Fiancé in Name Only

by Maureen Child

  “I tell you to have a steamy affair and you say no,” Terry mused thoughtfully as she tapped one finger against her chin. “But you do get engaged. Sure that makes sense.”

  Kelly hung her head briefly, then lifted it to look at her best friend. Terry’s place was just a block or two off Main Street. It was a small old brick house with a great backyard and what Terry called tons of potential. She and Jimmy were completely rehabbing the old place that Kelly had found for them, a little at a time. The living room was cozy, the kitchen was fabulous, the bathroom was gorgeous—and the rest of the house still needed work.

  Sitting on her friend’s couch sipping tea and eating cookies was pure comfort. Which Kelly really needed at the moment. In fact, it almost took the sting out of what Terry was saying.

  “It’s crazy,” Kelly agreed. “I know that.”

  “Good for you,” Terry said, injecting false cheer into her voice. “Always best to recognize when you’ve completely lost your mind.”

  “You’re not helping.”

  “Of course I’m not helping.” Terry shook her head, sending the silver hoops at her ears swinging. “For Pete’s sake, Kelly, what were you thinking? You’re setting yourself up for God knows what, and now there’s no way out.”

  Kelly knew all of that, but hearing it made her feel worse somehow. Honestly, she still wasn’t sure what had made her come up with this idea in the first place. And she sure didn’t know why Micah had agreed.

  Actually, when she’d first started talking to him that morning, she was positive he’d give her an emphatic no and tell her to get out. But the longer she talked, the more she saw him change, his features changing from irritated to sympathetic to amusement and finally acceptance. Kelly still could hardly believe he’d agreed to this, but she was super grateful he had. Yes, it was a mess, but at least for the short term, her grandmother was happy and wasn’t trying to give up her own happiness for Kelly.

  “You should have heard Gran though, Terry,” Kelly said softly, remembering. “She was so happy when I told her Micah and I were engaged.”

  Terry’s concerned frown only deepened. “Sure, until you ‘break up.’”

  Okay, yes, that conversation with her grandmother wasn’t one Kelly was looking forward to. But she’d find a way to soften the disappointment. “Yeah, but until then, I’ve got time to think of a way to keep her from worrying.”

  “Well, I hope your next plan is as entertaining as this one.”

  Scowling, Kelly picked up a lemon cookie drizzled with thin caramel stripes and took a bite. Seriously, nobody made better cookies than Terry. People clogged up her tiny coffee shop just to buy the baked goods. And they weren’t wrong to do so.

  “You’re my best friend,” Kelly said. “You’re supposed to be on my side.”

  “And if you wanted to rob a bank or drive off a cliff, I should just pick up my pom-poms and cheer you on?”

  “That’s hardly the same thing as—”

  Terry held up one hand. “I’m sorry. You refused a blind date, then got engaged, instead.”

  “Fake engaged.”

  “I stand corrected.” Terry finished off her tea and set the cup on the coffee table in front of them. “Really, though, I’m on your side, Kelly. I’m just not sure what your side is.”

  “If it makes you feel any better, neither am I.” It had all seemed so reasonable when she’d thought of it the night before. But facing Micah with it a couple of hours ago had shaken her a little. Still, Kelly knew this was the best thing to do. The only thing, as far as she could tell. Gran was happy, and Kelly didn’t have to worry about the older woman giving up her new life.

  Micah was fine with it—okay, maybe fine wasn’t exactly right. Resigned might be better. Either way, though, Kelly was getting what she wanted: a reprieve for her worried grandmother.

  As far as pretending feelings for the town’s benefit, she could pretend to be in love with Micah. She would just have to keep reminding herself that it wasn’t real.

  Because, honestly, one kiss from that man had melted away every reservation she’d had. Every vow she’d ever made to not get involved with another man had simply melted under the incredible rush of heat enveloping her during that kiss. God, even remembering it could set her on fire.

  So, okay, this pretense would be a little risky for Kelly. Micah Hunter was the kind of man who could slip past a woman’s defenses if she wasn’t careful. Even defenses as strong as hers. So Kelly would be very careful.

