I hop out of my chair and take the phone from Jace, not feeling like I really have a choice in the matter. I shoot him my best eye daggers and hope he understands just how much shit he’s in once I get off the phone.

I take a deep breath and press Jace’s phone to my ear.

“Hello Mrs. …” Shit. I glance desperately at Jace.

He whispers something that I only partially make out.

“Mrs. Spinnaker,” I say, taking my best guess.

“Whittaker,” he hisses.

“Whittaker,” I cover quickly. “Sorry. Mrs. Whittaker. It’s so nice to finally speak to you.”

“You too, Celia. This is such wonderful news. I just wish Jace had told me sooner.”

“Oh, you know Jace,” I pretend to laugh as I glare at him. “He likes to play by his own rules.”

On the other end of the phone, his mother chuckles. “That he does. He’s always been that way. I hope you’ve been knocking some sense into him.”

“I definitely try.”

“Well, if you’ve got him to settle down enough to want to get married, you must be a very special young lady.”

“Oh, well, thank you, ma’am.” I find myself blushing a little at her praise, until I realize how ridiculous that is, since none of what she’s saying is actually true.

“Please,” she says. “Call me Evelyn. We’ll be family soon. Do you have a wedding date yet?”

“Evelyn,” I repeat, going to stand in front of the window as Jace raises his eyebrows. “Not yet. Maybe the spring.” I don’t know where the words come from.

Jace shakes his head, laughing silently. He crosses the room towards me. I can see him reflected in the glass, standing directly behind me.

“A spring wedding would be lovely,” Evelyn is saying, just as her son leans over and starts trailing his tongue along my neck.

“Yes, it would.” I shiver under Jace’s touch and even more when he rests his hand on my stomach. In one motion he lifts up my tank top and is cupping my naked breasts, flicking at my nipples as they turn to little pebbles.

“Now, Trent and Hannah,” she’s saying. “That’s my son — Jace’s brother — and his fiancee — they wanted a spring wedding but it’s so hard to book anything on short notice.”

“You’re so right,” I murmur, as Jace pinches my nipple between two rough fingers.

“Now, of course, they’vre having the wedding out at Luke’s place, so technically they could have had it any time they wanted, but there are still the caterers to think about, the photographers…”

“Uh huh.” I bite my lip as Jace slips his other hand over my stomach and under the waistband of the little shorts I’m wearing. My body responds automatically and I shimmy my ass backwards at him, rubbing against him. I can feel his erection pressing into me, and even though I still haven’t seen his cock, I can only imagine how big it is.

“Now, Trent had every caterer in the city clamoring for the job but of course there was only one he wanted and it just took forever for them to find a date that worked for everyone…”

She’s still going on as Jace slips his finger through my part. My pussy is soaked and I know he knows exactly what his little show is doing to me. He slips his fingers over my plump lips and then back up to my clit, circling it gently, smoothing my nectar over it until it’s a fat slippery pearl.

“Uh huh,” I say again, as Evelyn goes on about Trent’s caterer. I grip Jace’s arm, the one that’s still pinching my nipple, with my free hand, digging my nails into him. He responds by kissing the back of my neck again, trailing his tongue along the nape.

Between my legs, his fingers are still working some kind of magic. My knees are starting to shake and I grip his arm harder, letting the weight of my body rest against his.

I’m making polite murmuring noises to his mother, until he slips his fingers further down my pussy and finds my entrance. When he plunges two fingers roughly inside me, I gasp.

“Oh, listen to me going on,” Evelyn says, chuckling. “Do you two have plans tonight?”

I catch Jace’s eye in the window. “No, I think we’re just going to stay in.”

He grins and starts fucking me slowly with his fingers.

“Well, I should let you go,” I rasp. “I have something boiling. On the stove, I mean.”

“Oh, of course, silly me. We’ll have plenty of time to get to know each other when you’re out here. You’re coming, aren’t you?”

“Yes, absolutely,” I breathe. In more ways than one.

I finally manage to hang up the phone and let it fall to the floor as I put both my hands against the window. I angle my ass backwards, giving Jace better access, but instead he steps back.

My body feels like it deflates as he moves away. I turn to face him, wanting to push him back onto the couch and pick up where we left off the other day, but Jace takes another step backward, away from me. He grins.

“I know what you want, Celia. But my cock is off limits. Not until you agree to do this for me.”

We consider each other for a moment. My breath is still coming hard and fast, but Jace looks calm, cool and collected. Bastard.

I can’t deny his offer is tempting. I’m sure the sex would be incredible — and if he wanted me aching for it, then he definitely played his cards right. And what else am I going to do this week? It’s not like I have a job to go to.

Plus, I’ll admit, part of me likes the idea of spending the week getting fucked by a bad boy bartender when I’m supposed to be on personal leave because of my cheating fiance. There’s something about the karmic retribution aspect of this whole thing that appeals to me.

But … it’s crazy. Reckless. I’ve always been nothing but responsible, and now I’m really thinking of flying off to Chicago with a virtual stranger — one who’s promised to fuck me six ways to Sunday — and help him lie to his family? It’s crazy.

Then again, playing it safe hasn’t exactly been working out that well for me. An ex-fiance, an apartment I can’t afford, and a forced leave from a job I’m not sure I even really like all that much.

I fold my arms, letting Jace sweat for another minute. The grin on his face is just starting to crack when I finally throw my hands up.

