by Sara Whitney
“Thanks.” His smile was small but sincere, and she pulled her hand back so she wouldn’t be too distracted to hear him out. “I need to step up at work, but the thing is…” He stopped speaking again, but this time it was embarrassment, not pain, that marched across his face. He scratched his neck and continued. “The thing is, my reputation isn’t great.”
“You don’t say,” she said drily.
“Smartass.” It was the second time he’d called her that, and she loved the way it sounded like a compliment when it crossed his lips. “But all day today, people were excited to talk to me about our relationship. They think I’m finally getting serious with someone. Making a commitment. And I’m starting to think our clients will trust a one-woman man with their business far more than they’ll trust the guy who…”
When he didn’t finish the thought, she took a stab herself. “The guy who’s out getting his dick wet with someone new every night?” Blood rushed to her cheeks at the crude phrasing, but it was worth it to see his eyes widen.
“Christ, woman, the mouth on you.” He snatched up his beer and took a long swallow, and the shake of his head was almost admiring as he set it back down. “Anyway, yeah, that’s basically the gist. You apparently make me look like a responsible adult, and I need to be a responsible adult now more than ever to keep the company together.”
“Ooookay,” she said. “So you want me to…” Surely she was misunderstanding. It was too ludicrous for her to say out loud.
Then he went and said it for her.
“I want you to pretend to be my girlfriend.” Those eyes were hot on her again. Hot and a little desperate. A shiver traveled down her spine. “And in exchange, I’ll renovate your house within your budget.”
Now she gasped. Opened her mouth. Closed it. Brought her glass to her lips and drained the contents in an effort to seek clarity or completely obscure it. Once she’d guzzled her wine, she swiped a hand over the back of her mouth and asked, “Why me?”
Another frown crossed his face, and then he said simply, “I trust you.” When she opened her mouth, he pointed an accusing finger at her. “And don’t give me that ‘we’re not friends’ garbage. I was the cashier at your lemonade stand.”
“When I was six!” She jumped up and practically sprinted to the kitchen to pour herself another glass. “Any girl in town would do this for you. I don’t understand why you’d bother with me.”
His face twisted. “You’re overestimating my appeal. I’m no different than any other guys you’ve dated.”
Her hand halted dead with the glass halfway to her lips, and she broke into a peal of laughter. “Ha! Wrong.” The past few guys she’d dated had been nice. Cute enough. Okay in bed. But not a single one of them had Aiden’s magnetic pull, that gorgeous-guy self-confidence that was bone deep and somehow effortless.
She looked at him now as he watched her steadily from her fancy floral couch. Their eyes locked, and she realized with a start that he was utterly serious. Any sign of the relaxed, teasing guy she usually saw around town was gone, replaced by a furrowed brow and an almost pleading expression.
“Okay.” She walked back over and collapsed onto the velvet ottoman sitting next to the arm of the floral couch. “So what you’re saying is that I pretend to be your girlfriend so you can take over your family’s business, and you’ll fix up my princess house.”
“Exactly.” He straightened, excitement stamped across his features at her willingness to keep discussing this insane proposal. He probably looked like that when he was upselling rich customers on the name-brand countertops too.
“Well, that’s hardly a fair trade.” Her brain spun. “I get all that free labor. What do you get out of it?”
He lifted his hands in a stop right there gesture. “Jesus, not that. I would never make that part of—”
“Oh my God, obviously I didn’t mean sex!” She practically shouted in her haste to wipe the horrified look from his face.
“Phew.” He exhaled and comically wiped his brow while she dropped her head to her knees, holding her wine aloft so she wouldn’t spill it.
Could the floor please open up and swallow her right now? She was clearly not going to barter sex for renovations, but geez, did he have to sound so horrified by the idea? It left her feeling about as sexy as a bridge-dwelling troll.
