Deceiving Derek by Cindy Procter-King Read Free Book Online

advertising
agency—and she wouldn’t blame him.
    She’d screwed up.
    Again.
    She had no choice but to go along with
whatever her client suggested.
    “I see.” Her homemade noose tightened. “That
makes sense.”
     
    ~*~
     
    Justin straightened in his chair. For a
second, he’d thought Magee would turn him down, and then where
would he be? During his six months with Tina, he hadn’t looked at
another woman. All right, he’d looked, but he hadn’t touched. He
might not believe in marriage before forty, but that didn’t mean
he’d lost faith in monogamy, particularly in this age of STDs and
crazy women blathering their personal lives all over the
Internet.
    “Then you’ll do it?” he asked Magee.
    She nodded as if he’d sentenced her to face a
firing squad.
    Odd . He’d offered her a chance to go wheel-skiing at
Whistler, one of the few local mountain biking venues she hadn’t
tried. Or so she’d said when he’d signed with her advertising
agency two months ago. He’d thought she’d feel ecstatic. Instead,
her creamy complexion had assumed an ashy tinge.
    “Remember,” he told her for added incentive,
“what’s good for CycleMania is good for Sinclair Advertising. We
both stand to gain financially from this deal.”
    Her light green gaze darted away. “I’m game.
What do you want me to do?” She ran her fingers through the
chin-length blond hair framing her face. The color reminded him of
liquid honey, natural and appealing.
    “Accompany me to Whistler for the weekend as
my girlfriend. A long weekend, to be specific. The Willoughbys
arrive tomorrow—Thursday. We’ll meet them at the airport and leave
for the mountain right away. We won’t return to Vancouver until
Sunday. Will that work for you?”
    She looked him square in the eyes. “I’ll make
it work, Justin. You’re a valuable client. I wouldn’t want you to
lose this deal.”
    “Good, we’re on the same wavelength.” The
cell phone in his pants pocket vibrated, signaling an incoming
text. He rat-a-tapped his hands on the table. He’d scheduled a tour
of warehouse sites with a realtor for this afternoon. The woman
liked to check in. He should leave and let her know he was on his
way.
    “You don’t have to bring your mountain bike,”
he advised Magee. “We’ll use rentals from the CycleMania store in
Whistler. As for what to pack, we’ll go out for dinner once or
twice. Also, bring your hiking boots and a bathing suit for the hot
tub.”
    “Hot tub?”
    “At my parents’ cabin. They have a place in a
subdivision near Whistler. Three bedrooms, so there’s plenty of
space. Except, of course, we’ll have to share.”
    “We?” She winced. “As in you and me?”
    “Well, I don’t think Nathan would appreciate
it if I tried to bunk with his wife.” Justin tucked the printout of
the preliminary plan into his briefcase. When he glanced up, the
ashen cast to Magee’s skin had intensified. “Don’t worry, this
isn’t a convoluted attempt at sexual harassment. We’ll pretend to
share a room. I’ll sleep in another.”
    “But…we’re supposed to be…lovers?”
    Clearly, the prospect of participating in the
charade disturbed her. However, he didn’t have time to address her
concerns now. He’d have to do so later. “That’s the idea. I need to
keep this simple, Magee. Believe it or not, I don’t usually engage
in deception to get what I want. In order to pull off this weekend,
I need to think of you as Tina. In other words, as my lover.”
    “How? We barely know each other.”
    “I have a plan to correct that.”
    Her pert nose crinkled. “What?”
    “Practice, Miss Sinclair. Lots of it.”
     
     

CHAPTER 2
     
    “He wants you to pretend to be his lover?”
Susannah Deshane’s bubbling laughter bounced off the bedroom walls
in Magee’s small apartment. “Magee, how do you keep finding
yourself in these nutty situations?”
    “A mess,” Magee clarified for her neighbor
and friend. “It’s not a