Author: Bella Andre

Vicki automatically started to shake her head, but quickly realized there was no point in trying to pretend it hadn’t been the most glorious night of her life. Especially with the engagement ring Ryan had given her hanging between her breasts on the gold chain.

It had been a long time since she’d had another woman to confide in. Justifying it by telling herself that Anne’s knowing only gave more credence to the false engagement, Vicki pulled the ring out from under her tank top. “He gave me this.”

Anne’s eyes went wide as she grabbed it, inadvertently pulling Vicki forward while she inspected the ring. “He has great taste. Are you free tonight for a bottle or two of champagne? And could he bring a few of his gorgeous baseball playing friends?”

“I’d really love to,” Vicki said, “but I’ve promised Ryan I’ll go to a family birthday party with him tonight.”

Anne clapped her hands together. “Even better—you can wear another one of my dresses. Who needs this fellowship when I have you to wear all my clothes?”

She had pulled Vicki halfway down the hall by the time Vicki could get out the words, “I don’t know if that’s such a good idea.”

Anne put her hands on her hips. “Why? You were stunning last night. And clearly, the dress made an impression on your man.”

But that was just the problem. Ryan had loved the dress...and he’d loved stripping it off her even more. Vicki’s body started heating up all over just thinking about it.

If she wore another one of Anne’s brilliantly sexy designs, he might think she was trying to say that she wanted a repeat of last night. Which, of course, she did, because how could anyone not want that?

But, God, this morning had been awkward enough.

Last night had been an accident. A sexual slip-up. Two bodies in motion colliding without pre-meditated intent.

She couldn’t imagine how awkward it would be if he thought she was actually trying to seduce him this time. Instead of letting her down easy, he’d be forced to take much more drastic—and obvious—steps.

But since she couldn’t say any of that to her out-of-the-big-lie-loop friend, Vicki grabbed onto the only excuse she could think of. “The party is for an eight-year-old. I’m sure everyone will be wearing jeans.”

“Or pretty little sundresses,” Anne shot back. “A couple of days ago I didn’t know why I was so compelled to make this dress, since I can’t use it for the fellowship. Now I know. It’s my engagement gift to you.”

With that, Vicki knew she had no choice. She let Anne drag her into her own studio and hand her a pretty summer dress made of dozens of light and colorful layers.

And, despite knowing better, she couldn’t help wanting to knock Ryan’s socks off one more time.

Chapter Twenty

Ryan stood in his brother Gabe’s living room surrounded by his family, a big group of strangers, and a dozen rambunctious eight-year-olds. And yet, all he could see was Vicki.

Summer had just barreled into Vicki's waist to give her a huge hug. Clearly, the eight-year-old girl loved the poodle sculpture Vicki had made her. She’d surprised Sophie and his mother with fun little sculptures, as well, and he knew they wouldn’t stop gushing over the unexpected gifts for a very long time.

As she chatted animatedly with Summer, there was nothing fake, nothing affected about Vicki, not from her soft hair to her unpainted fingernails to the sweet curves that had transfixed him since he was a teenager. To make matters worse for the hard-on he was working like hell to hold at bay, she was wearing another pretty dress that simultaneously hid and showcased her incredible figure as the breeze played through the fabric.

Ryan’s chest squeezed tight at her beauty.

Smith handed him a beer. “Some pretty big bets were going down today in the production offices for the playoff games. You ready to make us all some money?”

Ryan took a slug from the bottle, his eyes never leaving Vicki. “I’ll do my best.”

But instead of taking the hint that he wasn’t up for shooting the breeze tonight, Smith kept right on talking. “I enjoyed the shaking down we did today for your school sports fund. Kind of nice to be on the other side of the demanding, for once. Ever feel like everyone just wants something from you?”

Depending on his mood, Smith could be disturbingly blunt...or as opaque as it got. Clearly, he was in one of his deep—and talkative—moods.

“Well,” Ryan drawled, “considering my brother just told me to pitch a no-hitter so he wins his money back on a bet, yeah, I guess I do know how that feels.”

“You’re lucky to have her, you know.”

Ryan finally shot Smith a look to see what he was playing at. “Vicki?”

“You’ve been friends since you were kids, so you know she’s not hanging around because of what you could do for her, or for the fame that comes with being your fiancée.”

“She’s not my—”

“Right.” The one word was loaded. “Funny how the way the two of you look at and touch each other makes it hard for any of us to remember that it’s all just a lie.”

Ryan’s teeth clenched at the way his brother had just pointed out the obvious. He couldn’t keep from wanting Vicki. Loving her. Not even when she’d all but asked him to do just that this morning when she’d called their night together “weird” and then said her silent no to ever being intimate like that again.

Frustration had him lashing out at a brother who didn’t deserve it. “Not everyone is as good an actor as you are.”

Smith gave him a hard look. “Then maybe you should quit trying so hard to pretend.”

Finally, his brother left him alone again and Ryan’s gaze immediately went back to Vicki.