While she’d been spiraling into self-doubt, he’d reached into his pocket and produced a folded sheet of paper. “Here’s a revised budget. I got the home inspector report you sent me, and it knocked some of the items off my list. The roof’s in good shape, and there’re no signs of water damage in the basement or on the front of the house. The heating-and-cooling system works, but I bet it’ll need to be replaced within the next five or ten years.”
Her eyes dropped to the bottom of the page where he’d bolded a figure. It was a much smaller dollar amount, and hope sprouted a tender little shoot in her heart. She took another fortifying sip of wine, then set the glass on the floor next to her to take the paper in both hands.
“If you’re willing to let me do most of the one-man jobs at night or on the weekends and are flexible about when my crew can take care of the bigger stuff, I can get it done at your drop-dead price point.”
Her heart lubbed hard. The princess house could be hers. The house her dad had dreamed of for her. The one that still had the rosebushes he’d planted for Doris Rebhetz before his death. She could have that glorious river view and put down roots and be part of the neighborhood holiday decorations. All she had to do was pretend that she’d somehow captured the heart of Beaucoeur’s most notorious womanizer.
Disappointment clouded her vision. “Nobody’s going to buy it. Us as a couple?”
His frown was back. “Why not?”
“Because… because!” She sputtered and waved her arms through the air. “Because you’re you and I’m me!”
“And?”
“And you’ve never looked twice at me before! Nobody will believe I’m the person who finally hog-tied you.” Her exasperation made her shrill, and she hated it.
Aiden didn’t seem to care. Instead, the tip of his tongue peeked out to wet the corner of his upper lip as he studied her with an over-the-top smoldering gaze. “Or maybe it’s because of your hog-tying skills that I finally settled down, hot stuff.” He winked broadly before dropping the seductive act with a shrug. “Everybody watching the kiss cam seemed convinced anyway.”
Oh! Her cheeks flamed, and she slapped her palms over them to keep the glow from giving her away. “Stop! It’s ridiculous!”
“It’s really not.” His smile this time was genuine, not his salesman smirk or his lady-killer grin. “I have it on good authority that we gave off a strong couple vibe.”
Her hands fell to her lap. He wasn’t wrong, was he? She’d seen the dazed expression on her own face for herself, and she’d seen the unsteadiness of his breathing when they’d pulled apart. They’d looked like two people who really enjoyed kissing each other.
“Besides,” he said quietly, “I fell for that house too, and I’d like to make sure you’re its owner. You just might have to live with a really ugly kitchen for longer than you imagined.”
Now that the offer was out, he relaxed back onto her flowery couch and snagged his beer, taking a sip as she worked through this insane proposal. She followed suit and picked up her wineglass from the floor, draining the rest of its contents.
“Okay. If we agree to this, then no fooling around with anybody else.”
“Obviously not,” he said immediately. “And that goes for you too.”
“Sure.” She rolled her eyes. She hadn’t been in the same zip code of fooling around with anybody in too long to remember, so that wasn’t exactly a sacrifice. “And it’s not like anybody’s falling in love with anyone else because…”
She gestured between the two of them, and a shadow darkened his face before vanishing. “Yeah. The whole world knows I’m the guy who doesn’t do relationships.”
“It’s basic
ally your brand,” she said, although in truth she’d been referring to herself as well. She wasn’t exactly known for her successful romantic track record. Still… “When the time comes for us to break up, how do we do it?”
“Mutual and respectful,” he said. “Nobody gets the blame. We decide we’re better off as friends.”
Friends. Which is what they were, even if his presence in her apartment did make her… flutter.
She’d seriously have to get over that.
“So we have a deal?”
Why was she even hesitating? This was her dream come true. It was almost two dreams come true if she was being honest: the dream house and the hot guy, even if one was only temporary. “I… yes. I guess we do.”
“Excellent.” He polished off his beer and stood, unfurling his lean, muscular body to its full height and making her immediately second-guess her ability to carry this off.
Then he reached down and pulled her into a standing position beside him, and she did something she’d never dreamed she’d be able to do: she reached out and hugged Aiden Murdoch. Arms around his waist. Cheek against his chest. Torsos smashed together.
