Marriage by Mistake by Alyssa Kress Read Free Book Online Page A

Dean's name, he owned Dean's body
   but he wasn't really Dean.
    She wasn't really married to him.
    At least, that's what she planned to prove.
There was no connection between this man and the one to whom she'd
made holy vows. She'd satisfy her conscience, the voice in her head
that had been shouting she was a hypocrite, that she couldn't live
up to her own standards.
    A promise was a promise.
    Kelly sank into her seat. Dean   
or whoever he was    lowered into the seat beside her.
Little shivers ran up and down Kelly's arms. All right, she
responded to the guy's body, but they weren't properly married. In
fact, she didn't think it would take as long as two whole months to
prove it. That's what she'd told her boss, Rudy, in persuading him
to hire a temp to fill her job on the chorus line. She'd also
reminded Rudy that she'd pulled him out of more than one hole of
his own. Now it was her turn to get pulled out of a hole. And she would get out of it. A mere two months and she'd be back in
her own life, no worse for wear.
    Kelly sniffed, pretending she didn't notice
every single thing the man beside her was doing. He did not appear
to be at all aware of her. As more passengers filed past them, he
settled his briefcase on his knees and drew from it a thick sheaf
of papers. He immediately began paging through them.
    Kelly wished she had something to do, too,
but even if she hauled out her paperback novel it wouldn't have
been polite to read it now, not when she was sitting right next to
her brand new husband. She tapped her fingers on her knee.
Apparently this guy    Dean    didn't realize
what was polite.
    She stopped tapping her fingers and cleared
her throat. "Uh, do you think we'll have a nice flight?" She didn't
quite look at him as she smiled pleasantly.
    He drew his stapled bundle of papers closer
to his eyes. "I have no idea."
    And that was that. He frowned at his papers
while Kelly felt her face burn.
    Two months    or less.
    Meanwhile the plane bounced gently. They were
leaving the gate. Dean actually looked up from his papers, but only
to shoot Kelly a disapproving glance. "You need to put on your seat
belt."
    "What? Oh." Kelly looked down. Her lap was,
indeed, unrestrained. Before she could do anything to correct the
situation, he was leaning over her, reaching for the metal tabs.
Mr. In-Charge.
    His knuckles brushed her stomach as he shot
the metal tongue home.
    Kelly pressed back in her seat. Dean's breath
drew in sharply. But neither one of them seemed able to avoid it:
their eyes met. A spark arced between them, white-hot electricity,
a moment of stripped-bare awareness.
    Dean straightened abruptly and turned,
grabbing up his sheaf of papers. Kelly hissed out slowly and craned
her head to gaze out the window.
    All right, so there was a physical thing
between them. No big deal. Physical attraction didn't make the man
her husband. Kelly blinked out the window and struggled to even her
heart rate.
    Only love could do that.
    ###
    They arrived in Boston two hours late. That
meant Dean had been sitting beside the woman for seven hours
straight. In that time they'd barely exchanged a dozen words. What
was he going to talk to her about? The stock market, free trade
problems? Or perhaps the number of sequins she could sew on a
single costume?
    Meanwhile, he noticed every time she crossed
her legs, every time she shifted in her seat. He did his best to
distract himself, delving deeply into the quarterly report, but it
didn't work. He still noticed. Worse yet, he still responded.
    It was embarrassing. Never had Dean
experienced physical desire so unrelenting. His fingers actually
itched. As they deboarded the plane, he decided he had to get away
from her. Oh sure, he'd have to bring her home, settle her in, but
following that duty some office emergency could take him back to
the city. He could get out of her sphere.
    Eager to put his plan into motion, Dean
shepherded Kelly through the busy, early morning airport.