The Bachelor′s Bed
The Bachelor's Bed
Jill Shalvis
Lani Mills had a secret crush on gorgeous diehard bachelor Colin West, along with half the women in town. But she was just his cleaning lady, so she'd have to content herself with dusting and dreaming…or would she?Colin needed a fictional fiancée to end his mother's matchmaking attempts. Lovely, loyal Lani was his first choice, and, to his relief, she agreed to pretend they were madly in love. But his relief turned to dismay when she kept forgetting the "pretend" part…
“I shouldn’t have come to your bedroom,” Colin said
“Then why did you?” Lani asked, sitting up. The comforter slid down to reveal more than Colin could handle.
His brow furrowed as he quickly raised his eyes to search her gaze. “You needed—”
“You. I needed you.”
“You were having a nightmare. Anyone would have done—”
“Not anyone. You.”
Colin sucked in a harsh breath. In the pale light, his eyes darkened. “Lani…”
“Touch me.”
She could hear his ragged breath, could feel his struggle for control. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this,” he murmured. “It was supposed to be uncomplicated. Easy.”
“I know,” she whispered, sinking her fingers into his thick, silky hair. “I know.”
Even as he reached for her, he said, “This is going to make it harder.”
“Well, I hope so,” she whispered.
Dear Reader,
I would rather clean toilets than talk about myself, which leaves me in a bit of a quandary when it comes to writing you a satisfying reader letter. But since the heroine in The Bachelor’s Bed cleans toilets for a living, it all sort of works out. While running her cleaning service, Lani dreams of things like marriage and commitment, but she hasn’t found a way to make that happen. (I, on the other hand, found my Mr. Right and we have three wonderful little girls.)
When our hero (who never cleans toilets) asks Lani to be his fictional fiancée, she figures pretending is better than nothing, and—because he’s smart and funny and has a job—she agrees. But we all know that true love is a sneaky emotion. It also conquers all, thankfully, which is what I love about romance.
I hope you enjoy how love works its magic in The Bachelor’s Bed. Let me know what you think—you can write to me at P.O. Box 3945, Truckee, CA 96160.
Happy reading!
Jill Shalvis
The Bachelor’s Bed
Jill Shalvis
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
To Susan Sheppard, for always believing.
Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Prologue
“YOU FORGOT to take the cash I left out for you.”
At the low, unbearably sexy voice in her ear, Lani hugged the telephone closer. They weren’t strangers, not by a long shot, but neither were they familiar enough with each other for her to joke about what the mere sound of his voice did to her insides. Shakily, she let out a breath. Her heart raced, and to combat the funny, weightless feeling that such a severe attraction caused, she leaned back in her squeaky office chair, lifted her tired, worn-out feet up to her desk and closed her eyes.
“Ms. Mills?”
“Yes, I’m here.” He couldn’t know she’d recognize his voice anywhere. She sighed and opened her eyes as she straightened. It wasn’t right to fantasize about a client, no matter how much that client occupied her thoughts. Truth was, he probably occupied the thoughts of every woman in this small mountain town of Sierra Summit. Not that there wasn’t plenty to do in the quaint, lovely place, but Colin West was such absolutely perfect fantasy material.
“Your money for your house-cleaning services,” he repeated patiently. “You left it on the counter.”
“I know. I’m sorry,” she said, embarrassed. At the time, she’d been flustered because he’d been watching her with a silent intensity that she didn’t understand as she’d prepared to leave his house.
“No need to apologize, they’re your earnings.”
Again, that quiet yet steely tone. She was intelligent, she knew she couldn’t love someone she didn’t really know, but she could lust.
He was a man who knew what he wanted and how to get it, and if rumors were to be believed, he rarely ever let anything get in his way. “Ruthless and aggressive” was what they said about him, but Lani believed it was only a front.
To her, he wasn’t frightening or even dangerous, but he was magnetic and passionate and fiercely private.
He also intimidated the hell out of her.
They’d known each other for one year. Lani had provided services for him once a week since they’d met, and though she had hoped their relationship would have risen above this stilted awkwardness by now, it was clear she was the only one who wished it so.
Sighing again, she shoved back all her secret yearnings and desires. “I’ll pick it up when I come next week,” she said. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” The husky timbre of his voice deepened, and for just a second, Lani thought that maybe it did so with equal yearning, but that was silly.
She was a nobody to him, less than a nobody. What she made in a year, he considered less than pocket change. Her office was smaller and more cramped than the walk-in closet of his huge bedroom.
He probably didn’t even remember her first name.
“Next week then, Lani,” he said softly.
She hung up the phone, stared out the tiny office window at the Los Angeles Crest Mountains and smiled dreamily.
He did know her name.
“Next week,” she whispered to herself.
THE FOLLOWING WEEK when Lani drove up to Colin’s house, it looked dark. Disappointment filled her.
She’d rearranged her crazy schedule even though she could have had a rare day off, just to get a peek at him. It was all for naught.
She was an idiot. A lust-bitten idiot.
She walked into the kitchen and saw an envelope with her name on the counter. Inside was her money, for both this week and last.
“You won’t forget this time.”
Lani nearly leaped out of her skin at the unexpected, silky voice.
He stood in the doorway, filling it with his tall, dangerous-looking presence. She wasn’t afraid of him. She didn’t know why really, except that she knew all his dark beauty covered pain, not meanness. His gaze, as always, was inscrutable and measured, and every nerve inside Lani went shy. “I won’t forget, thank you.”
“You should charge more.”
“I get by.”
“You’re worth far more.” Colin said this sincerely, even as he remained against the doorway, cool and collected. Distant.
It didn’t matter. She knew that was a defense, and she of all people understood defenses. But he’d noticed what a good job she’d done, and while it shouldn’t mean so much, it did. Oh, it did. She smiled.
He stared at her, not returning the smile—she’d never seen him smile—his eyes for once readable. In them she saw confusion, which in turn confused her because he was always so sure of himself.
Apparently he didn’t like the feeling, because he grabbed his keys, said a quick good-bye and vanished.
Lani watched him go, wondering at the flash of vulnerability she’d seen.
SHE DIDN’T SEE HIM again all month, though he always left money for her services. Twice he left her notes, complimenting her on her work.
She saved them and wondered how long it would be before he allowed them to run into one another again. Wondered also if he felt the connection between them, and if it unnerved him as much as it did her.
1
COLIN WOULDN’T HAVE SAID desperation was a personality trait of his, but he felt the cold fingers of it now. Frustrated, he stared at the calculated mess in his office. The building was deserted except for him. Even the downtown streets beyond the darkened windows were quiet on this late-summer evening.
His favorite time to work.
If he could, he’d work all night. Every night. Whatever it took to finish this project, he would do it, it was that important.
But he had to go home, had to ward off trouble.
It wasn’t often he felt so helpless, and he hated that. There was only one thing to do—fight it.
Fight them.
The them in this case wasn’t some terrorist threat or even a horrific viral infection, but something far worse.
It was his mother and her two meddling sisters.
The three of them had come together in their mutual campaign to ruin his life.
They wanted him married and they wanted him married yesterday, and to further this mission, they had sent woman after woman to him. They’d created parties, blind dates, “surprise” visitors, chance meetings, anything and everything to drive him insane.
He had no idea what the latest plan of attack was, but they’d been too quiet since the last one, when they’d sicced Ms. Mary Martin, the town librarian and closet nymphomaniac, on him. She had made his life a living hell for a month, smiling wickedly every time she ran into him, which had been disturbingly often. When she had goosed him in his office elevator one night, practically stripping him before he managed to separate himself from her, he had drawn the line.
No more interference by his family.
They had to be stopped.
LANI’S CAR barely made it, but that was little surprise. The poor clunker had been threatening to go all year and since she’d just recently put her cleaning business into the black for the first time, transportation had taken a low priority to other things, such as eating.
Carmen glanced at her with a raised eyebrow when the car lunged and jerked.
“Hey, it got us here,” Lani told her worker as she shut it off. Barely.
Carmen read her lips, looking not so much grateful as doubtful. The woman was sixty years old and deaf. She also had a bit of an attitude and didn’t do windows—not exactly perfect maid material.
But Lani was so short-staffed that she, too, was out in the field cleaning today. Not that she minded since this was his house.
In fact, for a glimpse of his rugged, athletic body she’d clean every toilet in the house. With his dark, thick hair, even darker, fathomless eyes and full, sexy mouth, Colin West was truly the stuff secret fantasies were made of.
Sometimes she pretended that he noticed her for something other than the weekly maid. That he wondered how he could have employed her for a full year and not seen her mind-shattering beauty, her sharp wit. But in the end that was a cruel fantasy because he was perfect and she was…well…not.
Still she never stopped wishing, because someday she was going to take her great-aunt Jennie’s advice—she was going to stop living life so carefully and purposely, she was going to jump up and take a risk and not worry about getting hurt.
Carmen sighed theatrically at the delay while Lani daydreamed. Lani knew she was going to have to stop hiring people just because she felt sorry or responsible for them. But it was a difficult habit to break. Besides, Carmen could be sweet.
The older woman stared at the huge house they were to clean and shook her head sharply, glaring at Lani. She huffed with indignation, which made Lani laugh. Okay, not sweet exactly. But she was company, which was nice.
It’s going to be a scorcher of a day, Lani thought as she tugged and yanked at the heavy bucket in her trunk, panting a little under the weight of it. The mountain air was supposed to make a person strong, but Lani had lived here all her life and she was still on the puny side of petite.
Sierra Summit was located at the base of the Los Angeles Crest Mountains above the sprawling Los Angeles area, but still the July hot spell penetrated the altitude.
Lani swiped at her sticky forehead and hefted the bucket higher while Carmen watched, probably relieved she hadn’t been asked to carry anything. The bucket was filled with sponges and cleaners and Lani wrinkled her nose when the strong aroma of pine and lime caught in her throat.
She had nothing against cleaning—it was her livelihood. But if Colin wasn’t going to sweep her off her feet, which she had to admit was highly unlikely, then she might as well be back in her small but cozy office in town, working on her very-behind bookkeeping.
A sponge bounced from her bucket to the ground. Lani nearly killed herself in the juggling act she had to perform just to get it back in.
Carmen simply watched.
“Hey, don’t worry, I’ve got it.” Silence met this dry statement, and Lani found herself yearning for someone, anyone, to speak to.
The blast of unexpected self-pity was startling. She never allowed it, so why was she wallowing in loneliness today? “Because I just had my twenty-sixth birthday,” she realized, speaking out loud.
Carmen watched her speak then snorted her opinion of that.
But, twenty years after losing the family that had been her entire life, Lani was just realizing something disturbing. Despite her inherent sunny disposition, despite her determination to live her life as though each day was precious, she had never again fully opened her heart to another. Guilt stabbed at her because she did have Great-Aunt Jennie, who’d taken in a traumatized six-year-old Lani instead of enjoying her retirement years. But still, Lani ached for something that continued to elude her.
Truth was, she wanted more from life. She wanted to follow Jennie’s advice and take a chance, lower her guard. Risk. And if, in the process, she managed to have a hot, wildly passionate love affair with a man as dreamy as Colin, then so much the better, because she had to face facts—orgasms were but a blissful figment of her imagination.
Cleaning bucket in tow, Lani followed Carmen up the long, bricked walk of the upscale home, the early morning sun beaming down on her. She should be used to waking up on one side of the tracks and working on the other, but she still stopped to gawk at the incredibly beautiful home.
Her own place was a tiny modest apartment in an older part of town. Not seedy or even dangerous, just…cheap. She lived there for nearly nothing because Jennie owned the building and never let Lani pay what she charged everyone else.
But Colin’s two-story, sprawling house took her breath away. The cedar siding had aged to the color of expensive whiskey. There were no less than three chimneys to conjure up the imagine of hot, crackling winter fires. Decking surrounded the bottom floor. Lani could close her eyes and imagine the swing she’d place where Colin would draw her down and whisper husky promises in her ear on warm summer nights. Then, beneath a sliver of a moon, he’d make good on those promises, using his hands, his tongue, his body until she was limp….
In the real world, she plowed into Carmen, who’d also stopped short to admire the house.
Icy liquid flowed down Lani’s front, cooling her off.
Carmen frowned down at her own splattered tennis shoes and worked her lips in what Lani was certain was a colorful Spanish oath.
“Sorry,” she muttered and, ignoring her wet shirt, kept moving, her gaze back on the fabulous house. She knew that Colin never used the fireplaces. He hadn’t placed a swing on the deck either. His work was his life, and while Lani appreciated and understood his dedication, she wondered if he didn’t sometimes yearn for more, the way she did.
As she came to the back door, she felt a strange thrill in her belly.
Would she see him? Would she catch a glimpse of his deep mysterious eyes? Would she hear his low, mesmerizing voice, the one that turned her inside out?
