Though she clearly didn’t know what was really going on here.
“I feel like shit, Rhett, honestly.” Shawn poured some laundry detergent in the machine on top of his clothes, looking flustered. “I didn’t know how bad I would feel about lying. I didn’t think about it at all, frankly.”
Rhett moved in behind her and brushed her hair off her shoulder so he could kiss her neck. He didn’t like to see her so stressed. He didn’t particularly like lying to his mother either. But his interest in Shawn wasn’t feigned, and he intended to focus on that. “This isn’t a purely business transaction, you know. We are having a relationship.” His erection grew as he pressed her against the machine, her pert backside a soft cushion for his thighs.
She shivered. “Rhett . . .”
“Yes?”
“It’s not the same thing,” she protested, even as her ass angled to give him a better position, his c**k resting between her cheeks.
“No, it’s not.” He nibbled on her ear, loving the delicate skin there. “I don’t want you unhappy, Shawn. If you want, we can pull the plug on all of this. Right here, right now. We can say it was a mistake, and walk away.”
While he waited for his words to sink in, he ran his hands down her sides, letting one reach around to stroke down between her legs, the cotton pants giving him access to every curve of her body. He bit her ear gently, then soothed it with his tongue.
“We can?” she asked, growing breathless, her hips starting to rock back and forth, teasing her clitoris against his hand, and brushing her ass into his erection.
“Of course we can. We can do whatever you want.” He actually would be disappointed if she said she wanted to annul their marriage and forget this whole thing had ever happened. He tried to tell himself it was because then he wouldn’t have access to her in bed every night, but there was more to it. He and Shawn hadn’t finished exploring each other, physically and emotionally. There was something there between them, besides sex, and he wasn’t entirely sure what it was, but he was curious to find out.
“I’ll lose the track,” she murmured.
“Yes, you will. And you’ll lose my cock,” he added, before slipping his tongue into her ear.
She gave a small gasp. “I will?”
“Yes. If we end this marriage, then it wouldn’t make sense for us to see each other again. I’m not designed that way. I’m either all in or all out.”
“It’s a lot to lose.”
He could only hope that longing was at least in some small way for him along with her family business.
“It is. But it’s your choice.”
“I started this. I need to finish this. It’s not fair to you otherwise.”
Rhett turned her around so he could see her. He laced his fingers through hers. “Shawn. This is about what you want. Don’t do this out of fairness or concern for me. Do what you want, what’s right for you.” He meant that. He wasn’t worried about anyone’s opinion, and he saw no sense in doing something you already knew you would regret. Life was too short.
She stared at him for a second then gave a short nod. “You’re right. I’m already in. I want to stay in.”
The relief he felt surprised him. So he buried his hand in the back of her hair and tugged her to him. “The passion between us is real. That’s all we have to show people.”
“It is, isn’t it?”
“Very real.” He kissed her, a deep, plunging mating of their mouths, a demand and a promise all at once. He wanted to bury his c**k in her the same way, a wet tangle of desperation. As soon as he felt her give in, her arms snaking around his neck, he broke off the embrace. Establish control. Choices outside of the bedroom were hers, but sex was his arena.
She gave a moan of disappointment.
“We need to go back upstairs,” he told her with a swat on her backside. “Come on.”
Her eyes darkened at his touch, and he knew she was remembering exactly what he was thinking about—his palm slapping against her bare flesh, her bottom raised for his pleasure, for her punishment.
They were so not finished with what they had started.
Last night had only been the beginning of what he could make her feel.
As he took her hand and pulled her up the steps, he felt the hot, thick taste of anticipation in his mouth and something else he couldn’t define.
• • •
SHAWN let Rhett hold her hand as they walked up the basement steps, more confused than ever. What had she just agreed to?
To continue this sham of a marriage, deceiving everyone important in their lives. For what? The track? Was it really that important to her?
Weren’t the people in her life more important than a business?
But the truth was, they were all intertwined in her life. Business was pleasure and the track was the people she had grown up with, driven with, worked with now. Racing was her life, and it was to the majority of the people she considered the important friendships and influence on her life.
She also didn’t want to lose Rhett. Not yet. Not when she was experiencing something she never had before, not when she was realizing that there was a world of pleasure she had never even tapped into. Not when she was curious as to what was happening between them, wondering how far it could go, wanting to see what made Rhett tick as a man.
Plus, she also had to admit, that just for a little while, she wanted to borrow Rhett’s family. She wanted to belong, to fit into a large, boisterous family who cared so deeply about one another. She missed her grandparents, and her brother and mother were no cure for the void. In fact, her mother was quite the opposite. Being married to Rhett, Shawn got to voyeuristically fill up her familial well, and while that was no doubt wrong of her, she couldn’t help but enjoy it now that she was in it.
Even if it meant wedding-party planning.
Rhett’s mother was on the couch, scrolling through her cell phone. She gave them a look that indicated she knew precisely what they had been doing. “Did you get lost?”
“Shawn was just showing me how to use the washer.”
Sandy snorted. “You know how to do laundry. You’ve been doing it since you were six. But I understand, you’re newlyweds. I’ll get out of your hair.”
“Oh, you don’t have to leave, Sandy,” Shawn protested, embarrassed by how long they’d been gone and remembering that she had seen her vibrator earlier. One afternoon and her mother-in-law knew more about her sex life than she cared to contemplate.