Paper Marriage Proposition (Gage Brothers 1)

Landon Gage wasn’t a pillar she could lean on tomorrow, wouldn’t be a steady presence in her life. There were just these few…moments. With him. Dangerous moments, crowded with dangerous thoughts.

“I don’t…want to.”

“Now you’re blushing.”

“Because you’re flirting.”

“Flirting.” A sprinkle of laughter danced across his eyes. “I’m being honest with my wife.”

She raised her eyes to his.

“Then can you honestly tell me you’re not trying to seduce me?”

He offered no argument for a moment, but then said, in a voice that broached no argument, “If I were trying to seduce you, you’d be right here.” Meaningfully, he patted his lap, and her eyes hurt at the image of the prominent bulge between his parted thighs. “You’d be right here, right now. And I wouldn’t be sleeping alone tonight—nor would you.”

She tried reining in her jumbled thoughts, but couldn’t seem to get past the words “seduce” and “you’d be right here.” “Then you’re just playing some sort of game?” Her voice came out unsteady.

He shook his head. “I’m definitely not playing.”

“Then what?” she persisted. “What’s this about? What is it that you want from me?”

“You really want to know what I want?”

“I want to know what you want, yes!”

“Your trust, Beth. Before you give me anything else, I want your trust.”

They engaged in a brief staring contest, Landon’s eyes scalding, Beth struggling to tame the wild impulse to put her lips on his beautiful stern ones.

Stricken by the realization that Landon always brought out the lonely, impulsive teenager in her, she lost the staring contest and glanced down at her purse on her lap. “What makes you think I don’t trust you?”

“Do you?”

She opened her mouth to say yes, yes, she did, despite not wanting to, when Thomas interrupted. “Sir, I’ve got orders to drive you to the office right away.”

“First we drop off Bethany.”

Beth frowned, inched a bit farther away, hoping distance between them would give her distance from emotions, too. “Something important at the office?”

“Not really.” He shifted in his seat, his legs opening wider now that he had more space.

“If you’d pardon me, sir.” Thomas cleared his throat and caught her gaze in the rearview mirror. “It’s Mr. Gage’s birthday today, Mrs. Gage. The office always celebrates despite his say in the matter.”

Beth gaped in stunned surprise. “It’s your birthday.”

His birthday. Her husband’s birthday.

Oh, wow. She must be the worst wife in the history of the world.

She hadn’t known…

She hadn’t known about his birthday.

But she tried to reassure herself, telling herself, in her mind, that she knew Landon in ways others didn’t.

She knew that his loyalty was steadfast and not easily given, knew that he’d done right by his first wife and generally right by everyone around him. She knew that he was quiet and thoughtful but knew how to laugh, and that his smiles—unlike Hector’s—were real and reached his eyes.

Pursing her lips in determination, she opened the window. “Thomas, I’ll be accompanying my husband.”