by Noelle Adams
He was still asleep now, having just gotten to bed a couple of hours ago. She snuck a look over at him.
He slept on his side, facing her, so she could see his relaxed face, mussed hair, and bare chest. The sheet was sliding down toward his waist, so she could see a lot of his chest.
She jumped out of bed at the intense way the sight of his sleeping beside her affected her.
Despite how deeply she knew it was wrong—knew it was impossible—she wanted to wake up next to him every day. She couldn’t seem to help it.
She showered quickly and, even with the extra time it spent to manage her new hairstyle, she was ready in just a half-hour. Since Jonathan still slept, she grabbed her phone and went downstairs.
The house was quiet. Breakfast wouldn’t be served for another thirty minutes. She wanted to walk around the gardens, but she stood at the front door hesitantly, afraid if she opened it an alarm would start blaring.
“I turn off security at five in the mornings,” a quiet voice came from behind her.
She turned to see Gordon. He held a silver teapot and smiled at her pleasantly.
She smiled back, relieved. “Oh, good. Thank you. I’m just going to walk around the gardens, if that’s all right.”
“Of course, Dr. Stratford. You’re more than welcome. If you’d like breakfast early—”
“Oh, no. Thank you. And, please, you can call me Sarah.”
His smile seemed to deepen, although it was only reflected in his eyes. “Thank you, ma’am. But I really can’t.”
She must not have offended him with her gaff, so she didn’t feel too embarrassed. She walked outside, found the formal gardens around the back, and strolled them, gawking at the pristine beds, immaculately trimmed hedges, elegant statuary, and intricate Rococo fountain while she called her parents.
They didn’t go to bed until around midnight, so it was early enough to call safely, even with the time difference.
They always put her on speaker phone, so they could both hear what she had to say. She told her mother about some of the new clothes she’d bought and her father about some of the progress they’d made on their research. She told them she was in England on a work trip but, since she didn’t want them to worry, she didn’t tell them exactly what she was doing. They told her that her sister and her husband were putting in a pool in their backyard and about how her three nephews and one niece were doing in school.
She felt better after she talked to them—as she always did. Like, no matter how foreign her location or how insecure she was about her current situation, she was grounded by people who loved her no matter what.
When she hung up, she realized it was time for breakfast and a several-minute walk back to the mansion.
She was breathless when she entered the house, afraid she’d been unforgivably rude by arriving late.
Breakfast, however, was evidently different from dinner. People must arrive whenever they wanted. Marietta, the soon-to-be bride, was just coming down the steps as Sarah entered.
Marietta grinned at her. “Good morning! You’re out and about early.”
“Just taking a walk.”
Sarah had been vastly relieved when she’d met Marietta the day before. The other woman was very pretty, but not aloof, sophisticated, and ultra-stylish as Sarah had feared. She had blond hair, gray eyes, and a sunny smile. She was about Sarah’s height and a couple of sizes smaller, but she wasn’t built like a model, and she was wearing simple gray trousers and a cute eyelet shirt, which was exactly in line with Sarah’s tan pants and green ruched top .
Marietta had a slight, lilting French accent, but she still seemed not very different than the regular people Sarah had grown up with.
“I’m starving,” Marietta said companionably. “They always serve the best breakfasts here.”
As Sarah responded, they entered the breakfast room and saw that both Jonathan and Harrison, Marietta’s fiancé, were already at the table.
Jonathan was reading a journal, and Harrison—a little taller and leaner than Jonathan but just as handsome—appeared to be going through email on his tablet.
Jonathan barely glanced up when she came in.
She wasn’t surprised—she knew how much he focused on whatever took his attention, so much that the rest of the world faded away. She went to fill up a plate and pour herself a cup of coffee and brought it over to sit beside him.
“You two are very social, I see,” Marietta teased, serving a pile of mixed fruit on her plate. “Practically chatting each other’s ears off.”
Harrison, who had struck Sarah the night before as very serious and professional, smiled at his fiancée with a soft expression and leaned over to kiss her when she sat down beside him.
Sarah had automatically checked Jonathan’s mug and, noticing it was close to empty, went to refill it. But she got a little worried when she came back to sit down.
Jonathan accepted the coffee but still hadn’t acknowledged her existence.
They were supposed to be engaged. In love. No one was likely to believe their story if he didn’t make a little effort.
Harrison had put his tablet away after a pointed glance from Marietta. Sarah wasn’t sure if it was because he wasn’t supposed to work during breakfast or if he wasn’t supposed to work when there were other people at the table. Either way, he and Marietta chatted with her in a friendly way, asking interested questions about when she’d started working at the lab and where she’d gone to school.
Sarah was able to answer all of the questions honestly, which made her feel better—like she wasn’t a complete bitch for lying to these nice people.
“Was it hard?” Marietta asked. “Moving all the way to Iceland, I mean?”
“Oh no. We’re working most of the time anyway, and Iceland is an ideal location for gene research.”
“Why is that?” Harrison asked. His eyes were beautiful—a soft chocolate brown—and he wasn’t as intimidating as she’d thought at first.