“Fine. I’ll do it.”

The grin is back, a thousand watts blazing straight at me.

“You’re not going to regret this, Celia. Trust me,” he adds with a wink and I find myself flushing again. God damn.

Then Jace’s face drops. “Shit. I just thought of something.”

“What?” I’m suddenly afraid he’s going to take back his offer, and now that I’m all in, I don’t want that.

“We need a ring. A nice one.”

I grin. “I’ve got this part covered. Wait here.”

I walk into my bedroom, legs still shaking a little. I dig around in my jewelry box until I find it. I stopped wearing it the day Martin and I broke up, and even though I tried giving it back to him, he insisted I keep it. I think it was his way of trying to alleviate some of his guilt. I hadn’t decided what to do with it yet — keep it, pawn it, throw it into the harbor — and so it was still just sitting there, buried in the bottom drawer of my jewelry box where I wouldn’t have to see it often.

I take the ring back into the living room and hand it to Jace.

“Will this do?”

He lets out a low whistle. “That’s quite a rock.” He looks up at me. His eyes narrow a little. “Anything you want to tell me?”

“Nope. Just that this isn’t my first rodeo.”

I hold out my hand and spread my fingers.

Jace takes my hand and slowly, delicately, slides the ring onto my finger. I can’t help the bolt of longing the shoots through me when he does. What kind of fiance would Jace make? Six months ago, I never would have considered him. Sure, I had thought about him in the carnal sense, but when it came to marriage, I wanted a man like Martin — rich, successful, a fast-tracked career. But look where that had gotten me. Jace was the opposite of Martin in every way — and maybe that wasn’t a bad thing.

“Celia,” he says. His voice is deep but hesitant. “Will you … will you do me the honor of being my fake fiancee for a week?”

I quash down the silly sense of longing I feel. Instead I plaster a grin on my face.

“Yes, Jace. A million times yes!” I wrap my arms around his neck and hug him tightly. When I start to pull away I realize he’s studying me with an expression I can’t quite read. My arms are still around his neck and our faces are so close that I could lean in and kiss him. I could …

“Mrowr!” My cat’s cranky yowl interrupts us as he brushes up against Jace’s pant leg. Because of course he would choose now to finally make an appearance.

“Hey!” He says, surprised, then chuckles. He leans down to pet him. “I didn’t know you had a cat.”

“Yeah. He’s old though, so he spends most of his time hiding or sleeping. Or sleep hiding. Sometimes I think he just hides and then forgets that he’s hiding and falls asleep.”

Jace grins. “I have a cat too. What’s his name?”

“Steve.”

He stands up, staring at me. “What?”

“Yeah, I know it’s weird.”

“No, seriously? His name’s Steve?”

“Yeah.” He’s giving me the strangest look. I mean, I know it’s not as common of a name as, like, Mittens or Fluffy or whatever, but I wouldn’t have thought it warranted this kind of disbelief.

“Uh, you’re not going to believe this … but my cat is named Steve too.”

“Shut-up.”

“I’m serious!” Jace scoops up Steve and walks over to the couch with him. I’m too surprised to tell him that he’s looking to get his eyes clawed out — Steve is not a cuddler.

“Yeah,” he says, pulling Steve against his chest. “I named him after Steve Buscemi. I loved him in Reservoir Dogs. Plus the cat’s got the same big googly eyes as Steve Buscemi.”

“That’s so weird.” I flop down into the chair I was sitting in earlier, watching Steve curl up under Jace’s chin. “This guy’s named after the Steve Miller Band.”

Jace laughs. “Nice.”

I smile, though there’s a funny feeling in the pit of my stomach.

“Yeah, I secretly love them,” I tell him, ignoring the strange longing that’s growing. “I have this fantasy where I have the sort of life where I go to summer barbecues and bonfires and drink light beer and listen to the Steve Miller Band and drive a pick-up truck. Just something … I don’t know, something completely different than the life I have now.”

I shrug, a bit embarrassed. I don’t even know why I’m telling him all this. He’s looking at me with such a strange expression — he probably thinks I’m crazy now.

“Anyway, it’s silly.” I shake my head, laughing.

But Jace is nodding slowly, as if this all makes perfect sense to him. “Well, you’re definitely living in the wrong city if that’s the life you want … unless you plan to toast marshmallows over a trash can fire.”

“Ha. Yeah.” I don’t tell him I’ve thought that on more than one occasion, that I’m in the wrong city. Especially lately.

“Anyway,” I say, scooping Steve up off his chest.

“Right.” Jace stands up and brushes himself off. “I’m flying out on Monday — the wedding is on Saturday but there’s a bunch of stuff happening before that. I’ll book you a ticket?”

“Sounds great.” I try to rest my head on Steve’s, but he’s digging his claws into the back of my shoulder so hard that I have to drop him onto the floor. Traitor.

“Great.”

Jace is still staring at me expectantly, so I stick my hand out straight in front of me.

“I’m looking forward to our arrangement,” I say. He raises his eyebrows but reaches out to shake my hand. Then in one swift motion, he pulls me to him, and cups his other hand against the back of my head.

“As am I.” He leans in and lets his lips graze against mine. It’s enough to send a stream of butterflies coursing through me.

Before I can do anything else, though, he lets me go, and disappears out my apartment door. I stand there breathless, staring at the closed door.

Well.

This should be interesting.