by Lexi Cross
“Is that all? You could have told me that over the phone. You didn’t have to drag me out to the café for that.”
Is that so, Mr. Hall? What are you hiding? “I know, but there’s more.” I couldn’t contain my excitement.
I also couldn’t contain my desire. Was he always dressed so immaculately? His short-sleeve, button-down shirt hugged his chest and arms, showing off how muscular and contoured his body was. I had caught a glimpse of his thin khakis when he stood up, and while they weren’t tight enough to show off his athletic legs, they did show a tempting bulge between his legs. I wanted him to throw me down on that small round table and make me his right then and there, though I knew sex would lead to an attachment which would destroy the whole arrangement between us. It almost felt worth it.
He watched me for a moment before saying, “Okay, what’s the other part?”
“I went back over my father’s paperwork, the document he presented to me as our agreement that I would marry in order to take over the company from him in full, and it only states that I have to get married first. It doesn’t state how long we have to be married,” I explained.
Jake’s ears perked up. “I’m listening.”
“So, what I’m thinking is we get married, and we keep it going long enough for me to get the company, maybe long enough to satisfy your team’s new owner, and then we divorce.” What I didn’t include was the thought that once we got divorced, we could actually start seeing each other again. After our marriage had ended, we would be able to drop the whole just business aspect of our relationship and give each other another chance. I was fairly certain that Jake wasn’t going to go for that idea.
“That’s actually perfect,” he said. “I really like that idea. But, like you said, we have to stay married long enough to make sure everyone is satisfied with our marriage.”
“I agree wholeheartedly. Now, I know you’re feeling a little nervous about it all right now,” I told him.
“Nervous? Not me. I just ask that there aren’t any more surprises like last night,” he replied, trying to save face.
“What I was going to suggest was drafting up a prenuptial agreement stating the terms of our arrangement.” It seemed like the right time to bring that up.
“That’s not a bad idea either. What exactly are our terms? You know, if we put them together in an actual document, I would feel a little bit better. At least we would have them written down, as a kind of reference. That way, if anything changes, we can amend it. It doesn’t have to be anything official or legally binding.” It sounded like he was starting to backtrack, and I didn’t like that too much. I hoped the idea of the prenup would bring him back.
“Well, so far, the only thing we’re really agreeing to beyond just getting married is getting divorced once I have the company in my name and once your bosses are off your back about presenting a better image,” I told him.
“You know what? Let’s just go with whatever you think is best,” he said. His tone sounded like he was giving up. “You’re the one who needs to get married. I just need a beautiful, steady woman on my arm. If our marriage will allow me to do that, I don’t care what else we have to do.”
I finished my coffee and stood up to go. “I’ll let you know what I decide, then,” I told him, turning to leave before he could stand up to hug me. If we were going to keep it just business, then that was exactly what I intended to do.
I wasn’t too excited about creating any official documents that would leave a paper trail for our arranged, fake marriage, but if that was what it was going to take to get him to continue to play along and put his mind at ease, fine. I left without saying anything else.
Keeping it impersonal should have made it easier, but it was only making it harder, and I could feel it pushing us away from the goal, and from each other.
Chapter Six
Jake
Brooke caught me off guard with the idea of doing a prenuptial agreement. I had initially agreed because I thought it would help us keep everything organized, but the more I thought about it, the more I felt like being too official was going to jeopardize the whole thing. It was becoming obvious to me that we both needed this marriage for more than just satisfying other obligations.
I didn’t think either of us was ready to admit it to each other, but it seemed like we were really depending on each other here. Despite how staged and put-on it all was, we were using each other for moral support while others seemed to simply expect more from us every day. Our arrangement was providing a kind of foundation for us to stand on.
I watched her walk away from the table at the café. It was a beautiful sight, for sure. She always managed to wear clothes that accentuated her figure perfectly. My eyes traced the curve of her back and the shape of her ass in her skirt. I followed her thin, fit legs down to her feet and the heels she wore.
I couldn’t just let her walk away, and I had an idea to make everything work more smoothly than it was. Our conversations were few and far between, and it was always about our arrangement. The pattern we were establishing wasn’t even enough to support our business agreement. Besides, we had to make it look like we were working on something more than just a staged wedding.
I got up and followed her out of the café. Outside, I took a couple of quick steps to catch up to her, and I took her arm in one of my hands, wrapping my fingers around her thin wrist and turning her around.
“Jake?” She was surprised I had followed her out of the café.
“I’ve got another idea,” I told her. “Just hear me out.”
