Page 37 of Boss's Baby: A Fake Fiance Romance

“It was, until Dad took away the privilege.”

“That right?”

He nodded. “You ever hear about the night of the Gray junior prom? The one where there was a fire that kind of broke out?”

My eyes went wide as the memory came back. “Yeah. Lots of parents from the nice part of town had to pick their kids up for MIPs that night.”

“Yep. And this is the room where it all went down. They had to do a little remodeling after that night.”

“Bad, bad kid.”

“Hey, like I said, I was a different guy back then.”

I almost wanted to say something about how he wasn’t that different—after all, he hadn’t totally given up his womanizing ways after the military. But I let it go, deciding it wasn’t worth bringing up.

Then again, if he was pulling something like this fake fiancée scheme, had he really changed?

“OK,” he said, sitting back in the couch. “You do some thinking about this whole thing?”

“A little on the way over. I don’t know. I’m hardly sold on the idea.”

“I get that. Nothing you need to rush into. Though…”

“Though?”

“The faster you decide, the better. I’d love to announce this thing before Christmas.”

“You mean in the next few days?”

“That’s exactly what I mean. That way, Dad has plenty of time to start thinking about handing the company over.”

“Won’t he suspect something? How you found someone so quickly after he told you his ultimatum?”

“Maybe. Or maybe when I came back to town for Thanksgiving, I met a girl I knew back in high school who I’d always had a little thing for. We’d gotten together, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized the girl next door was the perfect woman for me.”

He grinned, seemingly proud of his tale.

“Very cute. Like something out of a Hallmark movie.”

Again he raised an eyebrow in surprise, as if I’d said something he hadn’t expected. But I let it go.

“Anyway. What do you think?”

“I don’t know. I feel like I need more time to consider it. I mean, even if I did say ‘yes,’ which I most certainly haven’t done yet, there’s still the matter of actually going through with it, you know?”

“You mean the acting part?”

“I mean the acting part. Sure, we’re not total strangers or anything like that, but we’re not—”

“A couple.”

“A couple. So everything about how we act around each other is going to look really forced. There has to be someone who notices and realizes there’s something fishy going on.”

Josh grinned, the crackle of the fireplace filling the silence.

“I don’t like that look.”

“It sounds to me like you’re doing more than considering it, is all.”

“Just figuring out the finer points of the plan. Someone’s got to do it. Your dad’s not stupid—won’t he suspect something?”

“He might. Or my brother might. Or someone else might. Which is why we’d need to make sure that we’re on point when it comes to how we act around each other.”

“And how do we do that?”

Josh thought about it for a moment before taking a sip from his drink and setting it down on the coffee table. “Like this. Come here.”

“‘Come here’?”

“Come here.” He opened his arms and spread one across the back of the couch.

“You want me to…what?”

“You know what I want you to do. Come over and sit with me on the couch like we’re a couple.”

Heat rushed through my body, especially between my legs. I was scared and interested all at once. But my brain and other parts of my body were in total conflict.

“As long as it’s only for show.”

“Didn’t have anything else in mind.”

With some hesitation, I moved closer and closer to Josh until my body was pressed against his. He was warm and solid, exactly as I remembered from our night together. The effect he had on me was instant and only more pronounced when he actually wrapped his arm around me.

Uh oh.

I wanted to say something, maybe a joke to lighten the mood and remind him—and myself—that this was nothing more than play-acting. But the warmth of his body against mine, the crackle of the fire, the luxury of the room—it was all having quite an effect on me.

Without thinking, I nuzzled closer into his chest.

“Comfy?”

I bit my lip in embarrassment. “Getting…getting into character.”

He said nothing, only letting out a soft chuckle as if he was more amused than anything else. I found myself thinking about how long it’d been since I’d been with a man like that, the two of us cuddled up and cozy, simply enjoying each other’s company. Sure, it was fake, but there was something…real about it all.

Before too long, Josh’s hand, which had been wrapped around my arm, began moving up and down. It was nice, soothing. Again, without thinking, I curled up closer against him.

“See? We’re naturals.”

“Something like that.”

I’d barely had anything to drink, but I still felt intoxicated by something I couldn’t quite put my finger on. What the hell was Josh doing to me?

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