Chapter 3

Jennie

It was late when Lisa got back to my house. She'd gone to the city for the day to talk to Viper and Bambam, and though I told her she didn't have to come back for the night since it was going to be so late, she insisted, and I didn't argue.

Mom, Fred, and I were sitting on the couch when we heard the front door open. I hopped up and tried not to jog up front.

"Hey," I welcomed, throwing my arms around her neck. Her arms wrapped around me, squeezing so hard it made my chest ache, but I didn't dare tell her for fear that she'd quit hugging me like that every time.

"Hey, babe. How was your day?" She loosened the hug but didn't let go.

"Good. How was yours? How did everything go?"

I squirmed out of her arms and we walked hand in hand to the living room.

"Hi, Lisa!" Mom called out when we got to the kitchen, Fred offering a silent wave.

"Hey," Lisa responded, sounding exhausted.

"You okay?" I gently rubbed the side of her face as she sat down at the island. "Can I get you something?"

"No, thanks. I'm good, just tired. It was a long day." She smiled. "But everything went well. Viper said he'd be in the wedding, then proceeded to book every illegal activity in Minnesota for a bachelor party."

"Oh boy." I laughed nervously, setting a glass of ice water in front of her.

"Thanks, and don't worry. I told him to chill out. I will definitely have a say in what we do." She paused and took a long drink of the water she said she didn't need. "Then I went to Bambam's. We ended up talking longer than I'd planned on, and he asked me to go have a burger and a beer with him, so I did."

"I'm glad you had such a good day."

"All right, you crazy kids." Mom walked over to us with Fred following right behind. "Us old folks are heading to bed. Turn the lights off when you're done?"

"Got it, Mom." I yawned, suddenly feeling just as tired as Lisa looked.

She leaned over and kissed my forehead before she and Fred disappeared down the hall.

Lisa rested her chin on her fist and smiled lazily at me, her beautiful eyes sparkling. "You look tired too."

"I wasn't until you got home." I yawned again. "Suddenly I'm ready for bed."

Lisa cocked an eyebrow at me as the corner of her mouth pulled up in a sexy smirk. "Ready for bed, or ready for Lisa?"

"Well, I meant bed, but I could possibly be persuaded into something else." I giggled.

"No, if you're really tired, we'll just go to bed."

"I'm tired. I'm stressed. I'm just… blah."

"Wanna talk about it?" She reached over and squeezed my hand.

I shrugged halfheartedly.

"Come on." Pulling me to a stand, she held on to my hand and led me to the living room, where we both sat on the couch. She lifted my feet into her lap and started massaging them as she looked at me. "What's going on? Talk to me."

"I think Jisoo's comments yesterday are bothering me more than I initially thought."

"How so?"

"I don't know. I just feel like a slacker because we haven't picked the wedding date and location and a dress and everything else, all within forty-eight hours of being engaged." I sighed.

"Ah." She nodded. "Those comments. Yeah, I kinda got the same thing from Bambam today."

"You did?"

"Yeah, he actually said he got a few e-mails this morning from different places offering to host our reception."

"Holy shit, seriously? I don't get it. Why do so many people care where we get married?"

Lisa shrugged and shook her head as she continued the best foot massage ever given by any human ever. "Publicity, probably. Then they can forever say they held Lisa and Jennie's wedding there."

I tilted my head to the side and narrowed my eyes at her skeptically. "Gimmie a break. They don't care about the Jennie part. They just want to be able to say Lisa Manoban got married there. Who you're marrying is irrelevant."

"Not to me," she said sweetly, trying to make me feel better.

"Oh, I know and it's okay. I couldn't care less what the public or whoever thinks of our wedding. It's for us, you and me, and that's all that matters."

"I'm glad you feel that way." She bent her leg under her and turned to face me. "I had a thought while I was driving home."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm not eloping."

"No, no. I know that. But you're right… about not letting them have our wedding, the paparazzi and leeches who thought it was okay to post a picture of the girls in the newspaper. I don't want them having any part in our day, so I was thinking, what if we had the ceremony and the reception in my parents' barn?"