She hoped so because he was the highlight of her week. He was incredible. Okay, maybe a little dark and moody, but positively magnificent. Maybe he’d be wearing those soft, faded jeans again, the ones that fit him like a glove, emphasizing…
Carmen tsked deep in her throat and Lani jumped guiltily, knowing her thoughts had been plastered across her face. “Oh, like you don’t think it, too.”
Carmen made the equivalent of a grumpy old woman’s laugh and wagged her little finger at Lani. Then she wiggled her ample hips suggestively, pausing in her dance to shake her head. Lastly, she gestured to the cleaning supplies.
“Yes, yes, I know.” Lani rolled her eyes. “We’re here to clean. Clean, clean, clean. No hanky-panky. You know, it’s amazing how well you can communicate when you want to. Maybe while you’re in the mood, you can explain to me how you have the energy to make fun of me, but the minute we get inside you’ll suddenly tire and let me do all the hard work.”
Angelic now, Carmen smiled with a lift of one shoulder and a vague shake of her head. No comprende.
Right. Lani shook her head in disgust at the both of them. Every woman, young and old, within thirty miles sighed over the thought of Colin. He was rich, amazingly intelligent, gorgeous and, most importantly, he was single. That he kept his distance from people only fueled the constant rumors about his love life. It was said that he went through a different woman every day of the week—but that only made Lani all the more morbidly curious.
He invented things, for lack of a better term—electronic robotics. She knew nothing about that.
It didn’t matter. She didn’t need to understand to appreciate him. Colin worked hard, a good quality in anyone. He was driven and successful. His dark, dangerous fallen-angel looks didn’t hurt, either.
Too bad he was so involved in his work. But unlike some of her other clients, who preferred to pretend that their maid was invisible, Colin West always nodded politely to her, spoke easily, and never made her feel less than the woman she was. They’d had many pleasant conversations over the months, and she could remember every one of them.
Enough, she told herself firmly. Ignoring the overwhelming heat, she headed quickly up the steep walk to the kitchen entrance, leaving Carmen huffing far behind.
Just as she reached the door, it whipped open, sending blessedly cool air into her damp face. Standing there before her in all his somber glory was Colin, looking unexpectedly wild, rumpled and just a little desperate.
“Thank God it’s you.”
“Instead of?” she asked in surprise.
“One of your non-English-speaking employees or, God forbid, the older woman who can’t speak at all, the one who always sticks her tongue out at me.”
“Well…” She thought of Carmen making her way up the walk right this very moment.
“Come in,” he said a bit impatiently, his voice deep and rumbling. His dark, wavy, collar-length hair was more disheveled than usual and standing on end as if he’d been plowing his fingers through it. His eyes, so deep blue they looked black and fathomless, shimmered with what she might have suspected was nerves, if she didn’t know better.
From what she’d seen, Colin West never suffered from nerves.
So why was his tall, well-built frame—which she couldn’t help but notice was beautifully packed into a well-worn T-shirt and those snug old Levi’s she loved—so taut with tension?
Lani opened her mouth to speak, but it fell shut again when his huge, warm hand closed over the heavy bucket she held. He set it aside as though it weighed no more than a penny.
His mouth was grim.
“What’s the matter—” Lani squeaked in surprise when he pulled her the rest of the way into his kitchen, slammed the door and, with a gentle but inexorable force, pressed her back against it.
She should have spared a thankful thought for the deliciously cool house. She should have thought about Carmen, who was going to wonder why Lani hadn’t waited for her, but her attitude-ridden helper was the last thing on her mind at the moment.
“Mr. West!” she gasped, even as she closed her eyes to fully enjoy the sensation of his incredibly hard body against hers. After all, if this was a dream, she didn’t want to wake up. “Did I forget my money again?”
“No.”
Lord, she felt good against him. He felt good. “So…this is to thank me for the job I did last time?”
“No.” For a brief moment he pressed closer, and the almost-embrace spoke of a desperately needed comfort. She lifted her hands to his waist and squeezed reassuringly, trying to remember that he was a client.
“She’s not going to let up,” he said gruffly. “And I can’t take it, not now, not in the middle of this project. It’s too damn important.”
Reluctantly, Lani opened her eyes because a she definitely ruined the fantasy. “Who won’t let up?”
“It’s enough to drive me insane.” His voice was low, edgy and spine-tinglingly rough. “Only one way to stop her and—damn, you’re wet!” His dark brows came together in a sharp line as he jerked back, staring down at his T-shirt, now clinging damply to his broad chest.
“I spilled. I’m…sorry.”
“It doesn’t matter,” he said, still staring down at himself.
Lani stared too, because wow, with his wet shirt pasted to that fabulous chest, the blood rushed right out of her head, which made thinking a tad dangerous to her health.
“It’s the project that’s so important.”
She concentrated on his words with effort. “Project?”
“I’m designing a laser-surgery process,” he said, pulling at his shirt. “It’s so close.”
“Laser surgery. They already have that.”
“This is different—better.” His voice told her how important this was to him. “Less cutting,” he said earnestly. “Less time under anesthesia. It’ll revolutionize the way surgeries are performed.”
And would help countless numbers of people. Lani’s save-the-world heart squeezed.
Her crush on him tripled.
“You’ll save so many lives,” she marveled. A modern day hero, she thought.
“The surgeons will save the lives.” He moved close again, his eyes flashing with passion, and though she knew it wasn’t directed at her, it made her dizzy anyway. Capturing her head in his big, warm hands, he tipped it up to stare down into her eyes. “But I can’t finish, they won’t leave me alone. No one will leave me alone. They want me out socializing, dating, spending the money I don’t care about. I need help.”
“You do?” With his long, powerfully built body against hers it was hard to imagine him needing help from someone like her.
“I need a fictional fiancée.” His gaze held hers captive. “I know how this sounds, Lani, but will you marry me? For pretend?”
The situation finally overcame Lani’s sensory pleasure. Yes, she was plastered up against the door, held there by the fabulous body she’d fantasized over for months, but had he just really asked…“M-m-marry you?” She hadn’t stuttered since kindergarten, nearly twenty years before, but suddenly her tongue kept tripping over itself. “B-b-but…”
At that moment, Carmen finally made it to the back door and knocked with enough pressure to wake the dead.
Lani ignored her. “Did you really just ask me to…?”
“Yes.” Colin drew a deep, ragged breath. “I’ve thought about it, planned it all out. I know this is a huge imposition, and I promise to compensate you….” At her soft sound of dismay, he hurried on. “I’m not trying to insult you, but I’m aware of what I’m asking and that it’s an inconvenience, to say the least.”
She couldn’t help it, she laughed.
He frowned. “This isn’t funny.”
“No, it’s not,” she agreed. An inconvenience to be married to him? Not likely.
“It won’t be easy, but I’ve watched you all year now. You’re smart, funny and, best yet, even-tempered. We can do this.”
He’d watched her all year.
At her expression, he hesitated. “You understand, this is pretend. I just need the pretense of being engaged while I finish my project.” His hands were still on her face. Rough skin, tender touch. “Lani?”
Maybe she ought to vow to risk more often because, holy cow, this was more like the thrilling life she’d dreamed about for herself since she’d been a young girl remembering her happy, romantic parents. During those first painful years she’d wondered what kind of man would eventually sweep her off her feet. She’d wondered as time had gone by as well, even as she put up mental barriers to avoid the intimacy she so feared.
Now Colin wanted her.
No, she corrected, he needed, not wanted. There was a difference and she would do well to remember it. His proposed arrangement was too easy to romanticize. Colin needed time for his laser project, which would save countless thousands. She could be a part of that altruistic cause by helping him out.
And be married to him at the same time.
Carmen pressed her face against the window in the door, ruining the moment, glaring over Lani’s shoulder as she tried to see. When she caught sight of Colin wrapped around Lani, her eyes widened comically.
Lani turned her head and concentrated on the warm male pressed against her.
“I just need your agreement,” Colin urged in that rough yet silky voice.
It wasn’t that she wasn’t paying attention, she was. Yet she couldn’t help but wonder—how did an inventor get such a great body? She’d seen plenty of great bodies before, but she so rarely had one held against her this way. It made thinking curiously difficult.
“I know this is really sudden, and a big decision, but I can’t work like this.” Colin dropped his forehead to hers. “I have to have more peace and quiet. It’s crucial.”
“I understand.” His mouth was close enough to kiss if she just leaned forward a fraction of an inch. Her heart raced.
“It’s urgent we resolve this before—” The phone rang, echoing strangely in his large house. “Damn.”
It rang and rang, in tune now to Carmen’s persistent and annoying knocking.
Colin’s eyes seemed even more wild, more desperate, and because she’d never seen him anything less than completely put together, it startled her.
“Will you help me?” he asked.
“Well…”
“We’re not strangers.”
“Uh…no. But…”
“And you know I’m not a mass murderer,” he urged. “Or a criminal of any kind.”
“Yes. But…”
“Lani.” He stepped close again, but didn’t touch her. “I’ll give you anything in my power, just name it. Money?”
“No!”
“A trip somewhere?”
Lani knew her eyes had lit up; she’d never had the chance to go anywhere. “I would never accept such a thing.”
“Hawaii,” he said rashly.
Hawaii. A personal fantasy of hers. “No. No, thank you,” she added gruffly, knowing she was going to regret this in the deep dark of the night.
“I’ll do anything for you in return,” he assured her. “Your business…could you use another client?”
Only desperately. “Sure.”
“Then please, add my downtown building to your client list. Daily.”
Just like that, he’d upped her income. Not only upped it, probably tripled it. He could have no idea what that meant to her, and though she knew it was a pity that he felt he had to offer a bribe, she shamelessly took it, thinking of the extra hours she’d be able to offer her employees. “That’s…very generous. Thank you.”
“Will you do it?”
Despite her little fantasies, Lani was commitment shy, always had been. She was intelligent enough to realize that most of what made her life so good was the fact that she concentrated on others rather than on herself. The town of Sierra Summit was fairly small, only about seven thousand people in all, and she mothered, sistered and babied a good many of them. Her business was struggling constantly to break even, but only because she didn’t charge enough and hired people who needed her more than she needed them. Her business handled mostly industrial work because there weren’t too many residents who needed or could afford a housecleaner—Colin being the exception, of course. It wasn’t much of an effort to keep everyone happy and satisfied, and Lani genuinely cared about them all, but even so, she still managed to hold everyone at a distance.
This came from a deeply ingrained fear of getting involved, of getting hurt. Whether it went back to losing her family so young or to something much more simple—her own basic shyness, for example—she didn’t know and didn’t often try to analyze. Colin had said this would be just for show, but she didn’t fool herself, it would be complicated, and as a rule she didn’t do complicated well.
Stalling, she offered a crooked smile as he once again pulled his wet shirt away from his body. “I don’t really know you,” she said finally.
The phone rang again and Colin cursed under his breath. His shoulders sagged and his eyes went even more wild.
Carmen knocked.
Colin growled and yanked the door open. In contrast to the tension pouring from him, he spoke slowly, distinctly, and appeared surprisingly calm, considering how white his knuckles were on the knob. “I need another moment with your boss,” he said through his teeth, which were bared in a mockery of a smile. He waited until Carmen read his lips and nodded reluctantly. “Alone,” he added firmly when Carmen would have entered.
The older woman’s eyebrows disappeared into her hairline, but she backed off the threshold. As she turned away, she stuck her tongue out at him.
Lani held her breath, but he didn’t seem to notice.
Colin shut the door. His gaze whipped back to Lani, and there was no mistaking his recklessness now. “It’s not all that difficult an issue,” he assured her. “I’m an open book. Truly.”
Lani let out a little laugh, for he was the most closed-mouthed person she’d ever known. And also, something else bothered her—why her? Surely he could have asked anyone and got a resounding oh boy, pretty please, yes!
Her silence must have scared him. “All right.” He plowed his fingers through his hair as he turned in a slow circle. “You want to know me.” He faced her and shrugged. “It’s simple, really. I’m…technically inclined. I don’t drink or do drugs…I like fast, sleek, sexy cars…and I’m fairly certain I don’t snore.”
When the phone rang yet again, his words came faster. “I like classical music, smart dogs and spicy Mexican food. And I always put the seat down. Now,” he added tightly over the annoying phone, “will you agree?”
Lani would never know what came over her, whether it was the unexpected flash of loneliness she’d experienced that morning, or just the deep, inexplicable yearning she felt for this man.
Risk, she reminded herself.
Help him with his great project. Help him help you out of the rut your life has become. “Okay,” she whispered. Because that sounded weak, she licked her lips and simply, confidently said, “Yes.”
Surprise flitted across his features and he held himself very still, clearly unsure if he’d heard correctly. “Did you just say yes?”
“Yes.” Oh, God, she couldn’t believe she was going to do this. “I mean, what the heck. I love spicy Mexican food, too. Let’s do it.”
2
THE TENSION DRAINED from Colin’s shoulders and while he didn’t quite smile, some of the strain left the lines around his mouth. “Well,” he said, obviously relieved.
“Yes. Well.” Lani grabbed her broom and laughed again, a little giddily. “I feel swept off my feet.”