All day he’d been turning their situation over and over in his head. Yes, he knew she thought making love had been a mistake. A weird mistake. But he hadn’t forgotten the way she’d responded to his touch...and that there hadn’t been one single weird thing about the way she’d arched and cried out against him and begged for more.

The thing was, even before he’d known just how amazing it was to make love to her, Ryan had wanted more.

Everything.

He wanted everything.

Not just to give Vicki his heart, but to know that she wanted to give hers to him, too.

Ryan hadn’t had to fight for much in his life. School, sports, friends, women—they’d all come easily. Even his friendship with Vicki had always been natural, comfortable—easy—right from the start.

But he wasn’t satisfied with friendship anymore.

Not when he wanted what his parents had shared.

Not when he wanted what his brothers and sisters were finding for themselves, one after the other.

And not when he held Chase’s baby daughter, Emma, in his arms and wondered what his and Vicki’s children would look like.

All her life, Vicki had kept reaching, kept believing, kept trying to turn her most passionate dreams into reality.

Now, it was finally his turn to reach. To believe. And to try.

Ryan Sullivan had finally found something that mattered enough to fight for.

Love.

* * *

“I’m so glad you could come to Summer’s party,” Mary Sullivan said when Vicki joined her on the patio.

“You know how much I love spending time with your family. And Emma is positively gorgeous.” Zach and Heather’s dogs had clearly adopted the baby as they flanked her pink and purple vibrating baby seat. A moment later, Jake helped Sophie up from the nearby couch, her belly looking even bigger than it had just a day ago. “And I’m so glad things worked out so well for Sophie and Jake.”

Summer’s grandmother, who had flown out from Minneapolis for Summer’s birthday party, smiled and said, “Congratulations on your engagement.”

Vicki worked to smile back and say, “Thank you,” without faltering. Thank God Mary already knew the truth, or she would have felt even worse about the situation than she already did.

The other woman turned to Mary. “You must be so thrilled to know that another one of your children has found the one.”

Mary put her arm around Vicki and didn’t miss a beat in the game of pretend they were playing. “I couldn’t be happier for Vicki and Ryan. He had such a crush on her when they were in school together. It was amazing for me to see him be so serious about a girl when he’d always been so relaxed about it all before.”

Wow, Vicki thought, now I know where Smith gets his acting chops.

Mary turned to her and added, “The night he went over to ask you to the prom and found out you had already agreed to go with someone else...well, it just about broke my heart to see him like that.”

Forgetting they were supposed to be pretending, Vicki blurted, “He was going to ask me to the Sophomore Prom?”

Summer’s grandmother cut in to ask, “He never told you?”

Vicki shook her head, wondering if Mary could have made that up. “No. He never told me.”

At her unspoken question, Ryan’s mother patted her arm and nodded. “It’s true, Vicki. He really did go to ask you to the prom. I know how worried he was about doing something that might ruin your friendship. Asking you to that dance was going to be his big risk. Unfortunately, he never got to take it.” Mary’s eyes held hers. “Until now.”

Summer’s grandmother was saying something about romantic love stories and long-lost high school sweethearts, but Vicki could barely keep track of it. Fortunately, Mary seemed to understand that she needed to be left alone with her thoughts.

Vicki had been so careful to keep herself from getting hurt every step of the way with Ryan this past week. But as she watched Ryan pick up Emma and give her kisses all over her face that had the baby nuzzling even closer to him, Vicki suddenly wondered if what she’d thought was so smart had actually been blindingly stupid, instead.

* * *

As they drove through the city back to Ryan’s house, Vicki was as nervous as she’d ever been. Ryan was strangely silent, which was okay, since she couldn’t have made small talk for the life of her.

Oh God, she couldn’t believe what she was thinking of doing—that she was actually toying with the idea of confessing her feelings to him after all these years. Because even after her body had given away far more than she’d ever planned while in his arms the previous evening, it was still possible to write that off as “just sex.”

Whereas, once she crossed the “I like you as more than a friend” line with actual words, there was no taking them back...or trying to attribute them to one crazy night.

At the outset of this week, she’d made a vow to be calm and rational rather than too passionate for her own good. Okay, so she’d blown it last night, and clearly if she wanted it, there was tons more ridiculously good blowing it on her horizon.

But was the greatest sex in the world worth risking her heart—and her friendship with Ryan—over?

When they arrived home, they walked inside and she put their things down on his kitchen counter, the same way she had so many nights before that week. Only, tonight, everything felt different.

Different enough that she suddenly blurted, “You were going to ask me to the prom?”

“I had it bad for you even then.”

Slowly, she turned to face him. He stared at her and she stared back. Time stood still as she tried to read what was in his eyes.

“Ryan?” His name on her lips made them tingle. Made her want. Desperately.

“It won’t be weird this time.”

Vicki’s heart was pounding so hard she could barely hear her own voice over it.

“Promise?”

“I promise.”

Just that quickly, the fire that had been sparking and kindling between them all night long finally burst into flames as he cupped her hips and pulled her tightly against him, her palms grazing his jaw as she moved to thread her fingers into his hair.