by Nikki Chase
Now that I’m not needed at the office, this apartment is the only place where we don’t have to be husband and wife, and this room is the only private space that solely belongs to me. I don’t need anybody peeking in here.
Ethan has already invaded my family, years ago when he destroyed my parents’ livelihood and relationship. I’m not letting him into the only private space that I have, even if this bedroom technically belongs to him.
I step into the bathroom, which is ritzy in an understated way.
I stare at my own reflection in the mirror, expecting to see a different person.
But no, I look the same as I always have, even though I’m a wife now, and he has branded me with that blazing-hot kiss.
I expected a lot of things this morning when Mr. Hunter’s driver picked me up from my apartment in a black sedan and helped me put my luggage in the trunk. I wondered how many cars he has, and what the driver does all day when he's not driving Mr. Hunter or Penny all over town.
But I never expected that kiss. That damn kiss.
That kiss made me question everything.
I run the tip of my index finger over my lips and wonder, what am I really doing this for?
Do I want revenge for what he’s inflicted on my family? Am I really trying to earn some money to support both my mom and myself?
Or do I actually want this?
This whole time, I’ve been suppressing my thoughts and feelings about him. My anger has been clouding over everything else, to the point where I wouldn’t even allow myself to acknowledge how attractive Ethan Hunter is—how attracted I am to him.
But that kiss…
Could there really be something between us? Something other than a business arrangement and pent-up resentment?
Chapter 11
Megan
“I can’t believe you got married and you didn’t invite me,” Penny sulks at the dinner table.
“It wasn’t a real wedding, Penny,” Ethan says with a big, exhausted sigh.
He’s still wearing his work clothes, although he has taken off his suit jacket and rolled his sleeves up to his elbows, exposing a pair of strong, muscular forearms. All around us, San Francisco starts to light up as the orange-and-pink sunset gets darker and darker.
For the last ten minutes, Ethan has been trying to explain to his daughter that whatever we did this morning wasn’t a big deal—which it really wasn’t, except for that kiss. But that kiss was at least a PG-13 anyway, and Penny’s only ten.
At the kitchen, a man is throwing the vegetables he has chopped into a pot on the stove. Matt is their personal chef—and mine, too, I suppose—who comes over every night to prepare dinner, as well as an easy breakfast for everyone to reheat in the morning.
Matt’s not supposed to know that we’re only pretending to be married. Luckily, he’s far enough away from us that the audio from the TV should be sufficient to drown out our conversation.
With Ethan’s busy schedule, he doesn’t have any time to do house chores himself. I should bump into a cleaner or two in the next few days. I can’t imagine Ethan mopping the floor in his Armani suit, even if the sleeves are rolled up.
“You’re really married, though, aren’t you?” Penny asks.
Good question, kid. I’ve been asking myself the same question myself. It’s hard to know what’s real anymore.
“Well, legally we are. But you know we’re not actually…” Ethan runs his fingers through his dark hair in frustration and gives me a look, asking for my help.
I may not know much about how to deal with kids, but I remember being a little girl, and getting excited about going to weddings.
“We did get married, Penny, but it wasn’t a wedding,” I try to explain.
“What do you mean?” Penny turns to me, her blue eyes blazing with outrage.
“I mean we just said some words and signed some papers, but we didn’t have a ceremony. It wasn’t a wedding. There was no white dress, there wasn’t any music, there was no dancing…”
“…or cake,” Ethan adds.
“Exactly,” I say. “You would’ve been bored.”
“Was there kissing?” Penny asks, challenging us.
Ethan and I glance at each other. We haven’t even talked about the kiss, even though we both know it wasn’t just a formality. We definitely went above and beyond what was needed there.
“There was, wasn’t there?” Penny insists. “I can tell from the way you’re acting.”
“Well, honey, we had to kiss for the minister to sign the papers and make it official. But that still didn’t make it a wedding,” Ethan says.
“No, Dad, haven’t you ever watched any movies about eloping at all?” Penny asks indignantly. “It’s a wedding when you say the vows, and then kiss.”
The movies. Of course that’s where Penny has been getting her ideas from.
“Well, life is not like the movies, Penny,” I say, although I don’t know if that’s true anymore. I mean, the events of my life so far have been pretty movie-like, especially the part where I freaking married my boss, who also happens to be my nemesis.
“It was a wedding. You got married and you didn’t invite me,” Penny repeats. Great. Now we’ve come full circle.
“You know what? There’s nothing I can do about it, Penny,” Ethan says in defeat. “Whether it was a wedding or not, it’s not like we can repeat it just for you right now.”
“Okay, but you would if you could?”
“Yeah,” Ethan says off-handedly.
“Okay. Then do it.”
“What?” Ethan asks.
“Do it, whatever you did at the office when you ‘didn’t actually have a wedding.’” Penny draws air quotes with her fingers when she says the last part of the sentence.
I cast a worried glance at Ethan. What are we going to do now? Looks like we just got trapped by a ten-year-old. I’d be embarrassed if I weren’t also confused about the feelings swimming in my chest right now.