  She popped the last of the cookie into her mouth, then said, “Okay, enough ‘torture Kelly’ time.”

  “Oh, I’m not nearly finished,” Terry told her.

  “Fine. We’ll pick it up again later, but, for now, are you going to help me with the load of plywood I need to pick up or not?”

  “Sure.” Terry shrugged and pushed off the couch. “Get engaged, then build a haunted house. What could be more normal?”

  Kelly reached for another cookie as Terry picked up the plate and cups to take back to the kitchen. Sighing, Terry said, “And I bet you want to take some cookies home with you.”

  “That’d be great,” Kelly said. “Thank you, very-best-friend-in-the-world-who-is-always-on-my-side-and-only-wants-what’s-best-for-me.”

  Laughing, Terry shook her head and said, “I’ll put some in a bag for you.”

  Kelly grinned as she tugged on her sweatshirt. “Thanks. And to respond to your earlier statement...normal is way overrated.”

  But, while she waited for Terry, Kelly’s smile faded and her brain raced. Images of Micah rose up in her mind, and instantly a curl of something dangerous spun in the pit of her stomach.

  Yeah. Maybe this fake engagement wasn’t such a great idea, after all.

  Six

  Micah came out of the house as soon as he saw the two women struggling to pull sheets of plywood out of the back of Kelly’s truck.

  “So much for getting any work done,” he muttered, and made a mental note to tell Sam that if this book went in late, it would be his fault. How the hell was Micah supposed to get work done when Kelly was always interrupting? Even when she wasn’t there, thoughts of her plagued him, interfering with his concentration and leaving him staring into space as he willed his body into submission.

  Hell, how did any writer work when they had people coming in and out of their lives? There was just no way to concentrate on your fictional world when the real world kept intruding.

  As he approached, he noticed for the first time that Kelly’s truck had definitely seen better days. It had once been red, but now was an oxidized sickly pink. There were rust spots along the bottom of the body, no doubt caused by all the salt used on winter roads to prevent skidding. There was an old dent in the back right fender, and he had a feeling the inside of the damn thing was no prettier than the outside.

  Frowning, he remembered that Kelly had said she plowed driveways and roads during the winter. Did she use this truck? Of course she did, and it probably hadn’t even occurred to her that it looked as if it was on its last legs. He didn’t like the idea of her out in some snowstorm in a broken-down truck, freezing to death in the cab while she waited for someone to dig her out of a snowdrift—and, yeah, sometimes being a writer was a bad thing. His mind was all too willing to make up the worst-possible scenario of any given situation just to torture him. He shook off the vague ideas and focused on the now.

  He was down the front steps and headed across the lawn before either woman noticed him. Kelly had her back to him, but the tiny woman with dark hair and wide silver hoops at her ears spotted him.

  Tipping her head back, she stared at the gray sky and shouted to whoever might be listening, “Thank you!”

  Looking back at Micah, she grinned. “Well, hi, gorgeous. You must be the new fiancé. I’m the best friend, Terry.”
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  “Good to meet you.” It was impossible to not smile back at a woman who looked like a seductive elf. “I’m Micah.”

  Kelly jolted upright from where she was bent over trying to lift one end of the boards. Seductive elf or not, the only woman Micah could see was Kelly. Her hair was back in a ponytail, her gray sweatshirt was paint stained, and her worn denim jeans were ripped high on her right thigh. She must have changed into work clothes after she’d left him that morning. And even in what she was wearing right now, she looked amazing.

  She dropped the plywood sheets she was trying to maneuver, and they clattered when they hit the truck bed. Straightening up, she smiled a little nervously. “Um, hi, Micah. This is Terry.”

  “Yeah, we met.” He walked closer, looked into the truck bed, then up at Kelly. “What’s all this for?”

  She pushed one stray windblown lock of hair out of her face. “Every year I build a haunted house for the kids.”

  That didn’t even surprise him. “Of course you do.”

  Kelly kept talking. “Last year Terry’s husband, Jimmy, helped me out, but he’s deployed this year.”