“Thank you,” she whispered. “For helping me get my house.”
After a pause, his arms wrapped around her shoulders. “Happy to,” he murmured back, arms briefly tightening around her before she pulled away, cheeks flushed yet again. Their eyes caught and held, and for a split second, he leaned toward her. Was he going to kiss her again? Seal their wild, ridiculous bargain with another tangle of mouths and tongues that would give her a second dose of fantasy fodder?
But he didn’t close the distance between them, and self-consciousness creeped in. She stepped away and said brightly, “I’ve gotta call Melinda right now. Tell her to put in an offer.”
It broke the spell, and Aiden moved to snag his coat from the rack. “Do you want my advice on negotiating, or are you good?”
“Yes, please! You’re the house expert.” She whipped out her phone and opened her notes app to take down whatever information he was willing to impart.
He spoke as he pulled on his coat. “I think you ought to offer $5,000 less than the asking price. Make sure Melinda tells the sellers that the kitchen’s gonna be a real bitch for your hardworking and immensely talented contractor.”
Excitement swelled in her chest and almost drowned out the Aiden flutters. Almost. Then he went and winked at her, and it was all over. “The trick’ll be putting up with me for that long. Before this is over, I’ll know how you take your coffee in the mornings and what side of the bed you sleep on.”
His casual mention of her bed knocked the air from her lungs. “The bed?” She was amazed she’d been able to get the words out without hyperventilating. Even if it was all going to be pretend, the very idea of her and Aiden and a bed left her breathless.
But he replied innocently, “If you decide to add that skylight in the bedroom, I need to know where you’ll be sleeping so I can position it perfectly.”
Oh. The skylight. Of course. “If I can afford a skylight. And if I even get the house.” She bit her lip. “That’s a lot of ifs.”
“I have faith in you.” He lifted his hand to her face and brushed his thumb gently over her cheek, eyes fixed on hers. Then the intensity in his expression vanished, replaced by his usual laid-back hot-guy vibe. “Go get ’em, killer.” He was gone with a final flash of white teeth, leaving her to sag against the wall as her knees threatened to give out.
That night Thea learned that making an offer on your first home is a piece of cake when your brain is buzzing about the fact that a handsome man asked for your hand in fake girlfriend-dom.
Nine
“You coming in?”
Thea’s voice beckoned from the master bath, and the splashing sounds clued him in on what to expect. He closed his laptop and set it on the bedside table, then walked directly into the adjacent room, his dick already hardening.
She was in the enormous tub, wearing nothing but a smile. Fluffy mounds of fragrant bubbles covered her to her shoulders, but the long expanse of neck he could see was flushed pink with the heat of the water, and her dark hair curled at her temples in the humidity. With an inviting flash of her eyes, she slowly lifted one foot out of the water and pressed a button with her toe. The jets of the whirlpool tub kicked on, and she gave a little shiver.
“Oooh, that’s nice.” Her teeth sank into her lower lip. “Not as nice as your tongue though. Get in.”
A frantic bolt of lust raced through him at her words, at the command in her voice, and touching her warm, wet skin became the only thing in the world that mattered. Yet his chest rose and fell as he stood frozen in the doorway, struck by the tableau: Thea in the bathroom he’d renovated with his own hands, waiting for him to strip and join her.
When he didn’t move, she frowned and leaned back against the far slope of the tub, the bubbles shifting to give him tantalizing peeks at a curve of a breast here, a dusky nipple there.
“What’s the matter? I’m not a little kid anymore.”
He sucked in a deep breath before he finally found his voice. “Don’t I fucking know it.” He reached for the button on his jeans and yanked it free, desperate to join her in the—
“Hi! Trip said I could find you here.”
The fantasy shattered, leaving Aiden with an erection in his jeans and his new fake girlfriend in his office.
“You okay?” Thea frowned at him. “I can come back.”
He ran a hand through his hair as he brought his breathing under control. Had his wild and unexpected daydream conjured her somehow? This Thea wasn’t warm and wet and covered in bubbles though; she was zipped into a puffy coat and holding a striped knit hat in her hands, the tip of her nose red from the cold.
