Page 12 of Fake Wife
“Okay.” She huffs and pulls back, and as she does, I tighten my grip. I don’t know her, but I like her here. Her body is warm and soft. Reluctantly, I loosen my hold.
This needs to stay business, intellectual and financial, not emotional.
“What do you need my help for?”
Scanning her face, I forget the plan. Forget the explanation. Forget the reasonings and all my poorly thought out ways to explain it to her so she doesn’t freak out.
Now, her eyes more red from crying, the tip of her nose pink along with her cheeks, she’s essentially makeup free. And absolutely breathtaking.
My hands slide to her cheeks down to her jaw, the sides of her neck. Soft. She smells good. A hint of sweetness mixed with cherries.
My dick takes notice and hardens. I swallow the groan building in my throat.
“I want you to marry me.”
Chapter 5
Teagan
“You’ve been given four weeks severance. I’m truly sorry.”
Which is what my boss said to me this morning when I arrived at work, promptly as always, and proceeded to lay me off before I’d finished my first cup of coffee.
“Honey, this isn’t what it looks like.”
Which is what my boyfriend of seven years, now ex, said to me when I arrived at home, hours earlier than normal due to the firing, and I found him drilling into a busty blonde he had bent over our bed.
“I want you to marry me.”
Which is what Corbin Lane said to me less than an hour after I crashed into his car.
Needless to say, I am floundering as we drive out to Cannon Bluffs, an hour and a half outside Portland. Corbin’s idea is completely insane, and yet it offers me the assurance that someday I will be able to follow my dream and finally afford the startup costs for my equine therapy farm. I try to tell myself that’s the only reason why I’ve agreed to this.
What’s two more years when I’ve already given up so much? Perhaps I’m not thinking clearly after the day I’ve had. I woke up next to Drake, determined to get our love life back on track after months of neglect, only to end up moving in with another man, all within approximately eight hours.
Yes, this is nuts. Quite possibly the worst decision I’ve ever made. At some point, I’m certain reality will crash into me and throw me into a tailspin, but I also can’t deny I’m intrigued by Corbin.
Why is he choosing me? He has to know a hundred women willing to marry him at the snap of his fingers. For some reason, he’s gone with the unemployed, homeless, and recently cheated on with nothing to her name random girl who crashed into him on a downtown street.
Yes, I’ve lost my mind. That has to explain why, when he suggested I pile everything from my car into his and ride out to his grandmother’s house with him for the weekend to try this out, I agreed.
Married within six months. Another two years of forfeiting my dream. All for a marriage in name only. No sex. No strings. Just financial benefit and the ability to be seen on his arm. When I asked him why he doesn’t marry someone he already knows, he answered with a vague reply of rich women being too much work.
Awesome. I’m simple and easily bought. Just what I hoped to hear.
Yeah, this is absolutely insane.
Next to me, Corbin appears as calm as he’s been ever since he invited me to hear his proposition. Does nothing faze this man? He has one hand draped over the steering wheel, one hand on this gearshift. His eyes are shaded by sunglasses that most likely cost more than my last share of the rent check, and he seems completely unruffled by the fact he’s asked a stranger to marry him.
Sure it’s temporary, but he can’t honestly think we’ll be able to pull this off. According to him, he has six months to fall in love and get married, and we don’t know a single thing about each other. How in the heck will we be able to convince his friends and family we’re in love?
I drop my forehead into my hand and rub my temples with my thumb and middle finger. All of this stress is bringing on a headache.
“I’m thinking right about now you’re starting to realize what you’ve agreed to.”
And he’s a mind reader. Awesome.
“Something like that,” I mutter, still pointlessly rubbing away the pain in my head.
