Irresistible Bachelors: Books 1-5 by Landish, Lauren (bts books to read TXT) 📕

I hesitate. Love is such a strong word. I know I’m supposed to be pretending to be in love, but to actually answer a direct question, I feel uneasy. But I can’t help but answer with what he wants.

“Yes,” I say. “Heaven and stars above, I love her very much.”

John studies me for a moment, then nods. “Good. Then don’t ever let her go. Girls like her only come around once in a lifetime. So to hell with the rules. You make sure you hold her, please her, and give her everything she desires.”

“Desires,” I muse as John pulls away. Desires indeed.

Hopefully, she gives in to that desire sooner rather than later. Another night of her dressed in that nightgown and I’m going to have a serious case of blue balls.

“Oliver?” John asks. “Did you hear me?”

“Hmmm?” I reply, glancing over at John. “Yeah. I was just thinking how stupid rules can be, and that you’re right. Mindy deserves her wildest dreams.”

“Good,” John says, turning his attention back to driving. I look out the car window again, not really watching as the greenery rolls by. I’m thinking about Mindy. And rules. The only thing separating me from her is a flimsy barrier of rules she’s put up between us.

And if I want to get the rules to change . . . I need to change the game.Mindy

As Roxy and I ride with Grandma, I know I’m in big trouble. I can't stop thinking about the way he kissed me.

The way that his hands felt on my waist, and the way his thumb brushed over my cheek when our lips parted. It’s fake, but it felt so real. I can still count on one hand the number of times he’s kissed me. The scary part is that each one is getting better than the last. The really scary part is that I’m looking forward to the next one more and more.

It’s more than the way he uses his lips or the way his body feels pressed against me. It’s the look in his eyes. There is real desire there, and something else too. Something that scares me.

But last night was a real test of faith. I think I deserve entry to the gates of heaven because I’m a goddamn saint for resisting him. Call the Pope or something, because I felt like Eve, and Oliver’s big fucking dick was the forbidden fruit. I didn’t partake, so now I need to be rewarded.

“Yoo-hoo! Earth to Mindy!” Roxy says, waving her hand in my face.

I’m snapped back to attention. Roxy’s driving us down the road in her white convertible with the sun roof down. The wind ruffles through our hair, and the weather is amazing. You couldn’t ask for a better day, really. With clear blue skies and the sun warming our skin, everything is just right. Off in the distance, I can see the deep blue ocean. This place is nothing but beautiful. If I had to name a place to live, I think I would love to live here.

“Yeah?” I ask, setting aside my thoughts about Oliver and the creeping fantasy I have of him and me and this place. “What?”

Roxy grins, raising her voice to talk over the wind. “You look like you’re in another world. Was the sex that good?”

I scowl at Roxy. “You do realize your grandma’s in the back seat, right?”

“Are you serious?” Roxy asks, glancing in the rearview mirror. “She says and hears things far worse than that, ain’t that right, Grandma?”

In the back, my annoyance grows as Grandma cackles. “Honey, I might be old, but I ain't dead. I’ve had more than my fair share of rides in the rodeo back in the day and put more than my fair share of cowboys away wet at night.”

“See?” Roxy says as I wish I could just crawl into a hole and die. And Brianna thinks I’m forward? “Hell, I’d have her twerking on ladies’ night at Trixie’s if I could.”

“Don’t you dare,” I say, feeling like the most mature person in the vehicle. “You’re not about to have my Maw-Maw down there looking like some geriatric Nikki Minaj.”

Roxy laughs, and silence reigns for a moment. “So, how have you been?” I ask Roxy seriously. “I haven’t gotten a moment alone with you since we got here. You doing okay?”

“I’ve been good,” Roxy says, giving me a smirk and a shrug. “But Mom’s been giving me hell for taking a year off college to pursue singing. What else is new? She doesn’t approve of anything I do unless it’s something she wants.”

Her words resonate with me. Aren’t I pulling this whole charade to please my mother? I’m making an ass of myself in front of my family just so I can appear to have found a man. “It’s just her way,” I say.

We make it to the dress shop. It’s a small little place in a strip mall between a karate studio and an eyeglass shop. I’m not sure at first, but when Roxy leads me inside, I see that everything’s high-end. “This looks expensive as hell. I’d feel like I was slumming it in a Vera Wang,” I say. “Jesus, this thing costs more than what I make in two months.”

“Good thing I have John's credit card then,” Roxy says with a chuckle, patting her hip pocket.

“What do you think of that?” I ask.

“What do I think of what?” Roxy asks as Grandma settles into one of the well-padded chairs and hums to herself.

“Of Mom marrying him?” I ask.

I know the conversation I had with Mom, but I want Roxy’s opinion too. She bites her lower lip for a second as she thinks before answering. “He seems like a really sweet man. At first, I didn't think that they made a good match. He's laid-back, and as you know, Mom can be pretty . . . high-strung. But for the most part, they've meshed pretty well. And