Bargaining with the Bride (Honeybrook Love, Inc. 1)

"Presumptuous."

"Not after the way you screamed my name last night." He grinned, and something dark and sinful glinted in his eyes. Something that made her heart beat that much faster.

"You don't know—"

"Oh, but I do. I notice everything about you. When you walk away from me, you shake your hips just the slightest bit more. Like you want me to watch you walk away—"

"I do not—"

"And when you have coffee with me in the morning, you bend over my shoulder to put the coffee in front of me. I can feel your breasts brush against me. Smell your perfume."

"Aren't you reading too much into it?" She asked, trying her best to make sure he didn't note the tremor in her voice.

"No. And you know that." He crunched into a piece of toast. "The good news is, it didn't go unnoticed. I swear, every time you put my coffee in front of me I wanted to pull you into my lap."

"Garret, I—" He head was spinning. Where was this coming from? What could she—

"This is me putting my cards out on the table," he shrugged. "Now it's your turn."

She blushed, imagining trying to explain the way she thought about him. And, the more she thought it through, she had.

Even before their plan had been a seed of a thought in her mind, it had been Garret she'd thought of when she was alone. And when he walked into the office, a powerful suit framing those broad shoulders of his...

But she could tell him that. She didn't have the nerve.

She'd simply have to show him.

She stood from the table, and then slowly unfastened each of the buttons on his discarded shirt. When it finally fell to the floor and she was naked in front of him, she smiled.

He stared at her like she was the beautiful thing he'd every seen.

"Come upstairs. I'll show you what's been on my mind."

* * *

Afterward, Garret lay on the bed, staring up at the ceiling while trying to calculate the odds of his good fortune. They were limitless, and with Rachael next to him, he felt beyond unstoppable.

Not only would she help him score this account with Matchware, but she'd bring some much needed, long-lost fun to his life.

Being a fake husband in exchange hardly seemed like a fair bargain anymore.

"I guess I can't wear white to the wedding now that you've defiled me." She rolled over and grinned and it took all of the energy he had left not to pin her down and bury himself inside her all over again.

She was just so beautiful with the light catching strands of her golden hair as she moved. Stunning.

And his.

"Why not? We're faking everything else."

"Good point." She laid her head on his chest, and for a while they lay in silence, each thinking their own private thoughts.

"Are you going back to work today?" she asked.

For what felt like the first time in his life, he felt unsure of the answer. He wanted to lay here all day. Talking to Rachael, learning about her, and then falling into her again and again until they fell asleep together.

But he couldn't do that.

He had numbers to configure and experiments to develop. A board meeting with brooks. A staff meeting with Natalie. A company to run.