“For pretend,” he clarified, eyes sharp on hers. “You feel swept off your feet for pretend.”
Darn, she had a pesky habit of forgetting that. “Right.”
He opened his mouth to say something, but Carmen stuck her face against the glass again, looking like a troll doll as she scrunched up her features to see better. Colin held up his finger for another minute.
Carmen rolled her eyes and disappeared.
“Um…Mr. West?”
He smiled at Lani for the first time, and wow, it was a stunner. “I think under the circumstances,” he said, “you can call me Colin.”
“Okay.” Lani smiled back, feeling a little dazed. What had she done? Had she really agreed to marry this wild, untamed creature just because her life needed a boost? “I should clean now.”
“Okay.” He frowned, plucking again at his wet shirt. “Ouch.”
“Yeah, the cleaner is starting to burn a bit,” Lani admitted regretfully, shifting uncomfortably herself. “I’m sorry.”
Without another word, Colin pulled the shirt over his head and tossed it aside.
Oh, man. Oh, man. He was perfect. Wide sinewy shoulders, hard chest, flat belly, lean hips, and the most amazing eyes that drew her right in… She was getting light-headed, and it most definitely wasn’t from the cleaner fumes.
Colin ran a hand over his bare chest with obvious relief. “Better.”
Better, Lani agreed silently. There was a solid thunk behind her. Carmen had banged her forehead on the glass attempting to get a better look.
The phone rang again and Colin sighed resolutely. “I have to get that.” He looked as though he’d rather face a firing squad. “But I’ll be back. We have to go over some things.”
Lani nodded, wondering if some of those things involved her wifely duties.
Now why did just the thought of that give her a heady rush of anticipation? She wasn’t promiscuous, not by a long shot, but somehow, with a man like Colin, she thought she might learn something about being a woman.
Yep, the chemicals in the cleaning stuff she used were most definitely going to her head—and really starting to burn her skin. Too bad she couldn’t rip her shirt off, too. At the thought, she let out another laugh.
“Lani?” Colin dipped his head down a little so he could see into her eyes. “Don’t leave yet.”
Did he honestly think she’d disappear now? He didn’t know much about her if—
What was she thinking?
He knew nothing about her. Still speechless, a truly unusual state for her, she shook her head.
She wouldn’t leave.
He looked at her for a long moment, and she wondered what was going through his mind, what he saw in her.
Again, the enormity of what she’d agreed to do staggered her. What was she going to tell Great-Aunt Jennie, who was likely to be so excited to have wed off her old-maid niece, finally? She’d have a heart attack!
It was just pretend, she reminded herself. No real heart involved. Walk away when the project’s done.
Lani watched her half-naked boss—and, good Lord, her future husband—as he walked out of the room.
Another unstoppable giggle escaped and she slapped her hand over her mouth. Giggling wouldn’t do, it didn’t become the future Mrs. West. “Oh, my God.”
Quietly, and since her knees were very weak, quickly, with a wide, silly grin on her face, she sank to the nearest seat, which happened to be the floor.
THE PHONE had stopped ringing by the time Colin got to his home office, which suited him.
Everything was good, he thought with relief. He had his fictional fiancée, and now, finally, he could concentrate on his work.
All other troubles faded away as he did just that, with a hyper-focus born of necessity. Nothing intruded, not the Institute’s hurry for his completed laser, not the fact he still had to talk to his well-meaning if meddling mother, nor that he had conned his cleaning lady into a pretense she clearly wasn’t prepared for.
His fingers raced over the keyboard of his computer, his mind locked deep in the complicated equations he was formulating. He was so close to perfecting his compact mini-laser, all he needed was time, uninterrupted time.
Turning to the console behind his desk, he lifted part of the scale model of his invention. He worked on many projects at a time for various conglomerates and institutions all over the world, but he had also incorporated himself. Generally he worked out of a large converted warehouse downtown, but this home office allowed him the privacy he sometimes craved.
The laser component hummed when he activated it. A miracle, and the miracle lay in the palm of his hand. Finally, after months and months of work, everything had begun to gel. Just as he let out a rare smile in response to the thrill of that, the phone rang, startling him from his intense concentration.
Blowing out a breath of frustration, he grabbed the phone.
“Darling, you haven’t returned a single one of my calls,” said his mother before he had a chance to open his mouth.
Thirty-two years old and that tone could still plant a headache between his eyes as fast as lightning. “I know. I—”
“How are you? I hope you’re good, you work too hard. Listen darling, I’m in town for the night only. I’m at the Towers with Aunt Bessie and Aunt Lola.”
Oh, God, all three of them at once. They were just women; petite, innocuous, elderly. But together, this team of New York, Italian, Catholic-raised siblings had guilt-laying and conformity-forcing down to a science. Colin was convinced that together they could have conquered Rome in a day.
And now they were in town. He rubbed his temples, knowing they cared about him beyond reason, which made it all the more difficult to hurt them in any way. “I thought you were going to be traveling all summer.”
“We are, we’re just back to check on things.”
Namely, him.
Since his mother had been the only sister to have a child, the three of them felt they co-owned him. Growing up, Colin had been raised by committee. His father had bowed out under pressure; after all, he was only one man. As a result, Colin had been fiercely watched over, fiercely disciplined and fiercely loved.
He was still fiercely loved, he had no doubt.
He just wished they would do it from a greater distance. Jupiter, maybe.
“I wanted to remind you,” his mother said. “Muffy is expecting you tonight.” She paused, then delivered the coup de grâce. “I’ve confirmed that you will attend.”
“Now wait a minute….”
“We want to see you, darling. How long has it been?”
Only two months, he thought desperately. Had she and his aunts only been on their annual shopping trek in Europe for eight short weeks? He struggled for patience, in short supply on the best of days and this wasn’t one of them. “We’ve spoken every week,” he reminded her firmly but gently, not pointing out that even from a distance of thousands and thousands of miles, she still tried to run his life. “And I’m not going to the auction.”
“Charity auction,” she corrected him. “It’s expected, Colin. It’s why we came back into town. Everyone will be there.”
Gritting his teeth to bite back his comment, he opened the delicate machinery in front of him and adjusted the micro-module with one of his tiny precision tools. “I can’t. I have a—”
“Oh, Colin, I do so love you.”
His heart softened. “I’m still not going.”
“Please? Do this for me. Honey, I don’t want to be a hundred years old before you make me a grandmother. I—”
“Stop!” He managed to interrupt and let out a short laugh. “Stop with the old. You and your sisters are the youngest old biddies I know.”
“Oh, you.” But his mother laughed, too. “This is the second time you’ve disappointed Muffy. Take a break from building those robot thingies and come out with us tonight.” Her voice gentled. “Have a social life, darling. You need to get married again and do it right this time. Please? For me.”
He might have laughed, if she were kidding. But she never kidded when it came to this—seeing her only child taken care of in what she saw as matters of the heart.
“Please don’t hurt my feelings on this,” she said in that quietly devastated voice all mothers have perfected.
Guilt. Dammit. “You made the plans without consulting me.”
“Because you won’t make plans for yourself! Your divorce has been final for five years, Colin. Five years. Move on. Please, darling. For me. Move on.”
The pain that slashed through him had nothing to do with his ex-wife. Lord, he needed a major pain killer. A bottle of them. Instead, he lifted another part of his advanced scale and ran a knowing finger over the trouble spot—the laser shaft. Complex plans for repair tumbled in his head.
“I’m simply trying to better your life.”
He could think of several ways to do that, starting with leaving him alone. Especially since with or without this project he was currently obsessing over, he would never again “better his life” with another female. “Save yourself the trouble, Mother.”
“But I want to die in peace.”
He rolled his eyes. Great. Now the death speech, when she was healthier than anyone he knew and likely to outlive him by thirty years.
“Just one night,” she urged. “That’s all I’m asking. Maybe she’s the one…”
“No.” He stretched his long, cramped legs over the top of his cluttered desk. No one was the one. No one ever would be again. “I’ve been trying to tell you, I have a good reason for not wanting to date.”
“Oh, no,” she whispered, horrified. “I knew it! I knew it wasn’t safe to let you play with dolls when you were younger!”
“Mother…”
She groaned theatrically. “Oh, no. Oh, no! How am I supposed to get grandkids now?”
He wisely contained his laughter. “No, Mother, that’s not it. I’m…engaged.”
The silence was deafening.
“Mother?”
“To whom?” she asked weakly.
“Her name is Lani Mills.”
“What does she do?”
“She runs her own cleaning business.”
“Oh.” She thought this over. “Does she love you?”
Colin wasn’t sure he knew the meaning of the word. Still, he remembered how wide- and wild-eyed his little cleaning lady had got when he’d removed his shirt. He hadn’t thought he could be sensual standing in his own kitchen doused in cleaning fluid, but the way she’d looked at him had certainly put a spin on things. “She’s…crazy about me,” he said.
“Colin, are you sure? Really, really sure? I mean if she doesn’t totally love you, then—”
“I thought you wanted me married,” he teased. “Well now I have a fiancée, so no more dates! In fact, no more calls about dates. No more making other people call me about dates. Okay? Tell everyone.”
“She’s the one for you? You’re sure? How do you know?”
Lani was quirky. Sweet and kind and exceptionally patient. After knowing her for one year, Colin knew she was a positive ray of sunshine that he usually tried to avoid at all costs, because to see someone so happy…it hurt in a way he didn’t quite understand.
They were polar opposites and therefore, no, she was most definitely not the one for him. But he had to do this, had to be left alone to finish the project. His work was everything, it meant the difference between life and death to others.
It also meant a lie to someone he cared about, his mother. “I’m sure,” he said quietly.
“But…”
She wasn’t going to let this go and he knew this was because she blamed herself for his own last failure. He couldn’t let her do that again. “I’m sure because—” he glanced out his window and saw Lani’s small car parked there “—we’re staying together,” he improvised.
“You mean you’re living together?”
“Yes,” he said, sealing the lie with yet another, hating how he felt about the deception. “I have to go.”
“Wait! I want to meet her. Your aunts will want to meet her, and, oh, damn, we’ve got a flight out in the morning. No problem,” she said, quickly reversing herself. “We’ll cancel. Your father can wait. We have to come stay with you, of course, for at least two weeks, that’s how long we’ll need to get to know Lani, and— Colin, don’t you dare hang up on me.”
Two weeks, good Lord. “Gotta run, Mother. I’ll let you know when Lani and I set a date.”
“Colin! You hang up on me and I’ll come right now, I swear.”
The threat wasn’t an idle one, he knew she’d do it. “Mother…Lani and I need time alone, to…” To what? How was this backfiring when he had it all planned out? “We need to get to know each other,” he said quickly.
“Fine. I’ll give you two days, I really can’t just stand your father up, he’ll pout. But I’ll be back after New York.” Excitement made her voice shrill. “I’m so thrilled—we have a wedding to plan! Can you imagine the fun? See you in a few days!”
Colin stared at the phone when it clicked in his ear.
Irene West was coming here. In two days. For two lifelong weeks.
Suddenly it hit him. His fictional fiancée had just become—he had to swallow hard to even complete the thought—a real fiancée.
The implications were mind-boggling. Lani would have to stay here, pretend to love him.
Sleep in his room.
He couldn’t imagine she’d be willing, which brought him to another thought. Why had she agreed to this in the first place?
It wasn’t as though they were friends, he hardly knew her.
Oh, God, his mother was coming.
This hadn’t just backfired, it had blown up in his face.
COLIN CLICKED AWAY at his keyboard, pretending he didn’t have time to face the mess he’d created.
Which he didn’t.
“Sorry to interrupt.” Lani poked her head in the door. She looked at him with those huge baby-blue eyes, framed by a golden halo of hair precariously perched on her head. “I’d like to get in here to vacuum and dust, if that’s okay with you.”
Colin found himself staring rudely, but he couldn’t seem to help it. It was as if he was seeing her for the first time, though it’d only been an hour since he’d asked for her help. She was lovely, startlingly so. How could he not have noticed before?
She’d also saved his life.
What kind of a person was so willing to help?
He didn’t know another soul who would have done so. Uneasy with that thought, and irritated that he’d needed her help in the first place, Colin stood and walked around his desk to meet her. “You’re not interrupting. But there are some things we should go over, if you don’t mind.” Some things? It was laughable.
How to ask her if she was willing to put the entire charade on yet another level and attempt to fool the nosiest, most meddling, well-meaning mother that had ever lived?
Lani’s eyes widened slightly as he moved toward her and Colin slowed, realizing she probably considered him a certifiable nutcase.
He would just insist he pay her extra, over and above her cleaning fees, which had always been surprisingly low anyway. He’d yet to encounter a woman not susceptible to his money.
“You…didn’t put on another shirt,” she announced breathlessly.
He’d forgotten. He still smelled like pine, but then again, so did she. Her gaze was plastered to his chest. Her cheeks reddened, but she didn’t stop in her curious perusal of his entire body.
