Temporary Boss...Forever Husband

by Stacy Connelly

  But tonight, anyone paying him extra attention was doing so only because of the beautiful woman at his side.

  And even though it hadn’t been his idea or Allison’s for that matter, Zach found himself oddly grateful and, hell, proud to have her as his date.

  “So I hope everyone has a good time tonight,” Riana was saying in closing her speech, “and don’t forget to bid on the items up for auction.”

  Glancing at the crowd gathered around the auction table, Allison said, “Let’s go take another look. I haven’t bid on anything yet.”

  “Got money burning a hole in your purse?”

  “Yeah, right,” Allison scoffed. “I’m just glad tonight’s tickets come out of your budget since I’m pretty sure I blew all I’m allowed to spend on sticky notes last week.”

  Zach laughed, feeling more relaxed than he ever had in this kind of crowd. “Well, let’s pretend you don’t have that costly habit. What would you bid on?”

  He’d barely glanced at the items earlier, but he wondered what had caught Allison’s eye. A trip to an exorbitantly expensive day spa? He knew plenty of women who enjoyed that kind of pampering, but he’d noticed Allison’s nails were a natural shade of pink, bare of the thick, brightly painted acrylics some women preferred. Her jewelry was simple, too. A pair of small gold hoops and a locket she wore often enough against her golden skin for Zach to know it was a sentimental, not fashionable choice. The intricate pieces of jewelry Riana Collins had donated didn’t seem like Allison’s style.

  “Maybe one of the vacations,” Allison mused.

  “Vacation,” he echoed as he realized he couldn’t remember the last time he’d taken one. Not that he minded. He wouldn’t get any closer to reaching his goals if he purposely stayed away from work. And he’d been working since he was a teenager. Even before then, there’d never been money to go anywhere. Vacation meant staying at home, and just the thought of slouching in an easy chair, his eyes glazed as he stared at the television set, Scotch in hand, had Zach breaking out in a cold sweat.

  Warming to the subject, Allison said, “I can’t tell you how many road trips my family took when my sister and I were growing up. Sometimes, we’d plan them for weeks—where we’d go, where we’d stay, what we’d do. Other times, my dad would come home early on a Friday, announce we were hitting the road, and we’d be on the freeway within an hour. Drove my mom nuts!”

  But not Allison. Even now, her eyes glowed with the memory of the last-minute adventure. Look how well she’d jumped into this situation with Riana. He couldn’t think of too many women who would have handled themselves nearly as well. And none who would have actually enjoyed it.

  “Where would you go?”

  She laughed. “Oh, my gosh. When we were kids, that was the best part—he wouldn’t even tell us until we got there. Of course, once my sister, Bethany, learned how to read, she had to ruin the fun by telling me if we were heading toward California or up north to Flagstaff. If it was California, that meant San Diego. We’d spend hours, combing the beach for the perfect seashell before asking our dad who found the best one. Shockingly, it always ended up as a tie.” She rolled her eyes. “You know how dads are.”

  No, no he didn’t. Not fathers like the one Allison described. Listening to her talk about growing up was as foreign to him as hearing stories from someone raised on a solar space station. Hard as it was to comprehend, unwanted curiosity dragged him further into Allison’s sunny childhood. “And what about Flagstaff? What did you and your family do there?”

  “Well, it depended on when we went. Sometimes we’d go in the summer to escape the heat down here, but my favorite time was in winter because then we got to play in the snow! My mom swore I’d end up with frostbite, but I loved every second of rolling down hills and diving headfirst into snow banks. We had a blast!”

  She shot him a knowing look. “But you wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”

  Zach tensed. Did it show? Was there something about him, some stain from his childhood he still hadn’t washed off?

  “When was the last time you took time off work to have some fun?”

  His shoulders lowered on a relieved exhale. “You think I don’t know how to have fun?”

  “I think you’re a workaholic who’s so focused on the brass ring that you’re completely missing out on the ride.”

  A bit of the light in her expression died, and the note of certainty in her voice made him wonder. Not that he thought she was right, but why was she was so sure she was right? Could her words be the voice of experience?

