“Well, we do the bachelorette thing and go upstairs to our room at the hotel to sleep,” I replied, simplifying it down.

She didn’t answer, so I looked her way. Her teeth bit down into her lower lip and she twisted her fingers about. I carefully slowed the van and pulled over.

She looked around. “Why are we stopping here?”

“You look as if I’m driving you to get your wisdom teeth pulled.”

Her shoulders dropped when she sighed.

“I know how to relax you.”

She frowned, then blushed.

I grinned.

“Not quite that,” I added, catching on to where her mind had gone. “A kiss.”

“Oh.”

“Totally fake.” I tossed that out there just so she knew there was no pressure. Reaching over, I stroked her hair back, amazed at the thick curtain. “I love your hair like this.” I didn’t give her a chance to respond. Just kissed her. I didn’t linger. Not since we were on the side of the road. We had a time sensitive cake in the back.

I lifted my head, then gently pressed her glasses into place.

I felt triumphant that she looked much more relaxed. If I had some time, and a bed, I could make her boneless. And I wouldn’t have a hard dick and blue balls.

Yet I was kicking myself for giving in. Her lips seemed to be my weakness. She’d just said this was fake, reassuring me she wasn’t trapping me into something. I was the one who was putting the moves on, which was what I wanted. But didn’t want.

Fuck! I wanted Astrid but didn’t want commitment. She was giving that to me so why was I insane?

“The thing is...” she began. “We’re not staying at the hotel. We’re staying with my parents.”

What the—

I was thirty years old and I was going to be sleeping in my pretend girlfriend’s house with her parents down the hall. This just got better and better.

“Then I sure as shit need another fake kiss. That one was for you. This one’s for me,” I replied, taking her lips once more. Adding tongue and tugging at her hair as I wanted.

I finally pulled back onto the road and we didn’t say much after that. I was trying to figure out why a kiss with Astrid was better than sex with any woman I could remember.

I stared at the road for a bit, the silence between us easy. When I looked over at her next, she was asleep, her head tipped to the side. Her dark lashes fanned over her cheeks and her hair swept over her bare shoulders.

She was sure fucking pretty.