Page 36 of An Inconvenient Marriage
“Zach?”
I was wearing a long-sleeved shirt underneath my suit jacket, and still her touch registered on my skin. It sizzled and burned like a live wire scraping over my bones. I gritted my teeth to keep the curses from falling and pushed a frustrated, “What?” past my lips without turning around.
“Does he know?”
I faced her then, and so help me, I almost lost control. She had that plump bottom lip trapped between her teeth again, and with those blue eyes big and round, she looked both flustered and innocent at the same time.
Shit. I really wanted to fuck her. Right there against the door would be perfect. Hard and fast until the walls vibrated with her needy little moans.
“Does he?” she asked again.
I blinked and forced my thoughts back to the moment. Only problem was, I had no idea what the hell she was talking about.
“What?”
Her brows pulled together, and she simply stared at me for a moment with an incredulous expression on her way-too-gorgeous face. “Does your brother know”—speaking slow as if she was talking to someone who had trouble understanding, she waggled her index finger between us—“this isn’t real?”
I couldn’t stop the sudden rush of inexplicable jealousy burning through my veins.
“Why do you want to know? Would you like to pursue him?”
Hurt flashed in her eyes, and for the first time, I hated myself for putting it there.
“You don’t have to be an ass. I was just asking because I need to know what I can or can’t say tonight.” She lifted her chin, but her lips still trembled. “Or am I expected to simply sit there and smile like a good little girl?”
The words spilled from her mouth like a volcano that had waited for years to erupt. I got the feeling she’d been holding it in for a long, long time, and even though she said it to me, I wasn’t the intended target.
But I still was unnecessarily rude, and that wouldn’t win me any points or get her to trust me enough to talk about Trent. So, I drew in a breath and smoothed my palm over my tie, then did the only thing I wasn’t good at.
“I’m sorry.”
Natalie’s eyes grew even wider, and she shook her head slightly. Clearly, she hadn’t expected me to apologize. Neither had I, but here we were.
“To answer your questions, Javier believes our marriage to be real. And no…” I took two steps forward, putting us so close she had to tilt her head back to maintain eye contact. “I do not expect you to just sit there. Sometimes being agood little girlis a great thing, but this isn’t it.”
She sucked in a sharp, audible breath. Pity, I wasn’t done.
Taking her chin between my thumb and index finger, I lowered my face to hers. “Understood?”
“Yes.”
The word fell from her lips soft and breathy, music to my damn ears.
I grinned at her. “Good. Now if there’s nothing else, can we go?”
Her tongue darted out and slid over her bottom lip. “O-one more thing. What am I supposed to tell him if he wants to know how we met?”
“We stick to the truth as far as possible.” My gaze flicked to that sinful mouth for a hot second, then back up to meet hers again. “Your father and I wanted to do business, but then you showed up and stole my attention.”
She swallowed hard. “Okay.”
I let go of her then because if I’d held on for a second longer, we wouldn’t make it to dinner. Hell, we wouldn’t even make it past the door. Spinning around, I headed out into the hallway with Natalie trailing behind me.
As expected, we made the elevator ride down to the lobby in silence. And when the doors slid open, I stepped in close and took her hand in mine. The instant I touched her, though, her back stiffened, and she sucked in a breath.
I’d be lying if I said the reaction didn’t annoy me. But I’d already been a bastard once tonight and wasn’t intending on being one again. So, I leaned in closer until my mouth almost pressed against her ear.
“We need to resemble two people who are so in love, they can’t keep their hands off each other. A bit difficult to do when you’re all tensed up like this.”
