The Bachelor's Bed by Jill Shalvis Read Free Book Online

paper.”
    Wait. This was becoming far too…real. “Why?”
    She looked at him with that kind smile, the one she seemed to reserve for when she was intent on getting her way. “You want people to stop bothering you. There’s no way faster to do that than to put the engagement in print.”
    â€œBut…” But what? She was right, she was always right, he was beginning to suspect. And why was she so sweetly disagreeing with him on everything? Dammit. “Okay. Fine. An ad is fine.”
    Lani dropped her gaze, looked around at the kitchen she’d seen a thousand times. Almost nervously, she glanced out into the hall and up the stairs.
    She was wondering about the sleeping arrangements.
    â€œCome on,” he said with another heartfelt sigh. “I’ll show you where the spare bedrooms are. You can pick one.”
    She looked relieved and disappointed at the same time.
    He could understand.
    Â 
    L ANI PICKED the bedroom at the far end of the hallway from Colin’s. Not because she found him offensive, but because she didn’t trust herself.
    Her natural, easy affection seemed to terrify him. He’d nearly leaped out of his skin when she’d hugged him hello. Just a simple hug, an affectionate hug, but he’d hated it.
    He’d made sure not to come within five feet of her since then. And when they’d climbed the stairs, he’d shown her the bedrooms as far from his as he could get.
    She didn’t know what she had expected—that he would have suggested his own bed? That wasn’t his style.
    Still, she couldn’t help but wish, as she followed his tall, lean, oh-so-watchable frame, that in this one aspect, their engagement was real.
    He dropped her duffel bag on the bed that would be hers. “Let me know if you need anything.”
    Did he mean it? She doubted it. He had that expression on his face, the one that assured her he’d rather be at the dentist having a tooth extracted. Without drugs.
    Well he wasn’t alone in that. She had so many reservations about this farce they were undertaking! She could tell herself she’d agreed to help because she believed in his project—and she did. But she knew the truth, that it was far more than that. And she was scared.
    Colin West was driven and focused, and if she believed the rumors, he was cold and aloof as well.
    But it wasn’t true, she knew this with all her heart. No one with eyes so deep and heated could be cold. All year she’d been drawn to him on some deep, primal level and while she might not understand it, she couldn’t ignore it. Any of a million things could have happened to make Colin the very private man he was, and she understood that better than most, because for all her bubbliness, she herself was incredibly private.
    What she didn’t get was the sudden need she had to please him, to be with him. To make him happy.
    â€œI’ll be fine,” she said quietly, and decided to face the music with a brave smile. “So what are we going to do to get to know each other?”
    Given the way his eyes flared, she’d gotten his attention. In response, her insides heated and they both stared at each other like idiots.
    It drew a laugh out of her, because they were both so obviously thinking about only one thing. She reached out and stroked his arm. “This is silly, you know. We’re adults.”
    He stared down at her hand on him. “Yeah, adults,” he agreed, those intense eyes of his heavy and shuttered.
    Her inner warmth spread, pooling in areas she hadn’t felt heat in for some time. “Maybe we’d better sleep on it tonight,” she suggested. “We’ll think ofsomething. Like Twenty Questions, or another game.”
    He blinked and looked as if he’d rather face a firing squad, which made her laugh. “This was your idea, you know,” she teased.
    His mouth quirked, though he didn’t actually