He felt curious, too, though it wasn’t as easy for him since she was fully dressed. A strand of her long hair hung in her still-flushed face. The baggy, shapeless, drab-colored clothes she always wore completely hid her figure, but judging from the lack of meat on her arms, she was a bit scrawny.
Definitely not his type, he thought wryly. Thank God. To have been attracted to her would have made this whole situation all the more impossible to deal with. “I have a bit of a problem,” he said.
She blinked, stopped staring at his chest, and went still. “You don’t need me anymore?”
“Ah…not exactly.”
She shot him a smile then, and it was a stunner. At the impact, he lost every thought in his head and then had to reassess the whole not-being-attracted-to-her thing.
“We need to set a date?” she asked.
“Worse.” He braced himself. “We need to live together.”
“Before the wedding?”
“It won’t get that far,” he said fervently.
“No…wedding?”
Uh-oh. She sounded shocked…disappointed. “This is just for pretend,” he said slowly. “Remember?”
She laughed and quickly turned away, hiding her face. “Of course. It’s just that I thought…never mind. Excuse me…I’ve got…something to do.”
“Lani?”
“I’m sorry. I’ve got to go.” She ran out of the office.
3
COLIN STARED at the empty doorway of his office. What had just happened? No way had Lani misunderstood. He’d made it clear that this engagement wasn’t real.
Hadn’t he?
Running back through the conversations in his mind, he went still. Yes, he’d made it clear it was all for show, but had he let her think there would really be a wedding?
Swearing, Colin went after her, grabbing a shirt on his way, but he was a split second too late. Both Lani and Carmen were gone, speeding down the driveway in her noisy car. Colin grabbed his keys and raced out into the searing heat after them.
Having no idea where Lani lived, he broke several traffic laws trying to keep up with her. And when they crossed the train tracks, bringing them into an undesirable neighborhood, Colin hoped Lani was just dropping off Carmen. She was, but as he again followed Lani, he realized she also lived in this area.
He waited until she’d gone into a rundown four-plex, then followed her. He knocked softly on her front door, which was ajar, but she didn’t answer so he let himself in. Her place was stiflingly hot. Colin didn’t know how people lived in Southern California without air-conditioning, and he hated that Lani had to.
But once he was inside the apartment, he found it much lighter and roomier than he had expected. There wasn’t much in the way of furniture, but the small living room was clean and appealing.
He found her in the tiny kitchenette and when he said her name softly, she jumped, a hand over her heart.
“You need to lock your door,” he admonished. “For safety…”
“I’m safe here.” She turned away and tossed a sponge into the sink. For a brief second, before she flipped on the water, her small, calloused hands gripped the counter tight. “Why did you follow me?”
“You left before we were through.”
“I didn’t see what else we had to discuss.”
So hurt. Dammit. “Lani—”
“What a fool I am, huh? I mean I knew it was going to be for pretend, but I thought we were going to actually do it, for pretend. How dumb! It was ridiculous to think—” She let out a painful laugh.
God, he hated the helplessness that swam through him. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
“You’re so far out of my league, I should never have—” She broke off and her shoulders sagged. Strands of wild, curly hair hid her expression, but he could picture it well enough. Devastated. Humiliated.
Leaning around her, he turned off the water, his mouth forming explanations and apologies. In the confinement of the tiny kitchen their bodies brushed against each other. His arms surrounded her, whether he intended them to or not. It couldn’t be helped. The insides of his biceps grazed the sides of her breasts and, completely without logic, his body hardened.
Silence reigned.
Lani faced him at last, her hands behind her, gripping the counter tight. Now their bodies no longer touched, but a mere inch was the only thing keeping them from an embrace. If she so much as breathed, Colin knew Lani would feel his illogical response to her. The pine scent coming from the bib of her wet, baggy overalls was overpowering, but beneath that, he caught the scent of Lani, sweet and sexy.
“I always prefer to be alone when I’m making a fool out of myself,” she said so quietly he had to dip his head close to hear her. “Maybe you could just go away and pretend today never happened?”
“You’re not the fool, I am,” he assured her grimly, tipping her face up so he could torture himself with her hurt eyes. “I did ask you to marry me, I just never intended to actually have to do it. It sounded so simple in my head,” he said, bewildered. “I have no idea how it got so crazy.”
“I see.”
No, she didn’t. She couldn’t. “I told you how I wanted you to pretend to be my fiancée to placate my family and well-meaning acquaintances so they’d leave me alone to work.”
“Yes.”
It seemed so ridiculous now, and feeling a little embarrassed himself, he offered her a small, tight smile. “I told you also that they have a habit of matchmaking. If they thought I was taken, they’d have to stop. And then I could finish my project.”
“Yes, I understand.”
“You do?”
She smiled tentatively, which gave him pause. It was one thing to recruit a woman to lie for him, quite another to tease one. He dated only occasionally, and he consistently chose women who were looking for no more, no less than what he was willing to give.
Somehow, he couldn’t picture this little waif of a housecleaner being interested in a quickie affair with him. She seemed more like the kind of woman who played for keeps.
And while he wanted everyone off his back, he absolutely did not want to be playing games with someone he could inadvertently hurt. Had inadvertently hurt. There could be no attraction between them, none at all.
“So you do still need a fictional fiancée?”
“Yes,” he said.
She nodded slowly. “But no wedding date.”
“God, no.”
“I see.” A light eyebrow raised. “You wouldn’t want to get stuck with the hassles of a real relationship.”
Not ever again, he thought with a shudder. “It’s not necessary in this case. But…” he sighed, “I just found out my mother is coming in two days to meet my fiancée. She’ll want to stay at my house and get to know the woman.”
“Oh. So now you need a live-in fictional fiancée.”
“Yeah.”
“Well.” Lani flashed him a hundred-watt smile, which quite frankly dazzled him blind and left him decidedly unsettled.
This was a business arrangement, he reminded himself. No reason for her smile to alter his pulse. Hormones had no place here.
“I understand now,” she said.
“Will you do it?”
She looked at him, surprised, then reached out and squeezed his hands. “You can wipe that frown off your face, Colin. I don’t go back on my word.”
The easy forgiveness startled him. So did the physical contact. Not only because she was surprisingly warm, but because he wasn’t used to being touched for absolutely no reason at all.
He came from a family of firm non-touchers.
His father had never touched him, unless of course he had been tearing the hide off Colin for taking apart an appliance or blowing up the garage with his biology experiments. His mother wasn’t a toucher, either, she had been too busy running everyone’s life or traveling.
As a result, Colin himself rarely touched anyone, certainly not for no reason at all. Which didn’t explain why he’d done exactly that earlier when Lani had first arrived at his house.
Suddenly Lani danced away, frowning and shifting uncomfortably, plucking at her clothes. The air hissed out between her teeth and she looked pained.
“I’ve really got to get out of this shirt.”
Before he could blink, she unhooked the two shoulder straps of her overalls and shoved the bib to her waist. She was still amply covered in that shapeless, huge T-shirt. Colin didn’t blink. After all, he knew exactly how that cleaner felt against skin. It hurt like hell.
No problem that she appeared to be stripping down in front of him, in a kitchen so small he couldn’t breathe without nearly touching her. He wasn’t attracted to her, not in the least.
Besides they were going to be living together. He could handle this.
“Darn it,” she murmured, still wiggling and rubbing her chest, bumping into him with every little shimmy. “Darn it all.” And with that, she ripped the T-shirt over her head, revealing a tight, cropped tank top. She closed her eyes with a dreamy sigh. “Yeah, that’s better. Whew! That stuff burns after a while.”
Colin opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Her elbows brushed his chest as she lowered her arms, her thighs bumped into his. Now his jeans were beginning to cut off circulation, belying his self-assurances that he didn’t find her attractive.
How could he have known that beneath her awful, huge clothes, his cleaning lady/fictional fiancée had been hiding a body to die for?
“I think I burned my skin in a couple of spots.” With her head bent, her silky hair slid over his arm as she stared down at herself.
Colin stared, too. She was slender yet wildly curved, and he wished she would pull her overalls back up.
She drew a deep breath and opened her eyes, smiling at him in relief. “You didn’t tell me how much better that felt!”
Speech was impossible. Her overalls had dropped to just below her waist, so he had a front-row view of her smooth, very flat stomach, her slim but curved hips, the outline of her firm, high, unencumbered breasts.
Good Lord. No doubt in his mind, he was attracted to his cleaning lady.
To his fiancée.
She flashed that brain-cell-destroying smile again. “You okay?”
He wasn’t sure. He couldn’t think. He remembered a bawdy joke he’d been told, about how men had both a brain and a penis, but only enough blood to operate one at a time. He believed it now. “Uh-huh. I’m fine.”
“So we’re going to live together to prove we’re a loving couple.”
A loving couple. Damn, but that was terrifying. Unable to help himself, he looked at her again, and felt his body’s surging response. She was one of the sexiest women he’d ever seen. And he was going to live with her. “We have to fool my mother, never an easy thing,” he said a bit hoarsely. He cleared his throat. “She has eyes in the back of her head, and…” at her questioning look, he sighed again, loudly, “she thinks we’ve been living together already.”
Her gaze widened briefly, then ran over his body once before she swallowed hard. “Well,” she said.
“Yeah. Well.”
They stared at each other, awkwardly. Colin couldn’t get past her easy forgiveness, her willingness to want to help him. Or her huge, expressive eyes.
“It’s certainly not going to be a hardship to live at your house instead of here,” she said finally. “You have air-conditioning.”
That wasn’t the hardship he was worried about. This was pretend, this whole crazy scene, and it would be over as soon as he could finish his project. Lani would leave, and in spite of the fact that he was discovering an attraction, he wouldn’t hurt her by letting her think there was more involved here.
“My work won’t change,” she said, almost as a question, touchingly uncertain.
“No, I don’t want to disrupt your work. Lani…I have to know… Why are you doing this?”
She tilted her head, a small smile about her lips. “Your project,” she said simply. “It’s unselfish and hopeful and full of promise. I want you to finish it. If I can help, then it makes me feel useful and a part of it.”
“Is that the only reason?”
A flicker of unease crossed her face, then disappeared. “Of course.”
He didn’t know what to make of her, she wasn’t like any woman he’d ever met. And they were going to live together. Her razor in his shower. Her toothbrush on his sink. Her panties in with his whites. His head spun at that last thought.
He wondered if those panties were as revealing as the teeny, tiny, little top she wore now. And oh boy, sometime in the past minute or so, she’d gotten cold. Her nipples, rosy and mouthwateringly perfect, were pushing at the thin cotton, straining for freedom.
“So we’re on?” she asked innocently.
He was a dead man, but they were on. “Yes.”
She laughed, dove at him and flung her arms around his neck.
“What the—”
She squeezed him close, pressing against him all those warm curves in a spine-breaking hug. Before he could lift his arms to push her away—and he most definitely would have pushed her away no matter what his hormones were screaming—she stepped back.
“I have work to do,” she said with a laugh. “I can’t be hugging you all day long.”
He had work, too. Didn’t he? He opened his mouth to say so, but Lani shimmied past him to hold open the door, her body and smile rendering him deaf, blind and dumb.
How in the world had he fooled himself into thinking this was a good idea?
IT WAS A BALMY, sticky evening, the kind only midsummer could bring.
Colin wolfed down a quick bowl of soup for dinner, preoccupied with some critical adjustments he needed to make on his project. Forgotten soup bowl at his elbow, he sat at his kitchen table, furiously scribbling notes. He’d used up nearly the entire tablet when he heard the car.
It was hard to miss as it backfired, sounding like the fourth of July.
Then Lani was at his back door with a duffel bag and a smile that lit up the hot Southern California night.
Something within him warmed to match it.
He opened the door and she moved in, invading his space with her cheerfulness, her bright eyes, that sexy scent of hers.
At least she wasn’t wet anymore, or cold, thank God.
But then again, it was hard to tell in the shapeless summer dress she wore. She’d layered it over a loose T-shirt and high-top tennis shoes, and if he hadn’t seen her incredible body earlier, he could never have imagined it.
Before he could move away, she gave him a quick hug, which so startled him he froze.
At his reaction, she froze, too, and pulled back. “So…” She bit her lip, looking a little unsure of herself. “You did want me to come back tonight, right?”
His mother wasn’t coming for two days. But Lani was looking at him with those unbelievable eyes and he didn’t know what to say. And was she always going to touch him for no reason?
If so, it was going to be a hell of a long engagement.
He had originally approached this whole fictional fiancée situation as he would anything—management by objectives. It wasn’t something he looked forward to, but it had to be done. And how hard could it be? They’d already known each other a full year.
Except, she was unpredictable. She was also too…happy, a definite personality disorder in his book.
