She looks like a fucking movie star. I swear my heart skips a beat when she opens the door in a stunning red dress. It’s sexy but classy at the same time, showing off her tits and ass without being in your face about it.

Her blonde hair is swept up into a neat bun-like thing, with just a few strands framing her face, making her dazzling blue eyes pop.

“I can’t imagine a better date to show off at a wedding,” I say, holding my hand up to my heart.

“Thank you.” Piper blushes and smiles, then she turns around a little too quickly to lock the door, like she doesn’t know how to handle the attention. With her hair up, I can see the back of her neck and shoulders, the soft, creamy skin inviting me to touch her.

As we walk down the hallway, Piper keeps glancing at her skin-colored high-heeled shoes, the light fixtures along the wall, or some random things on the carpet—anything to avoid looking at me.

It’s kind of cute, the way she loses her composure. And I like that I’m the one who’s getting her all flustered. I don’t care, though. I can’t stop staring at her even if I tried.

I need to take a picture of her and stare at it from time to time. Wait, what am I talking about? We’re definitely going to take lots of photos—that’s the whole reason why we’re doing this today. This is not a date.

But there’s no reason why it can’t be one either.

She seems to have difficulties maintaining her balance with the heels, so I offer her my arm as we walk down the stairs.

Her little delicate hand wraps around my arm, and I curse whoever it was that first decided that men have to wear a long-sleeved shirt and a suit jacket to weddings.

I want to feel her skin on mine, and I’m not just talking about hands and arms either. We can start there, and then I’d pin those hands down and have my way with her.

My cock stirs in my pants, and I remind myself to think about something else. It would freak her out to see me get a fucking hard-on from just her hand on my arm. She’d think I’m a sad, lonely creep who never gets laid. As if bribing her to be my date isn’t weird enough already.

I swear I’m not usually like this, but there’s something about Piper that just turns everything upside down and inside out.

As we walk out of the apartment building, I half-expect a red carpet to magically unroll in front of us, or a swarm of paparazzi to crowd around us. But there’s nothing. Not even a lone photographer hiding in the bushes.

I’m a little disappointed, because that would’ve been hilarious. But I’m glad to have Piper all to myself.

“Allow me,” I say as I step in front of her and open the car door. She gives me a sweet smile as she steps into the car and takes a seat.

If there's a girl who doesn't like a man who opens the door for her, I haven't met her. This is an easy way to gain rapport with the female species, and a cool trick to make them think of me as a potential mate. In short, it's an anti-friend zone antidote.

“How’s your mom doing?” Piper asks as soon as my ass lands on the driver’s seat.

Right. I almost forgot about my mom’s supposed breast cancer. I’m probably going to hell for this, but the story managed to convince Piper to help me so it did the job.

This is all going to be worth it when I gain Dad’s trust and my old position within the bank. And I may even get to have a little fun with Piper. No harm, no foul.

“She’s doing okay.” I glance at Piper as I turn on the engine and begin the long drive to Seth’s place. It takes about two hours to get there, and I’d run out of juice if we had to spend the whole time talking about my mom’s fake illness. So I put on a sad face and say, “I’d really rather not talk about it if that’s okay.”

“Oh, of course. I’m sorry. I don’t mean to pry,” she says.

“No, it’s okay. It was really nice of you to ask.” Now is probably the right time to change the subject. “Why don’t we talk about something else? Tell me something about yourself.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know, anything. I practically know nothing about you. Hell, I know more about your cat than I do about you.” I laugh. I’ve even had that cat on my lap, but I haven’t had her there—not yet. But I keep that thought to myself. Instead, I say, “Anything you tell me would probably be new and interesting to me. Like, for example, you’re a student, right?”

“Yeah,” she says tentatively, like she’s a little worried about where the conversation is going.

“Well, what do you study?”

“Music,” she says.

No way, my random answer to Diana was actually the correct guess.

“Oh, what instrument do you play?” I ask, hiding my surprise. “Wait, let me guess. You play the guitar.”

She smiles. “That’s not fair. You saw me carry a guitar on my back at the mall.”

“Yeah, you got me. I did.” I grin. I don’t really care about making the right guess, but I’m glad she’s peeking out of her shell.

“But you’re still wrong. I play the guitar, but my main instrument is the piano,” she says.

“I see. I don’t know much about music, but that’s slightly harder to carry on your back to the mall, right?”

“Yeah.” She laughs, which sounds better than music to my ears.

“So what do you do in your classes? Do you just play piano all day?”

“Well, yeah, I do that a lot. But I also learn things like history, performance techniques, and the music business.”

“See? That’s interesting to me. I didn’t know there were so many things music students had to learn. What’s your favorite subject?”

Once she gets going, Piper has no problem coming up with things to say. The two hours go by quickly as I listen to stories about her college experience.

It seems like so long ago since I was a student. With her chatter, Piper reminds me of some happy times, when everything was fun and easy.

As I drive up Seth’s obnoxiously long driveway, Piper’s eyes widen. She gets even more impressed when the house, which is equally obnoxious in size, comes into view.

“This is a beautiful venue for a wedding,” Piper says. “The owner rents it out by the day?”

“Um, no. The owner is the one getting married.”

That’s right. I forgot to mention that the groom is fucking loaded.

I don’t know how I got lucky enough to get another trust-fund kid as my cell mate in prison. Maybe the guards took pity on us because we looked so out of place, especially on our first few days.

As I park the car, I feel a little tinge of sadness in my chest. I’ve been enjoying our drive, and now it’s over. I want to spend more alone time with Piper, but now we have to be with people and socialize.

I almost want to keep driving, whisking her away on an impromptu road trip, but Seth would kill me if I did that. I would’ve survived prison just to end up dead at the hands of another ex-con; it would’ve all been for nothing.

Seth doesn’t like fuss, so I’m surprised he’s even having a wedding instead of just eloping to Vegas. I’m technically the best man, but I don’t have any duties, apart from delivering a speech during reception. I have my notes ready on my phone, and I’ve always been pretty good at public speaking anyway.

As we both make our way inside the mansion, I take another look at Piper. She looks so fucking beautiful. Maybe it’s not such a bad idea to show her off a little bit.

I put my hand around her shoulders and pull her closer. I smile when she looks at me, her big blue eyes questioning and challenging me, although she doesn’t move away from my touch. Instead, she inches closer with every step we take on the marble floor.

“We’re supposed to be on a date, remember?” I ask.

“Oh, right,” she says.

I take a risk and put my hand on her waist. She doesn’t seem to mind.

I want to grab her harder and crush my lips against hers. I want to to push her against the wall and run my hands all over her body. Then I’d rip that dress off, pull her naked body against me, plunge balls deep inside her…

But all those things will have to wait.

Today, the agenda is for a toast and lots of selfies. And my hand on some part of Piper’s body at all times.