The Fake Fiancée. Megan Kelly
his desk. Although tasteful and professional, Joe’s office presented an impersonal face to his associates. It certainly chilled her.
“Thanks for meeting with me here,” Joe said after seating her on a tan leather sofa. He settled in one of the three chairs across from her. “Would you care for a drink?”
Lisa declined with a shake of her head.
“Perhaps I could take you to lunch afterward?”
She smiled with insincere sweetness. “That won’t be possible. I had to rearrange my morning to suit yours. I have work to complete this afternoon.”
He chuckled as she evened the score.
“The flower show is in four days, you know.”
He winced. “I remember.”
Lisa almost crowed with satisfaction. She had him. He’d have to agree to give her the contract.
“You said you’d help me under certain conditions.” Joe’s manner turned less personal. “I assume you’re talking about catering our company party.”
“Yes, but that’s not the cond—”
He held up his hand. “I assure you I didn’t mean it as a bribe at the time, and I don’t think badly of you for agreeing to it now. It’s just a—” he waved his hand vaguely “—an exchange of services.”
Lisa bit her lip. For two cents, she’d walk out and leave him hanging—for two cents and about half a million dollars, which she didn’t have. Joe might need her to extricate him from this tangle of lies he’d woven, but she also needed him.
Dammit. She’d worked her rear off whittling down that debt. They’d still have to live hand-to-mouth for a while, but she had started to rebuild her life. Maybe in a year or two she could get a credit card, although it would no doubt be a prepay deal. But to have a credit rating she could be proud of. To pay off her business loans. To take her children to the pizza place herself and not cower at the cost of the arcade games. Oh, she’d do a lot for that. She’d enroll Bobby in that enrichment program, then stuff the check for the whole amount, without any grants from the school district, right up Bushfield’s nose.
She took a deep breath. “First, let me assure you I wouldn’t do this if I could come up with another solution.”
Joe’s eyebrows rose.
“I stayed up all night, worrying over this. If there was any way not to have to make this deal with you, any way at all…” She clenched her hands together.
“Is this your way of asking me for a favor?”
Lisa’s face heated. She’d insulted him. Not a promising start. Rubbing her temple, she mentally altered her phrasing. “No, it’s my way of proposing a deal. I believe in honesty, and although I might agree to your deception, it goes against my nature. I want you to understand my desper—my position.”
Joe leaned toward her. “Go on.”
“You need me to pretend to be your girlfriend, to appease your mother. I need your catering contract, but I don’t want our arrangement to upset my children. My condition is simple. They’re not to be involved. You’re not to be around them. It’s out of the question.”
He studied her in silence. After an eternity, he said, “I don’t see how I can stay away from the children since we’ll be dating.” His tone laced charm with silken warning.
“I thought I’d just meet your parents once or twice. At the Garden Society exhibit and maybe one other time in a couple of weeks to cap off the pretense.”
He shook his head. “We’ll have to be seen out together. My mother has a network of friends. She wouldn’t believe we have a serious relationship if we aren’t spotted around town. We’re supposedly on the brink of getting married.”
Lisa sighed, conceding his point. “Fine, but no meeting the kids. They’re a little confused right now, basically due to their father’s desertion. Brad, my husband, wasn’t…He didn’t…”
She jumped to her feet, unable to stay still.
“It wasn’t an amicable divorce?” Joe asked.
She snorted, then caught herself and paced away. “No, it wasn’t. It’s been a year and a half of upheaval for the kids.” She leaned back against his desk and gazed into mid-distance between them as some of those upheavals ran through her mind. The children’s tears. Her shock at sudden bankruptcy. Their nightmares. Their confusion and hurt.
“Is there any chance you and your husband might—?”
“No.” She shuddered. Not even for the children.
Joe nodded. He tapped steepled fingers against his full lower lip. Lisa ground her teeth, both irritated at him for his relaxed position while her world teetered to disaster, while also impatient with herself for noticing his seductive mouth at such a time.
“So what am I supposed to be?”
She swallowed another lump of pride and confessed, “You’re the provider of a contract that’ll bail me out of a financial bind.”
“No, I meant what will your children think I am to you?”
She stared at him. Having forced herself to admit she needed money so badly, she couldn’t switch tracks fast enough to follow his train of thought.
“Am I posing as your lover or whatever the kids would call it?” His mouth twisted. “Your boyfriend, I suppose.”
Lisa snapped her mouth closed. “No, that’s not what I’d planned, at all. I thought you could just be my client.”
Joe stood and walked toward her.
She forgot how to breathe.
“I’ll be picking you up for dates, for my parents’ sake, remember? Your children will know we’re more than business associates.”
“Not…not if I explain that I’m doing you a favor.”
His smile was less than nice. “But you’re not going to explain that to them. You’re not going to explain it to anyone. Word gets around. Kids tell kids, who tell parents, who might know me or my folks.”
“Oh.” Her pounding heart impeded her thinking. She couldn’t breathe; she couldn’t think. Maybe being around Joe wasn’t such a great idea.
“It’s our secret. You’re my girlfriend, lover, or whatever you want to call yourself.”
“Girlfriend,” she interjected, shying away from the thought of being Joe’s lover.
“Fine.” He leaned so close his cool breath brushed her lips. She inhaled his male warmth. His gaze held hers. “My parents will consider us almost engaged. We don’t tell anyone the truth.” His low voice compelled her to agree. “We pretend to be madly in love with each other. Understand?”
Compelling was one thing; intimidating was another. She simmered. Who did he think he was? She’d put up with too much garbage in the past eighteen months to be pushed around by Joe Riley.
She locked her gaze on his. “I understand perfectly. Do you understand you have to pretend to be honorable when you’re around my children?”
He straightened, blank surprise on his face.
“Can you keep your real character a secret?”
“What are you talking about?”
Lisa advanced on him. “Your tendency to lie your way out of trouble—”
Joe backed away, his hands up to ward her off.
“Your attempt to bribe me.” She stepped forward. “Your—”
He stepped back. “Now wait a minute—”
“I only hope