“Because it’s such an exclusive gene pool, since the population has been so cut off for so long from the rest of the world. And they’re crazy about genealogy. They’ve got records going back for generations. To do the research we’re doing on M.S., we couldn’t find a better place. It took a while to get used to the winters and summers, with the really short days and really long days. But that was the only hard thing for me.”
She glanced over toward Jonathan, hoping he would join the conversation and act like he noticed she was in the room. He didn’t, though, and Sarah didn’t miss the amused glances Marietta sent him occasionally, as if she were silently laughing over his behavior.
When she caught Sarah’s eye during one of those glances, Marietta explained, “It must be a family trait. For Harry, it’s email.”
Harrison rolled his eyes, and Sarah just laughed, trying to feign affection when she really wanted to strangle Jonathan for his stupidity.
This was his family, his scheme. Why wouldn’t he rouse himself enough to at least pretend he knew she existed?
She leaned over toward him, much farther into his personal space than she ever went on purpose. Pretending to peer at the page he was reading, she asked, “Good article, dear?”
“Not bad,” he murmured absently, “A team in California finished an eight-year project on the—” He broke off as he suddenly realized what she’d called him and how close she was to him. He straightened up.
She tried to give him a discreet, significant look—since they’d never convince anyone they were engaged if he jerked away from her like that—but it must have gone over his head.
“Anyway,” he concluded, after taking a slug of coffee, as if he’d filled in the rest of the information about the article, “the conclusions are promising.”
Sarah took the journal from him, pretending to study the article he’d been reading. Then she didn’t give it back, tucking it under her thigh on the chair.
He appeared on the verge of objecting, but she silenced him
with another look.
When she looked back at Marietta and Harrison, they both seemed amused by this bit of byplay. Maybe they’d assume it was just normal snipping between lovers and not one idiot completely clueless about how to pretend to be engaged.
She wondered what Jonathan would be like when he was really in love. Would he transform into an attentive, adoring boyfriend.
Probably not.
It wasn’t like he was selfish or heartless. He noticed a lot when he seemed wrapped up in other things. He’d fixed the wheel on her lab chair earlier that week and hadn’t said a word about it. He just wasn’t expressive or romantic.
Still, their charade would be more convincing if he’d act like he was in love with her.
There was some noise at the front door, and Marietta jumped up. “Andrew and Laurel must be here at last!”
Sarah had learned last night that Harrison’s brother and his girlfriend had planned to arrive the day before, but foul weather had delayed their trip. It was quite clear that both Marietta and Harrison were very pleased about their arrival. Marietta was practically clapping, and the only thing holding Harrison back was courtesy. “My brother,” he explained to Sarah, in case she couldn’t figure it out. “Would you excuse us for a few minutes?”
“Of course,” she said with a smile. “I’m looking forward to meeting them.”
Jonathan glanced up but didn’t stand.
As Harrison and Marietta left the breakfast room, Sarah poked Jonathan in the arm. Hard.
“What?” he demanded, looking surprised and vaguely annoyed.
“You should go greet your cousin,” she said, trying not to sound as annoyed as she felt.
“Okay,” he said, frowning as he heaved himself out of his chair. “What are you all riled up about?”
She was riled up, so much so that she wasn’t able to suppress it like she normally would. She glared at him as they walked toward the door and said under her breath, “We’re supposed to be engaged. No one is going to believe it if you keep acting like I don’t exist.”
“What?” he asked, blinking once the way he did when he was sorting something out in his mind. His dark brown eyes were focused on her now, and she was so close she could see very faint stubble on his chin, even though she knew he’d shaved just an hour ago.
“You’re acting like I just work with you,” she whispered sharply. “You’re supposed to be in love with me. I know it’s hard, but can you at least try to pretend you’re crazy about me?”
He stared at her for a moment, evidently startled at her defiance. He had reason to be, since she’d never talked to him that way before. Not once.
They were standing in the entry hall while the new arrivals were being greeted—the man who must be Andrew was hugging Marietta so enthusiastically he’d picked her up. It really wasn’t the time for a fight. Sarah should have brought it up later, and she shouldn’t have been so vehement. He was still her boss.
And she really didn’t want to lose her dream job.
Jonathan’s eyes were strange—focused, alive in a way she only saw when he was caught up in research. He didn’t respond though. He just reached over, took her face in one of his big hands, and leaned into a kiss.
Sarah was so shocked she couldn’t respond immediately. Then she felt a wave of pleasure wash over her as his mouth moved against hers.
She wrapped one arm around his neck instinctively and melted against him.
When he pulled away, she was dazed and breathless and in danger of oozing into a boneless heap on the floor.
“Is that better?” he demanded.
That slapped her back into focus. “That’s fine,” she said, turning away from him, flustered. She saw that the others had seen them kissing, which was probably good for their scheme but made her flush hotly just the same.
Andrew looked a lot like Harrison but had green eyes instead of brown and was quicker to laugh, quicker to grin. Sarah liked him immediately when he greeted Jonathan enthusiastically with a handshake that turned into a half-hug and told her good-naturedly that his cousin didn’t deserve someone so smart and beautiful.