  “What did you miss?”

  Her green eyes widened perceptibly, a dead giveaway, a second before she glanced away. “We were talking about you.” When she looked back at him, her smile was tinged with an unexpected vulnerability. “So what’s it going to be? The trip to San Diego. Long walks on the beach and a sunset cruise…or going up north to a remote cabin near the Grand Canyon? Relaxing days filled with nature walks and granola?”

  He studied her a moment longer, sensing a loss she couldn’t hide even as her gaze pleaded with him to play along. To stay on the surface where answers were easy instead of digging deeper for a painful truth. And that was fine with him. He liked things shallow, superficial… So why, when it came to Allison’s secrets, was he tempted to go looking for more?

  “Allie—”

  “Oh, I don’t think Zach’s going to have time for vacations, Allison.”

  Zach glanced over as Riana Collins stepped up to the bidding table. She brushed her ponytail over her shoulder with a hand draped in diamonds. “Not if he wins the bid for our company’s security contract.”

  If… Riana dangled the word like a carrot, and Zach knew he was supposed to bite. He’d realized from the first time they met Riana was the kind of woman who enjoyed keeping people—men, especially—on a string. Like putting on one of his designer suits or wasting a day on a round of golf, Zach had considered playing along something he had to do. But for the first time, that string was starting to feel more like a noose, pulling tighter and tighter. It wouldn’t be long, he feared, before something snapped.

  As if sensing the direction of his thoughts, Allison stepped closer and placed her hand on his arm. To Riana or anyone else watching, the touch likely looked proprietary, but Zach knew the subtle squeeze wasn’t for Riana’s sake. He didn’t know how Allison did it. How her touch could soothe one kind of tension in his body while igniting another…

  “Still, you have to make a bid, Zach,” Allison insisted. “It’s for charity.”

  That was the one argument Riana couldn’t win, and Zach had to give her credit. Reaching over, she picked up a pen from the auction table and handed it to him. “Allison’s right. Tonight is about raising money. So…beach or cabin?”

  Neither option held much appeal until he pictured a bikini-clad Allison strolling by his side on that California beach, smelling of the warm sun, surf and coconut lotion. Or wrapped in his arms beneath a warm blanket in front of a dancing fire in some distant log cabin with nothing but the two of them around for miles.

  “Zach?” Allison prompted when he let the moment and his imagination drift for too long. Their gazes met, connected, and even though it wasn’t possible, Zach thought he could see a flicker of that fire reflected in her green eyes.

  “Cabin,” he decided. “With nothing but nature and silence all around.” And even though he had no intention of going anywhere, Zach wrote down a high offer guaranteed to give him the winning bid.

  “Good luck, Zach,” Riana told him. “It’ll be interesting to see if you get what you want.”

  He didn’t need the pointed look she shot him to know she was talking about more than the auction, and he was relieved when a woman stepped forward to ask Riana about one of the pieces of jewelry up for bid.

  “Thank you,” he murmured to Allison.

  He’d lowered his head to make sure Riana couldn’t overhear, but ended up closer than he’d intended, his lips
nearly brushing against her temple. She’d smoothed her hair back that night instead of styling the tousled layers to frame her face. He’d always preferred long hair, but now he wondered why when Allison’s short style revealed the delicate curve of her ear, the angle of her jaw, and the long line of her neck. The tempting hint of spice filled his head, and he could picture Allison dabbing on just a touch of the perfume in that delicate hollow and fought the urge to move closer and closer still. To seek out more of the scent on her skin and to discover where the trail might lead… Along the pulse he could see fluttering at the side of her neck? Over her collarbone and down to the hollow between her breasts?

  Her throat moved as she swallowed, but she met his gaze—and the desire he knew had to be burning there—head-on. “So you don’t think I went too far?”

  No, he was the only one at risk of that danger if he didn’t get this attraction under control. “You handled it perfectly.”