  Terry sat on the edge of the truck. “I think Kelly misses him almost as much as I do.”

  * * *

  “Today I do,” Kelly agreed. Her heart flipped over as Micah’s gaze was fixed on her with the wariness of a man waiting to see if a suspicious package will explode. And of course she had to look absolutely hideous. “So, Micah, can you help carry these boards to the front of the house?”

  “I can.” He dropped both hands onto the side of the truck. “Does it get me a point?”

  “A what?” Terry asked.

  “No,” Kelly said, smiling because he was acting as he always had around her. Things weren’t awkward and she’d worried about that. Oh, she knew he was as good as his word and that he’d act like her lover in public. But she’d been afraid that asking him to do this for her might make things weird between them in private. “This is a favor. Not a point earner.”

  “What points are we talking about?” Terry looked from one to the other of them.

  “Hmm,” he mused, “seems to me I already did you a favor earlier. If I do this one, as well, that’s two in one day. Is there any kind of payoff for a favor?”

  “What’d you have in mind?” Kelly’s stomach did a fast spin and roll. Honestly, the man’s eyes were so dark that when they were fastened on her, as they were now, she could feel the earth beneath her feet slide and shift.

  “Another kiss,” he said.

  All of her breath left her in a rush.

  “Okay,” Terry murmured. “This is getting interesting. Wait a minute. Did he say another kiss?”

  Kelly paid no attention to Terry because she couldn’t see anything but Micah. It took everything in Kelly not to vault over the side of the truck and lock her mouth onto his. Just the thought of being held close to him again made her want it more than anything. But she had a question first. “Why?”

  He shrugged and his broad chest sort of rippled beneath his black T-shirt. “You said we needed to put on a show in front of people, right?”

  “Yeah...” she said, “but Terry doesn’t count.”

  “Thanks very much,” Terry said, “however, since Jimmy’s gone, I wouldn’t mind seeing a red-hot kiss. A little vicarious living would do me worlds of good.”

  “Pay no attention to her,” Kelly advised.

  “I wasn’t talking about Terry,” Micah said, his gaze flicking briefly to a point over Kelly’s shoulder. “I was talking about the two old women watching from their window.”

  “Oh, God...” Kelly murmured. She’d forgotten all about her neighbors, but the two sisters probably had their noses pressed to the glass.

  “Hi!” Terry shouted as she turned to wave at Sally and Margie.

  The curtains dropped instantly, blocking the women from view. But Kelly knew they were still there. Watching. Hoping to see something worth gossiping about.

  “So? Is it a deal?” Micah asked.

  Kelly sighed. This had been all her idea, after all. “Deal.”

  She moved to the side of the truck and Micah reached up to grab her at the waist. His hands were big and strong and hot enough to sear her skin right through the fabric of her shirt. He lifted her out of the truck bed as if she weighed nothing and then let her slide slowly along his body until she was standing on her own two feet again.

  By the time her feet hit the ground, Kelly’s insides were sizzling and her brain was fogging over. Her hands at his shoulders, she stared up into his brown eyes and read a wild mix of desire and amusement there. She couldn’t have said why that particular combination appealed to her, but it did. “Well,” she asked after a long minute of simply staring into each other’s eyes, “are you going to kiss me?”

  “Nope.”

  Surprised, she tried to pull away, but his hands only tightened on her waist. “Fine. But I thought you wanted a kiss for a favor.”

  “Yeah,” he said, his gaze sliding over her face before meeting hers again, “but this time, you kiss me.”

  Another swirl of hot nerves inside, but she had to admit it was only fair. He’d surprised her with their first kiss, and now she wanted to surprise him with just how hot a kiss could be if she knew it was coming. Giving him a faint smile, Kelly went up on her toes and slanted her mouth over his.

  He held on to her but didn’t take the lead. This show was all Kelly’s. She parted his lips with her tongue, slid into his mouth and felt his breath catch in his throat. She explored his mouth, tasting, plundering. Spearing her fingers through his hair, she turned her head slightly to one side and groaned as he finally surrendered to the fire building between them. He clutched her tightly to him and tangled his tongue with hers until Kelly’s mind splintered and floated out of her head to blow away in the cold breeze.

