Marriage Made on Paper (15 page)

By herself. Which she should be thrilled with since it was exactly in line with the deal they had made, and even if they were still involved in their purely physical relationship, she valued her space. But she wasn’t thrilled. It made her chest ache, something she couldn’t stop or understand.

“Okay. You should sleep, too.” She didn’t know why she’d said that. She sounded more like a nagging wife than an employee, or even a lover.
Attractive.

He looked up from his computer and her breath caught. She blinked. He was handsome. He had been before they’d slept together, and he would undoubtedly continue to be handsome. He would probably only improve with age, since, unfairly, men seemed to do that. She couldn’t afford to let him affect her every time he so much as glanced her direction.

“Later,” he said.

There was no veiled promise in his words, no hint of anything more, like there would have been yesterday, or even earlier that day. He meant that later he would sleep, that was all.

And that was exactly what she would do, too.

She rose from her seat, brushed past him and went to the bedroom that was at the back of the plane. She selected the smaller of the two rooms, since it clearly wasn’t the master bedroom, and that way she wouldn’t run the risk of accidentally winding up in Gage’s bed. Again. Not that any of the other times had been an accident.

Her heart rate kicked up at the thought, her breasts growing heavy, her body getting ready for another erotic encounter.

“Too bad,” she said to the empty space.

She kicked off her shoes and lay down in the bed fully clothed, unwilling to go back out into the main part of the airplane and find her bags, which she’d forgotten to bring back with her.

She stretched out, telling herself that having the entire bed to herself was welcome, since she’d been forced to share her space for the better part of a week. But it didn’t feel spacious, it felt cold and empty.

And she hated that, after only four days, it was stranger to be without him than it was to be with him.

“I
THOUGHT
you could use this,” Lily said, setting the large coffee cup on Gage’s desk. They were both suffering from jet lag, and even less sleep than usual. At least she was.

He, of course, appeared entirely unaffected as he looked up at her and offered a nod of thanks before accepting the coffee and taking a long drink. Only his closed eyes and slight sigh gave away just how much he needed it.

“What have you got for me this morning?” he asked, his eyes trained on his computer screen.

She took a breath. It was going to be fine. Easy. She was back in her element, not away at some sensual, tropical resort that was basically designed to make the patrons lose their minds and surrender to seduction.

“Nothing new regarding Maddy, but I wouldn’t call off the engagement yet. Too obvious.” She lowered her eyes and they settled on the ring, still in its place on her left hand. Her heart squeezed tight.

“Of course.”

“Your wildlife sanctuary on Koh Samui is being hailed as a great act of conservationism. It’s all over the news this morning.”

“Good.”

She gave him a hard glare. “You don’t sound enthused.”

“I told you, Lily—” he looked up at her “—my concern about my image begins and ends with the way it affects the bottom line. On a personal level, it isn’t a priority.” He looked back at his work.

“You’re bullheaded, Gage Forrester,” she mumbled, sitting in her chair and trying to ignore the rapid flutter of her heart that had been tormenting her since she’d woken up that morning.

“I see no real problem with that.”

“What’s wrong with people knowing you’re a nice person?” she asked, exasperation edging its way into her voice.

“What’s wrong with people I don’t know and don’t care about not knowing?”

She lowered her eyes and stared at the white lid on her coffee cup. “It doesn’t make you like your parents just because the public knows about the good that you do in the world.”

“We don’t need to bring my parents into anything.” She looked up into his ice-cold eyes. “It doesn’t relate to the work we’re doing here. You just stick to doing your job, Lily, and I’ll do mine.”

His parents and his past clearly wasn’t open for discussion anymore. Not now that she was only an employee. When she’d been a potential lover he had shared with her, but now … now she wasn’t fit to speak of it apparently. She sucked in a sharp breath. It didn’t matter. He was right. It was personal, and this was business. What she’d learned about him during their brief relationship, if it could be called that, had nothing to do with what happened in their professional association.

