Married by Contract

by Noelle Adams

  She had been doing better. She hadn’t been getting nearly so many headaches. She sometimes wondered if it was the distraction that sex with Nick had provided as much as not staying at work so long every day, but either way she’d been feeling a lot better. She reached out to rub his shoulder. “I wasn’t working this morning.”

  “Yes, you were. I’m not deaf, you know. I heard you on the phone.”

  “I wasn’t on the phone. I was just talking through a conversation I need to have later today.” She gave him a little smile. “I was talking out loud. I didn’t think anyone would hear me.”

  “You were…” There was a question in his eyes that was really very sweet.

  “I wasn’t on the phone. I was just thinking out loud. That’s allowed, isn’t it?”

  His face relaxed as he realized she hadn’t been cheating on their deal. His lips even turned up in a tiny smile. “I don’t know. It seems pretty close to working.”

  “I wasn’t working. I was thinking.”

  “Out loud. You were practicing. That’s definitely in a gray area.”

  She was washed in a warm wave of feeling at the expression in his eyes. “So I don’t get a massage this evening?”

  “I’ll think about it.”

  When she realized she was smiling like a dope, she cleared her throat and turned away to finish making her smoothie. Nick turned back to his coffee.

  After she’d finished whirling the blender, she said casually, “Don’t forget we have dinner tonight with that buyer and his wife.”

  “I know. I’ve got it in my schedule. What’s he like?”

  “I’ve only talked to him on the phone, but he sounds like he’s pretty conservative.”

  “Okay. Then I’ll put on my strong, upstanding husband hat for the dinner tonight.”

  Jenn laughed at the way his eyebrows twitched and reached over to touch his chest. Then she realized what she was doing and dropped her hand immediately. Screwing on the top to her insulated cup, she said, “Well, I better get going. I’ll see you tonight.”

  Nick was drinking his coffee so he just gave her another grunt.

  ***

  That evening, Jenn got home at a little after six to discover Nick wasn’t in the apartment.

  They had to leave at six-forty-five to meet the other couple at the restaurant by seven, so she was surprised and worried by his absence. She was about to call when a text came in.

  On way.

  She smiled at his curt note and hurried to take a quick shower. She managed to keep her hair dry, so she just brushed it out and rolled it back into a bun at the nape of her neck. Then she put on a simple navy blue sheath dress with cap sleeves and an ivory silk-knit cardigan. With a pearl choker and earrings, the resulting look was pretty and very traditional. She nodded at herself in satisfaction before she left her bedroom.

  Nick’s bedroom door was closed, so he’d obviously arrived and was getting ready himself. She tapped on the door. “We’ve got five minutes.”

  “I’m ready.”

  Relieved at this news, since she hated to be late, she opened the door with the intention of hurrying him along.

  She jerked to a stop when she saw him standing in the middle of the floor, wearing nothing but a pair of gray boxer briefs.

  He must have taken a quick shower because his hair was slightly damp at the nape of his neck. But his hair was not the thing that demanded Jenn’s attention. Her eyes raked over his big, mostly naked body. His bare chest, his fine biceps, his strong thighs, the outline of his package beneath the cotton of his underwear.

  Her body was immediately at full attention.

  “When did we stop knocking?” Nick grumbled, reaching for the pants of the dark gray suit he’d flung on the bed.

  “You said you were ready.”

  “I’ll be ready in two minutes. I just have to put on my clothes.”

  She couldn’t pull her eyes away from parts of him she shouldn’t be staring at. When he’d covered the most interesting parts with his trousers, her eyes raised to his flat abs and the hair on his chest.

  “Is something wrong with this suit?” he demanded, evidently seeing and misinterpreting her distraction.

  “No. It’s a good one,” she managed to say, her cheeks flushing in a ridiculous way. “I’ll get you a shirt and tie.”

  In his closet, she took a moment to breathe deeply and pull herself together. She wasn’t going to embarrass herself, just because she was finally having some really good sex. Nick was still her friend and her husband-of-convenience.

  There was no reason to get so flustered.

  She grabbed a blue shirt she liked and a matching tie and brought them out to him. He’d pulled on a white T-shirt and reached out to take the shirt she’d picked out for him.

  He slanted her a curious look, but if he noticed her flushed cheeks, he didn’t mention them. “You look very prim and proper this evening,” he drawled.

  She glanced down at her outfit. “Is it that bad?”

  “No. It’s not bad at all. I like you all prim and proper.”

  For some reason, she blushed again. This was really getting very inconvenient.

  She tried to avoid staring as he buttoned his shirt and wrapped the tie around his neck. “Can you do this for me?” he asked, gesturing to the tie. “It always takes me forever to get the damned thing to look right.”

  She wasn’t sure it was safe to be so close to him, but she had no good excuse for refusing. She stepped over and knotted his tie, feeling flutters in her chest and belly at the scent of him, the warmth of his body so close to her. “There,” she mumbled when she’d smoothed it down. She avoided looking up at his face.

  “Thanks.” He pulled on the suit jacket and patted his hair. “Okay. Do I look all right?”

