Misadventures of a Backup Bride

“I’ve just sent a message to my assistant to start working on that now. She’ll call you shortly.” He hesitates. “We should talk specifics, Ella. I have to kiss you.”

Oh, when he talks to me in that voice…I can imagine his big body hovering over me, his head dipping, his full mouth enveloping mine. In fact, I can’t wait.

“I mean, in order to make this work. We have to be convincing. I’ll have to hold your hand, put my arms around you.” He exhales heavily. “And kiss you.”

“I don’t think kissing will be a problem.” I somehow manage to sound businesslike. For the most part. Though my girl parts are doing a dance, I have to be clear about boundaries. “But no more than that. I don’t do nudity or adult work, if you understand me.”

“No sex. I would never want you to do anything you’re not comfortable with,” he assures me. “But you have to stay at my place. I’ve got a spare room. I promise, you’ll have privacy.”

I pause. “I was thinking more like a hotel.”

“No one is going to believe we’re passionately, breathlessly in love if we’re not spending our nights together.”

He’s got a point, but… “Won’t it look as if you’re cheating on your fiancée?”

“I talked to her earlier this morning and told her how deeply I care for you. She sounded relieved. It would be funny, if anything in this situation could be, but she encouraged me to ‘explore my feelings for you, however I need to.’”

I bite my lip. In other words, she’s praying he falls for me so hard that he calls the whole thing off. I don’t have another argument.

“All right, then. I guess I’ll see you soon.”

“Good. We’ll spend a few days getting to know each other, then I’ll introduce you to Gregory Shaw. After that…we’ll do our best to be convincing.”

Hours of being near Carson Frost? Days of kissing him? Weeks of being “in love” with him, even if it’s only for show? Yes, please. “Sounds like a plan. I hope we can make this work.”

“Me, too. Otherwise, I’m out of options.”

Chapter Two

CARSON

My memory of Ella Hope didn’t do her justice. As she hesitates at the threshold of my office, I stand, taking in her simple cream-colored blouse and houndstooth skirt. None of it does a damn thing to disguise the swells of those pillowy breasts or the grippable curves of her hips.

As I swallow back lust, I seem unable to find my brain. All the blood in my body has rushed south. The sex drive I’d feared had died since becoming engaged to Kendra roars back to life with raging insistence after one glance at Ella and her sloe-eyed sultriness.

Cora, my assistant, hovers nearby, watching me carefully. She’s intensely loyal to this company. She might be old enough to be my grandmother, but she controls the flow of information in and out of my office with the skill of a PR master. With one act, I can set the right tone for Ella’s stay. All I have to do is get closer to this woman, like I’m dying to.

“Hello, Ella.” I speak the words like a caress as I walk around my desk. I can’t strip her down and get deep inside her since that wasn’t part of our agreement, but my tone says I’m waiting for that moment all the same.

“Hi, Carson.” She sounds breathless.

Wondering how much of her seeming attraction to me is real, I smile and fuse my stare to hers. Pink rises on her glowing cheeks.

“It’s good to see you.” I take her arm, pull her close. She’s soft. Shit, she smells like an olfactory aphrodisiac—lavender, vanilla, and something muskier I can’t place.

I have to work hard not to bury my head in her neck and inhale her.

Ella blinks up at me as if our gazes are too tangled to look away. “You, too.”

She’s got the breathless girlfriend act down. Even I believe she can’t wait another second for me to touch her.

“I’ve missed you,” I murmur, dropping my head while delving into those dark eyes and long black lashes. And her mouth. Dear god, her lips are a perfect rosy cushion to take my kisses, cry my name, envelop my cock. I’d forgotten how fucking innocent yet sexual she looks.

I want to seduce her. Now. I ache to remove every stitch she’s wearing and wrap my mouth around what I’ll bet are glorious nipples before I kiss my way down her body. I’m sure her thighs would be soft and tender and beautiful as they’re parting to reveal her succulent wetness between, which I would happily sink my mouth onto right now, regardless of the reason she’s here and whatever else is going on in my life.

But I can’t—at least not at the moment.

“I-I’ve missed you, too.”

The whispered worship in her tone is perfect, and I doubt it goes unnoticed by Cora, who will spread the word when I ask her to. Right now, I’m too distracted by Ella to think.

I bend to the gorgeous brunette. Her eyes shut. Her lips part. I can’t accept her unspoken invitation at the office, but if we have an audience at another time and in a more public place, I’ll absolutely indulge in a long, slow possession of her mouth and enjoy every moment of it before I have to turn her loose.

For now, I settle for brushing a kiss over Ella’s downy cheek, then look up at Cora. “Thanks for picking Ms. Hope up at the airport.”

“Of course, Mr. Frost.” My assistant gives me a crafty smile. Though she’s never said a word, I know she hates the idea of me marrying the competition. She’s never seemed impressed with Kendra, either. “You couldn’t miss the meeting with your production team.”

She’s right. I’m still trying to win over all the workers—management and assembly line employees alike. The face time with them is invaluable.

“Lovely to meet you, dear,” Cora says.

Ella smiles in return, still looking intriguingly dazed. “You, too. Thanks for the lift.”

Then my assistant shuts the double doors of my office. Her heels clack across the hardwood floors until she settles at her desk ten feet around the corner. Finally, I’m completely alone with the first woman to trip my libido in what feels like forever. I have to back away or I’m going to do something totally inappropriate that will fall well outside the realm of our agreement.

I slide behind my massive desk again to put distance between us. “Good flight?”

“Uneventful, so that’s the best kind.”

Ella seems more collected now. Has she dropped the act or simply regained her composure now that we’re not mere inches apart? An intriguing question to explore later…

“Good. I just need ten more minutes, then I’ll be ready to leave. Hungry?”

She looks away, her stare landing anywhere but on me. “No, but I’d like to hit the gym tonight. Is there somewhere nearby I can work out? I’ll do that while you’re eating, and then we’ll—”

“I didn’t bring you here to starve you, Ella. I doubt they fed you on the plane.”

“I had a protein bar. I’m fine.”

Frowning, I stare. What’s running through her pretty head? “Then you’re probably ready for real food.”

“You didn’t negotiate meals with me. Unless we have a command performance, I should be free to fuel my body as I see fit.”

There’s a wealth of meaning in what she said. I’m trying to figure it out as I stare, study, dissect. Then I realize… She’s an actress and she’s not a size double zero. Thank god. If anything, I want her more lush, not less so. Since I’m a big man, petite waifs I could break with one good thrust do nothing for me.

“We need every moment to get to know one another. We’ll be attending a charity benefit on Friday night. Gregory and Kendra Shaw will both be there. We have to be well acquainted and very comfortable with each other by then.”

Ella crosses her legs, and her pose shows off the swell

of her calf, the soft curve of her knee.

Am I really waxing poetic about her damn knee?