“Does he have nice boy parts?” she asked after another minute of silent contemplation.

“That’s what you want to know?! Does that matter so much?”

“I already know that he’s cute and funny and smart! I even know what kind of food and books and music he likes,” she said defensively. “We had a lot of time to talk while we were staking out Braden’s crazy call girl ex-girlfriend for you.” Okay, she had a point there. He had nothing to be ashamed of anyway in that department.

“He’s a healthy boy,” I replied. “Not quite as healthy as Braden, but Mother Nature was generous to the men of their line. Stamina and the ability to recover quickly also seem to run in their family. Both he and Braden are like Energizer Bunnies.”

“Did you do it more than once?” she asked, sounding surprised.

“Five times,” I answered, blushing a little with the memory of our one wild night together. In some ways I had actually lucked out as far as first-time experiences went. Even at nineteen Cam was good in bed. Must have been something in the genes.

“Five times! Mary, Joseph and a f**king donkey! This was the first time you had sex? Did they carry you out of there on a stretcher?”

“I was a bit sore the next day. I was too busy having an emotional breakdown to really notice much, though.”

“You’ve had very interesting experiences,” she said, shaking her head again. “Come on Mrs. Pierce. We had better get going before your very healthy husband comes looking for you.”

“That sounds so weird! I’ll have to get used to that.”

“Is Braden acting any differently now that you’re engaged?”

“Well, first of all, we’re not officially engaged. He wants to propose to me in a more romantic way.”

“I can’t imagine why,” she said dryly.

“Secondly, it’s been less than twenty-four hours, so it’s kind of early to tell.”

I called Bruno who came scurrying over with a yip, and when I had him leashed again, we headed out. It happened again as soon as we cleared the front door! I looked around in confusion.

“What’s the matter, honey?” she asked.

“I have that weird feeling again, like somebody is watching me.”

“Right now?” she asked, suddenly stopping and looking around frantically in every direction. She gave some folks some suspicious looks that probably made them think that we were stalking them. A little kid ran away from us. We weren’t really good at the whole spy game thing. We would probably have to work on subtlety a bit.

“I don’t see anybody, Gabrielle. It’s probably just nerves because of everything that’s happened. Don’t worry about it.”

“Yeah, I’m sure you’re right, but we should still mention and talk about it as a group this weekend,” I said as we headed back toward Rittenhouse Square.

CHAPTER THREE

I had my own key now and I let us in to Braden’s apartment. Bruno went off to check things out as usual and I heard male voices from inside acknowledge our presence. The gang was all there. I hung up Bruno’s leash and headed toward the TV area behind Jess, who greeted everyone and sat down next to Cam with a smile. She was much cooler around guys she was attracted to than I had ever been.

“Hi, Gabrielle! I understand that I dressed up like an ass for no reason last night!” Mark said in a falsely cheerful voice.

“You looked very cute,” I replied sincerely. It was the truth. Mark always looked cute, in a carefully disheveled way. He knew how to pull it off so that he looked like a sexy hipster rather than a messy derelict. That took skill.

“You’re lucky that you’re sleeping with one of my best friends,” he said, not looking terribly overwhelmed by the compliment.

“I’m sorry,” I replied, and he raised his eyebrows at me. “That I made you dress up like a naughty schoolboy and go to an underground sex party.” He cleared his throat.

“For no reason,” I finished.

“Yeah, whatever. You owe me. I think I see some really annoying trials in your future.”

“Are you mad at me too, Cam?” I turned toward him, with what I hoped was a contrite expression. He gave me his charming Cameron grin. Have I mentioned the charming Cameron grin? Well, if not, trust me, it was very charming. It had charmed the panties off of me once.

“Me? Nah. I’m not mad that I dressed up like a g*y biker for nothing. Now, when my multi-millionaire client caught me digging through garbage cans for you …”

“I already apologized for that!”

“I’ll get over it eventually. I’m getting to be pretty good at criminal defense anyway. Maybe I can do that when my father and the other partners at my firm find out.”

“I’m not mad at you at all.” Adam smiled brightly. “In fact, I think you’re f**king hilarious. If you weren’t dating Braden, I’d go out with you myself just for the entertainment.”

“Well, she is dating Braden, so find your entertainment elsewhere,” Braden said and moved over, patting the loveseat beside him. I went over and sat down and it was as if Bruno just magically knew somehow that Mommy and Daddy were sitting together. (Which meant double team petting.) He came flying around a corner, hurtled himself back into the room like a missile, stopped short, and slid ten yards on his ass to arrive at our feet and beg us to pick him up, which Braden promptly did. Bruno was a very enthusiastic animal and Braden was a doting doggie daddy.

While Braden petted Bruno, I petted Braden, running my fingers up and down the hard muscles of his inner thigh. Bruno was blocking what I was doing from sight, and I could sense that Braden was enjoying it, so I teased him a little by moving a bit higher periodically as we watched the game. At the time I didn’t realize how much he was enjoying it.

“So how was Pittsburgh?” Jessica asked during a commercial break. Braden and Adam had just returned from a conference there the night before.

“First night was just introductory stuff and a cocktail party,” Adam said. “The keynote speech was okay. The party was pretty good although Braden wanted to leave early because he missed Gabrielle.”

“Oh, poor Braden,” Mark teased. “What had it been? A whole ten hours?” Adam and Cameron laughed. Braden just glared.

“The next day,” Adam continued, “we did our presentation, went to a couple other presentations, and then Braden wanted to leave early because, you guessed it, he missed Gabrielle. Apparently he can’t survive outside of her for more than a day.”

“We had done all the important stuff!” Braden argued. “The third day was just more bullshit. I didn’t want to go to any more lunches or dinners. I can eat here.”