She would just have to pretend that she didn’t know
he’d sacrificed so much of his life to raise his sister, a sister he still felt responsible for. She’d have to pretend she didn’t know exactly what he looked like under those perfectly tailored business suits.

Of course, it wasn’t any kind of challenge for Gage. Temporary sexual relationships were par for the course for him. Which was one reason she’d decided to give a sexual relationship with him a try, so having an issue with it now was just contrary.

“All right, Gage, but it makes my job easier when you do as I advise you to do.”

“I gave you my permission to make the announcement about the sanctuary,” he said, his voice conveying just how unconcerned he was.

“Yes,” she said tightly, “and it’s helped. As I knew it would. Letting people run stories about you that are full of conjecture and false information isn’t right.”

“Of course, you have no trouble feeding the press false information.”

She gave him a steely glare. “They had false information to begin with. And you didn’t have a problem with it, either.”

“To protect Madeline? Of course not. And we’re going to continue on Saturday.”

“Oh, really?” Her heart sped up.

“Yes. A very valuable client’s daughter is getting married and holding the reception at the San Diego Forrester tomorrow. I’ve been asked to make an appearance, and of course that means my lovely fiancée should be on my arm.”

She looked down at the ring that still glinted on her left hand, her entire body getting stiff with tension. It had been one thing to play happy couple with Gage before they’d been … intimate together. But it was quite
another thing to try and pull off when that segment of their relationship was over.

She would have to touch him. Hold his hand. Maybe kiss him.

They hadn’t held hands in Thailand. Not casually, not by themselves. It was an odd realization, and it was even stranger that she cared. It was simply a telling example of what their relationship had been. Purely sexual. Those little gestures that actual couples used to convey affection didn’t apply to their four-day fling.

“Okay, that works for me.” It did. It would. It had to. It was her job to protect Gage’s image, and if she didn’t go with him, questions might come up, which meant she had to go with him, and she had to turn in the performance of a lifetime.

It had meant buying a new dress—a short, black one with a low V-neckline that had a slight ruffle to help conceal some of the cleavage that the dress put on display—but when she walked into the San Diego Forrester on Gage’s arm, her engagement ring sparkling in the overhead lighting, she felt like she belonged there. Like she belonged with Gage.

It was a dangerous feeling, but it was one she had to embrace, at least for the night. There was no other option. Tonight she was Gage Forrester’s fiancée. She would try not to focus on the fact that she was really Gage Forrester’s discarded leftovers.

Who asked to be discarded.

She took a deep breath and tried to rid herself of the tightness in her chest.

The hotel was decorated beautifully, every table covered with a crimson tablecloth, white orchids in white vases acting as centerpieces. And the tablecloths
matched her shoes, which was a very nice and convenient surprise.

Maybe if she focused on that she would survive the evening with some semblance of sanity intact.

Gage put his arm around her waist the moment they fully entered the reception area and she had to fight the urge to melt against him. It was so strange, how natural it was to want that. How easy it was to want to lean on him.

She managed to stop herself. She wasn’t about to cling to him, even if his touch did feel better than she remembered. And he smelled amazing. She’d always noticed that about him, from the very first time they’d met. But it was different now, more intimate. Now she picked up on the subtle scent of his skin … clean, but beneath the scent of soap and aftershave, the slight musk of his skin. She could pick it out so easily now, now that she’d been so close to him, now that she knew just how his skin tasted.

The thought made her want to moan out loud, but she managed to hold it back.

Gage sought out the father of the bride and he introduced Lily as his fiancée, then talked to the man for a while about the reception, and offered a free round of drinks. After that, he was fielding requests to hold events at the hotel from every third guest they encountered.

“That was clever,” Lily said as they took their seat at their own private table.

“My hotels are popular for a reason.”

“You know how to give good service,” she said lightly, not realizing the undercurrent in her words until it was too late. And then their eyes met and her stomach tightened.

