Free Daisy Does It All (Clover Park, Book 2) Contemporary Romance (The Clover Park Series) by Kylie Gilmore

just…I think we should take things slow. Rushing things has never worked out for me.”
    That horse was already out of the gate as far as he was concerned. They’d done the deed. He wanted more.
    She looked toward the door. “Maybe I should go.”
    “Stay. I promise not to pounce on you again. Slow is fine. Great, in fact. We can…” What was it women always liked to say? “…get to know each other better.”
    She raised a skeptical brow. “You don’t sound very sincere.”
    He folded his hands in his lap and tried for choirboy despite his raging hard-on. “I’m very sincere.”
    “You think I’m weird, don’t you? Asking you to marry me and then not wanting to—”
    “I think you’re a timid woman.”
    She smacked his chest and laughed. “No one has ever called me timid.”
    “No? The stylin’ outfits, the huge laugh, all your adventures. No one ever said, ‘That Daisy Garner is one timid girl?’”
    She made a face. “I do not have a huge laugh.”
    He tossed his pretend long hair over his shoulder. “Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha!”
    “Shut. Up.” She picked up her wine, leaned back on the sofa, and shook her head. “You’re a goof.”
    “Anything else I should know before we go national?”
    She waved a hand toward the laptop. “Everything’s in the blog.”
    “I’ll memorize it.”
    She laughed.
    “Oh, I just remembered something. Be right back.” Trav went to his bedroom and slid open the nightstand drawer. Inside was the diamond engagement ring he’d bought for Daisy and matching gold wedding bands he’d picked up earlier today. They’d need them for both the wedding and for their TV appearance.
    He slipped one of the gold bands on his ring finger. The jeweler had told him it went on the left hand because it was supposedly closer to the heart. It felt weird to wear a ring, but he’d get used to it. He brought the other two rings out to Daisy.
    “We have to wear wedding rings,” he told her. “Most married people do.”
    “Oh! I completely forgot about that. I’m so glad you remembered. Good thinking.”
    He took her hand and slipped on the diamond engagement ring. She admired it from all angles. “It’s gorgeous.”
    He held her hand and looked at the square solitaire diamond set in gold under the light. He’d spent a fortune on it, so it better look good. “Yeah, it is gorgeous. Wait. The wedding band goes on first.” He slipped off the engagement ring, slid on the band, and put the other ring on top. “I now pronounce you my wife.”
    She stared at it, her brow furrowed, like it was a spider sitting there instead of 14-carat gold.
    ~ ~ ~
    Daisy literally couldn’t move. The wedding band on her hand taunted her with her failed marriages, the fallout for her son’s future, Trav’s expectations of her—whatever they were—that she would surely never live up to. Trav tipped her chin up, and she met his hazel eyes, feeling tangled and confused inside.
    “Daze, if we want to be believable as husband and wife, we need to practice kissing so it looks real natural for the cameras.”
    Her jaw dropped, and her heart started pounding. Practice kissing like husband and wife? Now? When she was ready to run straight out of this apartment?
    He stroked her hair. “Come on, you know I’m right.”
    She snapped her jaw shut. Took a long swallow of wine. Breathed in and out. She could do this. She flashed him a quick smile that she was sure neither one of them believed was sincere. “Of course.”
    She gave him a quick peck on the lips. He slipped his hand around the back of her head and kept her close when she would’ve pulled back. His lips nearly brushed over hers when he spoke. “Not so fast, Miss Speedy.”
    He took his time, kissing her cheek, her jaw, working his way up to her ear and down her neck. She felt herself relax as a languid warmth stole through her. She slid her fingers into the hair at the nape of his neck. His lips met hers, soft at first, then more demanding. She