At that moment, Carmen finally made it to the back door and knocked with enough pressure to wake the dead.
Lani ignored her. “Did you really just ask me to…?”
“Yes.” Colin drew a deep, ragged breath. “I’ve thought about it, planned it all out. I know this is a huge imposition, and I promise to compensate you….” At her soft sound of dismay, he hurried on. “I’m not trying to insult you, but I’m aware of what I’m asking and that it’s an inconvenience, to say the least.”
She couldn’t help it, she laughed.
He frowned. “This isn’t funny.”
“No, it’s not,” she agreed. An inconvenience to be married to him? Not likely.
“It won’t be easy, but I’ve watched you all year now. You’re smart, funny and, best yet, even-tempered. We can do this.”
He’d watched her all year.
At her expression, he hesitated. “You understand, this is pretend. I just need the pretense of being engaged while I finish my project.” His hands were still on her face. Rough skin, tender touch. “Lani?”
Maybe she ought to vow to risk more often because, holy cow, this was more like the thrilling life she’d dreamed about for herself since she’d been a young girl remembering her happy, romantic parents. During those first painful years she’d wondered what kind of man would eventually sweep her off her feet. She’d wondered as time had gone by as well, even as she put up mental barriers to avoid the intimacy she so feared.
Now Colin wanted her.
No, she corrected, he needed, not wanted. There was a difference and she would do well to remember it. His proposed arrangement was too easy to romanticize. Colin needed time for his laser project, which would save countless thousands. She could be a part of that altruistic cause by helping him out.
And be married to him at the same time.
Carmen pressed her face against the window in the door, ruining the moment, glaring over Lani’s shoulder as she tried to see. When she caught sight of Colin wrapped around Lani, her eyes widened comically.
Lani turned her head and concentrated on the warm male pressed against her.
“I just need your agreement,” Colin urged in that rough yet silky voice.
It wasn’t that she wasn’t paying attention, she was. Yet she couldn’t help but wonder—how did an inventor get such a great body? She’d seen plenty of great bodies before, but she so rarely had one held against her this way. It made thinking curiously difficult.
“I know this is really sudden, and a big decision, but I can’t work like this.” Colin dropped his forehead to hers. “I have to have more peace and quiet. It’s crucial.”
“I understand.” His mouth was close enough to kiss if she just leaned forward a fraction of an inch. Her heart raced.
“It’s urgent we resolve this before—” The phone rang, echoing strangely in his large house. “Damn.”
It rang and rang, in tune now to Carmen’s persistent and annoying knocking.
Colin’s eyes seemed even more wild, more desperate, and because she’d never seen him anything less than completely put together, it startled her.
“Will you help me?” he asked.
“Well…”
“We’re not strangers.”
“Uh…no. But…”
“And you know I’m not a mass murderer,” he urged. “Or a criminal of any kind.”
“Yes. But…”
“Lani.” He stepped close again, but didn’t touch her. “I’ll give you anything in my power, just name it. Money?”
“No!”
“A trip somewhere?”
Lani knew her eyes had lit up; she’d never had the chance to go anywhere. “I would never accept such a thing.”
“Hawaii,” he said rashly.
Hawaii. A personal fantasy of hers. “No. No, thank you,” she added gruffly, knowing she was going to regret this in the deep dark of the night.
“I’ll do anything for you in return,” he assured her. “Your business…could you use another client?”
Only desperately. “Sure.”
“Then please, add my downtown building to your client list. Daily.”
Just like that, he’d upped her income. Not only upped it, probably tripled it. He could have no idea what that meant to her, and though she knew it was a pity that he felt he had to offer a bribe, she shamelessly took it, thinking of the extra hours she’d be able to offer her employees. “That’s…very generous. Thank you.”
“Will you do it?”
Despite her little fantasies, Lani was commitment shy, always had been. She was intelligent enough to realize that most of what made her life so good was the fact that she concentrated on others rather than on herself. The town of Sierra Summit was fairly small, only about seven thousand people in all, and she mothered, sistered and babied a good many of them. Her business was struggling constantly to break even, but only because she didn’t charge enough and hired people who needed her more than she needed them. Her business handled mostly industrial work because there weren’t too many residents who needed or could afford a housecleaner—Colin being the exception, of course. It wasn’t much of an effort to keep everyone happy and satisfied, and Lani genuinely cared about them all, but even so, she still managed to hold everyone at a distance.
This came from a deeply ingrained fear of getting involved, of getting hurt. Whether it went back to losing her family so young or to something much more simple—her own basic shyness, for example—she didn’t know and didn’t often try to analyze. Colin had said this would be just for show, but she didn’t fool herself, it would be complicated, and as a rule she didn’t do complicated well.
Stalling, she offered a crooked smile as he once again pulled his wet shirt away from his body. “I don’t really know you,” she said finally.
The phone rang again and Colin cursed under his breath. His shoulders sagged and his eyes went even more wild.
Carmen knocked.
Colin growled and yanked the door open. In contrast to the tension pouring from him, he spoke slowly, distinctly, and appeared surprisingly calm, considering how white his knuckles were on the knob. “I need another moment with your boss,” he said through his teeth, which were bared in a mockery of a smile. He waited until Carmen read his lips and nodded reluctantly. “Alone,” he added firmly when Carmen would have entered.
The older woman’s eyebrows disappeared into her hairline, but she backed off the threshold. As she turned away, she stuck her tongue out at him.
Lani held her breath, but he didn’t seem to notice.
Colin shut the door. His gaze whipped back to Lani, and there was no mistaking his recklessness now. “It’s not all that difficult an issue,” he assured her. “I’m an open book. Truly.”
Lani let out a little laugh, for he was the most closed-mouthed person she’d ever known. And also, something else bothered her—why her? Surely he could have asked anyone and got a resounding oh boy, pretty please, yes!
Her silence must have scared him. “All right.” He plowed his fingers through his hair as he turned in a slow circle. “You want to know me.” He faced her and shrugged. “It’s simple, really. I’m…technically inclined. I don’t drink or do drugs…I like fast, sleek, sexy cars…and I’m fairly certain I don’t snore.”
When the phone