by Holly Jaymes
Book 2: Chapter 7—Fake Marriage, Real Kiss
Chapter Seven: Fake Marriage, Real Kiss
Nate
Fuck, fuck, fuck. I pressed my hands on the wall of the shower as I doused my head under the spray of the showerhead. I promised her I wouldn’t touch her and then I kissed her. Twice. I could probably write off that first one as being a part of the fake marriage, but that second one, there was nothing fake about that.
Christ, I could still taste her - a mixture of honey and fine wine. From the first feel of her lips, my dick sprang to life, and all I could think about was squeezing her glorious tits that had tantalized me all night in her sexy green dress. I wanted her naked and writhing under me. Even now, the image of her had my dick at full tilt.
I should have turned on the cold water and froze my dick into submission, but who was I kidding? It wasn’t like it wouldn’t be the first time I shot a load thinking of Hallie. The last time was the night after we’d been in the pool and I got a good look at her gorgeous tits. That night I imagined fucking them and came in a matter of minutes.
There was so much about Hallie I hadn’t noticed before. Yes, I’d had an immediate pull to her, but she was my assistant, so I tried hard not to pay attention to her. That’s how I missed how perfect her mouth was. Plump pink lips, perfect for kissing and for bringing a man pleasure. I grabbed my traitorous cock in my hand, I thought about how her sweet, pink lips would look sucking me off. Once again, it didn’t make me long to spurt my jizz on the shower wall.
When I finished getting off and cleaning up, I exited the bathroom wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt. She wasn’t on the couch. I glanced at the bedroom where her door was closed. Just as well. I only hoped I hadn’t scared her. Perhaps this fake marriage was beyond a bad idea.
I grabbed a blanket from the closet and lay on the couch, opting not to roll out the bed portion. In my experience, the rollout beds were lumpy and sagged, especially for a man over six feet tall. I put my hands behind my head and tried to push Hallie and her tasty lips out my mind. Instead, I thought about how the first leg of the roadshow had gone.
We did five presentations today, and I felt good about them. A couple of them commented on my marriage, noting to me how finding a good woman had helped them settle down. It highlighted why I was in this fake marriage. I just hoped to hell that I wasn’t going to damage a good working relationship with Hallie by having her pretend to be my wife.
There were so many issues I hadn’t considered in this scheme. One of them was running into women I’d known, in the Biblical sense, before. Allison had worked with me when I wanted to patent a drug we’d developed to help reduce symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. While I held fast to not sleeping with my staff, I did fudge the rule a bit by fucking her. She was a consultant, not an employee. She was sexy and fairly adventurous in the sack.
She was pissed, though, when I decided not to patent the drug. I wanted it to be freely shared throughout the world. She also didn’t believe me when I’d told her, before I ever touched her, that I wasn’t a man to settle down. She’d tried to change me, and I felt bad that I likely hurt her. It was probably worse now that she believed I was married. I hadn’t known her to be mean or vindictive, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t have said something to Hallie that was hurtful.
Christ, I should have pushed Hallie to tell me what Allison had said to her. Perhaps that was why she was a bit off after we’d talked with Allison. Or maybe it was the kiss. I hadn’t set out to kiss her. In fact, considering that she’d highlighted the whole reason for this arrangement by saying everyone knew of my prowess, I wanted to shake her. And then, as if she realized her mistake she’d said, “Of course, I don’t tell people. I don’t want to make them jealous.” But when she responded to my comment that she was bad with “You like bad,” the banter of that had my hormones waking up. It sounded sexy and naughty, and all I could think about was wanting to taste that sexy, naughty mouth. Thank God she went along with it because I hadn’t gone into it thinking it was part of our cover. I just wanted to kiss her. Of course, I fucked that up later by kissing her again for no marriage fakery reason.
I wondered if I should go apologize to her. I couldn’t say I was sorry because the kiss was fucking awesome. But I could apologize for doing it when I’d promised I wouldn’t. I could check to make sure she was okay and that I hadn’t made her feel uncomfortable.
Deciding that’s what I needed to do, I got up and went to the bedroom door.
“Hallie?” I knocked lightly. There was no response. I knocked a little louder. “Hallie?” Still no answer. I was going to open the door but then worried that it would be a violation of her privacy. Then again, what if she was really upset and had left while I was in the shower?
I opened the door just enough to peek in. She was sleeping, the covers outlining the round curves of her body. I felt an overwhelming urge to join her, but my conscience reminded me that I was trying to improve my behavior. I closed the door and went back to the couch and tried not to think about Hallie’s lips or luscious body.
The next morning, I heard her in the kitchenette. I checked my watch - 5:30 am. She was an early riser. I liked that. I got up and went to the bathroom to take care of my morning woody, and then joined her in the kitchen.
“Good morning,” she said as she poured a cup of coffee. She handed it to me.
“You don’t have to serve me,” I said.
“I’m using good manners.”
I took the coffee and sat at the table, “Listen, Hallie, about last night—”
“It’s okay Nate,” she poured herself a cup of coffee. “We’re playing married, and you had a good day yesterday. I understand that maybe the excitement of a good presentation got away from us.”
