Page 103 of The Worst Best Man

She stopped breathing, freezing in place like a rabbit in front of a predator.

Aiden reached out, shifting his chair so he was in front of her. “You’re special to me, Franchesca. And I don’t foresee a point when you won’t be.”

“Jesus,” she blew out her breath. “That must have been some BJ,” she said.

“See? That’s what I’m talking about.”

“The blow job?” she asked cheekily.

He pinched her.

“Ouch! I’m just kidding,” she said.

“Forget the fact that you’re beautiful beyond belief. You’re sharp and mean when you need to be. You have no filter. I’ve never known anyone who didn’t carefully weigh every word. You’re a breath of fucking fresh air in my life.”

“Aide, you’ve got me shaking in my boots here,” she admitted.

“All in, Franchesca. You and me.”

She blew out a slow breath and stared at the ceiling. “What if we fuck it up?”

He squeezed her hips. “I won’t let you.”

She laughed. “Ass,” she said.

He saw the shimmer of tears behind her long lashes. “I’m asking you to take me or leave me,” he told her.

“You ever have this conversation with anyone else you dated?” she asked.

He shook his head. “Not even close. You and me, Frankie.”

“I feel like I’m gonna throw up,” she admitted, clutching her hand to her belly.

He saw it then, the fear, the nerves. And he made the conscious choice to push the button. “I never would have thought I’d see the day when Franchesca Marie Baranski was too scared to go after what she wanted.”

It was a manipulation, but damn it, he needed this. He needed her.

She nodded, her lips pressed tight. “Okay. All in.”

He rose, lifting her off the desk in a tight embrace.

“You won’t regret it, Franchesca.”

Chapter Thirty-Nine

“Judging from the fingerprints on your neck, things went well with Aiden,” Pru said, eyeing Frankie as she flopped down in the salon chair next to her.

Frankie was too emotionally drained to argue. “You were right, and I was a horrible person,” she admitted, pouting in the mirror.

“When you know better, you do better,” Pru chirped from under her foils.

“We’re officially in a ‘real’ relationship, and I threw up my panini on my way out of the building.”

“You have a cast iron stomach,” Pru pointed out.

“Yeah, okay, so that part didn’t actually happen. But thanks to you, Aiden and I are,” she swallowed compulsively, “a couple.”

“I have the perfect way for you to thank me.”