“Okay.” She seemed uncertain, as if I was taking her into uncharted territory by having my own ideas in this arrangement.
“If we want this to work, I think you’re going to need to move in with me.”
She took a step back. “Why should I move in with you? Why should I be the one to give up my things?” she asked in protest.
“You can bring everything with you. I have plenty of space for you. We don’t even have to share the bedroom. You can have your own,” I assured her.
“But my house is mine. I didn’t purchase it just to give it up.”
“That’s fine. You don’t have to give up your home. Hold on to it. Once we’re divorced, you can move back,” I pleaded with her.
“Okay, but why now? Why not wait until we get married?” She crossed her arms and levelled her eyes on me.
“Well, we’re already engaged, and it gives us a better chance to work together on this, so that we’re not meeting at odd times and odd places to discuss our next move. We can present a united front to people like your father, and it just looks more convincing.”
“I don’t know, Jake. It seems out of place.” She narrowed her eyes like she suspected me of trying to pull something by asking her to move in with me so suddenly.
“I just think it will help us move things along a little bit faster if we go ahead and make this move.”
“I still don’t see why you can’t just move in with me,” she continued to protest.
I let myself laugh. “I do have an image to maintain, you know. How would it look if I were to move out of my house for this? That just doesn’t happen. And it doesn’t make any sense.”
“I forget, it’s a man’s world. The woman is still expected to give up her identity in marriage,” she snapped.
“Hey, whoa, it’s nothing like that,” I argued, holding my hands up to her in a peaceful gesture to let her know I didn’t want to fight. I knew I couldn’t just tell her that moving her stuff into my place was just how it was supposed to go down, but I didn’t really know any other way to justify it.
“I mean, it’s not like this is a real marriage, right? So it shouldn’t matter which way we do it,” she continued to argue.
“Right, it shouldn’t matter. It’s not real,” I agreed, which was the wrong thing to say.
“Then you should be able to move your things into my place without any problem.”
“It’s just not
done that way.” The words were out of my mouth before I realized what I was saying.
“So, it is because you’re the man in this relationship,” she snapped. “You know, I’ve earned everything I own by working for my father over the years, from my phone to my house. I’m not going to give it all up because some hotshot jock doesn’t want me to challenge his manhood.”
We stood arguing on the sidewalk. Even though our relationship was supposed to be a business arrangement, the emotions in the fight felt real enough. I could hear the frustration in her voice, and I saw it in the way she was standing, in the way her jaw was set while she was talking. I saw it in the tears welling up in her eyes.
I realized I had really gotten in over my head on this.
“Hey, no, it’s not like that at all.” I put my arms around her and pulled her to me, trying to make my voice as soothing as possible at the same time.
“Let go of me. It’s not like you’re my real fiancé. This is just some stupid idea I had to try to get my father’s company in my name, and now it’s going to blow up in my face before we can even get down the aisle.” She pulled back against my arms to try to get away.
“Come here,” I said gently as I continued pulling her to me. She could only fight so much before her body pressed against mine. She melted into me, and I could feel her frustrations dissolving into my embrace of her.
Brooke rested her head on my chest and slowly slid her arms around my waist.
“There, that’s not so bad, is it?” I said.
“I’m sorry. I just don’t know if I can do it all by myself. I can’t just set all of this up on my own,” she said into my chest.
“That’s why there are two of us,” I assured her. “And if you go ahead and move in, I can help you even more. We can work on it together and you won’t be stuck trying to do it all by yourself, Brooke. Don’t ever think you have to do this by yourself. Remember, I came to you about my whole fake girlfriend plan first.”
“You did.” She laughed. “Then, I hijacked it and turned it into this staged marriage ordeal.”
Her laugh sounded as wonderful as it had when we were younger. I didn’t want to, but I was starting to feel some of those old feelings rekindling themselves. I let go of her and pushed her back so I could look into her eyes.
“Feel better?” I asked.
“I do. Thank you.” She quickly wiped her eyes and ran her hands down her skirt, smoothing it out, more for peace of mind than to smooth out any actual wrinkles. I watched, amused, as she tried to regain her composure.
“This may be business, but we’re still a team, okay?”
She nodded. “Good. I think it’s time to reassess how we’re going to do all of this, because it’s pretty obvious I can’t do it all by myself anymore.”
“Good. I’m glad you can finally admit that,” I told her, chuckling. “I was getting tired of being left out of the loop until you had an idea or something you just had to tell me. It’s an agreement. It’s going to take both of us.”
“Right,” she said with a heavy sigh.
“Now, the sooner you move in, the sooner we can sit down and start working on this together,” I urged her.