  He looked incredibly handsome in the expensive suit—one of the suits he’d bought for the dinners he attended with her. But, as she looked at him, the thing she noticed was that he also looked un-Nick-like. The suit wasn’t really him.

  He was only wearing it for her. If he had a choice, he’d have been wearing his ugly pajama pants.

  “What’s the matter?” he asked with a frown, looking down at himself. “I thought you said this was a good suit.”

  “It is. You look great. Now let’s go before we’re late.” She smiled at him and then went to give him a little push when he just stood and kept frowning at her.

  She was relieved when they got to the restaurant and those strange, fluttery feelings finally dissipated.

  ***

  When they returned to their apartment, almost three hours later, Jenn had a headache that felt like a tourniquet, squeezing painfully around her skull.

  She wasn’t even sure when the headache had come on, since she’d felt pretty good when they’d left for dinner. But sometime between the appetizers and dessert, as she’d been making pleasant small talk and trying to sell this uptight buyer on her line of baby clothes, her normal tension headache had formed, and it was killing her by the time they returned.

  She wanted to go hole up in her room and turn out all the lights, but Nick had been really good tonight—charming the wife and asking intelligent questions of the husband—so she wanted to make sure he knew she appreciated him.

  “Thanks for everything,” she said, managing a smile as she dropped her purse and kicked off her heels. “You were a big help tonight.”

  Nick was peering at her closely. “Good. I’m glad.”

  “I think I’m going to turn in early,” she said, pulling out the pins in her hair and letting it fall around her shoulders. “But I really appreciate you being so good with them. They liked you a lot.”

  “You don’t want your massage?” he asked, when she turned around to walk away.

  She paused. Of course, she wanted it, but she suddenly felt a little guilty, like she shouldn’t want him to touch her so much. “You don’t have to.”

  “It might help your headache.”

  “The hea
dache isn’t too bad.”

  “Yes, it is.”

  She turned back to face him, wondering why she could never fool him—about anything. “But you’ve done more than your husbandly duty tonight. You really don’t have to bother.”

  “It’s no bother.” He was frowning at her thoughtfully, like he couldn’t figure her out. “Do you not want me to anymore?”

  She almost choked on how absurd the question was. “It’s not that. I just don’t want to…be a bother.”

  He gave a soft chuckle and came over to guide her into a chair. “I already told you it’s no bother. Why are you being so standoffish tonight?”

  She had no idea why she was being this way. She just suddenly felt nervous and jittery—which she’d never felt around Nick before. She sat down where he put her and closed her eyes. “Sorry. I really appreciate it.”

  “You don’t have to say that again.”

  She didn’t understand why he sounded a little frustrated, and she couldn’t say much of anything anyway, since Nick had combed his strong fingers through her hair.

  She sighed in pleasure when he started to knead her scalp, pushing into pressure points and making them ache deliciously.

  “Why did this dinner have you so stressed out?” Nick asked after a few minutes.

  Since the question sounded casual, she heard herself replying, “I don’t know. Just that he doesn’t seem to like me.”

  “Why wouldn’t he like you?”

  “He thinks I’m too aggressive.”

  “Did he say that?”

  “No. I just sense it from him. He looks at me like I’m an unnatural woman.” She let out a low groan when Nick adjusted his hands and found new spots to press into.

  “That’s ridiculous.”

  “I’m not making it up.”

  “It doesn’t matter if you’re making it up or not. It’s still ridiculous. If he thinks that about you, then he’s wrong. And he doesn’t know women at all.”

  “I’m sure he expects all women to be like his wife.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with his wife, but it would be a pretty boring and unsexy world if every woman was like her.”

  Jenn couldn’t help but laugh. The tightness in her head and neck was softening, as it always did to Nick’s touch, and the laughter unexpectedly got caught in her throat. She felt one stray tear stream down her cheek, which was bizarre since Jenn almost never cried.

  She had no idea what was wrong with her. She hadn’t realized she was so bothered by the man’s impression of her, but Nick was making a pain she hadn’t known was raw feel better.

  To her relief, Nick either didn’t see the tear or didn’t mention it. He massaged her head for several more minutes before he moved down to her neck.

  Her headache was now mostly gone, and she felt herself shuddering with pleasure and relaxation as he rubbed the tight muscles in her neck and shoulder. He usually stopped once he’d loosened up her neck, but tonight he leaned her forward in the chair so he could reach lower on her back.

  Jenn started to moan, her eyes closed and her body becoming completely relaxed. Her hair was hanging over her face, and she was glad of the veil it provided, so Nick couldn’t get a clear view of her expression. She was afraid it might be embarrassing.

  Nick eventually moved back up to her shoulders and slid his hands down to her arms, although the muscles were completely relaxed there, her arms hanging limply.

  Jenn groaned some more, since his touch felt so good.

  She heard Nick clear his throat behind her, and she was suddenly aware of a deep throbbing between her legs. Her body had evidently gotten some mixed signals, and she was now completely, achingly aroused.

  And Nick was still touching her, sliding his hands down the length of her arms and back up to her shoulders. Then he reached down and stroked over her breasts, cupping them briefly.

  She gasped loudly and arched into his palms, her head falling back.