She licked her lips, but as soon as she slicked her tongue across them they were dry again. She wondered if he could see the signs of her arousal. He knew her so well in that way. She could see his. His eyes darkened, a muscle in his jaw jumped, his hand tightening around his wineglass. He wanted her, too, even though their fling was over.

He’d been cool on the plane ride back to the U.S. and in the office over the past week, but it had been a show. She’d assumed he was done with her, that he’d consigned their affair to a pleasant memory and hadn’t thought of her that way, hadn’t wanted her, since the moment they’d left Thailand.

“I meant, your customer service is outstanding,” she said tightly, trying to ignore the pounding of her pulse and the rush of blood that was making her body feel ultrasensitive.

“Of course,” he said, his voice rough, his arousal obvious to her.

“This is really beautiful,” she said, trying to recover from her foot-in-mouth moment.

“Yes, it is.” His eyes were fixed on her, his gaze lingering on the swell of her breasts. She’d chosen the dress partly for that reason, she was ashamed to admit. She’d told him once that she didn’t pick her clothes based on someone else’s desires, but she had today. She knew that he liked her figure, and she’d set out to elicit a response from him.

But it was so frustrating, seeing him the office, burning for him, while he seemed to feel nothing but professional courtesy. She was frustrated with him, and she was frustrated with herself. She didn’t know what she wanted, didn’t know what response the wanted him to give her. She just knew she was unhappy, that at night
her bed felt cold and empty. That she no longer found solace in her beachfront apartment and her solitude.

“Gage …”

He reached across the table and captured her hand in his, stroking it lightly with his fingers. She closed her eyes and let out a slow breath, electricity sparking in her body, her heart beating double time, everything in her shaking with desire.

“I’ve been thinking a lot about you, Lily. About our time in Thailand.”

“Don’t,” she said sharply, pulling her hand back and putting it in her lap.

“You tried to deny the attraction between us before, Lily, and it couldn’t be done.”

She swallowed hard. “We can ignore it. I can ignore it.”

He looked at her, those blue eyes more temptation than she could handle. “But do you want to ignore it?”

“No,” she whispered.

“Then what do you want?”

He was going to make her say it. For the first time in her life she wished someone would make things easy for her. That he would just sweep her into his arms and carry her up to one of the suites. But he was making her choose. He was leaving the consequences up to her, which meant that later, she wouldn’t be able to blame him if things exploded on them.

“I want you,” she said, her voice low, “but I don’t want to want you.”

“That does amazing things for my ego, sweetheart,” he said, offering her a slight smile.

Her heart tripped and a short laugh escaped her lips. “You know I’m not into ego stroking, Gage.”

“That’s a shame.” Their eyes caught and held, tension and electricity arcing between them.

“One more night.” Her words were rushed, the blood roaring in her ears.

“One more night,” he said, standing from the table, taking her hand and drawing her up with him.

“Isn’t it rude to leave this early?” She cast a backward glance at the full reception, at the cake that had yet to be cut.

“It’s not as rude as my stripping your dress off of you and having my way with you in front of all those nice people would be.”

They headed down one of the long hallways to a row of elevators.

“You wouldn’t do that,” she said, going for censorious, but only managing breathless.

“I never thought I would, Lily, but you make me feel things.” He trailed off and stopped walking, turning her so that her back was to the wall. He stepped in, put his hands on her waist and leaned in, taking her mouth, devouring her as though he was starving. “You make me do things,” he said. “I don’t know myself sometimes when I’m with you.”

“Same here,” she said weakly, the wall and Gage’s hands the only thing keeping her from sliding to the carpeted floor.

“My apartment is here,” he said, “at the hotel.”

“Really?”

“It made things easier to manage, especially in the beginning. I’ve never left.” He punched the “up arrow” button on the wall and the elevator doors slid open. “Spend the night with me.”

“Yes.”

He stepped into the elevator and pulled her in with
him, holding her tightly against his body, kissing her neck softly.