Huh? She thought that kiss was an accident from too much excitement from a successful day?
“It’s forgotten,” she finished.
There was nothing quite as successful to deflate a man’s self-esteem than telling him his kiss was forgotten. I took a sip of the hot coffee to soothe my ego, “I just want to make sure you’re okay. That I didn’t upset you.”
“No,” she put on a bright smile, but I didn’t buy it. Something was still up. “I know there’s work to do at the office, but I was hoping I’d be able to stop by my parents’ house when we got back to Virginia. I’d like to check on them.”
“Yes, absolutely. Take the rest of the day off. You’ve earned it.”
She smiled again, and that one looked genuine. It told me she was close to her parents. I liked that too. I might be a horndog, but I knew that family was important.
A few hours later, we were on a plane heading back from New York. We flew commercial, but I wondered if maybe I should charter a plan for our upcoming trips. It would give us more flexibility when coming and going, allowing her to get home sooner to her family.
I needed Hallie to help me pull off a profitable IPO, but I didn’t want to have her sacrifice too much time with her family to do that. I knew first hand what it was like when one parent was gone. Her mother had multiple sclerosis and her father, being much older than her mother, was beginning to slow down. She needed to have all the time with them as she could.
Book 2: Chapter 8—Admiration
Chapter Eight: Admiration
Hallie
On the flight back from New York, I glanced at Nate, who was reviewing something on his tablet. I kept thinking that I’d look at him and see something that made his kiss last night make sense. We were alone, so it wasn’t like he was trying to make people think we were married as he did in front of Allison.
“The marriage might be fake, but the kisses aren’t.”
If I were prone to romantic notions about him, I might have thought his words meant something, such as perhaps he was into me. But then he swore and stormed off. Then the next morning he wanted to apologize for it. There was nothing that could hurt a woman’s ego more than a man regretting kissing her.
Then there was the news Allison shared that he didn’t patent one of his drugs. Why wasn’t that well-known? If he wanted to change his image, it seemed like getting that information out into the general public would be a good way. Instead, he wanted a pretend marriage that had all sorts of ways it could go horribly wrong. The man was an enigma.
“Something wrong?” He turned his head to me, and I was up close and personal with his handsome face. Most of the time, Nate exuded power and yes, sex appeal. But up close, his dark eyes had a softness about them. Their warmth made me think of chocolate and puppies and...other things.
“No,” I turned my head forward, looking at the back of the seat in front of me. I was hoping he didn’t catch me staring at him.
“Are you sure? Do we need to talk?”
“Everything is fine,” I definitely didn’t want to have him apologizing for kissing me again. It was depressing that he regretted something that curled my toes and made me dream of him naked last night.
When we arrived back in Virginia, I took him up on his offer to have the day off. I headed straight to my parents’ house to check on them.
“We’re not invalids,” my mother said annoyingly when I let her know I wanted to see how they were doing.
“I know. I just—” I wasn’t sure how to explain that I worried about them now that daily living was getting more difficult for them.
“We don’t want to be a burden on you,” my father added.
We were sitting at the kitchen table, having lunch - ham sandwiches on white bread with chips. Not the healthiest meal, but it reminded me of my childhood.
“Visiting my parents isn’t a burden,” I stuffed a chip into my mouth. “I missed you guys.”
“I just don’t want you thinking you have to check up on us. We get along just fine,” my mother said.
I stood, “Should I go, then?”
“No!” They said in unison.
I smiled and sat down, “Now then, perhaps we can have a different conversation.”
My visit was pleasant after that, but I worried about how I’d get them to move into my place once it was rebuilt. They clearly didn’t like the idea of my taking care of them. Of course, I’d have to get my home rebuilt first. That was why I was doing this crazy fake marriage, I reminded myself.
While my mother rested and my father watched a sports channel on TV, I went back to my room for the book I’d started to gather ideas and samples for my home rebuild. While watching a rerun of Budget Rehab recently, Gabe Sloane’s homeowner, Samantha, was on talking about how she’d put together a book of all the things she’d wanted done to her home. In a wonderfully romantic gesture, Gabe had done all of them. Today they were married. Stranger still was the fact that Gabe was Nate’s brother. Small world. Too bad this fake marriage didn’t extend to telling family members because I’d have liked to ask Gabe about my home.
I didn’t have access to Gabe or Samantha, but I could make a book like she did. I’d already researched ideas on how to make my home easier to maneuver in a wheelchair. The home was a cape cod style, so it had an upstairs, but there was a bedroom downstairs on the main level so I could offer my parents one-level living. There were several steps to get onto the porch and into the house, so I’d need a ramp for them. My mother also loved to cook still, ham sandwiches on white bread notwithstanding, so I’d need to have kitchen counters and appliances that she could reach while in a wheelchair.
I took the journal book I bought, stuffed it with a few pictures and paint chips, and then went to my parents’ computer to research more. Using tape, I began to adhere the pictures and chips, as well as write down my ideas in the book.