A part of me feels like it would be wrong to reenact the fake wedding and further insult the institution of marriage—which is already perplexing because I don’t believe in marriage anyway.
A different part of me, the one that has been replaying the kiss again and again all afternoon, kinda wants to do it again.
And yet another part of me is outraged that I’d have to kiss my sworn enemy twice in one day, when even just once in my entire lifetime is bad enough.
I feel divided, to say the least.
I’m also hungry, and it seems like Matt is done with the cooking. The aroma of whatever he’s serving tonight whets my appetite. I’m ready for this little stand-off with Penny to be over.
“Can we just eat, Penny? You’re being unreasonable,” Ethan says, saying out loud what’s on my mind.
“Sure, we can eat, but only after you show me what the wedding was like.”
“I told you what the wedding was like. It was just another boring signing of a contract. We said some words, we kissed, and a man declared us married. That was all.”
“Okay, tell me what the words are.”
“I, uh, take Megan Jones as my wife,” Ethan glances at me, a strange expression on his face, before he continues, “to have and to hold until death do us part.”
“Okay.” Penny grins from ear to ear in triumph. “See? That wasn’t so hard, was it, Dad? Your turn now, Megan.”
“Me? Uh… It’s the exact same thing, except for the name part.” I laugh nervously.
“Just say it. Come on, you guys already didn’t invite me to your wedding. This is the least you can do,” Penny says.
When she puts it that way, I guess we have forgotten about her, and we shouldn’t have. It just didn’t occur to either one of us that family should be involved in what’s essentially just a temporary business arrangement.
I take a deep breath. “I, Megan Jones, take Ethan Hunter as my husband, to have and to hold until death do us part.”
“Okay. Now, kiss.”
“What?” Penny asks innocently, although the intelligent glint in her blue eyes tells me she knows exactly what she’s doing. She adds, “Come on, Matt’s already done with the food. Don’t you want him to think of you as a real married couple?”
Ethan raises one questioning eyebrow at me, but he remains silent. He’s not saying no to Penny’s request. He’s letting me decide what to do.
I should say no. Penny is being unreasonable, after all.
On the other hand, maybe another kiss wouldn’t be a bad idea. Maybe, earlier in the office, the whole wedding thing and the strange atmosphere made the whole thing feel more intense.
Perhaps if we share another kiss, it wouldn’t live up to my memory. And then I’ll be able to get Ethan Hunter out of my system and refocus my energy on my mission to bring him down.
“I don’t mind,” I say as casually as I can.
“See, Dad? Megan doesn’t mind,” Penny quickly comments, not wanting to miss this opportunity.
“Okay,” Ethan says, not looking like he minds it at all.
Without missing a beat, he gets up from his chair on the other side of the square table and steps toward me, his blue eyes dark with impatience—impatience due to how strange his daughter’s request is, or impatience because he can’t wait to kiss me?
I’m eager to have another taste of him, and I wonder if I’m just projecting my own motives onto him. Maybe it’s just wishful thinking, but for a split second, I think I catch a hint of desire in the way his gaze sears into my flesh.
Ethan rests one hand on the back of my chair and leans down. Putting his other hand on the base of my skull, he tilts my head and pulls me close until our lips touch.
I fully intended for this to be a quick peck, partly because there is a child watching and partly because I need to hate him. But as soon as I feel his hot lips on mine, I know I’m a goner.
I know whatever happened at Ethan’s office today wasn’t a fluke, a coincidence, or a one-off event. There’s definitely something here.
Ethan kisses me softly this time, slow and gentle, although his hand grabs the back of my neck possessively. It makes me feel vulnerable, and at the same time, it makes me crave being taken fully by him.
But this kiss is measured, careful. It’s not passionate or even sensual. It’s chaste and innocent—again, except for his strong hold on my neck.
When Ethan finally lets go of me and pulls away, for a short moment we share a bewildered gaze, like neither one of us understands what’s going on.
As Matt places the dishes on the table, I catch a glimpse of the little smile playing on Penny’s lips.
I can’t help but wonder what she’s thinking about.
Maybe she’s just glad to have won the battle of wills and made us put on a show wedding just for her.
Or maybe that’s just what she wants us to think, when in fact, the plan has been to bring us together all along.
Chapter 12
Ethan
It has been one week since Megan moved in. One week since our fake wedding that’s also legally real. One week since our lips touched.
She has settled in nicely at the apartment I share with Penny. I’m getting used to the new dynamics.
Penny and I leave early in the morning, so we may not see Megan at the beginning of the day. On the mornings that I do see her in the sweatpants and old T-shirt that she wears to sleep, though, it makes the start of my day so much better.
I have to admit she makes me not want to leave the apartment. I just want to drag her back to bed so I can tear those loose clothes off her tight little body. I want to claim her while Penny’s away at school so she’d be free to scream out my name as I make her come.
It’s so fucking stupid. How desperate can I be, that I’m not even able to separate what’s real and what’s fake anymore?
