by Lexi Blake
“That won’t work. I have to be your boyfriend. We have to be intimate. Your husband used to travel with you.”
“He worked for Cain Corp, too.” She frowned and he could tell there was some serious debating going on in her head. “There’s a clause in my contract that states if I have to be gone for more than a month, I can bring a spouse or significant other with me as long as my work continues to be exemplary.”
“I’m surprised she would allow that.”
“A couple of years back she had an assistant who threatened to quit because she couldn’t bring her girlfriend along. Patricia was all about the LGBT community at that point so she rewrote the contract. Let’s just say after she put that clause in and was photographed with her assistant and the girlfriend, she suddenly had some of the world’s best designers willing to design kitchen and barware for her lifestyle line. She made a hundred million dollars off that choice.”
Luckily that choice now worked for him in more ways than one. “So she’s narcissistic and savvy. Another reason why she’ll never buy that I’m your cousin.”
Carly frowned, obviously not convinced. “I don’t know about that. I could say you recently got into town and you want to see what I do. She might buy that.”
“Not for a second. A—she’s probably got a fat file on you, including all of your relatives. B—it would be difficult for me to look at you like a cousin. I’m afraid we’ve got some chemistry between us that doesn’t scream familial connection.”
“We don’t have chemistry,” she replied quickly as though she couldn’t get the words out of her mouth fast enough. “I don’t have chemistry with anyone. Actually, I don’t believe that chemistry thing exists.”
So prim and so wrong. “Really? You’re telling me you’ve never felt the pull of real sexual attraction? I’m not talking about being hard up and wanting to get laid. I’m talking about wanting one person so badly you think you might not be able to breathe unless you get to put a hand on her, have her touch you back. You think you might not want to live another second without kissing her.”
The pink was back in her cheeks, but her eyes were steady on his. “This isn’t going to work. Look, we should talk about this because I’m not that girl. You can’t control me with sex because I’m not that into it. I did the marriage thing. I went into it a virgin and everything. According to him, he’d had a whole lot of lovers before me and while the sex was all right, it certainly wasn’t worth what it cost me.”
“You’ve had one lover your whole life?” That was a bit shocking. She was almost thirty years old. She should have had a couple of relationships, maybe a casual fling or two.
“I’m picky, I guess.”
“Or you haven’t met the right man.”
She huffed a little. “I suppose that’s you.”
“I’m not going to say I’m the greatest lover in the world, but I do know how to take care of my partners. There’s a difference between getting off and making love.”
She stared at him like he’d grown an extra head. “Making love?”
“Most women prefer that term.” He’d learned that the hard way.
She shook her head. “I’m not most women. I want up front and honest.”
“All right. There’s a difference between getting off and fucking someone you need for hours and hours on end because you can’t quite seem to stop.”
“You’ve had that?”
“I’ve had women I was attached to. I wouldn’t say I’ve ever made love to a woman I was in love with.” He forced the idea of Mandy out of his head. They’d been so young and he’d only kissed her a few times, fumbling attempts at showing her how much he cared. He could still remember the way she giggled the first time he’d pressed his lips to hers and how she’d squealed when he’d tried to use his tongue on her like the older kids had told him adults did.
Carly shook her head. “We’ve gotten off track. I’m trying to explain to you that the boyfriend route isn’t something a lot of people at the company will buy. I haven’t dated at all since the divorce and my lovely husband used to talk about how I was an ice queen. The last year of our marriage wasn’t exactly warm between us. I caught him cheating a couple of times and was on the verge of kicking him out when the embezzlement charges came up. I’m afraid no one is going to believe I suddenly found a hottie and am getting my groove back. I didn’t have a groove in the first place.”
“They’ll believe it because I’ll sell it. They’ll believe it because there is chemistry between us whether you want to acknowledge it or not. We sat there all afternoon talking and being perfectly comfortable together. How many strangers can do that? Unless you were pretending.” He would bet everything he had that she was crap at pretending. It was precisely why he needed to get her comfortable with him. She wouldn’t be able to fake it. They had a few weeks before they were supposed to go to California. If it was going to work, she needed to relax around him, to feel good about casually touching him, to look like a woman who regularly found herself in his bed.
Which meant he should make sure she did find herself there.
It wasn’t a sacrifice. His dick would be perfectly happy going upstairs with her right now and climbing into her likely very luxurious bed.
“I wasn’t pretending,” she confirmed. “I had fun this afternoon. I enjoyed your company, but then I’m fairly lonely so it’s not hard to entertain me. Be nice to me. Let me take the lead. Make me feel like the center of your attention. All good ways to manipulate me.”
He was confused. “I was honest with you. I wasn’t trying to manipulate you.”
“Sure you weren’t. That’s why you would reach out and touch me every now and then.”
“I did that because I wanted to. Carly, I wasn’t lying. I’m not trying to seduce you so you’ll work for me.”
She frowned his way, her arms crossing over her chest. “Then why the seduction act?”
“Because I want to sleep with you.”