“No! Please stay.” He shot to his feet, then sat right back down again. His body needed a little more time to chill the fuck out. “I was just reviewing whirlpool tub options for some clients.”
True. He’d been looking at suggestions for the Sappersteins, but his mind had galloped away from him, and what the hell was that all about anyway? The bargain they’d struck last night hadn’t changed anything between them, just like that damn hockey-game kiss hadn’t changed anything.
Means to an end. His end was a thriving family business. Hers was a house she could call home. Out-of-left-field hot tub fantasies had absolutely no place in his plan to deal with the woman he’d known his whole life. The same woman who’d looked ready to puke when she thought he was including sexual favors in their bargain.
That same woman was currently staring at him like he’d suddenly sprouted antennae.
Good thing she had no idea what head actually was growing; she’d probably run screaming out of the building and never look back. Time to get this under control. “What brings you here?” He gestured to a guest chair. “Can I get you some coffee?”
She unzipped her jacket and flopped down, grinning at him. “I got the house!”
He slapped his palms down on his desk. “You got the house!”
“They didn’t even try to negotiate,” she announced proudly.
“Guess they knew you meant business.”
“Damn straight.” She lifted her chin, looking every inch the confident negotiator, and he was hit with another wave of heat. She didn’t need to be wet and naked to be breathtaking; she carried it off just fine in jeans and a Brick T-shirt.
“Now, let’s talk timelines.” She folded her hands on her lap and neatly crossed one leg over the other, adopting an all-business tone. “I close in three weeks. Will I be okay to move in right away?”
Business. Yes. Good thing one of them was focused. He pulled up the project outline on his laptop. “We’ve got paint and gutters and grout and steps on the exterior. Tear out the shag carpet and refinish the floors. Destroy that drop ceiling. Strip the old wallpaper and paint everything. Let me add that skylight.” He grinned at her as he tapped his pen on his desk, mindlessly banging out the drumbeat f
or “Mr. Blue Sky.” “And of course there’s that kitchen. But if you’re okay living with dust and chaos for a while, you can move in the instant they hand you the keys.”
“Yay!” She gave a little bounce in her chair.
“Well. We’re talking weeks and weeks of me and my crew underfoot. That’s a lot of clutter to live with.” The last thing he needed was her getting fed up and ending their agreement when the equilibrium of the business was still off.
“I’m highly adaptable, and besides, you’re doing me the favor.” The corners of her mouth tipped down. “Are you sure this is a fair price for your work though?”
He waved a hand dismissively. “It’s a mutual favor, and you’re still paying for materials and some labor.” Weird to think about faking feelings as a mutual favor, but this was a weird situation.
“Thank you.” She met his eyes with her serious brown ones. “Truly, I wouldn’t have been able to make this leap without you.”
“It’s my pleasure.” He reached forward and squeezed her hand, pleased to be playing a role in bringing her dream to life. She jumped a little at the contact, and he couldn’t pass up the chance to tease her a tiny bit. “Gonna have to get used to having my hands all over you.”
Pink flooded her cheeks, and she looked down. “You’re really sure you want to do this? With me, I mean?”
Had any woman underestimated her charm more than Thea? “We already covered this.”
But the fantasy of a bubble-covered Thea surged in his mind again, and for a moment he wasn’t sure this was a good idea. One of the biggest reasons he’d suggested this agreement was because she was a safe choice. They’d known each other forever, and neither of them was interested in the other one like that. His brain just needed to get with the program and stop picturing her tits.
It was probably just that he hadn’t slept with anyone in way too long. Celibacy was messing with his focus.
“Hey, how’s your dad?”
Her soft voice was a bucket of cold water on his wayward libido. “He’s… well, he’s pissed. He doesn’t understand why he’s not allowed to drive anymore, why we’re not letting him come into work. Good news is, he got accepted into a clinical trial in Chicago.”