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Jill Shalvis
Lani Mills had a secret crush on gorgeous diehard bachelor Colin West, along with half the women in town. But she was just his cleaning lady, so she'd have to content herself with dusting and dreaming…or would she?Colin needed a fictional fiancée to end his mother's matchmaking attempts. Lovely, loyal Lani was his first choice, and, to his relief, she agreed to pretend they were madly in love. But his relief turned to dismay when she kept forgetting the "pretend" part…
“I shouldn’t have come to your bedroom,” Colin said
“Then why did you?” Lani asked, sitting up. The comforter slid down to reveal more than Colin could handle.
His brow furrowed as he quickly raised his eyes to search her gaze. “You needed—”
“You. I needed you.”
“You were having a nightmare. Anyone would have done—”
“Not anyone. You.”
Colin sucked in a harsh breath. In the pale light, his eyes darkened. “Lani…”
“Touch me.”
She could hear his ragged breath, could feel his struggle for control. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this,” he murmured. “It was supposed to be uncomplicated. Easy.”
“I know,” she whispered, sinking her fingers into his thick, silky hair. “I know.”
Even as he reached for her, he said, “This is going to make it harder.”
“Well, I hope so,” she whispered.
Dear Reader,
I would rather clean toilets than talk about myself, which leaves me in a bit of a quandary when it comes to writing you a satisfying reader letter. But since the heroine in The Bachelor’s Bed cleans toilets for a living, it all sort of works out. While running her cleaning service, Lani dreams of things like marriage and commitment, but she hasn’t found a way to make that happen. (I, on the other hand, found my Mr. Right and we have three wonderful little girls.)
When our hero (who never cleans toilets) asks Lani to be his fictional fiancée, she figures pretending is better than nothing, and—because he’s smart and funny and has a job—she agrees. But we all know that true love is a sneaky emotion. It also conquers all, thankfully, which is what I love about romance.
I hope you enjoy how love works its magic in The Bachelor’s Bed. Let me know what you think—you can write to me at P.O. Box 3945, Truckee, CA 96160.
Happy reading!
Jill Shalvis
The Bachelor’s Bed
Jill Shalvis
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
To Susan Sheppard, for always believing.
Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Prologue
“YOU FORGOT to take the cash I left out for you.”
At the low, unbearably sexy voice in her ear, Lani hugged the telephone closer. They weren’t strangers, not by a long shot, but neither were they familiar enough with each other for her to joke about what the mere sound of his voice did to her insides. Shakily, she let out a breath. Her heart raced, and to combat the funny, weightless feeling that such a severe attraction caused, she leaned back in her squeaky office chair, lifted her tired, worn-out feet up to her desk and closed her eyes.
“Ms. Mills?”
“Yes, I’m here.” He couldn’t know she’d recognize his voice anywhere. She sighed and opened her eyes as she straightened. It wasn’t right to fantasize about a client, no matter how much that client occupied her thoughts. Truth was, he probably occupied the thoughts of every woman in this small mountain town of Sierra Summit. Not that there wasn’t plenty to do in the quaint, lovely place, but Colin West was such absolutely perfect fantasy material.
“Your money for your house-cleaning services,” he repeated patiently. “You left it on the counter.”
“I know. I’m sorry,” she said, embarrassed. At the time, she’d been flustered because he’d been watching her with a silent intensity that she didn’t understand as she’d prepared to leave his house.
“No need to apologize, they’re your earnings.”
Again, that quiet yet steely tone. She was intelligent, she knew she couldn’t love someone she didn’t really know, but she could lust.
He was a man who knew what he wanted and how to get it, and if rumors were to be believed, he rarely ever let anything get in his way. “Ruthless and aggressive” was what they said about him, but Lani believed it was only a front.
To her, he wasn’t frightening or even dangerous, but he was magnetic and passionate and fiercely private.
He also intimidated the hell out of her.
They’d known each other for one year. Lani had provided services for him once a week since they’d met, and though she had hoped their relationship would have risen above this stilted awkwardness by now, it was clear she was the only one who wished it so.
Sighing again, she shoved back all her secret yearnings and desires. “I’ll pick it up when I come next week,” she said. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” The husky timbre of his voice deepened, and for just a second, Lani thought that maybe it did so with equal yearning, but that was silly.
She was a nobody to him, less than a nobody. What she made in a year, he considered less than pocket change. Her office was smaller and more cramped than the walk-in closet of his huge bedroom.
He probably didn’t even remember her first name.
“Next week then, Lani,” he said softly.
She hung up the phone, stared out the tiny office window at the Los Angeles Crest Mountains and smiled dreamily.
He did know her name.
“Next week,” she whispered to herself.
THE FOLLOWING WEEK when Lani drove up to Colin’s house, it looked dark. Disappointment filled her.
She’d rearranged her crazy schedule even though she could have had a rare day off, just to get a peek at him. It was all for naught.
She was an idiot. A lust-bitten idiot.
She walked into the kitchen and saw an envelope with her name on the counter. Inside was her money, for both this week and last.
“You won’t forget this time.”
Lani nearly leaped out of her skin at the unexpected, silky voice.
He stood in the doorway, filling it with his tall, dangerous-looking presence. She wasn’t afraid of him. She didn’t know why really, except that she knew all his dark beauty covered pain, not meanness. His gaze, as always, was inscrutable and measured, and every nerve inside Lani went shy. “I won’t forget, thank you.”
“You should charge more.”
“I get by.”
“You’re worth far more.” Colin said this sincerely, even as he remained against the doorway, cool and collected. Distant.
It didn’t matter. She knew that was a defense, and she of all people understood defenses. But he’d noticed what a good job she’d done, and while it shouldn’t mean so much, it did. Oh, it did. She smiled.
He stared at her, not returning the smile—she’d never seen him smile—his eyes for once readable. In them she saw confusion, which in turn confused her because he was always so sure of himself.
Apparently he didn’t like the feeling, because he grabbed his keys, said a quick good-bye and vanished.
Lani watched him go, wondering at the flash of vulnerability she’d seen.
SHE DIDN’T SEE HIM again all month, though he always left money for her services. Twice he left her notes, complimenting her on her work.
She saved them and wondered how long it would be before he allowed them to run into one another again. Wondered also if he felt the connection between them, and if it unnerved him as much as it did her.
1
COLIN WOULDN’T HAVE SAID desperation was a personality trait of his, but he felt the cold fingers of it now. Frustrated, he stared at the calculated mess in his office. The building was deserted except for him. Even the downtown streets beyond the darkened windows were quiet on this late-summer evening.
His favorite time to work.
If he could, he’d work all night. Every night. Whatever it took to finish this project, he would do it, it was that important.
But he had to go home, had to ward off trouble.
It wasn’t often he felt so helpless, and he hated that. There was only one thing to do—fight it.
Fight them.
The them in this case wasn’t some terrorist threat or even a horrific viral infection, but something far worse.
It was his mother and her two meddling sisters.
The three of them had come together in their mutual campaign to ruin his life.
They wanted him married and they wanted him married yesterday, and to further this mission, they had sent woman after woman to him. They’d created parties, blind dates, “surprise” visitors, chance meetings, anything and everything to drive him insane.
He had no idea what the latest plan of attack was, but they’d been too quiet since the last one, when they’d sicced Ms. Mary Martin, the town librarian and closet nymphomaniac, on him. She had made his life a living hell for a month, smiling wickedly every time she ran into him, which had been disturbingly often. When she had goosed him in his office elevator one night, practically stripping him before he managed to separate himself from her, he had drawn the line.
No more interference by his family.
They had to be stopped.
LANI’S CAR barely made it, but that was little surprise. The poor clunker had been threatening to go all year and since she’d just recently put her cleaning business into the black for the first time, transportation had taken a low priority to other things, such as eating.
Carmen glanced at her with a raised eyebrow when the car lunged and jerked.
“Hey, it got us here,” Lani told her worker as she shut it off. Barely.
Carmen read her lips, looking not so much grateful as doubtful. The woman was sixty years old and deaf. She also had a bit of an attitude and didn’t do windows—not exactly perfect maid material.
But Lani was so short-staffed that she, too, was out in the field cleaning today. Not that she minded since this was his house.
In fact, for a glimpse of his rugged, athletic body she’d clean every toilet in the house. With his dark, thick hair, even darker, fathomless eyes and full, sexy mouth, Colin West was truly the stuff secret fantasies were made of.
Sometimes she pretended that he noticed her for something other than the weekly maid. That he wondered how he could have employed her for a full year and not seen her mind-shattering beauty, her sharp wit. But in the end that was a cruel fantasy because he was perfect and she was…well…not.
Still she never stopped wishing, because someday she was going to take her great-aunt Jennie’s advice—she was going to stop living life so carefully and purposely, she was going to jump up and take a risk and not worry about getting hurt.
Carmen sighed theatrically at the delay while Lani daydreamed. Lani knew she was going to have to stop hiring people just because she felt sorry or responsible for them. But it was a difficult habit to break. Besides, Carmen could be sweet.
The older woman stared at the huge house they were to clean and shook her head sharply, glaring at Lani. She huffed with indignation, which made Lani laugh. Okay, not sweet exactly. But she was company, which was nice.
It’s going to be a scorcher of a day, Lani thought as she tugged and yanked at the heavy bucket in her trunk, panting a little under the weight of it. The mountain air was supposed to make a person strong, but Lani had lived here all her life and she was still on the puny side of petite.
Sierra Summit was located at the base of the Los Angeles Crest Mountains above the sprawling Los Angeles area, but still the July hot spell penetrated the altitude.
Lani swiped at her sticky forehead and hefted the bucket higher while Carmen watched, probably relieved she hadn’t been asked to carry anything. The bucket was filled with sponges and cleaners and Lani wrinkled her nose when the strong aroma of pine and lime caught in her throat.
She had nothing against cleaning—it was her livelihood. But if Colin wasn’t going to sweep her off her feet, which she had to admit was highly unlikely, then she might as well be back in her small but cozy office in town, working on her very-behind bookkeeping.
A sponge bounced from her bucket to the ground. Lani nearly killed herself in the juggling act she had to perform just to get it back in.
Carmen simply watched.
“Hey, don’t worry, I’ve got it.” Silence met this dry statement, and Lani found herself yearning for someone, anyone, to speak to.
The blast of unexpected self-pity was startling. She never allowed it, so why was she wallowing in loneliness today? “Because I just had my twenty-sixth birthday,” she realized, speaking out loud.
Carmen watched her speak then snorted her opinion of that.
But, twenty years after losing the family that had been her entire life, Lani was just realizing something disturbing. Despite her inherent sunny disposition, despite her determination to live her life as though each day was precious, she had never again fully opened her heart to another. Guilt stabbed at her because she did have Great-Aunt Jennie, who’d taken in a traumatized six-year-old Lani instead of enjoying her retirement years. But still, Lani ached for something that continued to elude her.
Truth was, she wanted more from life. She wanted to follow Jennie’s advice and take a chance, lower her guard. Risk. And if, in the process, she managed to have a hot, wildly passionate love affair with a man as dreamy as Colin, then so much the better, because she had to face facts—orgasms were but a blissful figment of her imagination.
Cleaning bucket in tow, Lani followed Carmen up the long, bricked walk of the upscale home, the early morning sun beaming down on her. She should be used to waking up on one side of the tracks and working on the other, but she still stopped to gawk at the incredibly beautiful home.
Her own place was a tiny modest apartment in an older part of town. Not seedy or even dangerous, just…cheap. She lived there for nearly nothing because Jennie owned the building and never let Lani pay what she charged everyone else.
But Colin’s two-story, sprawling house took her breath away. The cedar siding had aged to the color of expensive whiskey. There were no less than three chimneys to conjure up the imagine of hot, crackling winter fires. Decking surrounded the bottom floor. Lani could close her eyes and imagine the swing she’d place where Colin would draw her down and whisper husky promises in her ear on warm summer nights. Then, beneath a sliver of a moon, he’d make good on those promises, using his hands, his tongue, his body until she was limp….
In the real world, she plowed into Carmen, who’d also stopped short to admire the house.
Icy liquid flowed down Lani’s front, cooling her off.
Carmen frowned down at her own splattered tennis shoes and worked her lips in what Lani was certain was a colorful Spanish oath.
“Sorry,” she muttered and, ignoring her wet shirt, kept moving, her gaze back on the fabulous house. She knew that Colin never used the fireplaces. He hadn’t placed a swing on the deck either. His work was his life, and while Lani appreciated and understood his dedication, she wondered if he didn’t sometimes yearn for more, the way she did.
As she came to the back door, she felt a strange thrill in her belly.
Would she see him? Would she catch a glimpse of his deep mysterious eyes? Would she hear his low, mesmerizing voice, the one that turned her inside out?
She hoped so because he was the highlight of her week. He was incredible. Okay, maybe a little dark and moody, but positively magnificent. Maybe he’d be wearing those soft, faded jeans again, the ones that fit him like a glove, emphasizing…
Carmen tsked deep in her throat and Lani jumped guiltily, knowing her thoughts had been plastered across her face. “Oh, like you don’t think it, too.”
Carmen made the equivalent of a grumpy old woman’s laugh and wagged her little finger at Lani. Then she wiggled her ample hips suggestively, pausing in her dance to shake her head. Lastly, she gestured to the cleaning supplies.