  Just like he’d known she would… Despite her justified anger the day before and her willingness to torture him tonight, he trusted her not to sabotage him with Riana Collins. The idea that he had that kind of trust in Allison—especially when it came to something as important as his career—would have knocked him on his ass if he took the time to consider it, so he shoved the thought from his head. “Better than I was about to.”

  Studying him with a worried frown as if knowing what a rarity it would be for him to lose his professional cool, Allison advised, “You need to relax.”

  Allison was right. He’d dealt with difficult clients before without coming close to losing his cool. The stress of the Collins proposal and the promotion hanging over his head was making him lose his focus. It couldn’t be anything else.

  As the evening went on, Zach thought he did a fairly good job of taking Allison’s advice. Together they mingled with the other guests sampling hors d’oeuvres, savoring glasses of champagne and listening to the band. He was enjoying himself—and Allison’s company—enough that every now and then, he actually forgot to keep an eye out for James Collins.

  He turned his attention back to the stage when the president of the charity stepped up to microphone once more and asked for the crowd’s attention. The murmur of voices gradually trailed off as she said, “I want to thank you all for coming tonight and for the generosity you’ve shown. Not to mention the cutthroat sense of competition I saw out there as you tried to outbid each other on the silent auction items.” A laugh rippled through the guests. “The auction is now closed, and I have the winning bids in hand.”

  Zach could feel Allison’s glance as they waited for the woman to announce the winner of the vacation he’d bid on. He still wasn’t sure what had possessed him to make the bid. Trying to prove something to Riana or to Allison?

  Okay, yes, he’d been curious about the fun-filled vacations Allison and her family had taken. But it wasn’t the idea of going on vacation that had him so intrigued, Zach had to admit. It was the excitement, the glow in Allison’s features as she spoke that made him wonder what he’d missed. What he was missing…

  “And congratulations, Zach Wilder, for your winning bid on a weekend getaway to the Grand Canyon.”

  Zach managed a smile at the charity’s president. “It’s for a good cause,” he murmured.

  “And you’re going to have a great time,” Allison insisted. “Think about it—entire days away from the office with nothing to do but take the time to kick back and relax—”

  “Yeah, right.” He gave a scoffing laugh. “I’ve got way too much going on to even think about missing work. With the Collins presentation—”

  “There will always be another presentation, Zach.”

  “Well, it’s not like the Grand Canyon’s going anywhere. I can see it anytime.”

  “Uh-huh, and exactly how many times have you seen it?”

  “Okay, I’ve never been but—”

  “But nothing! You’re going on that vacation even if I have to—”

  “Have to what?” he challenged, wanting to see how far Allison might go, even if it was only in words. Would she say that she’d go with him? That she would make sure he worked on nothing but relaxed pursuits for the entire week in that secluded mountain cabin?

  Her lips parted but before she could answer, a former politician’s booming voice carried across the ballroom. “Riana, dear, you look stunning as ever. The spitting image of your mother. I’ve been wanting to say so to your father, but I haven’t seen him yet tonight.”

  “Oh, Roger, I’m afraid he’s working. You understand… A man in my father’s position can’t afford to take time off. That’s how he became so successful in the first place, you know.”

  Zach bit back a curse. Riana didn’t so much as glance his way, but her words were as much for Zach as the man she was speaking to. The subtle dig cut deep, right to the heart of his determination to succeed, to break free of his father’s failure and regret. Sometimes he didn’t think he’d ever shake off Nathan Wilder’s legacy as if it were ingrained in his DNA or inherited, like the dark hair and blue eyes his father had passed on to his son.

  “I’m sorry, Zach,” Allison murmured, taking his arms and steering him away from Riana. All the earlier teasing was gone, the sympathy in her gaze genuine as she gazed up at him. “I know you were hoping to talk to James Collins.”

  “It’s the reason I came tonight, but it looks like Riana is going to win this hand, too.”

  Allison glanced back at the other woman with a surprising amount of empathy. “Don’t be so sure.”

  “Oh, come on. Riana knew all along her father wasn’t coming. It’s another case of him canceling last minute, just like dinner on Friday. She’s playing a game.”