“One month!” Mark laughed. “Jesus, Braden, you went down like the f**king Titanic, man! Dating for four weeks and you can’t make it two whole days without her.”

“Six weeks,” Braden corrected. “I don’t dick around when I know what I want, and I want to be with her.” Braden and I smiled at each other stupidly for a minute.

“I guess you don’t!” Cam muttered with a laugh. “I have to admit I kind of admire that.”

The game came back on and we watched another inning. My fingers brushed up against Braden’s boy parts a little more and I realized that it wasn’t just his muscles that were hard. I had gotten him excited right here in the middle of Game Night! Something about that felt very sexy and I liked having the power to do that to him. At the next commercial break Adam picked up the conversation again.

“Do you think your parents are going to be okay with you getting engaged so quickly?” he asked Braden.

“My dad proposed to my mom after six weeks and they’ve been happily married for thirty years. He said that he just knew and he didn’t want to waste his time.”

“What about your parents, Gab?” Jess chimed in. “Your dad’s pretty protective; do you think he’ll be okay with it?”

“You’re kidding me, right? My father’s biggest fear is that I’ll die alone with a bunch of cats.” Bruno yipped. “He’ll probably ask Braden what took him so long. Incidentally, he’s definitely a guy who doesn’t dick around when he knows what he wants. That’s why he’s a CEO.” My fingers traveled up again and rubbed a little harder.

“Gabrielle, can you help me in the kitchen? Excuse us for a minute,” Braden said, sounding a little hoarse. He got up, put our yippy dog down, and took my hand, gently pushing me in front of him off into the other room. Bruno trotted along after us. The layout of Braden’s apartment was very open but there was a wall that obscured part of the kitchen from those in the TV area.

“What’s up?” I teased. He backed me up against a black granite counter, out of view.

“I think you know the answer to that. You’re driving me crazy. I can’t wait until tonight,” he said in a low voice. “I need it now.” Uh oh. I had gotten him a bit more excited than I realized. As much as that turned me on, he couldn’t be serious, could he? I looked at him carefully. He looked flushed, he was breathing quickly and his eyes were dilated. He could be serious.

“What do mean you need it now?”

“Sex. I need sex. I’ve moved beyond amorous and now I’m into really horny. Stage three is physical discomfort and mental anguish. Just letting you know.” His eyes dropped to my lips.

“I knew what you meant but we have company!” I whispered back. He was stunningly sexy-looking when he was aroused like this, and I headed for stage two with a bullet myself, but come on, during Game Night? I just thought I was building anticipation for tonight when they all went home and we were alone.

“Just a quickie to tide me over until later.” He ran his hands over my hips. Oh, that felt nice. While my brain was still saying, “sex isn’t a spectator sport,” my cha-cha was starting to come around to his point of view. My brain was still ahead though. At least for the moment.

“Braden, you don’t do quickies.” My eyes went to his lips and I started to feel flushed.

“We got off together in ten minutes in an interview room at the courthouse once.”

“That was different. There was a whole other level of pressure involved there. And there are logistical problems. We would have to walk past them to get to the bedroom.” I knew that if Braden and I just strolled off toward the bedroom together it wouldn’t be really difficult to figure out where we going. That could be kind of awkward when one had guests.

“We’ll say we’re going to the bathroom.”

“Together?”

“So we’ll say we’re going to have sex and we’ll be right back. Honesty is the best policy anyway.” He obviously knew he was going to have to work harder to convince me, so he upped his game and leaned in to start kissing his way up my neck. His lips felt so good against my skin. He gently nipped me with his teeth and a bolt of heat shot straight to my lady bits, which were now firmly on his side.

“It’s rude to have sex while you’re entertaining,” I said throatily. I was sinking fast and we both knew it. He was going to have me down on the kitchen floor in another minute.

“Mm hm?” I guess that was the best he could do with his tongue in my ear.

“Oh God. Okay, but give Bruno a treat first because he’s making me nervous.” We both looked over at our Chihuahua who was sitting happily watching us, panting and wagging his tail. Braden quickly grabbed a doggie bacon strip out of a cupboard above my head and leaned down to give it to Bruno, who ran off with his prize, as was another one of his habits.

“Now where was I?” Braden muttered, going back to business. “Business” being introducing my earlobe to oral play that was usually reserved for my lower regions.

“Ahh!” I whimpered quietly. “I hope you have a permit for that tongue.” I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled his mouth to mine. The tongue in question began tracing delicious little circles on the roof of my mouth and I made a contented sound and arched my back to press my chest tightly against him. I wanted to haul him to the floor with me and have my wicked way with him. So much for good manners. Emily Post would be so disappointed.

He groaned and grabbed my bottom to pull my h*ps tightly against him too. The now very big bulge pressing into my belly told me that my baby was rock hard and ready to rumble. I started rubbing against him shamelessly and I was about to suggest we head to the bedroom while we still had some good judgment left, when I heard a phone ring and Adam call out.

“Pizza’s here, Braden. You going to get it or should I?” It sounded like Adam was getting up. Braden broke the kiss and leaned his forehead against mine in breathless defeat.

“I’ll get it!” he called out, sounding a bit tense.

“Poor baby,” I said with a giggle. “I hope this doesn’t lead to stage three.”

“Laugh it up. You’re not going to be able to walk tomorrow. The quickie option is off the table. I’m going to bang you so long tonight they’ll send out a search party for you,” he said, pulling his shirt down over the evidence of his healthy maleness and heading off to get the food. I didn’t know what in the hell I was laughing at. I felt more than just “warm” myself at that point and I probably looked like I had just jogged a few dozen miles. I splashed a little water on my face before grabbing some plates out of the cupboard and napkins out of a drawer. I had a feeling that we were going to have a night of volcanic sex later and I wondered if I should try to get cardiac clearance.