Page 12 of Temporary Wife Temptation

“What?” Mike sounded panicked. “Don’t you want to have a long conversation about your bachelor party?”

“Not happening.”

“I was worried Samantha ruined you for love and happiness. Now that you have Natalie, I’m sure you’re thankful for the narrow escape,” Mike said without a hint of levity. “I’m happy for you.”

“Thank you.”

Garrett ended the call and leaned back on his seat. Love and whatever happiness it might bring weren’t worth the risk of heartbreak. The last time he’d let his guard down—worn thin by buried grief and loneliness—Samantha had happened.

Trust and sentimentality inevitably led to pain and loss. Logic and reason, however, had never let him down. He could almost understand why his grandmother devoted her every waking moment to Hansol after his grandfather died.

His engagement to Natalie had nothing to do with love and happiness, or out-of-control attraction. She was his partner in a project to change their lives. He would get his CEO position and a personal life that belonged to him, and she would adopt her niece and start a new life in New York. They would both get what they wanted and walk away content.

This might actually work.

Four

Natalie smacked her palm against her forehead. She was so dazed from their kiss she’d returned home without her laptop. Color flooded her cheeks and her heartbeat kicked up a notch. Would kissing him always make her want to rip off his clothes?

Miserable and mortified, she shuffled down the hall and knocked on her neighbor’s door. Mrs. Kim was her friend and confidante. Natalie wouldn’t have made it through her sister’s death without the older woman’s kindness and wisdom. If anyone could help sort out this mess, it was her.

Mrs. Kim cracked open the door then swung it wide with a welcoming smile, but Natalie’s smile wobbled at the corners. Her neighbor’s only reaction was the slightest tilt of an immaculately shaped eyebrow. Then she nodded her head as though she’d reached a decision.

“Soju.”

Natalie had been accepted as part of Mrs. Kim’s exclusive “in” crowd by fearlessly tilting back the potent liquor, matching the older woman shot for shot.

She didn’t know a whole lot about her neighbor except that she lived a quiet and solitary life. When Natalie had first met her, she’d guessed her to be in her midthirties, with her trim figure and smooth skin, but she soon learned that Mrs. Kim was well into her fifties. Natalie was beginning to think that soju was the secret to her youth.

The two women settled in at the kitchen table and Mrs. Kim poured them each a drink. She hissed in appreciation of the soju’s kick, and lifted her shot glass for Natalie to refill. Once her glass was filled to the brim, she took the bottle from Natalie and refilled hers. “You know Forrest Gump?”

Natalie blinked several times. That was random. Nineties cinema was not a frequent topic of their conversations. “Do you mean that Tom Hanks movie?”

Mrs. Kim nodded.

“Yeah, I’ve watched it on TV before.”

“Well, he was wrong.” Mrs. Kim poked the air with her index finger. “Life is not like a box of chocolates. You’d never find a piece of crap in a chocolate box.”

Natalie nodded somberly, then they downed their shots. She would’ve found the observation hilarious if it hadn’t made so much sense. Life could bury you in a mountain of crap, but the worst you could do with a box of chocolates was bite into a piece with nasty pink goo inside.

“Still no headway on Sophie’s adoption?” Her neighbor’s eyes were soft with understanding.

“No,” Natalie whispered, desperation clogging her throat. “The odds are stacked against me, but I can’t let her go.”

“And now, you have a man,” she said matter-of-factly. Sometimes she could swear Mrs. Kim was a psychic. “That complicates things even more.”

Complicates things? That’s such a genteel way of describing the mess I’m in.

“I don’t exactly have him.” There was no use denying there was a man. Mrs. Kim jutted her chin at Natalie to continue, then poured more shots into their glasses. “I’m just engaged to him.”

To her credit, Mrs. Kim swallowed her soju before she coughed and sputtered, “You’re what?”

“I got engaged to Hansol’s VP of Business and Development.”

“Fancy.”

“He’s also the heir apparent to the entire freaking company.”

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