by Natalie Ann
He’d given her his personal cell before they left their lunch the other day, so she decided to give him a call.
“It’s not six o’clock yet,” he said, his voice sending shivers through her body. Oh boy, this might be a problem too.
“I wanted to have all my ducks in a row when I gave you an answer and I’ve got some questions.”
“I’m sure it’s more than just a few,” he said.
“It is. Do you have time to talk and go over some things? I’m not bothering you, am I?”
“Not at all. Would you like to come to my house and chat, or meet at a restaurant? I’ll leave it up to you.”
That was nice of him. “It’s probably a conversation best left without witnesses.”
“Very true. How about you come to my house around three? That gives us three hours to hash it out before six.”
She laughed. “You’re going to hold me to that six o’clock time slot, aren’t you?”
“I am. I want you to be able to change your mind either way. At six, I want your final answer. Of course you could always back out if you decide it’s not working before we get to the marriage part of it. We’ll work that out in the legal documents.”
All the more to confuse things. “About that. Do you have a lawyer you trust explicitly if we get that far?”
“I do. He’s a close friend of mine. We grew up together. He’d take any confidential conversation between us to the grave. No worries there.”
“Do you mind if we just use your lawyer then with me looking it all over? I was actually pre-law and can decipher legal mumbo jumbo pretty good. I just think the fewer people who know, the better. If we get that far,” she said again. She wasn’t quite ready to commit just yet.
“If that works for you, then it definitely works for me.”
“Are you always this agreeable?” she asked.
“When I want something I am.”
She actually believed that. From what she’d read on him, he was a complex businessman who often got what he wanted when he set his mind to it.
That warmth she’d felt earlier was dialing up a bit knowing that he wanted her. He was probably talking about wanting the arrangement and not her personally, but she could pretend otherwise for the moment.
“Then if you want to give me your address, I’ve got a pen ready and I’ll see you at three.”
“I’ll text it to you once you hang up and then you can just put it into a mapping software on your phone. You’ll need it.”
“Okay then,” she said, not sure she was ready for what that meant.
“I’ll see you soon, Leah.”
She smiled over the sound of her name on his lips. “I’ll see you soon, Gabe. For our second date.”
“Second date, indeed,” he said with a soft laugh.
Yeah, his voice might do her in when she looked down and saw the goosebumps on her arms.
Squeaky Clean
Gabe sat up from the exercise mat he’d lain back on when he’d noticed it was Leah calling him. He’d already programmed her number into his phone because he didn’t want to risk missing her call. He’d been in the middle of doing pull-ups when his phone rang, so he’d dropped down and grabbed it, then sat on the floor, slowly sliding down until he was on his back staring at the ceiling.
He did that a lot. Stared at the ceiling when he was thinking or when he was planning. In this case, it was both.
She hadn’t said no yet and if he let himself believe enough, he had a feeling she wasn’t going to.
Either way, he wasn’t going to give her a chance to turn him down, agreeing to most of what she might want. Some things he wasn’t willing to compromise on or it would blow the whole concept of what he was asking to begin with.
He had a few hours to get his mind in gear again, even though it’d been there for days. He’d been counting down the time to when Leah would give her answer. The anticipation was getting to him. That had to be why he’d dreamt about her the past two nights.
Her slim but curvy body in tailored slacks the day she’d run into him. He hadn’t noticed she was wearing heels that day, as her pants were longer and covering them, but he noticed those heels on her when they were at lunch. No way he could avoid it with her wearing a pencil skirt to her knees.
He liked a woman who knew how to use her body to her advantage. How to dress it to accentuate the perfect parts. Considering the clients that she worked with on a daily basis, she was good at sending off the correct message.
Her background was that of middle class. Parents still married and she had an older sister that was married with two kids. She’d gone to a private college in Vermont and graduated with a degree in business. He didn’t know she was pre-law and wondered why she’d changed. Guess that was something they could talk about at some point.
For all intents and purposes, her life was pretty squeaky clean. He had no clue why she’d be interested in his proposition but wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth if she agreed. And he’d like nothing better right now.
Her business was only five years old, but it’d been growing rapidly with a large list of high-end clients that he’d recognized from the area. He guessed her to be late twenties. Several years younger than him, but that didn’t matter.
What mattered was how she carried herself and so far he’d had no complaints at all. Not one. Her attitude, her personality, or her appearance.
Long brown hair that was nicely styled and away from her face. Light brown eyes with just the right amount of makeup. Her presence was known but not dominating. Again, she read her audience well in his mind and that was exactly what he needed.
A little before three his phone went off that a car was passing through the security gates that he’d swung open just a few minutes prior. When he looked down to see who it was, he noticed an older BMW pulling through and assumed it was Leah.
He walked out of his office in the front of the house and went to the double doors, opened one wide, and waited for her to park in the half circle out front and walk up the stairs to him.
