Fiancee for One Night by Trish Morey Read Free Book Online

out at the river. That wouldn’t hold her attention for long. Not when he did this…
    ‘You’re perfect,’ he said, lifting his hand to a stray tendril of hair that had come loose and feeling her shudder as his fingertips caressed her neck. ‘I couldn’t have asked for a better pretend fiancée.’
    Her eyelids fluttered as he swore she swayed into his touch until she seemed to snap herself awake and shift the other way. ‘I sense a “but” coming.’
    ‘No buts,’ he said, pretending to focus on the print on the wall before them. ‘We just have to get our stories straight, in case someone asks us how we met. I was thinking it would make sense to keep things as close tothe truth as possible. That you were working as my PA and one thing led to another.’
    ‘I guess.’
    ‘And we’ve been together now, what, two years? Except we don’t see each other that often as I’m always on the move and you live in Australia.’
    ‘That makes sense.’
    ‘That makes perfect sense. And explains why we want to wait before making that final commitment.’
    ‘Marriage.’ She nodded. ‘We’re taking our time.’
    ‘Exactly,’ he said, slipping a tentative arm around her shoulders, feeling her shudder at the contact. ‘We want to be absolutely sure, which is hard when we only get to see each other a few snatched times a year.’
    ‘Okay. I’ve got that.’
    ‘Excellent.’ He turned towards her. Put a finger under her chin and lifted it so that she had no choice but to look into his eyes. ‘But there’s one thing you don’t get.’
    ‘I knew there was a but coming,’ she said, and he would have laughed, but she was so nervous, so on edge, and he didn’t want to spook her. Not when she was so important to him tonight.
    ‘This one’s simple,’ he said. ‘All you have to do is relax with me.’
    ‘I’m perfectly relaxed,’ she said stiffly, sounding more like a prim librarian than any kind of lover.
    ‘Are you, when my slightest touch…’ he ran a fingertip down her arm and she shivered and shied away ‘…clearly makes you uncomfortable.’
    ‘It’s a dinner,’ she said, defensively. ‘Why should you need to touch me?’
    ‘Because any red-blooded man, especially one intending to marry you and who doesn’t get the chanceto see you that often, would want to touch you every possible moment of every day.’
    ‘Oh.’
    ‘Oh, indeed. You see my problem.’
    ‘So what do you suggest?’
    Her eyes were wide and luminous and up close he could see they were neither simply green nor blue but all the myriad colours of the sea mixed together, the vibrant green where the shallow water kissed the sand, the sapphire blue of the deep water, and everything in between. And even though she was supposed to be off limits, he found himself wondering what they’d look like when she came.
    ‘I find practice usually makes perfect.’
    She swallowed, and he followed the movement down her slender throat. ‘You want to practise touching me?’
    Fascinated, his thumb found the place where the movement had disappeared, his fingers tracing her collarbone and feeling her trembling response, before sliding around her neck, drawing her closer as his eyes settled on her too-wide lips, deciding they weren’t too wide at all, but as close to perfect as they could get.
    ‘And I want you to practise not jumping every time I do.’
    ‘I…I’ll try,’ she said, a mist rolling in over her eyes, and he doubted she even realised she was already swaying into his touch.
    He smiled as he tilted her chin with his other hand, his thumb stroking along the line of her jaw. ‘You see, it’s not that hard.’
    She blinked, looking confused. ‘I understand. I…I’ll be fine.’
    But he had no intention of ending the lesson yet.
    Not when he had such a willing and biddable pupil. ‘Excellent,’ he said, tilting her chin higher, ‘and now there’s just one more thing.’
    ‘There is?’ she breathed.
    ‘Of course,’ he said,