“Yes, yes, I know.” Lani rolled her eyes. “We’re here to clean. Clean, clean, clean. No hanky-panky. You know, it’s amazing how well you can communicate when you want to. Maybe while you’re in the mood, you can explain to me how you have the energy to make fun of me, but the minute we get inside you’ll suddenly tire and let me do all the hard work.”
Angelic now, Carmen smiled with a lift of one shoulder and a vague shake of her head. No comprende.
Right. Lani shook her head in disgust at the both of them. Every woman, young and old, within thirty miles sighed over the thought of Colin. He was rich, amazingly intelligent, gorgeous and, most importantly, he was single. That he kept his distance from people only fueled the constant rumors about his love life. It was said that he went through a different woman every day of the week—but that only made Lani all the more morbidly curious.
He invented things, for lack of a better term—electronic robotics. She knew nothing about that.
It didn’t matter. She didn’t need to understand to appreciate him. Colin worked hard, a good quality in anyone. He was driven and successful. His dark, dangerous fallen-angel looks didn’t hurt, either.
Too bad he was so involved in his work. But unlike some of her other clients, who preferred to pretend that their maid was invisible, Colin West always nodded politely to her, spoke easily, and never made her feel less than the woman she was. They’d had many pleasant conversations over the months, and she could remember every one of them.
Enough, she told herself firmly. Ignoring the overwhelming heat, she headed quickly up the steep walk to the kitchen entrance, leaving Carmen huffing far behind.
Just as she reached the door, it whipped open, sending blessedly cool air into her damp face. Standing there before her in all his somber glory was Colin, looking unexpectedly wild, rumpled and just a little desperate.
“Thank God it’s you.”
“Instead of?” she asked in surprise.
“One of your non-English-speaking employees or, God forbid, the older woman who can’t speak at all, the one who always sticks her tongue out at me.”
“Well…” She thought of Carmen making her way up the walk right this very moment.
“Come in,” he said a bit impatiently, his voice deep and rumbling. His dark, wavy, collar-length hair was more disheveled than usual and standing on end as if he’d been plowing his fingers through it. His eyes, so deep blue they looked black and fathomless, shimmered with what she might have suspected was nerves, if she didn’t know better.
From what she’d seen, Colin West never suffered from nerves.
So why was his tall, well-built frame—which she couldn’t help but notice was beautifully packed into a well-worn T-shirt and those snug old Levi’s she loved—so taut with tension?
Lani opened her mouth to speak, but it fell shut again when his huge, warm hand closed over the heavy bucket she held. He set it aside as though it weighed no more than a penny.
His mouth was grim.
“What’s the matter—” Lani squeaked in surprise when he pulled her the rest of the way into his kitchen, slammed the door and, with a gentle but inexorable force, pressed her back against it.
She should have spared a thankful thought for the deliciously cool house. She should have thought about Carmen, who was going to wonder why Lani hadn’t waited for her, but her attitude-ridden helper was the last thing on her mind at the moment.
“Mr. West!” she gasped, even as she closed her eyes to fully enjoy the sensation of his incredibly hard body against hers. After all, if this was a dream, she didn’t want to wake up. “Did I forget my money again?”
“No.”
Lord, she felt good against him. He felt good. “So…this is to thank me for the job I did last time?”
“No.” For a brief moment he pressed closer, and the almost-embrace spoke of a desperately needed comfort. She lifted her hands to his waist and squeezed reassuringly, trying to remember that he was a client.
“She’s not going to let up,” he said gruffly. “And I can’t take it, not now, not in the middle of this project. It’s too damn important.”
Reluctantly, Lani opened her eyes because a she definitely ruined the fantasy. “Who won’t let up?”
“It’s enough to drive me insane.” His voice was low, edgy and spine-tinglingly rough. “Only one way to stop her and—damn, you’re wet!” His dark brows came together in a sharp line as he jerked back, staring down at his T-shirt, now clinging damply to his broad chest.
“I spilled. I’m…sorry.”
“It doesn’t matter,” he said, still staring down at himself.
Lani stared too, because wow, with his wet shirt pasted to that fabulous chest, the blood rushed right out of her head, which made thinking a tad dangerous to her health.
“It’s the project that’s so important.”
She concentrated on his words with effort. “Project?”
“I’m designing a laser-surgery process,” he said, pulling at his shirt. “It’s so close.”
“Laser surgery. They already have that.”
“This is different—better.” His voice told her how important this was to him. “Less cutting,” he said earnestly. “Less time under anesthesia. It’ll revolutionize the way surgeries are performed.”
And would help countless numbers of people. Lani’s save-the-world heart squeezed.
Her crush on him tripled.
“You’ll save so many lives,” she marveled. A modern day hero, she thought.
“The surgeons will save the lives.” He moved close again, his eyes flashing with passion, and though she knew it wasn’t directed at her, it made her dizzy anyway. Capturing her head in his big, warm hands, he tipped it up to stare down into her eyes. “But I can’t finish, they won’t leave me alone. No one will leave me alone. They want me out socializing, dating, spending the money I don’t care about. I need help.”
“You do?” With his long, powerfully built body against hers it was hard to imagine him needing help from someone like her.
“I need a fictional fiancée.” His gaze held hers captive. “I know how this sounds, Lani, but will you marry me? For pretend?”
The situation finally overcame Lani’s sensory pleasure. Yes, she was plastered up against the door, held there by the fabulous body she’d fantasized over for months, but had he just really asked…“M-m-marry you?” She hadn’t stuttered since kindergarten, nearly twenty years before, but suddenly her tongue kept tripping over itself. “B-b-but…”
At that moment, Carmen finally made it to the back door and knocked with enough pressure to wake the dead.
Lani ignored her. “Did you really just ask me to…?”
“Yes.” Colin drew a deep, ragged breath. “I’ve thought about it, planned it all out. I know this is a huge imposition, and I promise to compensate you….” At her soft sound of dismay, he hurried on. “I’m not trying to insult you, but I’m aware of what I’m asking and that it’s an inconvenience, to say the least.”
She couldn’t help it, she laughed.
He frowned. “This isn’t funny.”
“No, it’s not,” she agreed. An inconvenience to be married to him? Not likely.
“It won’t be easy, but I’ve watched you all year now. You’re smart, funny and, best yet, even-tempered. We can do this.”
He’d watched her all year.
At her expression, he hesitated. “You understand, this is pretend. I just need the pretense of being engaged while I finish my project.” His hands were still on her face. Rough skin, tender touch. “Lani?”
Maybe she ought to vow to risk more often because, holy cow, this was more like the thrilling life she’d dreamed about for herself since she’d been a young girl remembering her happy, romantic parents. During those first painful years she’d wondered what kind of man would eventually sweep her off her feet. She’d wondered as time had gone by as well, even as she put up mental barriers to avoid the intimacy she so feared.
Now Colin wanted her.
No, she corrected, he needed, not wanted. There was a difference and she would do well to remember it. His proposed arrangement was too easy to romanticize. Colin needed time for his laser project, which would save countless thousands. She could be a part of that altruistic cause by helping him out.
And be married to him at the same time.
Carmen pressed her face against the window in the door, ruining the moment, glaring over Lani’s shoulder as she tried to see. When she caught sight of Colin wrapped around Lani, her eyes widened comically.
Lani turned her head and concentrated on the warm male pressed against her.
“I just need your agreement,” Colin urged in that rough yet silky voice.
It wasn’t that she wasn’t paying attention, she was. Yet she couldn’t help but wonder—how did an inventor get such a great body? She’d seen plenty of great bodies before, but she so rarely had one held against her this way. It made thinking curiously difficult.
“I know this is really sudden, and a big decision, but I can’t work like this.” Colin dropped his forehead to hers. “I have to have more peace and quiet. It’s crucial.”
“I understand.” His mouth was close enough to kiss if she just leaned forward a fraction of an inch. Her heart raced.
“It’s urgent we resolve this before—” The phone rang, echoing strangely in his large house. “Damn.”
It rang and rang, in tune now to Carmen’s persistent and annoying knocking.
Colin’s eyes seemed even more wild, more desperate, and because she’d never seen him anything less than completely put together, it startled her.
“Will you help me?” he asked.
“Well…”
“We’re not strangers.”
“Uh…no. But…”
“And you know I’m not a mass murderer,” he urged. “Or a criminal of any kind.”
“Yes. But…”
“Lani.” He stepped close again, but didn’t touch her. “I’ll give you anything in my power, just name it. Money?”
“No!”
“A trip somewhere?”
Lani knew her eyes had lit up; she’d never had the chance to go anywhere. “I would never accept such a thing.”
“Hawaii,” he said rashly.
Hawaii. A personal fantasy of hers. “No. No, thank you,” she added gruffly, knowing she was going to regret this in the deep dark of the night.
“I’ll do anything for you in return,” he assured her. “Your business…could you use another client?”
Only desperately. “Sure.”
“Then please, add my downtown building to your client list. Daily.”
Just like that, he’d upped her income. Not only upped it, probably tripled it. He could have no idea what that meant to her, and though she knew it was a pity that he felt he had to offer a bribe, she shamelessly took it, thinking of the extra hours she’d be able to offer her employees. “That’s…very generous. Thank you.”
“Will you do it?”
Despite her little fantasies, Lani was commitment shy, always had been. She was intelligent enough to realize that most of what made her life so good was the fact that she concentrated on others rather than on herself. The town of Sierra Summit was fairly small, only about seven thousand people in all, and she mothered, sistered and babied a good many of them. Her business was struggling constantly to break even, but only because she didn’t charge enough and hired people who needed her more than she needed them. Her business handled mostly industrial work because there weren’t too many residents who needed or could afford a housecleaner—Colin being the exception, of course. It wasn’t much of an effort to keep everyone happy and satisfied, and Lani genuinely cared about them all, but even so, she still managed to hold everyone at a distance.
This came from a deeply ingrained fear of getting involved, of getting hurt. Whether it went back to losing her family so young or to something much more simple—her own basic shyness, for example—she didn’t know and didn’t often try to analyze. Colin had said this would be just for show, but she didn’t fool herself, it would be complicated, and as a rule she didn’t do complicated well.
Stalling, she offered a crooked smile as he once again pulled his wet shirt away from his body. “I don’t really know you,” she said finally.
The phone rang again and Colin cursed under his breath. His shoulders sagged and his eyes went even more wild.
Carmen knocked.
Colin growled and yanked the door open. In contrast to the tension pouring from him, he spoke slowly, distinctly, and appeared surprisingly calm, considering how white his knuckles were on the knob. “I need another moment with your boss,” he said through his teeth, which were bared in a mockery of a smile. He waited until Carmen read his lips and nodded reluctantly. “Alone,” he added firmly when Carmen would have entered.
The older woman’s eyebrows disappeared into her hairline, but she backed off the threshold. As she turned away, she stuck her tongue out at him.
Lani held her breath, but he didn’t seem to notice.
Colin shut the door. His gaze whipped back to Lani, and there was no mistaking his recklessness now. “It’s not all that difficult an issue,” he assured her. “I’m an open book. Truly.”
Lani let out a little laugh, for he was the most closed-mouthed person she’d ever known. And also, something else bothered her—why her? Surely he could have asked anyone and got a resounding oh boy, pretty please, yes!
Her silence must have scared him. “All right.” He plowed his fingers through his hair as he turned in a slow circle. “You want to know me.” He faced her and shrugged. “It’s simple, really. I’m…technically inclined. I don’t drink or do drugs…I like fast, sleek, sexy cars…and I’m fairly certain I don’t snore.”
When the phone rang yet again, his words came faster. “I like classical music, smart dogs and spicy Mexican food. And I always put the seat down. Now,” he added tightly over the annoying phone, “will you agree?”
Lani would never know what came over her, whether it was the unexpected flash of loneliness she’d experienced that morning, or just the deep, inexplicable yearning she felt for this man.
Risk, she reminded herself.
Help him with his great project. Help him help you out of the rut your life has become. “Okay,” she whispered. Because that sounded weak, she licked her lips and simply, confidently said, “Yes.”
Surprise flitted across his features and he held himself very still, clearly unsure if he’d heard correctly. “Did you just say yes?”
“Yes.” Oh, God, she couldn’t believe she was going to do this. “I mean, what the heck. I love spicy Mexican food, too. Let’s do it.”
2
THE TENSION DRAINED from Colin’s shoulders and while he didn’t quite smile, some of the strain left the lines around his mouth. “Well,” he said, obviously relieved.
“Yes. Well.” Lani grabbed her broom and laughed again, a little giddily. “I feel swept off my feet.”
“For pretend,” he clarified, eyes sharp on hers. “You feel swept off your feet for pretend.”
Darn, she had a pesky habit of forgetting that. “Right.”
He opened his mouth to say something, but Carmen stuck her face against the glass again, looking like a troll doll as she scrunched up her features to see better. Colin held up his finger for another minute.
