Page 48 of Embraced in Ink

Only he was afraid that if he weren’t careful, the ending would hit them harder than either of them ever expected.

Chapter 11

“It’s not supposed to be weird, is it?” Bristol asked as Marcus leaned against the doorjamb.

When he gave her a lazy smile, her insides twisted, and she nearly had to press her thighs together.

What was it about a man leaning against a doorjamb and giving that lazy smile? It was as if they knew what they were doing and just wanted to burst ovaries all around the room—adding to the fact that Marcus had on a button-up shirt that he had rolled to his elbows.

She nearly bit into her knuckle to hold back a moan.

Dear God, she wanted to jump her librarian and strip him down and taste every inch of him.

She’d already done that nearly an hour ago, but she was ready for round three, no matter that not a lot of time had passed.

The fact that her sex drive seemed to have ramped up when it came to Marcus shouldn’t have been a surprise. After all, she had been hiding her feelings for him within her mind for years.

Now that she was finally letting herself want him, dear God, she couldn’t do anythingbutwant him.

Today, however, was filled with things that had nothing to do with wanting to sleep with her best friend and fiancé.

No, today was the Montgomery family dinner.

And she was terrified she was going to fuck it up.

“You’re going to be fine. Besides, this is your family. I should be the nervous one.”

She pulled her shirt over her head, ignored the groan that slid from Marcus’s lips, and tried not to smile. The fact that he liked the way she looked? The fact that he growled at her covering up? That might make her day. Only she was going to do her best not to lean too much into that particular feeling because everything was still so new. She might have that rock on her finger, and they might have made promises to one another, but there was still part of their relationship that was brand new. Infinitesimal and in its infancy. And it gave her butterflies to think about it.

“Wait, aren’t you nervous?” she asked, pulling herself out of her thoughts about the man in front of her and putting her attention on him instead.

Marcus shrugged as he leaned away from the doorjamb. “Maybe. I mean, your family’s always intimidating.”

Her eyes widened, confused. “Not to you. You’re practically family yourself.”

“Well, let’s hope they don’t want to adopt me, or that’s going to get a little tricky when we’re finishing up our marriage license.”

Her lips twitched. “You know Mom and Dad never wanted to adopt you. Mostly because your mom and dad would murder mine.”

“Don’t lie. My folks wouldn’t murder your parents. Maybe a little maiming. Though if yours did adopt me, my parents would want to be adopted, as well. You know, one big, happy family.”

“Our mothers did seem excited about the engagement.”

“Hell, yeah. It’s everything the two of them have ever wanted. I like that our families have always been friends.”

“Yeah, unlike Lincoln’s family.” She had no idea why she’d brought her future brother-in-law up, but she and Marcus had discussed Lincoln often since he was part of their family, too.

Marcus shook his head. “Not the whole of his family. Lincoln’s parents are nice. They just moved on to a different part of their lives without him. Adults do that. Not everybody lives in the same state for their entire lives. Hell, I’m surprised that you didn’t end up moving to New York or L.A. or something.”

“I would never do that. I love my parents. My family.” She paused. “And I didn’t want to be away from you either because you were always part of that. My touchstone.”

“Well, I’m glad you came back. And I’m fucking glad that I got a job at a library here. It’s not as easy as some might think, even though it’s a big city.”

“Well, we’re not down in Denver, we’re up in Boulder. Though if you had gotten a job down in Denver, that wouldn’t have been too far for everybody.”

“That’s true. But I’m glad that I got a job here, and one that’s not technically part of the university so I don’t have to constantly deal with that type of work politics.”

“Your job has enough of it as it is.”