Mr. Fiancé(55)

“I just wish I’d never done this,” she says.

“Don’t say that,” I say, more emotionally than I intended.

“But I can't help it,” Mindy softly wails, tears coming down her face. “I lied to everyone. My family. I’m just a fraud. A big, fat, terrible fraud. I’m a horrible person!”

I put my arm around her, comforting her as best I can. “You’re not. You just want them not to judge you and to please your mom. It’s totally understandable.”

“Yeah? Then why can't I just tell them the truth then? Even now, I know if I had to tell her, I’d still lie to save face. And I don’t know why I fucking care. I’m always brushing things off and don’t take things seriously . . . but this . . . I just can't.”

I pull her closer, sliding around so that I’m holding her from behind, just giving her comfort. “Mindy, we all lie to please others. When my parents divorced, I went with my father while Tony went with Mom.”

“You don’t talk much about your father, really. I mean, beyond him making your life like boot camp.”

I nod my head and bury my nose in her hair. Even after a night at the club and tinged with sweat, she smells good. “After college, majoring in business, of course, my father brought me into the family business as his right-hand man. Oh, I was being groomed for success, given a nice chunk of stock, a Vice President’s position right off the bat . . .”

“But you gave it up. Why?”

I nod, holding her more tightly. “Because I never wanted to be in pharmaceuticals. Steele Pharma started off generations ago doing good stuff. We developed treatments for yellow fever, for bacterial infections, all of that. When my father took over, though, that started to change.”

“Why?” Mindy asks.

“Because you make more money selling skin tighteners, tooth whiteners, or wrinkle removers than you do curing diseases anymore. My father shifted all the R&D into cosmetic areas, and now the only real medicines Steele makes are generics on stuff that’s a generation old or more. That’s not the sort of life I wanted to lead.”

“So you quit?” Mindy asks.

I shake my head. “No. Not for years. I was like you are now, living a lie and hating every minute of it. My father and I started fighting, and it got worse and worse until I had to walk away. I had to, or else I’d never be able to speak to him again. So I know what it’s like, and I’m here for you.”

Her body trembles, and I hold her closer. She starts to cry, and I turn her to me, holding her in my lap and letting her bury her head in my shoulder. I murmur in her ear, stroking her hair and back, letting her know I’m there for her. “Mindy, if it counts for anything, I wouldn’t want to lose this week.”

“Why?” she asks, sniffing and looking up into my eyes. I stroke her cheek with my thumb and give her a little smile.

“Because if it hadn’t been for this week, I might never have met you.”

Mindy cuts me off by pulling me close and kissing me, her mouth hot on mine. She’s desperate for reassurance and lost in the fantasy that’s not really a fantasy anymore. I have to have this moment too, a chance to reassure her and to show her, even if it’s just once, what she really means to me.

We tumble to the bed, and I’m careful not to crush her underneath me, her hands tugging at my shirt to stroke my back, not with the rough urgency of our earlier passions but tenderly, searching for something we can’t put into words yet. She mewls, moaning like a kitten as I lift her top up to her armpits and explore the silky soft skin of her body. “Oliver . . .”

I stop and look into her eyes, swallowing back the feelings that are threatening to overwhelm me. “I’ll be very careful, Princess.”

I sit back, unbuttoning the rest of my shirt and shrugging it off, before I scoot back off the bed and unbutton my pants, her eyes drinking me in the whole time. “Mindy, I know tonight’s maybe our last chance. I want this time to be special.”

She nods and sits up, pulling off the rest of her clothes and dropping them over the side of the bed. Mindy's smile fades as she looks at me in amazement, blinking silently until my eyes meet hers, and I swallow, pulling her to her feet. “You truly are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever known.”

“You make me feel beautiful,” she tells me, stepping closer.

Mindy smiles and puts her arms around my neck, mashing my cock between us as she kisses me again. She’s just short enough without her shoes on that I have to bend my head more than what's comfortable, but it’s okay, and she leads me back to the bed, stretching out beside me as we keep kissing.