his handsome, masculine features.

Aiden brushed a few strands of her hair that had fallen across her cheek back behind her in a tender motion that belied the ferocity of their desires.

"It is. It's happening. You're going to marry me," Aiden said.

Before she could reply, he pushed her down onto the bed. The plush mattress caught her, and she opened herself to him, the heat between her thighs almost searing.

Aiden managed to control himself long enough to get a condom and put it on before climbing up with her.

"Oh..." Gwen moaned as they became one, her body quivering for him.

"I love you so much," Aiden said, trying and only partially succeeding to be gentle at first, to let her get used to him. He kept dropping his head so that he could better kiss her throat and nuzzle against her.

Soon the ferocity of their passion took over. Their fingers threaded together, their clasped hands squeezing tightly as though to hold on for dear life.

Gripped in their lust, neither could last very long. Aiden brought her to an incredible and high climax, waves of heat and pleasure raging through her trembling body, both of them glistening with sweat from the effort of it.

An almost pained look crossed Aiden's face, his fingers squeezing Gwen's so hard. And then they collapsed, breathless, beside each other on the bed, every ounce of pleasure wrung from their bodies. They'd managed to rip most of the covers off, but the warmth of Aiden's body against hers was all Gwen needed.

Her muscles felt weak and ropey, useless and used up, and Gwen didn't mind.

Satisfied and relaxed, Gwen fell asleep to the steady, drumming rhythm of Aiden's heart. Her last thoughts were of their impending marriage, and how perfect their lives together were turning out.

A
iden woke earliest the next morning. The soreness hit him first, followed by the memories of the cause of said soreness. He smiled and looked at his fiancé. She had the sheet pulled up to just before her bare shoulders, which Aiden gently kissed. She made a happy noise at that.

My fiancé
, Aiden thought. He let it turn over in his mind as he watched the gentle rhythm of Gwen's breathing. In sleep, just as in waking life, she was beautiful. The sleep lent her a sort of angelic innocence that Aiden found endearing, and he wished he could spend the entire morning just being in bed with her.

However, one glance at the bedside clock and he knew that was not to be.

Wanting to give Gwen just a few more moments of peace, Aiden swung his legs off the square, king-sized mattress and shifted his weight slowly so as not to disturb her.

This was when he discovered that he, too, had fallen asleep in the nude. Fishing out his briefs from the undignified pile of his tuxedo, he padded across the cool floor in his bare feet, quiet as a cat on the prowl.

Little slashes of sunlight came in through the long drapes blocking the bay window, and Aiden couldn't resist peering out through one of those cracks at the mountains.

"Can we live here?"

Aiden let the curtain fall closed, the fabric rustling. "Why would you want that?" Aiden said.

Gwen sat up in bed, covering a yawn and blinking blearily at the light. She stretched her arms high up. This had the side effect of letting the sheet drop down to her waist, leaving everything above that naked and plain to see.