Page 14 of Temporary Wife Temptation

“I haven’t forgotten, but I don’t know what the rush is. I could move in after the wedding.”

Garrett raked his fingers through his full, dark hair, tousling it into a sexy mess. “My grandmother isn’t going to give up on the arranged marriage easily.”

“And that’s why we’re getting married. I haven’t forgotten.”

“Knowing her, she’s going to use all her influence to stop our wedding. Maybe even leak my ‘engagement’ to Jihae Park to the press.”

“Why would she do something like that?”

“Then it won’t be just the CEO seat on the line for me. I’d be responsible for burning bridges with Rotelle Corporation and publicly humiliating a young woman.” Garrett squeezed the back of his neck. “But it’d be a risky move on my grandmother’s part since Hansol will receive negative press if you and I still went ahead with our wedding. Neither Grandmother nor I would do anything to harm Hansol, but I don’t know how far she’ll go. We’ve never been on opposite sides of a conflict before.”

“When are we announcing the engagement?” she asked, her teeth tugging at her bottom lip. Their conversation sounded more dramatic than a scene from a soap opera. She’d be sitting on the edge of the couch stuffing popcorn in her mouth except this was actually happening to her. Cue the Twilight Zone music.

“In two weeks.” Garrett rubbed a hand down his face.

“Couldn’t we move it up?”

“We have less than two weeks to warm up the public to the idea of us. When we announce our engagement, we need people to feel like they’re part of the romance. If we blindside them with it, they’ll feel duped. That won’t win us any fans.”

She nodded as his words lit up a dark corner of her heart. He’s protecting me. He lived in the limelight and could charm the press with a grin and a witty remark, but Natalie would be vulnerable to the public’s scorn. She soaked up the warmth of the knowledge.

Wait, no. This way lies trouble. Natalie couldn’t let her loneliness fool her that his kind gesture meant anything more than what it was. She and Garrett had a purely business arrangement and she shouldn’t forget that.

“You’ll be an open target to your grandmother’s manipulations. Are you sure about waiting?”

“No.” Garrett shrugged and pinned her with his gaze. “That’s why I need you to ruin me for the Korean heiress.”

“Ruin you?” Natalie was horrified at how far his grandmother would go to control his life. It had to be suffocating to bear so much pressure. Yet, he was risking so much to protect her reputation. “I don’t know... I’ve never ruined a hotshot billionaire before.”

“It’s simple.” His lips quirked in amusement. “Move in with me.”

“But how does moving in together ruin you?”

“Jihae Park’s family, as well as my grandmother, will be scandalized if we moved in together before our wedding. At least superficially, propriety and virtue are still important in Korean culture, especially to those jae-bul families. If I’m lucky, her family will call off the wedding first. At the very least, my grandmother won’t be able to make any engagement announcements of her own.”

“Virtue?” She blinked and searched her mind for the right words. “My moving in with you will compromise your virtue?”

“And yours.” He grinned mischievously.

She gulped. Yes, he would definitely be a good ravisher.

“Fine. I’ll think about ruining you.” She rolled her eyes to hide how much the thought of tainting his virtue aroused her. “If we’re done here, I have a presentation to give. You can leave in fifteen minutes.”

“What?”

“I don’t want anyone seeing us come out of the stairwell together.” She could do without adding “stairwell quickie” to the gossip fodder.

“You want me to waste fifteen minutes of my time out here?”

“Not at all.” She wished she could snap a picture of his expression. She could look at it for a good laugh whenever she was having a bad day. “You can sit on the stairs and productively check your emails if you’d like. Just don’t come out for fifteen minutes.”

Natalie scanned the hallway before slipping out and shutting the door in Garrett’s stunned face.

His fiancée had locked him out of his own company.

Garrett glanced at his watch, feeling ridiculous hiding in the dimly lit stairwell. He waited exactly five minutes; that was all she was getting. Even so, he made certain the hallway was empty before he left his confinement.

After shutting his office door behind him, Garrett sank into his desk chair and sifted through a pile of documents, then tossed them back down. They were getting married in a few weeks and would be living under the same roof for months. What was there to think about?

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