I nod, smiling as I see his wall cracking.

“So,” he says, “honeymoon at Sundance?”

I wrinkle my nose. “Utah? Who the hell honeymoons in Utah?”

“Skiers,” he offers. “And wives who really love and support their wannabe director husbands.”

“Nice try.” I pick up his cap and set it on my head. “I want somewhere tropical. A beach and sand and water. You in those red and black board shorts.” I sigh, and he laughs at me. “Somewhere warm…please?”

“We can watch a movie about the beach…”

I growl, tossing my head back. “Landon!”

“Lizzie!” he mimics.

I kick him in the leg. “Can we fight about this later and get back to what we were talking about?”

“What? The no sex thing and how that somehow equals fun?”

“Yes, smart-ass. Sometimes delayed gratification gets my rocks off. You remember when you vacationed for a month?”

He grins a wicked grin and runs a hand up the inside of my shorts. “Mmhmm…”

“It’ll be like that,” I say as his fingers make a naughty trail across my underwear line, and I gulp so loud it echoes in my ears. “Only better because it’ll be months and months.”

“I told you,” he whispers as he leans in. “I’m okay with it. I just don’t think you’ll last.”

“I bet I’ll last longer than you.”

His eyebrows rise, and there’s a tilt of his lips that he always gets when he’s thinking “challenge accepted.” It’s one of the sexiest expressions he has, and I clench my jaw, refusing to look at his mouth and lose this thing before it starts.

“Okay.” He slips his hand out of my shorts.

“Okay what?”

“Okay, I’ll take that bet.” He takes his hat off my head and sets it on his. “And when I win, I get Sundance.”

I pull my feet under my butt and stare him down. His eyes flick to my lack of bra, and he gulps. Too easy.

“Then we should establish rules, right? Like hands off the ladies.” I gesture to my breasts, and he laughs. “And none of the lower lady touching either.”

“Then you can’t touch Lord Landon,” he fires back. Like that’ll be hard for me.

“Neither can you.”

He jerks back. “Wait…what?”

“The whole point of this is to get ourselves revved up. How can we do that if you spend the sex-free five months with a box of tissues?”

He purses his lips, like he’s thinking what the hell have we started, and I cross my arms, challenging him to give up a minute in. After a few seconds, he sighs and says, “You can’t touch yourself either.”

“Okay.” Cake. “And whoever breaks the rules loses.”

“You won’t last a week.”

I nearly snort. Yeah, I’m usually the instigator of sex, but I know him. I’ll be surprised if he lasts the day.

“Does that mean you’re in?”

Landon pauses, staring me down while I do the same. He playfully grins, and asks, “I can still kiss you?”

“Yes.”

“Anywhere that isn’t ‘the ladies,’ right?”

I tilt my head, considering. “Yeah.”

His smile grows, and he leans forward. “Then I’m in.”

He pushes his forehead against mine, gently giving me Eskimo kisses. I reach up to hold his face, give him a goodbye kiss since I’ve made him incredibly late for work, but he catches my hand. My eyes flick down as he slides the diamond on my ring finger.

“Did I do okay?” he asks, twisting the ring. My mouth splits open into a wide grin, and I throw my arms around his neck and leap into his lap.

“Where did you hide it?” I squeal, my hand stretched out behind his back as I stare at the beautiful diamond, eyes watering because it feels incredibly real now. I’m getting married!

“I’m going to keep that a secret in case I need to hide anything else.” He presses light kisses to my bare shoulder, slowly working his way up my neck to my mouth. I lean back to return the kiss, and after three seconds I have to push him away because I feel things happening behind his zipper, and I may grind without even thinking about it. I give myself an A+ in restraint.

“Hey, babe?” I say, playing with the ring and moving my gaze to his eyes. “When I win, we get the Bahamas.”

And I will have delicious Sex on the Beach.

The drink, and the deed.

Chapter 5

Work is impossible today. I’m out on the floor of Bed Bath & Beyond changing all the sheets on the model beds from summer designs to autumn, and I can’t help but grin like a complete idiot, dance with the pillows, and fall onto the cushy mattresses in blissful sighs. My ring catches the overhead lights, shining brighter than any of them, and completely distracting me from doing anything productive. After an hour of only getting two beds done—that look absolutely horrible—Alec, my boss, tells me to rearrange the stock room instead. Probably so customers don’t see the crazy woman with her head in the clouds.

Engagement rocks. Feels like a new relationship. My plan is working not even twelve hours in.

“I’m gonna let you off early,” Alec says when he walks in on me tracing MRS. LANDON WANGFORD on a crushed box with a red sharpie. He’s silently laughing as he takes the marker. “Landon’s in the parking lot waiting for you, anyway.”

“You sure?”

He puts his hands on my shoulders and shakes a little. “Go. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

I give him a hug, then hurry to clock out. Alec’s one of Landon’s best friends, known him since he was, like, four or five years old, and seriously one of the sweetest guys I’ve ever met. I’ve adopted him as my older brother.

In the six hours I’ve worked today my phone’s gone off about twenty times. I swipe over to the most recent text Landon sent.

You’re going to have a hard time keeping your hands off me. Look at this!

There’s a picture of him in hard-core zombie makeup. I laugh and stick my phone in my pocket. Another movie day for him where he messes around in the makeup department…so he’s in a good mood.

I walk out to the parking lot half expecting zombie-Landon, but he’s makeup free. He’s leaning against his Pontiac, worn-out black cap on his head, and by the way he’s holding his phone and swiping madly across the screen…I’m assuming he’s playing Fruit Ninja.

I bounce into his arms, slide his hat around, and kiss him. He smiles against my lips, then I feel his warm hands on the small of my back.

“You’re off early,” he says, then goes back to kissing me.

“Mmhmm.” I bite on his bottom lip. Hell yes, engagement rocks. “I was not very productive today.”

“Seems to be going around.” His hands slide over my waist, down to my upper thighs. He hoists me up and sets me on the hood of the car. “Every call I answered today started with, ‘Thank you for calling. I’m Landon, and I just got engaged, so I’m useless to you.’ ”

I laugh around his mouth and drag my nails over the back of his neck. “Liar.”

“Well, I was thinking it.”

I put my hands on his cheeks, pull his face closer to mine, and give him a sweet kiss. He pushes his phone into my back pocket, then runs his palms up my back.

I could spend my whole life kissing him like this.

“Me too,” he says, and I laugh at my thoughts jumping out of my mouth again. “Hey, I sort of made plans for tonight.”

“With me?”

“Well, you can come if you want…” he teases, and I lightly smack the bill on his cap. He slides it off his head and sets it on mine. “Will you wear a dress?”

“Ooh, fancy.”

“I know. It’s completely out of character for you.”

“Well, what are you wearing, Mr. Boy’s Department Mannequin?” I tug at his graphic tee that says, “I’m kind of a big deal” with Anchorman splayed across his chest.

He flicks my nose. “I’m killing this look. I’m surprised you haven’t broken our new rules right here in the parking lot.”