  “Jenn,” Nick said hoarsely. The first word either of them had said in a long time.

  “Hmm.” She couldn’t form a complete word. Her arousal pulsed almost painfully, and Nick was still holding her breasts.

  “We decided the terms of our contract. We can change them if we want.”

  “What do you mean?” Her mind wasn’t working clearly enough to follow his logic.

  “It looks like you might want to have sex.” His voice was still deliciously husky, and he gave her tight nipples a little flick.

  She made an embarrassing sound at the jolt of pleasure.

  “And I definitely want to have sex too,” Nick added.

  Those words got through to her, and she turned her head to look up at him.

  His eyes were hot—unexpectedly primal—and his skin was slightly flushed and damp.

  He was turned on too. Just as turned on as she was.

  “But it’s not been a week yet,” she managed to say.

  “That’s what I meant by changing our contract. We can decide to change the terms if we want.”

  Jenn was shaking now—her blood roaring with excitement about the idea of having sex with him again. Now. Four days earlier than they were supposed to.

  But that flutter of nerves she’d been feeling all day intensified at the recognition of how much she wanted it.

  She shouldn’t want it so much. She should be more in control of herself than this.

  “Do you want to?” Nick prompted. He was standing perfectly still, staring down at her.

  She took a shaky breath. “We better not. Our arrangement is good. If we start changing it now, things will start to…”

  “Start to what?”

  “Get out of control.”

  For a moment, it looked like he would argue. If he did, Jenn was sure she would cave—since she was dying to have sex with him. But Nick finally relaxed, dropping his hands back to his sides. “I guess we wouldn’t want that to happen.”

  There was a strange timbre to his tone, but she couldn’t think clearly enough to work it out. She made herself stand up and hoped she didn’t look too shamelessly aroused. “No. I think we better stick to the rules.”

  He gave her a little smile that was almost bittersweet. “The rules it is.”

  Relieved by his response, since it helped her regain her perspective, she smiled back at him. “Thanks, Nick. My headache is totally gone.”

  “Good. Maybe you can get some sleep then.”

  Maybe. But she was pretty sure she would first have to do something to take care of her throbbing arousal. It wasn’t going to go away by itself.

  Four

  On Tuesday, Jenn was in a very good mood.

  Yes, her optimism hit a minor bump when Nick wasn’t awake before she left in the morning. He often wasn’t. As he’d told her many times, she got up ridiculously early. But lately he’d often been up before she left, and Jenn liked to see him all rumpled and groggy in the mornings.

  He must not have been scheduled for that early job he’d been doing, however, since his bedroom door remained closed until Jenn left the apartment at ten minutes to six. She didn’t let that small disappointment get in the way of her mood, though.

  She had a good day planned—one where she could work in her office all day, without any meetings or annoying projects to complete. And then she got to have sex with Nick this evening.

  Assuming he was in the mood.

  If he wasn’t, her mood would take a definite nosedive.

  He’d seemed quite enthusiastic before, though, so she was hopeful for this evening.

  The morning all went fine. She was able to clear out her email—which was a victory she seldom achieved—and she got through three weeks’ worth of memos to review and documents to sign, which had been collecting in the inbox on her desk. Her assistant, Mary, went down the block to get her favorite salad for lunch, and Jenn happily ate it at her desk, wishing all days could be so productive and stress-free.

  She was feeling so good that she found herself re
aching for her phone and dialing Nick.

  He answered before she could think of any good excuse for calling him. “Hey,” he said, sounding warm and relaxed. Very Nick-like. “What’s up?”

  “Nothing,” she replied, searching her mind for a sufficient justification for calling him. She called him sometimes during the days, but only when there was something to say. She never called just to say hi, and she wasn’t sure why she had now. “Am I interrupting anything?”

  “No. Not at all. I’m just sitting in the car.”

  “You seem to do that a lot.”

  “I’d say it’s about seventy percent of my job. Excitement isn’t really in my job description. What are you doing?”

  “I was just having lunch.”

  “By yourself?”

  “Yeah. At my desk. Mary got me that salad with the balsamic strawberries on it.”

  “Ah. Good lunch, then.”

  “Mm-hmm.”

  “Your morning was okay?”

  “Yeah. I got a ton of work done because I didn’t have any meetings. I’ve got a phone call scheduled for one-thirty, but that’s the only thing on my schedule for the whole day.”

  “I didn’t think you had days like that.”

  “I don’t usually, but I was supposed to fly out to Seattle today, remember? And then it was canceled at the last minute, so the day never got filled up.”

  “Nice. So did you need me for something?”

  She paused. She’d been hoping he’d forget to wonder why she’d call him. “No, not really. I’m sorry to interrupt your work.”

  “I already told you that you weren’t interrupting. I’m glad for the distraction. This job feels like it’s never going to end.”

  There was a faint edge of something in his tone that made her worry. He didn’t talk about the specifics of his job very much, and Jenn had always tried to respect his privacy and not ask him. But she was worried by his tone, so she said, “You don’t usually get stressed about your work.”

  “Yeah. But I normally just catch cheaters.”

  “You do more than that. What’s this job you’re doing now?”