Page 16 of Seduced in Ink

Madison groaned, knowing that Aaron loved reading romance novels and thrillers. Basically, anything that was the written word. She admired him for it. She knew that his brothers and some of the other guys came to him for romantic advice, but this was nothing like that.This was something entirely different.

“You know, so have I. But it never really ends well, does it? And we’re not in one of those books. And I won’t be fucking with you. Okay?”

Aaron’s brows rose at her tone. “Fine. We won’t fuck. But maybe we can still play around.” He winked, and Madison just stared at him, blinking. “What?”

“I’m just saying. We can be smart about each other and how we do this. And we can make sure that we don’t kiss. Don’t touch. But we can still do what we need to, to keep your family off your back.”

“Oh.” She was so confused. “What do you mean?”

“We don’t have to fuck, or kiss, or do anything like that. I was just kidding about that. Really.” He stared at her then, and she swallowed hard. “That’s a different way to tease.”

“I’m not going to touch on the whole teasing thing. I think the clearer we are with each other, the easier this will be.”

“There’s nothing easy about this.”

“You’re right. There isn’t. But if you need time to figure out how you’re going to get your mother off your back, I’m here. We can do whatever we need to, to make your family see exactly who you are.”

She didn’t know what to say to that. She was worried, but she didn’t say anything. She was so grateful that she could stand up to her family, and she had to, but this was so out of the blue that she knew her mother would never leave her alone about it. She had already ignored seven phone calls from her mother that morning. There were probably more since she hadn’t looked at her phone since she woke up.

Her mother would never let this go. And unless Madison was ready to walk away fully from a family that had been such a huge part of her heart, she needed to figure out how to get her mother on a new path.

“What happens when this falls apart?” she asked, looking at him. He gazed at her. Her eyes fell to his lips as his tongue peeked out to lick them.

She needed to stop looking at his mouth.

“Then you dump me.”

“They’re still going to blame me, you know. That’s sort of what they do.”

Aaron’s jaw tightened for a moment before he gave her a tight nod. “Then we’ll make sure they know you, at least. Not the woman they want you to be. Or…you just walk away. Your choice. But this at least gives you the space to breathe. To figure it out. And it could be fun. Get your mind off the fact that your mother is fucking crazy.”

“She is that. I just don’t know what will happen.”

“Like I said, this gives you time to figure it all out. And it really could be fun. Something to get my mind off my work, too.”

“Really? I’m just a distraction?”

“You’re anything but, Madison. I can be your friend. And I guess your fake fiancé for now.”

She let out a breath and held out her hand, swallowing hard. When Aaron looked at her for a moment, she was afraid that he wouldn’t touch her, but then he slid his hand into hers and gave it a squeeze and a shake.

“Okay. This is the weirdest way to begin an engagement. But then again, there might be weirder. So, let’s come up with a plan.”

They started talking about fake dating and dinners, and precisely what was going to happen.

She did her best not to look at him, not to stare.

And she sure as hell made sure not to think about that damn dream.

Chapter 4

Aaron scowled at the sketch in front of him, angling his pencil so he could add more shading and get it to the point where he could figure out what he wanted to accomplish with the project.

He had to go into his workshop and start working on this piece soon for a client who only said they wanted something red. Didn’t matter what it was, they just wanted something by Aaron Montgomery, and they wanted it to be red. And that meant he had to figure out something that wasn’t just a red blob. At this point, that was the only thing he could come up with.

He set down his notebook and ran his hands over his face, annoyed with himself. There was a reason he couldn’t focus, why he couldn’t get in the mood to get anything done. And that reason was the person he had somehow become engaged to. He wasn’t quite sure how it had happened, but he knew it was all his fault. Of course, it was his fault. He was the one who’d started this whole thing, and the one who wanted it to happen.

But why? To be the savior? To be the one who fixed things? That wasn’t him. Not really. That was his other brothers, and hell, even his sister to some degree. Aaron wasn’t the fixer of his family. He was the one who smoothed things over once the jagged pieces were brought back together by the others. At least, that’s what his mom had told him once. The idea had stuck with him.