Even on a Sunday afternoon she looked picture perfect without a hair out of place. The temperature was barely pushing sixty today for mid-April, but she was a vision in tan pants, multi-colored heels, and a light blue cardigan over a white shirt.
“I see you had no problem finding it,” he said, noting that she still had five minutes to spare. Even better, she was timely.
“I wouldn’t have if I didn’t have my phone calling out turns. Your driveway is a bit hidden from the road.”
“As it’s meant to be. I like my privacy.” He held his hand out to hers. “Come on in.”
“Your house is beautiful, but I have to say I wasn’t expecting anything different.”
“Thank you. It’s a lot of space for one person, especially when I only use my office, the living room, kitchen, and gym.”
“Then why buy such a big house?” she asked.
“It was expected,” he said. She nodded her head and he let it go. They could talk about it another time if it ever came up. People in his family didn’t live in the city, they didn’t live close to neighbors, and they didn’t have small homes. They often entertained and needed areas for that to happen.
Just because he’d yet to do much entertaining on a grand level, didn’t mean it wouldn’t happen at some point. He was expecting it to happen relatively soon if Leah agreed to be his wife. His mother would almost demand it and as much of a pain as his mother was, everyone did what she’d said.
“You can leave your shoes on if you want,” he said when she went to take them off.
She slid them off anyway. “It’s more comfortable without them.”
Had he ever thought bare feet were sexy? If not, then he was reevaluating that opinion because the light pink polish on Leah’s toes was something else. “You didn’t need to dress up to come here.”
“I like to dress up, but I understand that the normal is more casual.”
“Sorry
for my shorts and T-shirt,” he said, putting his hand on her lower back and ushering her to the rear of the house. “I’ll show you around later, but I’ve got a nice comfortable family room in the back we can relax in while we talk. Can I get you a drink?”
“Water would be good.”
They got to the back of the house and he opened a small fridge that only held water in it and pulled two out. “That’s the first I’ve seen that in a kitchen,” she said.
“I drink a lot of bottled water. It’s better to not take up room in the main fridge for it.”
“Makes sense.”
“Let’s have a seat and get to your questions. I thought maybe I could cook us some dinner in a bit if you’d like.”
“You cook?” she asked, sounding surprised. “I figured in a house like this you’d have a housekeeper or maid.”
“Someone comes in and cleans every other day, but I do my own cooking when I can. Unless I want to eat out all the time, which I don’t, or employ someone in the house when I’d rather have privacy, then I figured I needed to learn to fend for myself.”
“I might like this part of the deal.”
He started to smile, caught himself, and then figured what the hell and let it go. “Oh, you think if you accept I’m going to be cooking dinner for you every night?”
“Nah. I’ll do it once in a while too. Going out to eat costs money that I’d rather put back into my business. I won’t say I’m a gourmet cook at all, but I do enjoy spending time in the kitchen.”
He liked that they had that in common. “Then maybe we can cook dinner together.” Once they were both seated opposite each other, her in a chair, him on the couch, he said, “Go ahead and fire away.”
When she pulled a pad out of the large purse she’d been carrying he couldn’t hold his laugh back. “If I agree to this marriage, we have to figure out our stories. I’d rather my family not know. They wouldn’t understand and may be hurt by it.”
He frowned. “Hurt, how?”
“They’ll think they did something wrong in raising me that I would take this route.”
“If you say so. I don’t have a problem with how you want to handle your family. I’d prefer it’s just you, me, and my lawyer that know the facts anyway. Can I ask why you are considering this? I’m sure you’ve spent time researching me, as I have been you. You’re young, attractive, carry yourself well. Why are you interested in this? As much as I’d like to think you are just completely drawn to my male dominance, I’m not that conceited.”
“I’m sure you’re plenty conceited. But the truth of the matter is, no one is knocking down my door. I’ve dated, but I just don’t have time. Growing my company and being successful is all I can seem to focus on. The men I’ve dated don’t understand that or the amount of time my job takes up. It’s only a year, and like you said, I’m young. Not a big deal.”
He wasn’t sure if he liked her explanation or not. “You seem sour on relationships, or is it just my imagination?”
“Not sour so much. I haven’t been burned or anything like that. I guess it’s more that I see all these couples—my clients—and they look so in love, but I can see the writing on the wall that it’s not going to last for a good number of them. Or the ones I thought would, they didn’t either. The next thing I know…I’m planning almost as many divorce parties as I am bridal showers. It kind of messed with my mind and jaded me on the whole happily ever after thing.”
“Yet you stay upbeat with your new brides and don’t come off negative at all, I’m betting.”
“Of course not,” she said, putting one foot under her thigh and getting comfortable.
“Okay. Next question.”
“I’m going to assume we’ll live here?” she asked, looking around.
“It would make sense, yes. Would you have a problem with that?”
She snorted. “Not at all. It’s a little further drive to my office, but I work from home half the time anyway. So the bedroom situation...”