“Yeah, you just had to get that in there, didn’t you?” she said playfully.
“I did. I’m not telling you to sell your place. I get that this is an arrangement. Just bring what you need. I don’t care if you don’t even spend every night at the house, but we need to make this look legit, and part of that is going to be satisfying the expectations of the watching eyes. They’re going to expect you to move in with me, and if we do it any differently, we’re likely to attract undue attention that we really don’t want,” I explained to her.
“Right, too much attention will blow the whole thing.”
“Exactly. We don’t want anyone looking too closely at our situation. The cracks in the façade will become too obvious too quickly if they do that.”
“Alright, Jake, I’ll do it,” she said with a sigh. “But I’m not moving everything,” she added quickly.
“No, I don’t expect you to.” Honestly, I didn’t want her to move everything, not if our arrangement already had an expiration date on it. If we were planning on eventually ending it, there was no point in working to make it too permanent.
Still, to have her finally agree to move in felt like a victory. It felt better than it should have. That much was certain. I felt like we were moving forward finally, and I was part of it again. I needed it just as much as she did, and I needed her to remember that.
I still hadn’t said anything to the guys about it. Coach didn’t know, and news hadn’t made it back to Mr. Clark, I was sure, unless someone at the dinner party knew him. I figured that was always a possibility. But so far, I hadn’t told anyone that I was planning a wedding to satisfy my role model image.
“So, when do I move in?” Brooke asked, looking up at me with a smile on her tempting lips and in her deep blue eyes.
“Whenever you’re ready,” I told her.
“If we’re going to do this, why not right away?”
“Sounds good to me.”
“I mean, if I’m not packing anything big, just the kinds of things I’d pack for a hotel stay or vacation, I should be able to get myself together pretty quickly,” she reasoned.
“Right. So, when should I expect you?”
She pulled out her phone and glanced at the time. “How about tomorrow afternoon? That’ll give me some time to make it look like I’m actually moving.”
“Excellent.” I offered her my best smile.
“I’ll call first to make sure you’re there,” she said. She put one of her thin, delicate hands on my arm and stretched to kiss me on my cheek. She laughed and wiped my face with her thumb as she pulled her lips away.
“Don’t worry about it,” I told her nonchalantly.
“Oh? Something tells me you want me to claim you, Mr. Hall.”
“Maybe I do.” I winked and pulled her into another embrace before letting her walk away to her car. I actually let her walk away that time.
I watched her sexy little body work under her clothes as she walked away from me, and I wondered if she actually thought we weren’t going to have to live together to pull off the appearance of being a happily married couple.
I shook my head and laughed. Her strength and independence were almost as attractive as her body, but I wondered if she wasn’t too strong and independent for marriage. As I walked to my car, I thought to myself that I was going to have to teach her to give a little, and it was good that she gave in on the issue of moving into my place.
I just had to make sure I was ready for her.
Chapter Seven
Brooke
I couldn’t believe I was giving in and moving into Jake’s house. Well, I wasn’t exactly moving in. It was more like going to stay in a hotel or going on vacation. My house was still mine, and I was leaving most of my things there.
While I was packing to go stay with Jake, I realized that it was going to take some serious skill to keep from being seen going back and forth between the two houses. I figured we could always just tell people we were holding on to my place until we figured out exactly what we wanted to do with it, even though I knew I absolutely didn’t want to let it go.
I looked around at the artwork hanging on my walls, the priceless vases and rugs, and the antique furniture, all of which I was leaving behind. I had to remind myself I wasn’t really leaving it all behind. It was just staying at my house and waiting for me to return once the arrangement was over, or whenever I needed to get away from our marriage.
It was like I was going out of town for work or something. I wasn’t really going away, but I wasn’t going to be home either. And I wasn’t going to be home for stretches of time that hadn’t yet been defined in our agreement. Plus, if we got the attention both my father and the team’s owner expected, the times I was going to be gone would simply become more erratic.
I had butte
rflies in my stomach while I looked around my house to make sure I had everything I needed. I decided I needed someone to look after the house for me. Unlike my father, I didn’t have any house staff. My house wasn’t big enough for that, and I wasn’t about to spend money paying someone to do what I could do for myself. I didn’t have drivers like Jake did. I didn’t have any of those extravagances that they enjoyed. It was just me.
I set my bags down and pulled out my phone. I did have one person I could call, my old friend Hollie, who also doubled up as my attorney. I had been planning on calling her soon anyway to help set up the prenuptial agreement with Jake, just in case he decided he really wanted it.