Despite what legal records may show, we’re nothing more than boss and employee. Which means I need to maintain a good relationship with her—one that doesn’t turn romantic, even if she probably can’t sue me for workplace harassment anymore, seeing as we’re legally a married couple now.
I have to admit, reminding myself of what we are—and what we are not—gets harder by the day.
Every night, when I come home, Megan is waiting.
She was quiet and awkward the first couple of days, but then it’s like a hard outer shell around her is cracking. She starts to smile more, and she asks questions that show she listens when Penny and I tell her about our day.
I know this is only pretend, but it’s fucking hard to remember that sometimes. She just fits into our lives so easily.
And it doesn’t help that she’s so tantalizingly sexy.
I want her. I realized that when we first kissed at our fake wedding.
But despite my desires and my justifications, in the moments when I’m thinking clearly, I know it would be crazy for us to get together for real.
It would hurt our business relationship irreparably, for starters. If—when we inevitably break up, she’ll hate my guts like exes usually do, even though I’ll need her cooperation indefinitely. Even after our staged divorce, I’ll need her to help maintain my public image—that’s the reason we got legally married in the first place.
Sure, Lana has prepared various clauses in the contract to make sure Megan doesn’t screw me over. She also seems like a good person. But there’s always the possibility of her hating me so much she’d ruin everything out of mere spite, with no regard for the consequences.
And don’t get me started on how it would hurt Penny if we got together and then broke up at a later date. It’s already confusing enough for her that Megan is a fake step-mom who actually lives with us.
I don’t want to complicate our situation any further. That said, I don’t know if I can just say no to her, knowing that she wants me, too.
Oh yeah, I may be out of practice, but I can still recognize when a woman wants me in her bed.
I can tell from the way she steals glances at me, only to avert her gaze abruptly when I catch her in the act. Or from the way she fidgets when she knows I’m checking her out—she has a few nervous habits, like biting her bottom lip and tucking her hair behind her right ear. Or, at times when I get close enough to make her breathe a little deeper, she sometimes tenses her thighs, pulling them closer together.
If I had no responsibilities, I wouldn’t even think twice about going full caveman on her and dragging her to my cave so I could give her the bone in my pants.
But I have Hunter Corporation, and I have Penny. I can’t be reckless.
Don’t be reckless. That’s what I’ve been telling myself.
And yet I’ve already gone overboard for our date tonight.
With Penny away at a sleepover, I thought it would be a good idea for us to make our first public appearance. Eliza agreed, and even suggested a place where we would definitely get some attention from the paparazzi.
But Eliza didn’t ask me to do all the other stuff.
Like specifically asking for the most romantic table at the restaurant, for example. Or buying her an expensive black dress, as well as the pearl jewelry that my personal shopper told me would make her feel like Audrey Hepburn.
I didn’t even ask her if she already already had the right outfit for the occasion. I just felt like getting her something—just because.
Ugh, I disgust myself.
But when Megan’s door opens and she steps out in the new black dress, I know I did the right thing. I don’t remember what Audrey Hepburn looks like—I’d have to Google her to jog my memory—but if she’s half as captivating as my fake wife tonight, she must’ve been a stunner.
“How do I look?” Megan asks as she bites her bottom lip—one of the few signs she’s nervous. It makes me wonder if she’s nervous about the public appearance, of if she’s nervous about spending some alone time with me.
“Wow,” I say when I recover a
fter having the wind knocked out of me from the sight.
“Do I look okay?” Megan asks.
Somehow, she seems oblivious to the fact that she looks like a million dollars. I don’t know how that’s possible.
The structured black dress shows off her curves perfectly and the pearl necklace frames her lovely face. It’s amazing what a good fashion stylist can come up with, even without having met Megan in person. All I did was show the stylist a picture.
Megan herself has a great sense of style and I know she can pick out her own dress. But there’s something appealing about the idea of choosing an article of clothing to wrap her body in a pleasing way for my enjoyment.
“Okay? You’ll turn heads at the restaurant,” I say honestly. I don’t like the idea of other men staring at Megan, but I’ll get to show her off as mine. She’ll be coming as my wife, and nobody will dare put a finger on her.
Her cheeks grow red, which I find to be adorable. I love knowing exactly what she’s feeling. At a time like this, her face is like a forecast program that tells me everything I need to know. But there are times when it seems a mask has descended over her expression, making it impossible for me to read.
I get up from the couch. There’s nobody else in the apartment, and I wish we could stay home so I could peel off that dress she has just put on.
But duty calls. It’s time for us to let photographers catch us together so they could put our pictures all over the gossip magazines. That will trigger Melanie, the journalist from The Times, to reveal our big secret. And then we’ll end up in various other publications that spread the news far and wide.
“Shall we?” I ask as I hold out one arm toward Megan.
She takes it, and I realize her hand is cold.
“Nervous?” I ask as we walk toward the elevator door. I press the button.
“A little bit,” she says. “I’ve never been… I’ve never had people taking my pictures to publish.”