“I figured this would come up. I’ll leave that to you. Ultimately, we are strangers. This house is big enough for both of us. But I expect that if you aren’t sleeping with me, then you aren’t sleeping with anyone during our marriage. I’ll honor the same request. If you decide you want to stay in separate bedrooms the whole time, I’ll just sweat it out for a year. There will be a clause in the agreement, if either of us is caught in any sexual relations with another party. If it’s me, you’d still get your payment, plus another million. That’s enough for me to keep it in my pants,” he said, grinning. “If you’re caught with another man, the payment is null and void and though you’d be losing the money, you’d also lose your reputation once it got out.”
He was hoping that wouldn’t happen, that none of it did, including him having to keep it in his pants for a full year, but he sure the hell wouldn’t force himself on her. He’d try to convince her though.
“I can agree to that. I really don’t know one way or another how things will go. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t attracted to you, but attraction isn’t enough for me to jump into bed with someone.”
“I understand. That’s what getting to know each other will be about. I’d like to think that even though this marriage is temporary, that we could at least be friends.”
“I’d like that too,” she said sincerely.
This was going much better than he expected. “I’m sure you’ve got on your list how we’re going to explain this to everyone? Our sudden marriage?” he asked.
“I do. And speaking of that, I do this for a living. It won’t be realistic if I just go to Vegas and elope. No one would think I’d do that. I’m not saying we can’t go away and do it with no one around, but I’d still have to plan something. It’s not in my character to do it any other way.”
She was right and he told her as much. “Since this is your area of expertise, I’ll leave it up to you to make any arrangements. Are you opposed to Lake Placid in say a month...if you agree? We’ve got a family cabin there, so no need to make reservations.”
“I can make that work...if I agree.”
“So back to what we are going to tell everyone. I think honesty is the best policy. You ran into me on Central Avenue and I called you for lunch after. Then I cooked you dinner. As long as we are seen out in public a couple of times in the next few weeks, no one will think anything of it.”
“I’ll have to be a very good actress in public then. A little bit of hand-holding, a light touch of my hand on your chest. Things like that.”
He tried not to gulp thinking of those things. “I have every belief you can pull it off.”
“I’ve been known to pull off miracles before. This should be fine. Why don’t you bring up some of your concerns?”
“Are you done?” he asked.
“Not even close, but why should I monopolize all the demands?”
“Why indeed.”
Pretty Powerful
Leah was shocked that so far everything was going exactly as she hoped. There’d been no surprises and she was hoping there wouldn’t be any when he started with his list of questions or concerns.
She picked her bottle of water up and took a swig, waiting for him to talk again. She needed to wet her throat because the conversation about sex between them was giving her ideas. She was honest in that attraction wasn’t all it took for her, but at this moment it was pretty powerful.
“I understand that your job takes up a lot of your time. I have that same problem,” he said. “But we will need to make time to be seen in public. I’ll try to give you as much notice as possible and I’d like to think that you’d be as accommodating to my requests as possible.”
“Of course. If I’m going to be living here for a year, I’ll have money to hire a full time assistant. My lease is ending in three months on my apartment as it is.”
“I’ll fund the money for a full time assistant for you,” he said quickly.
“You don’t need to do that, Gabe. It’s
fine.”
“Actually I do. If it will help with your flexibility, then it benefits me in the long run. You aren’t getting the money from this arrangement until the year is up. On top of that, you’ll get a household account to operate out of.”
“What does that mean?”
“That I’m sure you’ll want to put your touches on the house. Buy things you need and so on. Even just weekly food. I’ll take care of all of that. We can discuss what you feel you need, but I’ll put money in an account, or I can just give you a credit card and pay it each month.”
“That’s too much,” she said. She never expected this generosity and didn’t want him to think she was looking for more. She was trying to reconcile with herself if Gabe would think she was a gold digger or not, as it was, but he seemed to understand her need to expand her business.
“It’s not,” he argued with her.
“I appreciate the offer,” she said, standing her ground, “but I can buy food for us.”
“I’m sure you can and if it makes your pride happy then so be it. But there will be functions I’ll need you to attend that will require special attire. Gowns that you may not want to waste more than a month’s rent on when you could be putting it into your business.”
He had her there. “At least you can compromise on some things,” she said.
“You’ll find I’m pretty easy to get along with...as long as I get my way.”
Exactly what she figured. “Why am I not surprised? So these events. How many are we talking and when is the first one?”
“One every few months. If I had to go to any more I’d turn to liquor and then it’d ruin all the work I do to have a six pack.”
“You’ve got a six pack?” she asked before she could stop herself.
“Well now, there is only one way to find out, isn’t there?”
“Tease,” she said, winking at him. “So when is the first event I’d have to attend?”
“The third Saturday in June. It’s later at night, maybe seven? Plenty of time, but I realize you most likely have a wedding planned or something at this point.”