  “I overheard some people talking earlier. Her mother passed away from cancer. This isn’t just another benefit for her. She may not show it, but this is very personal, and I’m sure she’s hurt that her father isn’t here.” Seeing his doubt, she pressed. “How would you feel if your father didn’t bother to show up to an event that means so much to you?”

  Relieved. That was how Zach had always felt as a kid whenever his father refused to attend one of his school functions despite Caroline’s pleas. Any feelings of disappointment at not having his father in the audience had been smothered by the criticism and negativity that surrounded his old man like a dense, deadly fog. Didn’t matter what he was trying to do—school play, science project, talent show—Nathan Wilder’s fatherly advice never changed. Get your head out of the damn clouds. You’ll never be good enough.

  “Zach, if you want to leave—”

  “No.” The answer burst out before he’d given thought to what he might say.

  Allison’s brows rose. “Up for another round with Riana already?”

  That would be a logical reason for why he wanted to stay—to show the other woman James Collins’s absence didn’t matter. But Zach feared his motives weren’t nearly so simple.

  His father had only dreamed of being at an event like this—surrounded by the rich and in some cases famous. Earlier, Zach had seen a former quarterback being interviewed by the media. That was the life Nathan Wilder once imagined. A life having a wife and son had denied him. But no matter how many times his father had seen himself amid this kind of crowd, Zach knew damn well Nathan had never pictured his son there. Maybe the in-your-face burst of satisfaction should have made him feel guilty, but it didn’t. And as the band started its second set, the strains of a power ballad filling the ballroom and Allison gazing up at him, leaving was the last thing on his mind.

  Holding out an arm, he asked, “Isn’t this our song?”

  “We have a song?” she asked even as she took his hand.

  “We do now.”

  It’s only pretend.

  Allison repeated the reminder as Zach led the way to the dance floor. All part of the charade for Riana Collins’s benefit. But the moment Zach slid his arm around her waist and pulled her close, thoughts of the other woman evaporated like
water on an Arizona sidewalk. Allison couldn’t think beyond the warmth and strength of his body brushing against hers in time with the slow, seductive music. Each breath drew in more of his cologne until she could almost believe the faint scent, and not simple oxygen, was what she needed to live. The edges of the ballroom seemed to blur and disappear as the world narrowed to the circle of their arms.

  “My father would never have believed I’d be the one wearing a designer suit or rubbing elbows with this kind of crowd.”

  Catching the past tense, Allison briefly closed her eyes as she realized she’d stumbled over a sensitive subject earlier. “I’m sorry, Zach. When did you lose him?”

  “When I was fourteen.”

  “Just a kid,” she murmured out loud. As an adult, her father’s death had devastated her. She couldn’t imagine how she’d have coped if she’d lost him as a teen.

  “I grew up fast,” Zach said almost defensively as if her sympathy might somehow undermine his tough-guy masculinity.

  “I’m sure your father would be proud if he could see you now. “

  “You think so?”

  Zach’s cynical murmur had Allison second-guessing the validity of her statement. What kind of man had his father been that Zach could still have such doubts all these years later? She didn’t know, but she was one-hundred percent certain her next words were true. “He should be. And so should you. You’ve accomplished so much already.”

  Not enough…

  Zach didn’t say the words; he didn’t have to. Relentless drive revved just beneath his skin, and like bracing her hands against a sports car’s hood, she could practically feel the shift and surge of power where her palm rested against his chest. It was a feeling she remembered from her years in New York. The roller-coaster excitement of ups and lows, hits and misses was as familiar and dangerous as an addiction. It would be so easy to slip back into craving that high…

  But it was her craving for Zach that worried her even more. She’d walked a fine line throughout the evening, teasing and flirting and dancing out of reach when the flames got too hot. But she was well aware of exactly where that line was at all times, and she was careful not to cross it, not to lose control. She’d teetered on the edge a few times, the desire in Zach’s blue eyes sapping the strength from her legs and leaving her dizzy, but she pulled back in time.