My mouth fell open as she held her hand up. "Don't freak. Just hear me out. I know it's a crappy rundown barn, but I was thinking how cool it might look if we hung thousands of little white lights or even candles everywhere, though we don't want to burn it down, but you get what I'm saying," she rambled, barely taking a breath. "I can hire a company to come in and clean it up. We'll rent some tables and chairs and whatever other crap you need for a wedding. Anything you want, Jennie. The sky's the limit. I just want you to be—"

I put my hand over her mouth to stop the adorable, incoherent sentences that were tumbling out of her mouth.

When she stopped talking against my hand, I lowered it and scooted forward, cupping her face in my hands. I looked her straight in the eye. "Lisa, I think that's the best idea I have ever heard."

"Really?" Her eyebrows shot up in surprise.

"Yes, really. I don't want our celebration at some stuffy banquet hall where two thousand other people have gotten married. I want ours to be special, and I can't think of a more special place than your parents' barn."

A devilish grin spread across her face. "We do have history in that barn, don't we?"

"Correction." I moved closer to her and gently brushed my nose against her. "We almost had history in that barn. The girls came in and interrupted us, remember?"

I gently kissed the corner of her mouth and flicked her lips with my tongue. "How could I forget? I still don't think my balls have recovered."

"Oh, please." I ran my teeth gently along her jawline and kissed just under her ear. "We've had sex like five hundred times since then."

Her hand clutched my thigh and squeezed gently as she started breathing heavier. "If you keep kissing me like this and then go to sleep, I'm gonna have navy blue balls all over again."

"I'm not tired anymore."

"You aren't?" Pleasant surprise filled her voice.

"Nope." I moved my tongue to the other side of her neck while my fingers ran up her thigh, under her shorts. "You said the magic word."

"What did I say? Wait. I said barn." Her hearty laugh vibrated under my lips.

"You said barn," I reiterated. "And you know what that does to me."

"I do, but I didn't know it could take you from 0 to 100 that fast. I'll have to remember that for the next fifty years. Screw that, I'm getting it tattooed on me somewhere."

"Stop talking," I ordered, pulling away just enough to look her in the eye, "and kiss me."

The words were barely out of my mouth before Lisa's hands encompassed my face, gently pulling my lips to her. The second we connected, all the tiny stresses of the last couple days washed away. She held a secret power that I didn't know existed until we got together. Contact with Lisa actually altered the way I felt physically. If I was sick, she would hold my hand and I'd feel better. If I was angry, she would hug me and make it all disappear. And in moments like this, when I was hot for her, her smallest touch set me on fire.

After four swipes of her tongue, I was straddling her on my couch, grinding my hips into her as hard as I could.

"Whoa." She laughed. "Slow down there, killer, or we're both gonna need Neosporin tomorrow."

"It'd be worth it." I continued kissing her.

"For you, it's worth a little chafing, but I'd rather be skin to skin, and I'm thinking the couch in the family room isn't the ideal location. Wanna move this down the hall?"

She was right.

Mom had a full house of guests, and I didn't think any of them wanted to see the innkeeper's daughter dry humping her fiancée on the common area sofa, even if that fiancée was a smokin' hot hockey superstar. Okay, maybe they would want to see it, then, but I wanted to keep our life together as private as possible. I could just imagine Lisa getting a call from Bambam in the morning freaking out that some weirdo had videoed us on the couch and our sex tape was all over the Internet. Kim Kardashian could keep that disgusting throne; I had no interest in it.

"Yes, let's go," I whispered, sliding off of her.

I grabbed her hand and pulled her along behind me, down the hall.

"Wait. Do you want to go to your room or mine?" She stopped suddenly, tugging my hand back. "We don't want the girls to hear us."

"Having sex? No. But it's about time they know we sleep together at night. We're engaged to be married and they think of you as their daddy. Mommies and daddies sleep together at night. No more sneaking back to your room in the wee hours of the morning." I winked. "Now come on before you kill my mood."

We tiptoed down the hall, past my mom and Fred snoring in their room. I peeked in at Ruby and Jane as we passed. Sound asleep.

"They good?" Lisa whispered.

"Sound asleep." A seductive smile slid across my lips as I closed my bedroom door.