That seemed to stop her in her tracks. She went silent and looked away. When she looked back, her jaw was square, her eyes steely. “I think you should leave.”
“What?”
She stood up. “I’m not falling for this again. I’ll deal with DiLuca on my own.”
He needed to do some quick thinking. “Why are you pissed at me? What did I do?”
“I’m not buying the ‘I want you’ line of bullshit. It worked for Roger, but you’re too late. I’m not falling for that again. You must have thought you hit the jackpot when you walked up to me today. You probably fist-pumped at the thought of how easy I would be to deal with. Plain girl, a little on the chubby side. She’ll fall for the hot guy in a heartbeat. She’ll do anything I want.”
“Whoa, hold your horses there.” He never lost his temper with a woman. Never. Carly was actually pushing his buttons. “I don’t lie. I don’t feel the need to do it to myself, so I don’t bother to do it with other people. This situation is entirely different. I’m not your piece-of-shit ex-husband. I’m the man who’s willing to write a big check to get you out of trouble. Watch the way the money flows, sweetheart, and then tell me who’s manipulating whom.”
Her eyes widened and her hands made fists at her sides. “There’s the door. Feel free to use it.”
He grabbed his shirt, pulled it over his head, and was glad he hadn’t gotten around to kicking off his boots yet. It made for a more dignified retreat. She didn’t want his help? That was fine with him. There were plenty of women out there who wouldn’t accuse him of whatever the hell she was accusing him of. “And for the record, I do find you attractive. You’re the one who seems to have a problem. I’ve done nothing but offer to help you.”
“Yes, in exchange for betraying my boss.”
She wanted to play this game? “I offered you the check without a single fucking string. I came over here in the middle of t
he night to make sure you were all right. And betraying your boss does nothing but make your life more livable.”
She was silent for a moment and he grabbed his jacket.
Fuck. He’d totally fucked up again and he wasn’t sure how he would handle it this time. The crazy thing was he wasn’t this guy. He was always calm and patient with women, always on his best behavior. He knew when to keep his mouth closed and how to get back into a woman’s good graces. He seemed incapable of doing either of those things tonight. Carly got him riled up.
It was a damn fine reason to go home and regroup. He would tell his brothers he’d screwed up. Hell, they were probably waiting for him to do just that. They’d been waiting for the news that she was walking away from the moment Bran strode up to her in the restaurant.
They would find a new way.
And he would be the idiot who still dealt with her mob problem because he couldn’t stand the thought of her getting hurt.
He had his hand on the door when she reached out, touching his back.
“Please don’t go.”
He stood there for a moment, his back to her, his eyes on the door he should be walking through. “Maybe it’s for the best. You don’t seem to like me much. I’ve had my fill of people who don’t think much of me. Enough to last a lifetime. If you’re still interested in working with us, you can meet with Drew or we could send in a pro.” There were trained bodyguards at McKay-Taggart and some men who’d served as CIA operatives. They would handle everything with cool professionalism. They wouldn’t scare Carly away.
Could she sense how unworthy he was? Could she see past his outer mask and down to his cowardly soul?
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “You’re right. This is my problem. I look at you and can’t see a single way you would ever want me. I’m insecure and I’ve been taken for a ride before.”
He let his head hit the door with a groan because he should have run. He was a sucker for a woman who didn’t know how beautiful she was. He wanted to be the man to show her. “I’m not trying to take you for a ride. I swear. I’m not going to be anything but honest with you. I do want you. It’s been a while since I wanted a woman the way I want you, but I’m not a long-term man. I’m the guy who can’t offer you anything but a few weeks of my attention and a good time in bed. So I’ll call in someone different tomorrow and maybe you can work the cousin angle with him.”
“Or I can try not to let my asshole ex run my life any longer. You’re right. You’re not him. By our second date he was talking about how he could spend the rest of his life with me. And you’re right when you say you’ve been nothing but helpful. I need to be honest with you, too. You scare me.”
He didn’t understand her. “I’m not trying to scare you.”
“I know. And you’re right about everything. No one will believe the cousin angle. Why the hell would my cousin spend so much time with me? And then there’s the problem of me staring at my cousin’s hot ass. And the fact that every woman in the company will be all over you if they think you’re not taken. Some of them will still try. Some of those women had affairs with my husband.”
He turned to her, realizing what the problem was. “I’m not going to make you look like a fool.”
“I’m sorry. It’s not easy for me. I’ve been the fool before. It’s a hard role to play and it stripped me of every bit of confidence I had.”
Finally she’d given him something he could work with. “Then let me give some of it back to you. Carly, I’m not lying. I think you’re gorgeous. I thought it as I was walking up to you. I thought it as we sat and talked. I thought it as I ran here as fast as I possibly could after getting your phone call. I could have waited until morning. You were in. Think about it. I don’t have to seduce you. You’re in. So why would I do it?”
She shook her head, looking so damn young and vulnerable. “I don’t know. That’s why I’m scared.”