It wasn’t true, but it was really nice that he’d said it.
But, when she shook hands with Laurel, whom he introduced to her in a way that somehow conveyed her preciousness, Sarah was immediately intimidated.
Laurel was as tall and slender as a model, and she was stunningly beautiful, with dark hair, dark eyes, and sculpted cheekbones that looked faintly Native American.
She smiled as they were introduced, but she seemed a lot more aloof than Marietta.
She made Sarah feel, even in her pretty new clothes, like a frumpy plebian.
Laurel and Marietta were obviously close, which made Sarah feel even more like an outsider. She was used to feeling that way—she had all the time at school—but she’d been feeling more comfortable with herself lately, even that morning, so the realization hit her like a blow.
She withdrew, standing beside Jonathan, who looked like he’d rather be elsewhere as well. She was grateful when he put an arm around her waist, even though she knew it was just part of their pretense.
They chatted for a while in the entry hall, about the storm, about the trip, about details of the wedding. Laurel was going to be the maid-of-honor and evidently took her role seriously. She pulled out a file folder with all of her duties organized with print-outs and to-do lists.
Finally, Gordon suggested that Andrew and Laurel might want to get settled, so the group disbanded.
Jonathan went back into the breakfast room, to get his coffee and journal Sarah assumed. She was going to follow him when Marietta stopped her.
“Laurel and I are going shopping this afternoon for wedding things. Please say you’ll come with us.”
If Marietta had been just being polite, Sarah wouldn’t have accepted, but the other woman’s expression was open and sincere.
As if she really did want Sarah to come along.
“Thank you,” she said. “I’d love to.” She didn’t really want to spend another day shopping, but hanging out with the women might be easier than trying to muddle through the pretense with Jonathan. “I need to check with Jonathan, to make sure he didn’t have anything planned, but otherwise it would be great.”
Jonathan, when asked, said it was fine, so Sarah went shopping two days in a row for the first time in her life.
***
Jonathan didn’t have a very good day.
He was a little annoyed that Sarah had deserted him. He’d been hoping they could do something away from the estate. She hadn’t been to England before, so they could have done some sight-seeing, which would give him an excuse to not to spend awkward time with his family.
Instead, he had no choice but to accept when his uncle suggested they tour the estate, since it had been so long since he’d been there and he’d missed all the latest improvements.
Cyrus Damon was obviously making an effort to be civil, but Jonathan could have done without several hours with his uncle.
It was bad enough that his uncle had always treated his scientific ambitions as second-class, just because Jonathan hadn’t wanted to be involved in the family business. But now he’d forced him to concoct this ludicrous scheme and potentially damage the good working relationship he had with Sarah in order to keep his uncle happy and his lab funded.
If his uncle had cared about him at all, Jonathan would have no complaints about putting up with any number of annoyances and eccentricities. But, for Cyrus Damon, it was all about family obligation.
Nothing Jonathan had ever done had been good enough for him.
He made it through the tour of the estate without offending his uncle, and then he was able to escape to the media room for the rest of the afternoon to play Sea and Sky, which used to be his favorite video game. The estate, of course, had all the up-to-date game technology one could hope for, but he dug up the dated game system so he could play his favorite game. He’d stayed up late pla
ying it the night before, instead of going to bed with Sarah, and he’d found it a good distraction.
The women were having dinner in London, so it was just the men that evening. Harrison and Andrew were obviously trying to be friendly, so Jonathan made an effort to respond. They weren’t bad. They were just different, and his work wouldn’t really impress them. He didn’t think he’d ever be really close to them.
By the evening, he was irrationally annoyed with Sarah. He was used to having her around all the time. She filled his coffee, reminded him of things he might forget, and otherwise smoothed over rough corners. He could have used her help in dealing with his family, but instead she was off gallivanting on another shopping trip.
How much shopping did a woman need to do? She’d already bought out half of London the day before.
It was late when she got back, and Jonathan was reading in bed. She looked tired and said she was going to take a shower.
Jonathan just nodded and kept reading, hoping that concentrating on the words on the page would help distract him from the thought of Sarah and her lush body getting into the bed with him.
His hopes were not realized. When she came out a few minutes later, she wore a simple pajama set—cream colored top with lace straps and cotton shorts—but it emphasized the curves of her breasts and hips. She must have just brushed her hair, since it hung down in shiny waves around her shoulders.
She looked fresh, pretty, almost innocent—and so sexy his body tightened.
He tried even harder to focus on the tedious findings of a research project he cared nothing about as she walked over and got under the covers beside him.
She smelled like vanilla with an undertone of something fresh like lime. He’d seen the scented lotion on the sink in the bathroom, and the fragrance did something dangerous to his body.
He didn’t know what was wrong with him. He’d spent all day, every day with Sarah for the last three years.
He worked with her. He didn’t respond to her like this.
“How was your day?” she asked, turning out the light on her bedside table. Only his light was still on now, casting strange shadows on the rest of the room.