Carmen rolled her eyes and disappeared.
“Um…Mr. West?”
He smiled at Lani for the first time, and wow, it was a stunner. “I think under the circumstances,” he said, “you can call me Colin.”
“Okay.” Lani smiled back, feeling a little dazed. What had she done? Had she really agreed to marry this wild, untamed creature just because her life needed a boost? “I should clean now.”
“Okay.” He frowned, plucking again at his wet shirt. “Ouch.”
“Yeah, the cleaner is starting to burn a bit,” Lani admitted regretfully, shifting uncomfortably herself. “I’m sorry.”
Without another word, Colin pulled the shirt over his head and tossed it aside.
Oh, man. Oh, man. He was perfect. Wide sinewy shoulders, hard chest, flat belly, lean hips, and the most amazing eyes that drew her right in… She was getting light-headed, and it most definitely wasn’t from the cleaner fumes.
Colin ran a hand over his bare chest with obvious relief. “Better.”
Better, Lani agreed silently. There was a solid thunk behind her. Carmen had banged her forehead on the glass attempting to get a better look.
The phone rang again and Colin sighed resolutely. “I have to get that.” He looked as though he’d rather face a firing squad. “But I’ll be back. We have to go over some things.”
Lani nodded, wondering if some of those things involved her wifely duties.
Now why did just the thought of that give her a heady rush of anticipation? She wasn’t promiscuous, not by a long shot, but somehow, with a man like Colin, she thought she might learn something about being a woman.
Yep, the chemicals in the cleaning stuff she used were most definitely going to her head—and really starting to burn her skin. Too bad she couldn’t rip her shirt off, too. At the thought, she let out another laugh.
“Lani?” Colin dipped his head down a little so he could see into her eyes. “Don’t leave yet.”
Did he honestly think she’d disappear now? He didn’t know much about her if—
What was she thinking?
He knew nothing about her. Still speechless, a truly unusual state for her, she shook her head.
She wouldn’t leave.
He looked at her for a long moment, and she wondered what was going through his mind, what he saw in her.
Again, the enormity of what she’d agreed to do staggered her. What was she going to tell Great-Aunt Jennie, who was likely to be so excited to have wed off her old-maid niece, finally? She’d have a heart attack!
It was just pretend, she reminded herself. No real heart involved. Walk away when the project’s done.
Lani watched her half-naked boss—and, good Lord, her future husband—as he walked out of the room.
Another unstoppable giggle escaped and she slapped her hand over her mouth. Giggling wouldn’t do, it didn’t become the future Mrs. West. “Oh, my God.”
Quietly, and since her knees were very weak, quickly, with a wide, silly grin on her face, she sank to the nearest seat, which happened to be the floor.
THE PHONE had stopped ringing by the time Colin got to his home office, which suited him.
Everything was good, he thought with relief. He had his fictional fiancée, and now, finally, he could concentrate on his work.
All other troubles faded away as he did just that, with a hyper-focus born of necessity. Nothing intruded, not the Institute’s hurry for his completed laser, not the fact he still had to talk to his well-meaning if meddling mother, nor that he had conned his cleaning lady into a pretense she clearly wasn’t prepared for.
His fingers raced over the keyboard of his computer, his mind locked deep in the complicated equations he was formulating. He was so close to perfecting his compact mini-laser, all he needed was time, uninterrupted time.
Turning to the console behind his desk, he lifted part of the scale model of his invention. He worked on many projects at a time for various conglomerates and institutions all over the world, but he had also incorporated himself. Generally he worked out of a large converted warehouse downtown, but this home office allowed him the privacy he sometimes craved.
The laser component hummed when he activated it. A miracle, and the miracle lay in the palm of his hand. Finally, after months and months of work, everything had begun to gel. Just as he let out a rare smile in response to the thrill of that, the phone rang, startling him from his intense concentration.
Blowing out a breath of frustration, he grabbed the phone.
“Darling, you haven’t returned a single one of my calls,” said his mother before he had a chance to open his mouth.
Thirty-two years old and that tone could still plant a headache between his eyes as fast as lightning. “I know. I—”
“How are you? I hope you’re good, you work too hard. Listen darling, I’m in town for the night only. I’m at the Towers with Aunt Bessie and Aunt Lola.”
Oh, God, all three of them at once. They were just women; petite, innocuous, elderly. But together, this team of New York, Italian, Catholic-raised siblings had guilt-laying and conformity-forcing down to a science. Colin was convinced that together they could have conquered Rome in a day.
And now they were in town. He rubbed his temples, knowing they cared about him beyond reason, which made it all the more difficult to hurt them in any way. “I thought you were going to be traveling all summer.”
“We are, we’re just back to check on things.”
Namely, him.
Since his mother had been the only sister to have a child, the three of them felt they co-owned him. Growing up, Colin had been raised by committee. His father had bowed out under pressure; after all, he was only one man. As a result, Colin had been fiercely watched over, fiercely disciplined and fiercely loved.
He was still fiercely loved, he had no doubt.
He just wished they would do it from a greater distance. Jupiter, maybe.
“I wanted to remind you,” his mother said. “Muffy is expecting you tonight.” She paused, then delivered the coup de grâce. “I’ve confirmed that you will attend.”
“Now wait a minute….”
“We want to see you, darling. How long has it been?”
Only two months, he thought desperately. Had she and his aunts only been on their annual shopping trek in Europe for eight short weeks? He struggled for patience, in short supply on the best of days and this wasn’t one of them. “We’ve spoken every week,” he reminded her firmly but gently, not pointing out that even from a distance of thousands and thousands of miles, she still tried to run his life. “And I’m not going to the auction.”
“Charity auction,” she corrected him. “It’s expected, Colin. It’s why we came back into town. Everyone will be there.”
Gritting his teeth to bite back his comment, he opened the delicate machinery in front of him and adjusted the micro-module with one of his tiny precision tools. “I can’t. I have a—”
“Oh, Colin, I do so love you.”
His heart softened. “I’m still not going.”
“Please? Do this for me. Honey, I don’t want to be a hundred years old before you make me a grandmother. I—”
“Stop!” He managed to interrupt and let out a short laugh. “Stop with the old. You and your sisters are the youngest old biddies I know.”
“Oh, you.” But his mother laughed, too. “This is the second time you’ve disappointed Muffy. Take a break from building those robot thingies and come out with us tonight.” Her voice gentled. “Have a social life, darling. You need to get married again and do it right this time. Please? For me.”
He might have laughed, if she were kidding. But she never kidded when it came to this—seeing her only child taken care of in what she saw as matters of the heart.
“Please don’t hurt my feelings on this,” she said in that quietly devastated voice all mothers have perfected.
Guilt. Dammit. “You made the plans without consulting me.”
“Because you won’t make plans for yourself! Your divorce has been final for five years, Colin. Five years. Move on. Please, darling. For me. Move on.”
The pain that slashed through him had nothing to do with his ex-wife. Lord, he needed a major pain killer. A bottle of them. Instead, he lifted another part of his advanced scale and ran a knowing finger over the trouble spot—the laser shaft. Complex plans for repair tumbled in his head.
“I’m simply trying to better your life.”
He could think of several ways to do that, starting with leaving him alone. Especially since with or without this project he was currently obsessing over, he would never again “better his life” with another female. “Save yourself the trouble, Mother.”
“But I want to die in peace.”
He rolled his eyes. Great. Now the death speech, when she was healthier than anyone he knew and likely to outlive him by thirty years.
“Just one night,” she urged. “That’s all I’m asking. Maybe she’s the one…”
“No.” He stretched his long, cramped legs over the top of his cluttered desk. No one was the one. No one ever would be again. “I’ve been trying to tell you, I have a good reason for not wanting to date.”
“Oh, no,” she whispered, horrified. “I knew it! I knew it wasn’t safe to let you play with dolls when you were younger!”
“Mother…”
She groaned theatrically. “Oh, no. Oh, no! How am I supposed to get grandkids now?”
He wisely contained his laughter. “No, Mother, that’s not it. I’m…engaged.”
The silence was deafening.
“Mother?”
“To whom?” she asked weakly.
“Her name is Lani Mills.”
“What does she do?”
“She runs her own cleaning business.”
“Oh.” She thought this over. “Does she love you?”
Colin wasn’t sure he knew the meaning of the word. Still, he remembered how wide- and wild-eyed his little cleaning lady had got when he’d removed his shirt. He hadn’t thought he could be sensual standing in his own kitchen doused in cleaning fluid, but the way she’d looked at him had certainly put a spin on things. “She’s…crazy about me,” he said.
“Colin, are you sure? Really, really sure? I mean if she doesn’t totally love you, then—”
“I thought you wanted me married,” he teased. “Well now I have a fiancée, so no more dates! In fact, no more calls about dates. No more making other people call me about dates. Okay? Tell everyone.”
“She’s the one for you? You’re sure? How do you know?”
Lani was quirky. Sweet and kind and exceptionally patient. After knowing her for one year, Colin knew she was a positive ray of sunshine that he usually tried to avoid at all costs, because to see someone so happy…it hurt in a way he didn’t quite understand.
They were polar opposites and therefore, no, she was most definitely not the one for him. But he had to do this, had to be left alone to finish the project. His work was everything, it meant the difference between life and death to others.
It also meant a lie to someone he cared about, his mother. “I’m sure,” he said quietly.
“But…”
She wasn’t going to let this go and he knew this was because she blamed herself for his own last failure. He couldn’t let her do that again. “I’m sure because—” he glanced out his window and saw Lani’s small car parked there “—we’re staying together,” he improvised.
“You mean you’re living together?”
“Yes,” he said, sealing the lie with yet another, hating how he felt about the deception. “I have to go.”
“Wait! I want to meet her. Your aunts will want to meet her, and, oh, damn, we’ve got a flight out in the morning. No problem,” she said, quickly reversing herself. “We’ll cancel. Your father can wait. We have to come stay with you, of course, for at least two weeks, that’s how long we’ll need to get to know Lani, and— Colin, don’t you dare hang up on me.”
Two weeks, good Lord. “Gotta run, Mother. I’ll let you know when Lani and I set a date.”
“Colin! You hang up on me and I’ll come right now, I swear.”
The threat wasn’t an idle one, he knew she’d do it. “Mother…Lani and I need time alone, to…” To what? How was this backfiring when he had it all planned out? “We need to get to know each other,” he said quickly.
“Fine. I’ll give you two days, I really can’t just stand your father up, he’ll pout. But I’ll be back after New York.” Excitement made her voice shrill. “I’m so thrilled—we have a wedding to plan! Can you imagine the fun? See you in a few days!”
Colin stared at the phone when it clicked in his ear.
Irene West was coming here. In two days. For two lifelong weeks.
Suddenly it hit him. His fictional fiancée had just become—he had to swallow hard to even complete the thought—a real fiancée.
The implications were mind-boggling. Lani would have to stay here, pretend to love him.
Sleep in his room.
He couldn’t imagine she’d be willing, which brought him to another thought. Why had she agreed to this in the first place?
It wasn’t as though they were friends, he hardly knew her.
Oh, God, his mother was coming.
This hadn’t just backfired, it had blown up in his face.
COLIN CLICKED AWAY at his keyboard, pretending he didn’t have time to face the mess he’d created.
Which he didn’t.
“Sorry to interrupt.” Lani poked her head in the door. She looked at him with those huge baby-blue eyes, framed by a golden halo of hair precariously perched on her head. “I’d like to get in here to vacuum and dust, if that’s okay with you.”
Colin found himself staring rudely, but he couldn’t seem to help it. It was as if he was seeing her for the first time, though it’d only been an hour since he’d asked for her help. She was lovely, startlingly so. How could he not have noticed before?
She’d also saved his life.
What kind of a person was so willing to help?
He didn’t know another soul who would have done so. Uneasy with that thought, and irritated that he’d needed her help in the first place, Colin stood and walked around his desk to meet her. “You’re not interrupting. But there are some things we should go over, if you don’t mind.” Some things? It was laughable.
How to ask her if she was willing to put the entire charade on yet another level and attempt to fool the nosiest, most meddling, well-meaning mother that had ever lived?
Lani’s eyes widened slightly as he moved toward her and Colin slowed, realizing she probably considered him a certifiable nutcase.
He would just insist he pay her extra, over and above her cleaning fees, which had always been surprisingly low anyway. He’d yet to encounter a woman not susceptible to his money.
“You…didn’t put on another shirt,” she announced breathlessly.
He’d forgotten. He still smelled like pine, but then again, so did she. Her gaze was plastered to his chest. Her cheeks reddened, but she didn’t stop in her curious perusal of his entire body.
He felt curious, too, though it wasn’t as easy for him since she was fully dressed. A strand of her long hair hung in her still-flushed face. The baggy, shapeless, drab-colored clothes she always wore completely hid her figure, but judging from the lack of meat on her arms, she was a bit scrawny.
Definitely not his type, he thought wryly. Thank God. To have been attracted to her would have made this whole situation all the more impossible to deal with. “I have a bit of a problem,” he said.
