by Jayci Lee
Natalie blinked several times. That was random. Nineties cinema was not a frequent topic of their conversations. “Do you mean that Tom Hanks movie?”
Mrs. Kim nodded.
“Yeah, I’ve watched it on TV before.”
“Well, he was wrong.” Mrs. Kim poked the air with her index finger. “Life is not like a box of chocolates. You’d never find a piece of crap in a chocolate box.”
Natalie nodded somberly, then they downed their shots. She would’ve found the observation hilarious if it hadn’t made so much sense. Life could bury you in a mountain of crap, but the worst you could do with a box of chocolates was bite into a piece with nasty pink goo inside.
“Still no headway on Sophie’s adoption?” Her neighbor’s eyes were soft with understanding.
“No,” Natalie whispered, desperation clogging her throat. “The odds are stacked against me, but I can’t let her go.”
“And now, you have a man,” she said matter-of-factly. Sometimes she could swear Mrs. Kim was a psychic. “That complicates things even more.”
Complicates things? That’s such a genteel way of describing the mess I’m in.
“I don’t exactly have him.” There was no use denying there was a man. Mrs. Kim jutted her chin at Natalie to continue, then poured more shots into their glasses. “I’m just engaged to him.”
To her credit, Mrs. Kim swallowed her soju before she coughed and sputtered, “You’re what?”
“I got engaged to Hansol’s VP of Business and Development.”
“Fancy.”
“He’s also the heir apparent to the entire freaking company.”
“Holy crap.”
“Exactly. And you know what else? He’s melt-your-clothes-off hot, and for some reason that really pisses me off!” Natalie slammed her palms on the table. Shoot. Mrs. Kim was twice her age. She shouldn’t be disrespectful. “Sorry. I mean he’s very handsome.”
“Don’t be a prude. I’m not that old. He’s sex on a stick. I got it,” she said. “And you’re not pissed off. You’re just turned on.”
Natalie emptied her glass and glowered mutely at her.
“How did all this come about?” Mrs. Kim studied her face with concern.
“Suddenly.” Natalie couldn’t lie to her but couldn’t tell the truth, either. She inhaled a fortifying breath. “We...understand each other, and marrying him will help me adopt Sophie. I think it’ll be a mutually beneficial arrangement.”
“And that’s enough for you? Sometimes doing what we think is best for our children comes at a cost, Natalie.”
Mrs. Kim sighed and opened up another bottle of soju. She raised it and glanced at Natalie, but she shook her head. She had urgent matters to deal with first thing in the morning, thanks to twice losing her wits over Garrett Song.
“There was someone...after my husband died, but I ended things with him to focus on my kids. Overcompensating for being a single mom, I guess. But now...” Her unflappable neighbor sighed, a small, forlorn sound. “My children have grown and left—as they should—and I’m a lonely old woman with only bygone memories to warm my bed.”
“Mrs. Kim... I...”
Natalie didn’t continue. She was in no place to comfort Mrs. Kim. She was too afraid to give her heart to anyone, knowing she didn’t stand a chance of keeping him. The one guy who’d wanted to stick around was a narcissistic jerk from college. No man worth having seemed to want her. Natalie poured Mrs. Kim another shot and lifted her glass for a refill. They raised their glasses in solemn silence and drank to bygone memories.
Unlike Mrs. Kim, who had loved and lost, Natalie didn’t even have memories to keep her warm. She only had a sexless marriage to an unfairly hot husband to look forward to.
* * *
Natalie didn’t hate giving presentations too much. She just had a hard time breathing and got a wicked headache. Even so, it beat “hanging out” and “socializing.” The actual event was never as bad as expected. She had to focus on that. Today it was just a quick office-etiquette seminar.
“You look bulletproof,” Garrett said, close to her ear. “Why the power suit?”
She squeaked, nearly jumping out of said suit. Immersed in her mental pep talk, she hadn’t heard him approaching in the hall. Her hand on her chest, she scanned their surroundings and didn’t see any prying eyes on them.
Even when her mind grasped she wasn’t in mortal danger, her fight-or-flight instinct raged inside her. The man next to her was dangerous. Seeing him, and in such close proximity, made her heart play hopscotch in her chest.
Natalie reined in her hormone-induced reaction. She lived in the real world with real problems, like bills to pay and a daughter to adopt. She didn’t have the luxury of lusting after her future husband.
“Good morning,” she said as she continued swiftly down the hallway. “Did you need something?”
“Not at all.” He fell in step beside her, his face a careful blank. “I’m just stretching my legs.”
She couldn’t help stealing a peek at his long, muscular legs, and heat rose to her face. Her gaze roamed over him, lingering on his strong jawline and full lips. When her eyes met his, amusement glinted in them. He was well aware of her perusal, and quite enjoying himself.
“Go stretch them somewhere else,” she said through clenched teeth.
He chuckled, the corners of his eyes crinkling. Rather than casually parting ways, as she’d hoped, he took her by the elbow and led her toward the landing of the emergency stairway. Too startled to react, she allowed the door to click shut behind them. She huffed an exasperated sigh and slumped against the wall.
“Why did you bring me out here, Garrett?”
