“No, I just want to take Mia down by the pond.”
“Again, take all the time you want.”
James tugged a blanket off the back of a chair and grabbed a bottle of champagne. “Should I find our glasses?” I asked.
“I can drink out of the bottle if you can,” he said.
“Works for me.” We walked, fingers laced together. “I think how we’re dressed for this is pretty indicative of both our personalities.”
It amused me that he had proposed to me in a designer suit and I was in denim shorts and a T-shirt.
“Cash recorded all of it too.”
We walked to the edge of the pond and he spread the blanket out. We sat down on it and stared at the water. The moon was high and the air was sweet with the scents of summer. “This is beautiful.”
“Yeah.”
I turned and realized James was staring at me, not the view. It made my heart squeeze.
“By the way, we’re going to tell our kids someday that we met when you leaped over that counter when I fainted,” I said. “That’s the ‘meet cute’ story.”
“But that’s not true,” he protested.
“They don’t need to know we met in a casino bar and hooked up,” I said firmly.
“I don’t feel like we should lie to our children,” he said. “Relationships are built on trust.”
I snorted. “So you want them to hear about your past as a luxury boat salesman?”
James laughed. “Fine. But I think in that case it’s a better story if we tell them about the second time we met. How I went back to the hotel suite looking for my watch and my bed was lumpy, so I threw back the comforter and found a hot maid in her underwear.”
I smacked him. “You can’t tell our kids that!”
“I can make it G rated.”
“How?”
“The hard-working maid decided to take a quick nap and I discovered her. Then I caught her when she fainted in the coffee shop. See?”
“Why are you referring to me as ‘she’ instead of ‘you’? Did this happen to you with someone else, too?” I asked, amused. I lifted my hand and admired my engagement ring, or rock, for the nine millionth time in the past hour.
“That’s how I tell stories.”
Without a warning, James pushed me back onto the blanket.
I gave a squawk and protested. “What are you doing? You’ll wrinkle your suit.”
“I have a connection in housekeeping,” he said, as he bent down and kissed me.
Sighing, I kissed him back. “I hope she’s good.”
He stared down at me, his thumb tracing over my bottom lip. “She’s the best thing to ever happen to me.”
“If the shoe fits…”
“Exactly, you gorgeous smartass.”
James took my mouth with his.
And ‘she,’ me, lived happily ever after.
Thanks for reading Playing the Player! Want more? Preorder The Player and the Pretender, a sexy fake relationship rom com with Miles Williams and a fiesty private investigator.
Also by Erin McCarthy
The Legends
Dating the Player
The Player and the Bookworm
Playing the Player
The Player and the Pretender (Coming Soon)
About the Author
USA Today and New York Times Bestselling author Erin McCarthy sold her first book in 2002 and has since written over eighty novels and novellas in the romance and mystery genres. Erin has a special weakness for tattoos, high-heeled boots, and martinis. She lives with her renovation-addicted husband and their blended family of kids and rescue dogs.
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