She blinked, stopped staring at his chest, and went still. “You don’t need me anymore?”
“Ah…not exactly.”
She shot him a smile then, and it was a stunner. At the impact, he lost every thought in his head and then had to reassess the whole not-being-attracted-to-her thing.
“We need to set a date?” she asked.
“Worse.” He braced himself. “We need to live together.”
“Before the wedding?”
“It won’t get that far,” he said fervently.
“No…wedding?”
Uh-oh. She sounded shocked…disappointed. “This is just for pretend,” he said slowly. “Remember?”
She laughed and quickly turned away, hiding her face. “Of course. It’s just that I thought…never mind. Excuse me…I’ve got…something to do.”
“Lani?”
“I’m sorry. I’ve got to go.” She ran out of the office.
3
COLIN STARED at the empty doorway of his office. What had just happened? No way had Lani misunderstood. He’d made it clear that this engagement wasn’t real.
Hadn’t he?
Running back through the conversations in his mind, he went still. Yes, he’d made it clear it was all for show, but had he let her think there would really be a wedding?
Swearing, Colin went after her, grabbing a shirt on his way, but he was a split second too late. Both Lani and Carmen were gone, speeding down the driveway in her noisy car. Colin grabbed his keys and raced out into the searing heat after them.
Having no idea where Lani lived, he broke several traffic laws trying to keep up with her. And when they crossed the train tracks, bringing them into an undesirable neighborhood, Colin hoped Lani was just dropping off Carmen. She was, but as he again followed Lani, he realized she also lived in this area.
He waited until she’d gone into a rundown four-plex, then followed her. He knocked softly on her front door, which was ajar, but she didn’t answer so he let himself in. Her place was stiflingly hot. Colin didn’t know how people lived in Southern California without air-conditioning, and he hated that Lani had to.
But once he was inside the apartment, he found it much lighter and roomier than he had expected. There wasn’t much in the way of furniture, but the small living room was clean and appealing.
He found her in the tiny kitchenette and when he said her name softly, she jumped, a hand over her heart.
“You need to lock your door,” he admonished. “For safety…”
“I’m safe here.” She turned away and tossed a sponge into the sink. For a brief second, before she flipped on the water, her small, calloused hands gripped the counter tight. “Why did you follow me?”
“You left before we were through.”
“I didn’t see what else we had to discuss.”
So hurt. Dammit. “Lani—”
“What a fool I am, huh? I mean I knew it was going to be for pretend, but I thought we were going to actually do it, for pretend. How dumb! It was ridiculous to think—” She let out a painful laugh.
God, he hated the helplessness that swam through him. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
“You’re so far out of my league, I should never have—” She broke off and her shoulders sagged. Strands of wild, curly hair hid her expression, but he could picture it well enough. Devastated. Humiliated.
Leaning around her, he turned off the water, his mouth forming explanations and apologies. In the confinement of the tiny kitchen their bodies brushed against each other. His arms surrounded her, whether he intended them to or not. It couldn’t be helped. The insides of his biceps grazed the sides of her breasts and, completely without logic, his body hardened.
Silence reigned.
Lani faced him at last, her hands behind her, gripping the counter tight. Now their bodies no longer touched, but a mere inch was the only thing keeping them from an embrace. If she so much as breathed, Colin knew Lani would feel his illogical response to her. The pine scent coming from the bib of her wet, baggy overalls was overpowering, but beneath that, he caught the scent of Lani, sweet and sexy.
“I always prefer to be alone when I’m making a fool out of myself,” she said so quietly he had to dip his head close to hear her. “Maybe you could just go away and pretend today never happened?”
“You’re not the fool, I am,” he assured her grimly, tipping her face up so he could torture himself with her hurt eyes. “I did ask you to marry me, I just never intended to actually have to do it. It sounded so simple in my head,” he said, bewildered. “I have no idea how it got so crazy.”
“I see.”
No, she didn’t. She couldn’t. “I told you how I wanted you to pretend to be my fiancée to placate my family and well-meaning acquaintances so they’d leave me alone to work.”
“Yes.”
It seemed so ridiculous now, and feeling a little embarrassed himself, he offered her a small, tight smile. “I told you also that they have a habit of matchmaking. If they thought I was taken, they’d have to stop. And then I could finish my project.”
“Yes, I understand.”
“You do?”
She smiled tentatively, which gave him pause. It was one thing to recruit a woman to lie for him, quite another to tease one. He dated only occasionally, and he consistently chose women who were looking for no more, no less than what he was willing to give.
Somehow, he couldn’t picture this little waif of a housecleaner being interested in a quickie affair with him. She seemed more like the kind of woman who played for keeps.
And while he wanted everyone off his back, he absolutely did not want to be playing games with someone he could inadvertently hurt. Had inadvertently hurt. There could be no attraction between them, none at all.
“So you do still need a fictional fiancée?”
“Yes,” he said.
She nodded slowly. “But no wedding date.”
“God, no.”
“I see.” A light eyebrow raised. “You wouldn’t want to get stuck with the hassles of a real relationship.”
Not ever again, he thought with a shudder. “It’s not necessary in this case. But…” he sighed, “I just found out my mother is coming in two days to meet my fiancée. She’ll want to stay at my house and get to know the woman.”
“Oh. So now you need a live-in fictional fiancée.”
“Yeah.”
“Well.” Lani flashed him a hundred-watt smile, which quite frankly dazzled him blind and left him decidedly unsettled.
This was a business arrangement, he reminded himself. No reason for her smile to alter his pulse. Hormones had no place here.
“I understand now,” she said.
“Will you do it?”
She looked at him, surprised, then reached out and squeezed his hands. “You can wipe that frown off your face, Colin. I don’t go back on my word.”
The easy forgiveness startled him. So did the physical contact. Not only because she was surprisingly warm, but because he wasn’t used to being touched for absolutely no reason at all.
He came from a family of firm non-touchers.
His father had never touched him, unless of course he had been tearing the hide off Colin for taking apart an appliance or blowing up the garage with his biology experiments. His mother wasn’t a toucher, either, she had been too busy running everyone’s life or traveling.
As a result, Colin himself rarely touched anyone, certainly not for no reason at all. Which didn’t explain why he’d done exactly that earlier when Lani had first arrived at his house.
Suddenly Lani danced away, frowning and shifting uncomfortably, plucking at her clothes. The air hissed out between her teeth and she looked pained.
“I’ve really got to get out of this shirt.”
Before he could blink, she unhooked the two shoulder straps of her overalls and shoved the bib to her waist. She was still amply covered in that shapeless, huge T-shirt. Colin didn’t blink. After all, he knew exactly how that cleaner felt against skin. It hurt like hell.
No problem that she appeared to be stripping down in front of him, in a kitchen so small he couldn’t breathe without nearly touching her. He wasn’t attracted to her, not in the least.
Besides they were going to be living together. He could handle this.
“Darn it,” she murmured, still wiggling and rubbing her chest, bumping into him with every little shimmy. “Darn it all.” And with that, she ripped the T-shirt over her head, revealing a tight, cropped tank top. She closed her eyes with a dreamy sigh. “Yeah, that’s better. Whew! That stuff burns after a while.”
Colin opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Her elbows brushed his chest as she lowered her arms, her thighs bumped into his. Now his jeans were beginning to cut off circulation, belying his self-assurances that he didn’t find her attractive.
How could he have known that beneath her awful, huge clothes, his cleaning lady/fictional fiancée had been hiding a body to die for?
“I think I burned my skin in a couple of spots.” With her head bent, her silky hair slid over his arm as she stared down at herself.
Colin stared, too. She was slender yet wildly curved, and he wished she would pull her overalls back up.
She drew a deep breath and opened her eyes, smiling at him in relief. “You didn’t tell me how much better that felt!”
Speech was impossible. Her overalls had dropped to just below her waist, so he had a front-row view of her smooth, very flat stomach, her slim but curved hips, the outline of her firm, high, unencumbered breasts.
Good Lord. No doubt in his mind, he was attracted to his cleaning lady.
To his fiancée.
She flashed that brain-cell-destroying smile again. “You okay?”
He wasn’t sure. He couldn’t think. He remembered a bawdy joke he’d been told, about how men had both a brain and a penis, but only enough blood to operate one at a time. He believed it now. “Uh-huh. I’m fine.”
“So we’re going to live together to prove we’re a loving couple.”
A loving couple. Damn, but that was terrifying. Unable to help himself, he looked at her again, and felt his body’s surging response. She was one of the sexiest women he’d ever seen. And he was going to live with her. “We have to fool my mother, never an easy thing,” he said a bit hoarsely. He cleared his throat. “She has eyes in the back of her head, and…” at her questioning look, he sighed again, loudly, “she thinks we’ve been living together already.”
Her gaze widened briefly, then ran over his body once before she swallowed hard. “Well,” she said.
“Yeah. Well.”
They stared at each other, awkwardly. Colin couldn’t get past her easy forgiveness, her willingness to want to help him. Or her huge, expressive eyes.
“It’s certainly not going to be a hardship to live at your house instead of here,” she said finally. “You have air-conditioning.”
That wasn’t the hardship he was worried about. This was pretend, this whole crazy scene, and it would be over as soon as he could finish his project. Lani would leave, and in spite of the fact that he was discovering an attraction, he wouldn’t hurt her by letting her think there was more involved here.
“My work won’t change,” she said, almost as a question, touchingly uncertain.
“No, I don’t want to disrupt your work. Lani…I have to know… Why are you doing this?”
She tilted her head, a small smile about her lips. “Your project,” she said simply. “It’s unselfish and hopeful and full of promise. I want you to finish it. If I can help, then it makes me feel useful and a part of it.”
“Is that the only reason?”
A flicker of unease crossed her face, then disappeared. “Of course.”
He didn’t know what to make of her, she wasn’t like any woman he’d ever met. And they were going to live together. Her razor in his shower. Her toothbrush on his sink. Her panties in with his whites. His head spun at that last thought.
He wondered if those panties were as revealing as the teeny, tiny, little top she wore now. And oh boy, sometime in the past minute or so, she’d gotten cold. Her nipples, rosy and mouthwateringly perfect, were pushing at the thin cotton, straining for freedom.
“So we’re on?” she asked innocently.
He was a dead man, but they were on. “Yes.”
She laughed, dove at him and flung her arms around his neck.
“What the—”
She squeezed him close, pressing against him all those warm curves in a spine-breaking hug. Before he could lift his arms to push her away—and he most definitely would have pushed her away no matter what his hormones were screaming—she stepped back.
“I have work to do,” she said with a laugh. “I can’t be hugging you all day long.”
He had work, too. Didn’t he? He opened his mouth to say so, but Lani shimmied past him to hold open the door, her body and smile rendering him deaf, blind and dumb.
How in the world had he fooled himself into thinking this was a good idea?
IT WAS A BALMY, sticky evening, the kind only midsummer could bring.
Colin wolfed down a quick bowl of soup for dinner, preoccupied with some critical adjustments he needed to make on his project. Forgotten soup bowl at his elbow, he sat at his kitchen table, furiously scribbling notes. He’d used up nearly the entire tablet when he heard the car.
It was hard to miss as it backfired, sounding like the fourth of July.
Then Lani was at his back door with a duffel bag and a smile that lit up the hot Southern California night.
Something within him warmed to match it.
He opened the door and she moved in, invading his space with her cheerfulness, her bright eyes, that sexy scent of hers.
At least she wasn’t wet anymore, or cold, thank God.
But then again, it was hard to tell in the shapeless summer dress she wore. She’d layered it over a loose T-shirt and high-top tennis shoes, and if he hadn’t seen her incredible body earlier, he could never have imagined it.
Before he could move away, she gave him a quick hug, which so startled him he froze.
At his reaction, she froze, too, and pulled back. “So…” She bit her lip, looking a little unsure of herself. “You did want me to come back tonight, right?”
His mother wasn’t coming for two days. But Lani was looking at him with those unbelievable eyes and he didn’t know what to say. And was she always going to touch him for no reason?
If so, it was going to be a hell of a long engagement.
He had originally approached this whole fictional fiancée situation as he would anything—management by objectives. It wasn’t something he looked forward to, but it had to be done. And how hard could it be? They’d already known each other a full year.
Except, she was unpredictable. She was also too…happy, a definite personality disorder in his book.
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Jill Shalvis
Тип: электронная книга
Жанр: Современные любовные романы
Язык: на английском языке
Издательство: HarperCollins
Дата публикации: 16.04.2024
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О книге: Lani Mills had a secret crush on gorgeous diehard bachelor Colin West, along with half the women in town. But she was just his cleaning lady, so she′d have to content herself with dusting and dreaming…or would she?Colin needed a fictional fiancée to end his mother′s matchmaking attempts. Lovely, loyal Lani was his first choice, and, to his relief, she agreed to pretend they were madly in love. But his relief turned to dismay when she kept forgetting the «pretend» part…