“We need to discuss our sleeping arrangements.”
“What—what do you mean?” Awareness stormed through her, making her knees weak. After their kiss, she’d imagined sharing a bed with him. It involved very little sleeping.
“I want you to move into my place as soon as possible.”
“No,” she blurted in a panic, her heart jumping and stuttering.
Garrett shrugged. “If you’d rather buy a new place, I’ll have my Realtor call you.”
“It’s not that.” She pressed her palm against her forehead. “Why do we have to move in together already?”
He arrogantly raised an eyebrow. “Our engagement will be announced soon.”
“I haven’t forgotten, but I don’t know what the rush is. I could move in after the wedding.”
Garrett raked his fingers through his full, dark hair, tousling it into a sexy mess. “My grandmother isn’t going to give up on the arranged marriage easily.”
“And that’s why we’re getting married. I haven’t forgotten.”
“Knowing her, she’s going to use all her influence to stop our wedding. Maybe even leak my ‘engagement’ to Jihae Park to the press.”
“Why would she do something like that?”
“Then it won’t be just the CEO seat on the line for me. I’d be responsible for burning bridges with Rotelle Corporation and publicly humiliating a young woman.” Garrett squeezed the back of his neck. “But it’d be a risky move on my grandmother’s part since Hansol will receive negative press if you and I still went ahead with our wedding. Neither Grandmother nor I would do anything to harm Hansol, but I don’t know how far she’ll go. We’ve never been on opposite sides of a conflict before.”
“When are we announcing the engagement?” she asked, her teeth tugging at her bottom lip. Their conversation sounded more dramatic than a scene from a soap opera. She’d be sitting on the edge of the couch stuffing popcorn in her mouth except this was actually happening to her. Cue the Twilight Zone music.
“In two weeks.” Garrett rubbed a hand down his face.
“Couldn’t we move it up?”
“We have less than two weeks to wa
rm up the public to the idea of us. When we announce our engagement, we need people to feel like they’re part of the romance. If we blindside them with it, they’ll feel duped. That won’t win us any fans.”
She nodded as his words lit up a dark corner of her heart. He’s protecting me. He lived in the limelight and could charm the press with a grin and a witty remark, but Natalie would be vulnerable to the public’s scorn. She soaked up the warmth of the knowledge.
Wait, no. This way lies trouble. Natalie couldn’t let her loneliness fool her that his kind gesture meant anything more than what it was. She and Garrett had a purely business arrangement and she shouldn’t forget that.
“You’ll be an open target to your grandmother’s manipulations. Are you sure about waiting?”
“No.” Garrett shrugged and pinned her with his gaze. “That’s why I need you to ruin me for the Korean heiress.”
“Ruin you?” Natalie was horrified at how far his grandmother would go to control his life. It had to be suffocating to bear so much pressure. Yet, he was risking so much to protect her reputation. “I don’t know... I’ve never ruined a hotshot billionaire before.”
“It’s simple.” His lips quirked in amusement. “Move in with me.”
“But how does moving in together ruin you?”
“Jihae Park’s family, as well as my grandmother, will be scandalized if we moved in together before our wedding. At least superficially, propriety and virtue are still important in Korean culture, especially to those jae-bul families. If I’m lucky, her family will call off the wedding first. At the very least, my grandmother won’t be able to make any engagement announcements of her own.”
“Virtue?” She blinked and searched her mind for the right words. “My moving in with you will compromise your virtue?”
“And yours.” He grinned mischievously.
She gulped. Yes, he would definitely be a good ravisher.
“Fine. I’ll think about ruining you.” She rolled her eyes to hide how much the thought of tainting his virtue aroused her. “If we’re done here, I have a presentation to give. You can leave in fifteen minutes.”
“What?”
“I don’t want anyone seeing us come out of the stairwell together.” She could do without adding “stairwell quickie” to the gossip fodder.
“You want me to waste fifteen minutes of my time out here?”
“Not at all.” She wished she could snap a picture of his expression. She could look at it for a good laugh whenever she was having a bad day. “You can sit on the stairs and productively check your emails if you’d like. Just don’t come out for fifteen minutes.”
Natalie scanned the hallway before slipping out and shutting the door in Garrett’s stunned face.
* * *
His fiancée had locked him out of his own company.
Garrett glanced at his watch, feeling ridiculous hiding in the dimly lit stairwell. He waited exactly five minutes; that was all she was getting. Even so, he made certain the hallway was empty before he left his confinement.
After shutting his office door behind him, Garrett sank into his desk chair and sifted through a pile of documents, then tossed them back down. They were getting married in a few weeks and would be living under the same roof for months. What was there to think about?
Growling with frustration, he pushed back from his desk and stood, making his chair skid drunkenly. Enough nonsense. She was moving into the penthouse by the end of the week. Coming to a decision, he placed several calls to make the arrangements, then strode out of his office with determined steps.
Natalie was back from her meeting and was sitting with her nose nearly pressed against her monitor, as though she wanted to fall into the computer. And she was singing softly under her breath. He leaned a shoulder against the door frame and listened for a few seconds. Then, he recognized the song.
“Are you singing ‘YMCA’?”