  “Niiiiccceee...” Terry’s voice was no more than a buzz that Kelly barely registered.

  Kelly’s heart banged against her ribs. She held on to Micah because if she didn’t, she’d have keeled over from the rush of sensations pouring through her. His hands fisted at her back and held her so tightly to him she felt the hard length of him pressing into her belly. She rubbed against him, torturing them both. Knowing he felt what she felt, wanted what she wanted, only made her own feelings that much deeper. More intense.

  God, she wanted to feel his skin beneath hers. She wanted to feel his heavy weight on top of her. Feel his hard body sliding into hers...

  “Um, guys?” Terry’s voice came again, hesitant but insistent. Then she got louder, demanding they hear her. “Guys! You realize you’re about to get way out of control right in the front yard?”

  In a daze, feeling a little drunk, Kelly pulled her head back and turned to look blearily at her friend. “What?”

  “Damn.” Terry fanned herself with both hands. “I think that’s enough of a show for now or you’ll kill Sally and Margie.”

  “What?” Kelly asked again, and then realization slammed into her, and she turned to Micah and dropped her forehead on his chest. She could hardly believe what had just happened. If Terry hadn’t spoken up, who knows what might have happened? “Oh, God.”

  “Yeah,” Micah said tightly as he struggled to even out his ragged breathing. “I think Terry’s right. I’ll just get those boards for you now. Where do you want them?”

  “Okay, that’s good. Um, right in front of the porch,” she whispered, and he let her go. Amazing how alone she felt without the strength of his arms wrapped around her middle.

  Still a little shaky, she leaned against the truck and watched while Micah lifted a few of the huge plywood sheets and, balancing them on his shoulder, carried them to the front of the Victorian. His muscles stretched and shifted beneath his shirt. His black jeans hugged his behind and hi
s long legs, and her mouth went dry just watching him.

  “Honest to God,” Terry murmured in her ear, “if you don’t jump that man immediately, you’re not the brave, intrepid Kelly I know.”

  “It’s not that easy,” Kelly said, gaze locked on him.

  “Why the hell not?” Terry gave Kelly’s shoulder a nudge. “You want him. He clearly wants you. I almost went up in flames just watching, and I can tell you that after seeing that kiss, when I get home, I’m video chatting Jimmy and hoping he’s alone.”

  “That’s different,” Kelly grumbled. “You’re married.”

  “And you’re engaged,” Terry reminded her. “For God’s sake, take advantage of it.”

  But that hadn’t been part of their deal, Kelly told herself. Was it fair to try to alter their agreement now? Then she remembered the grinding pressure of his mouth on hers and knew that he’d be okay with changing the rules. The question was, could she keep her emotions separate from the physical desire engulfing her? And could she live with herself if she didn’t act on what she was feeling?

  Micah walked back across the yard for the next load and Kelly’s gaze fixed on him. Black jeans. Black boots. Black T-shirt. Dark brown hair ruffling in the cold breeze. Brown eyes that met hers for one long, blistering moment.

  And she knew that, complicated or not, deal or not, she had to have him.

  * * *

  Micah ignored the noise from the front of the house for the next two hours. He heard the constant hammering, the arguing between Kelly and Terry and told himself it had nothing to do with him. What did he care about haunted houses? Besides, he had work to do. If thoughts of Kelly and that kiss ever left him the hell alone.

  Scowling, he glared at the computer screen, rereading what he’d just written. His heroine was in deep trouble and getting in deeper every second. She was wandering the woods, looking for a lost child, and had no idea there was a killer right behind her.

  Grimly he kept typing, in spite of the fact that his jeans were so tight he felt he was going to be permanently injured. He kept tasting Kelly on his lips and told himself that it didn’t matter. It had been for show. To impress the neighbors and show them that Kelly’s fiancé was crazy about her. The fact that it had impacted him so much wasn’t the point.