“Don’t be. Nothing happens that you don’t choose.” He held his hands up. “If you don’t want to sleep with me, that’s fine. I’ll ease up. But that’s why we might want to bring in someone different. You’re going to have to show whoever plays your boyfriend some affection. If you don’t think you can do that with me, let me find someone you’ll feel comfortable with.”
“Can we talk about this more in the morning? I need to sleep on this and I can’t make a decision right now.”
She looked so weary. It had been a rough day on them both, but for her it had been so much worse.
“Go to bed. I’ll be here in the morning, and I meant what I said earlier. The check is yours. I’ll handle it whether I’m your partner or not. This particular problem will be gone in a day or two, and I won’t let you out of my sight until it’s done.”
She nodded and walked to the stairs before turning. “You see, that’s why I’m scared. You’re too good to be true.”
He laughed, though there wasn’t a lot of humor in it. “That’s where you’re wrong. Spend some time with me and you’ll find out I’m nothing of the kind. I’m not joking or looking for sympathy, Carly. I’ll disappoint you in the end. I disappoint everyone.”
“Somehow I doubt that,” she said with the faintest hint of a smile. “I have to be at work early tomorrow. We’ll talk about how we can make this work later. I’ll start laying the groundwork. I’ll tell everyone I’ve been quietly dating a man.”
“I thought you wanted time to think.”
“I don’t need to think about the work,” she explained. “I know I want to do that and I want to work with you. It’s the other part I’m thinking about. I need some time to decide on whether that makes sense for me or not.”
The other? His heart thudded a bit at the thought. She was thinking about sleeping with him? About making their ruse a reality? “All right. Take your time, because I’m not going anywhere.”
“Good night, Bran.”
“Good night, Carly.” He pulled his shirt off again and got down to his boxers, a smile on his face. He had a shot. At the mission. He had a shot with her.
All in all, not a bad day.
Chapter Five
Carly tried to focus on the computer screen in front of her, but somehow all the letters and pictures kept morphing into Bran. A full week after she’d met him and she still couldn’t stop thinking about him. At some point his hotness had to become something she could ignore, right? She could still see him looking deliciously rumpled on the couch this morning before she’d left for work. She wasn’t sure how he’d managed to force his body to sleep like that for a week, but he hadn’t complained once. His long legs had hung off the side and his arms had been out over the blanket so she’d been able to see how cut they were. The man worked out. A lot. When he’d opened his eyes he’d reminded her of a sleepy panther, stretching his lean muscles. She’d left him yawning and pouring himself a cup of coffee.
He was still there, still at her townhouse. Or maybe he’d left by now. She’d given him her spare key because he was overseeing replacing the security at her place.
Was she a complete idiot? She was letting a man she barely knew deal with sensitive issues.
So why had it felt so right when she’d left him this morning and he’d told her not to worry, that he would handle everything?
So much temptation in one delicious body.
She’d lied to him when she’d said they didn’t have chemistry. She felt it. Her breathing picked up when he entered a room, her skin warming. The physical reaction she had to that man smiling was completely unprecedented. She’d thought she’d been attracted to Roger. It was nothing compared to Bran.
Which was precisely why she should keep the relationship professional. She wanted him too much and that way lay danger.
Or she could grow up and have an actual real affair with a man she didn’t intend to marry. She never planned on marrying again. Did she honestly think she
would go the rest of her life without sex?
“There’s a pretty girl,” a tremulous voice said.
Yes, yes, she’d really thought she’d go the rest of her life without the touch of a man since all the ones she’d been surrounded by were complete assholes. She forced a smile on her face. “Good morning, Mr. Jones. I don’t believe your wife has made it to the office yet. Is there anything I can do for you?”
Kenneth G. Jones had made his money the old-fashioned way. He’d inherited it. His father had been one of the railroad barons of old and the family had managed to weather the market crash of the twenties and the Great Depression. They’d come roaring back with real estate deals and network television stations that he’d finally merged into a media conglomerate. Now in his late eighties, Kenneth was one of the wealthiest men in America. He’d met Patricia a few years back and they’d married within six months.
Her boss had been waiting for Moneybags to die ever since.
On their wedding day, it had been announced that Patricia had become the head of her own network. That was why she’d married the lecherous geezer. She had what she wanted, but if she stayed with him until he died, she would also receive a nice portion of his assets according to their voluminous prenup. Of course it would likely be challenged in court by his two children, but Patricia didn’t mind a fight and she usually won.
He leaned on his cane as he stared down at Carly. “There are many things you could do for me, but you haven’t learned how to play ball yet, have you, honey? Your life would be so much easier if you did.”
“I’m not sure what you mean, sir. Are you talking about baseball? I’m not into sports.” She’d found that pretending to completely misunderstand his innuendo was the best way to handle things.
“Neither is Father,” another voice said as Kenny Jr. joined them. He was in his fifties, dressed in a dapper suit. Unlike his father, he had some charm about him. “Unless you count cheating on that bat of a wife of his as a sport. He’s managed to cheat on all five of his wives, so you are terribly smart to stay away from him.”