The Wedding Party (The Wedding Date, #3)(22)

“Oh God. You’re one of those annoying coffee people.” Maybe better than the annoying beer people, but only slightly. “A normal coffee maker is a lot faster, you know.”

He nodded without turning around.

“I know. I like it better this way.”

She watched him make the slowest coffee in all of California.

“I can’t believe I slept with someone who boils water every damn morning to make their coffee.”

He looked up from pouring the water.

“Actually, it’s not boiled; I heat the water to exactly two hundred five degrees in order to get the best—”

“You should stop talking now if you really want to have sex with me ever again.”

He shut his mouth and set a full mug in front of her. She opened the fridge for the milk while he poured the water over his own coffee grounds.

“Okay.” He poured milk into his own coffee and turned to face her. “Where were we? Oh, right, you couldn’t deny that we’re going to end up in bed together every time we see each other now.”

She grunted in frustration at her coffee mug. The problem was, he was right. She glared at him.

“How does someone who heats his water to exactly two hundred or whatever put milk in his coffee? Don’t all you annoying coffee people take it black?”

He looked down at his mug. Was that a blush she saw?

“I drank it black for a long time before I let myself admit I like it so much better with milk and gave myself permission to stop punishing myself.” She grinned, and he looked up at her and grinned back. “But stop changing the subject! We were talking about you and me and the likelihood this is going to keep happening over and over again, remember?”

She remembered.

“Okay, fine! I admit it! It’s going to keep happening again! But we need some ground rules if we’re going to do this.”

He picked up his coffee mug and walked back into the bedroom. She followed.

“I like rules. Hit me with them.”

“Okay.” She took a sip of coffee and got back in bed. It tasted just like the stuff she made in her coffee maker, except hers was not quite as bitter. “Rule one: no one can tell Alexa.”

He set his coffee on his bedside table and got in bed next to her.

“Hasn’t that always been the rule? Did you think I was going to burst into Alexa’s office Monday morning and say, ‘Lex, guess what? I’m sleeping with your best friend!’?”

She pictured the look on Alexa’s face if he did that and had to grin.

“If we’re going to make rules, we might as well spell all of them out,” she said.

He leaned against the headboard and picked up his mug.

“Good point. What’s rule two?”

“This ends with the wedding. Maybe by then we’ll have gotten it out of our systems, and we can go back to ignoring each other.”

He nodded.

“I can accept that. Anything else?”

“Rule three: no dates, just this.”

He tilted his head and smiled at her.

“What does ‘this’ mean?”

He knew what she meant. She gestured at the bed.

“This.”

He put his mug down, and in one quick motion pulled her on top of him.

“You mean this?” He kissed her. She relaxed against his body and kissed him back. She moved her fingers up and down his bare chest. Damn it, why did this have to be so good?

“Mmm, yes, I mean this.”

He nodded as his hands unzipped the hoodie.

“Okay, just checking: do we also get to do this in the hallway, or on the couch, or even in the kitchen, or are we restricted to just my bed?”

She shook her head and tried to concentrate on something other than the touch of his skin, his body underneath hers.

“We can do this anywhere we want.”

“Mmm.” He pulled her legs along either side of his so she was straddling him. “I like the sound of that.” He bent down and licked the tip of her nipple. “All these rules sound good to me. Anything else?”

“Just . . . one more.” She brushed her hand over his hair. “Rule four: we only see each other when we’ve been with Alexa. We’re doing this because we have to, not because we want to.” She let out a moan as he sucked her nipple into his mouth.

He rolled her over so she was now underneath him and pulled back. Oh God, why did he stop?

“You get four rules, I get one: no sleeping with anyone else,” he said. “I don’t like sharing.”

Maddie grinned at him.

He leaned down to kiss her but she pulled away.

“One more question,” she said.

“Hit me,” he said.

She gave him a mischievous look.

“Next time, will you dance to ‘Pony’?”

He sat back and grinned.

“That depends on what I get in return.”

Maddie pulled him back down to her.

“I’m an only child. I’m not a big fan of sharing myself.”

They didn’t talk about rules or anything else for a long while.





Chapter Six




MONDAY MORNING, THEO GOT INTO WORK EARLIER THAN USUAL. IT was the week before Memorial Day weekend, and he knew from experience there would be at least a crisis a day from Monday to Thursday, until everything went dead on Friday. He sort of loved weeks like this.