I spent a little more time with my parents but declined dinner to head back to Nate’s. On the way, I stopped at the grocery store to pick up some staples and something for dinner. When I arrived back at his place, he was out in the covered porch grilling. I put the groceries away and then joined him.
“Hey. There’s some wine chilling there if you’d like,” he nodded to the wine cooler in the little kitchenette area of his porch. “Are your parents, okay?”
“Yes. They don’t like the idea of me checking up on them, but we had a nice visit. How was work?”
He gave a shrug, “Usual.”
I didn’t buy it, “Something happened.”
He took a drink of his beer, “Things don’t run quite as efficiently for me when you’re not there.” He looked at me, “I hadn’t realized that until today.”
“It’s nice to be missed. Is that all?”
He put his beer down and flipped the salmon on the grill, “I got several questions about whether the honeymoon was over because you weren’t there.”
I laughed.
He shook his head in bafflement, “Why do people care so much?”
“We’re curious social creatures. You could have just told them I was still recovering from all your sexual prowess.”
He looked at me over his shoulder, “You seem to know a lot about it.”
I didn’t want to bring up his reputation again, “You look like a man who knows his way around a woman.” I couldn’t believe I was saying that, and yet the slight pink tinge that came to his cheeks was worth it. Did Nate Sloane just blush?
“I do my best,” he said, turning back to the grill.
“Can I do something?” I asked, changing the subject.
“You can go grab the salad from the fridge and any dressing you’d like.”
I got the items and brought them back out to the porch table. He served the salmon, and we had a lovely dinner outside.
“I’ve never been one to envy the rich, but I have to say, having money does afford you some nice things,” I said as looked over his back yard that looked a lot like an English garden surrounded by woods.
“Like what?” he sat back in his chair, done with his dinner.
“Like this for one. The little extras such as a covered porch with a kitchen. A home in the middle of a city that feels like it’s in the middle of the English countryside. The ability to pay for a home rebuild without blinking an eye.”
He studied me for a moment, “I won’t deny that it’s nice. I don’t think it’s changed me though. I try to use my wealth for good, not evil.” He winked at me.
“It’s not all about the money though, is it?”
He shook his head, “I hope not. I mean, I want the money. I want this IPO to go well. But I’m not focused on just getting rich. I’m already rich.”
“You want to help people with your work.”
“Yes. I know people see me as a rich, shallow horndog, but I like to think there’s more substance to me.”
“What about the Parkinson drug?” I asked, seeing an opening to find out why he’d kept that a secret.
He frowned, “What about it?”
“If people knew about that, they wouldn’t see you as a horndog, or at least not only as a horndog.”
He took a sip of his beer, watching me over the bottle as he did. I tried not to squirm. He replied, “Maybe not shallow. The horndog…well I earned that.”
I cocked my head, “You earned more but didn’t tell anyone.”
“I see what you were talking to Allison about. Now I wish you were comparing prowess notes.”
“I have no notes to compare with her,” I said, annoyed that he was avoiding talking about the good he’d done.
He looked like he was going to say something, but he bit his lip, as if he was holding it back, “I don’t do this to get accolades. I’m not a saint.”
I shook my head, trying to figure him out. I could see the tension in his features.
“What?” he sounded defensive.
“I can’t decide if you’re uncomfortable with people knowing you’re a good guy or if you just prefer to be seen as a horndog.”
He turned his gaze out over the pool and garden, and I wondered if I’d tapped into something.
“Nate, you do know that letting the world know about your good deed im
proves the company image, which can help this IPO and the company in general?”
He laughed derisively, “Oh yeah, Allison told me all about that. Of course, investors want to make money. Giving away your goods doesn’t make money.” He stood, picked up our plates and the salad bowl, and headed back inside. What was it about this that had him all bothered?
I followed him into the kitchen, “I’m sorry if I’ve hit a nerve. To be honest, I don’t get it, Nate. Why don’t you want people knowing what a good guy you really are?”
He whirled around, surprising me. I stepped back, hitting the kitchen table. He moved closer to me like he wanted to make sure I was going to get his message.
“All this that you think is so wonderful,” he held up his finger making a circle with it to indicate the lavishness of his home, “I get this off the pain and suffering of people - real people. I’m not going to boost my ego off of them too. Not getting a patent, giving away some drugs at cost or even free, that’s my way to make it better for them, not me.”
Wow. At that moment, I saw an amazing man filled with passion for his work, and a need to keep the focus on the people he was trying to help. He was sexier than I’d ever seen, and I really wanted to kiss him.
I swallowed hard.
He stepped back, “Fuck, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare—”
“I’m not scared. I’m…”
He waited for me to answer. “What?” he prompted.
Since he was so honest, I decided I would be too, “I admire you.”
He shook his head, clearly not liking that. He started to turn away.
“And...I wanted to kiss you.”
He jerked back. Our eyes caught and electricity arced between us. For a moment, we just stood, staring at each other.
“I promised you I wouldn’t touch you,” he said in a rough voice that sounded like he was having to hold tight to his reins of control.
