Four Day Fling(22)

“You shut up.” I pointed my finger in his face. “You’re on my side.”

My sister groaned and flipped her hair as she sat up. “You’re supposed to be on my side.”

“No, he’s my fake date. He can’t be on both our sides.”

“Poppy!”

“Rosie!”

“You have to do something about our mother!”

I stared at her for a second. “I can hire a hitman.”

Adam choked on the mouthful of water he’d just taken.

“I don’t want her dead,” Rosie said. “Just…sedated.”

“You could get her drunk,” Adam suggested.

Rosie’s eyes lit up.

“No!” I scrambled and sat up on my towel. “No. I’m not getting her drunk. No way in hell am I doing that.”

Rosie grabbed my hands and leaned forward. “Pleeeease, Pops. Please. I need her to go away for a few hours. She’s driving me crazy.”

I looked her dead in the eye and said, “You’re driving me crazy.”

“So? Get Mom drunk, then I’ll stop being crazy.”

“I witnessed your sweet sixteen. I should have known to be sick the weekend of your wedding.”

She pouted. “You’d never miss my wedding.”

“I don’t know. If this is the start of it and it’s going to carry on like this, I’m going to get food poisoning tonight.”

Rosie reached forward and grabbed my ear the way she used to when we were kids. Hard and tight and, kinda twisty. “You get food poisoning and I will finish you! I will bury you alive!”

“Ah! Ah! Ahhh! Get off my ear, you bitch!” I wrestled her hand off my ear and cupped it. “Fine. No food poisoning. I’ll be there. The devoted sister. I’ll sing your praises—”

“Please don’t actually sing.”

I shook my head. “No. I don’t want to break the windows.”

“You can’t be that bad,” Adam said.

“Ah,” Rosie sighed. “Spoken like a true fake boyfriend.”

He cough-laughed. “Careful. We’re trying very hard to keep the fake thing a secret. Don’t give it up.”

Rosie’s head swung side to side as she looked around. “There’s nobody around. Stop being so panicky. You’ll give up the ghost. Like the time Poppy tried to convince our parents the used condom in her room wasn’t her losing her virginity.”

Adam slid me an amused glance. His lips tugged to one side and one of his dark brows quirked. “That’s a story I haven’t heard.”

“Okay, first,” I said, holding a finger. “That is so not true. My virginity was disappointing. We’re talking ninety-seconds disappointing. I don’t even think I felt it. And the condom was not mine.” I finished by staring at Rosie.

She rolled her eyes. “I was a wild one. I didn’t do it on her bed, and she was still a virgin then, but it was fun watching her work her way out of that.”

Adam’s expression didn’t falter. He still smirked at me.

“Stop looking at me like that,” I snapped.

“No.”

“Why not?”

“I’m just thinking how unlucky the guy who stole your virginity was.”

I glared at him.

My sister swiped my bottle of cold water and took a sip, her eyes flitting between us both.

“I mean—fuck. That came out wrong.”

I snatched the bottle from Rosie. “Ya think?”

Rosie’s phone rang. She grabbed it and silenced it, then looked back at us.

“Don’t you need to answer that?” I said.

“No. Not until he’s talked himself out of this. This will be his defining moment as your totally real boyfriend.”

Good God. I needed to get out of here.

Adam coughed into his hand and sat up. “I don’t feel comfortable clarifying this in front you, Rosie.”

“Why? I’m not a virgin. I pushed a human out of my vagina in front of a room full of people. You can’t embarrass me.”

He rubbed his hand over his stubbled jaw, finishing with one swipe of his thumb over his full lower lip. “All right.” His eyes slid to me, his hand still cupping his jaw, thumb still positioned dangerously close to his mouth. “He missed out because he’ll never know how damn good you are at sucking cock.”

My jaw dropped open.

So did Rosie’s.

“I—” She paused, scooting back on the sand. “I need to, um, hide from Mom. Okay. Bye now.” With her cheeks bright red, she scrambled up and ran across the hot, soft sand until she was out of our earshot.

I smacked Adam’s arm. “Why the fuck did you say that? You have no idea about my cock-sucking abilities!”

“I know.” He grinned, eyes dancing with laughter. “But she doesn’t know that I don’t know. And it got rid of her, didn’t it?”

“Yes, but—but—” I sputtered. “That’s not the point!”

“It is. Look at this way. She came here to convince you to distract your mom. You didn’t agree. I got you out of jail.”

“I—” I had nothing to say to that.