Her bottom shot an inch off her seat and her cheeks turned red.
“What now?” She studied him with wary eyes.
“I need you,” he said, deepening his voice. Her mouth rounded into a plush O and he allowed himself a satisfied smile. If flirting was what it took to get her attention, then he wasn’t opposed to engaging in some harmless fun. “Have lunch with me.”
“Lunch?” Her eyes darted around her office, as though she was searching for an escape route. He watched her, wondering what excuse she’d come up with to wiggle out of it. She took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. “Sure. Let me just log off.”
“You will?” Garrett’s eyebrows shot up. He didn’t think she’d give in so easily. “Great.”
Recovering from his surprise, he walked beside her through the cubicles. Natalie kept a respectable distance between them and lengthened her strides as though trying to escape the surreptitious glances of curious employees.
“See you in the lobby,” she said in a terse whisper and made a sharp right.
Her barely audible words and sudden change of direction caught him by surprise and he almost turned to follow her. Catching himself at the last moment, he made an awkward pivot to continue down the hall.
It’d been inconsiderate of him to just show up at her office. They needed to be seen together in public, but they didn’t need to give the employees an exclusive sneak peek. Natalie still had a day or two before the rumors flew at work.
By the time they reunited in the building lobby, her cheeks were back to their creamy white, and her features were as serene as a placid lake. Away from prying eyes in the elevator, something perverse in him wanted to disturb the calm surface of that lake. He would press her up against the back wall and slide her prim blouse off her shoulders. He would finally discover the exact shade of the tips of her lovely breasts... Are they pale pink like a soft blush against her translucent skin? Or creamy brown like sweet caramel?
Garrett shifted on his feet, his trousers growing uncomfortably tight. Hell. If he didn’t stop his adolescent fantasizing, he was going to have to walk to his car with the swagger of a cowboy after a long day on the saddle.
“This way.” He led her toward the parking elevator.
“We’re driving?” she asked, meeting his gaze for the first time since they’d left her office.
“Yes. I’m taking you to my place.”
“Oh.” Natalie swung around to gape at him, then nodded slowly. “Is it far?”
“No.” He wondered what she’d think about his choice of residence. “I live at the Ritz-Carlton on Olympic Boulevard.”
Other than a slight tilt of her eyebrows, she didn’t reveal her thoughts. “People know who you are over there, right?”
“Right.”
She nodded absently and was quiet on their walk to his car.
As soon as they pulled out of the parking structure, Natalie freed her hair from her customary bun and shook her head to make the curls bounce around her shoulders. Garrett forgot to watch the road as he stared at her undoing the top three buttons of her blouse. When she bent to rummage through her purse, he caught a glimpse of her lacy white bra and his blood rushed south again. He was ogling her, his jaw slack. Damn it. He snapped his mouth closed, and returned his attention to the road.
“Is this better?” She scrutinized herself in the car mirror after painting her lips a deep pink rose.
“Better how?” He wouldn’t have been able to pull off the cool-guy act even if his voice hadn’t cracked. There was no use denying it. He was going to spend the entire afternoon obsessing over her perfect pink lips and wondering what other parts of her matched that shade.
“I figured you were taking me to your place so we could be seen together before our engagement announcement. You mentioned it was important I look the part, but this is the best I could do on a moment’s notice.”
“Don’t worry about it. You look nice.” Nice? Wha
t am I? In sixth grade?
Garrett drove the car into the hotel’s circular driveway, and opened Natalie’s door himself. When he helped her out of her seat, she stood on tiptoes and brushed her lips against his cheek. She seemed to have thrown herself into the role. While he stood in shock, she wrapped her arm around his waist and glanced up at him. Snapping back to attention, he pulled her to his side and kissed her hard, letting his hand slide up to rest an inch beneath her breast. It was all for show, of course.
He lifted his head before his control slipped again. Natalie stood and blinked her wide eyes, and he felt a surge of pride. Grinning broadly, he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and they strolled into the lobby. Seeming to emerge from a fog, she smiled prettily at him, back in character.
As soon as the elevator doors closed behind them, she dropped her smile and he dropped his arm from her shoulders. Natalie was so pumped from the performance she was practically shuffling her feet, reminding him of a scene from Rocky. An image of her in silky red boxing shorts and a tight black tank top flitted through his mind. Goddamn it. Is there anything this woman does that I don’t find sexy?
They reached his penthouse before he did anything foolish, and were met by the spectacular views of downtown that stretched all the way to the Hollywood sign. The gusty spring winds had carried away much of the smog, and all of Los Angeles stood clear and arresting before them.
“Come on.” He beckoned her with a tilt of his head. “I’ll give you the five-cent tour.”
Natalie followed him with her bright eyes scanning the condo, but her attention kept drifting back to the city view. The condo itself wasn’t much. Three bedrooms, three and a half bathrooms, a couple dens, a kitchen and dining room, two libraries and an exercise room. The two of them should have enough space without feeling too cramped.
“Um... Is this where we’re going to live after we get married?”
He hadn’t given much thought to what Natalie would need or want. He was, without a doubt, an insensitive tool. “I don’t have a particular attachment to the place. We can move if you’d like.”