Lani would never know what came over her, whether it was the unexpected flash of loneliness she’d experienced that morning, or just the deep, inexplicable yearning she felt for this man.
Risk, she reminded herself.
Help him with his great project. Help him help you out of the rut your life has become. “Okay,” she whispered. Because that sounded weak, she licked her lips and simply, confidently said, “Yes.”
Surprise flitted across his features and he held himself very still, clearly unsure if he’d heard correctly. “Did you just say yes?”
“Yes.” Oh, God, she couldn’t believe she was going to do this. “I mean, what the heck. I love spicy Mexican food, too. Let’s do it.”
2
THE TENSION DRAINED from Colin’s shoulders and while he didn’t quite smile, some of the strain left the lines around his mouth. “Well,” he said, obviously relieved.
“Yes. Well.” Lani grabbed her broom and laughed again, a little giddily. “I feel swept off my feet.”
“For pretend,” he clarified, eyes sharp on hers. “You feel swept off your feet for pretend.”
Darn, she had a pesky habit of forgetting that. “Right.”
He opened his mouth to say something, but Carmen stuck her face against the glass again, looking like a troll doll as she scrunched up her features to see better. Colin held up his finger for another minute.
Carmen rolled her eyes and disappeared.
“Um…Mr. West?”
He smiled at Lani for the first time, and wow, it was a stunner. “I think under the circumstances,” he said, “you can call me Colin.”
“Okay.” Lani smiled back, feeling a little dazed. What had she done? Had she really agreed to marry this wild, untamed creature just because her life needed a boost? “I should clean now.”
“Okay.” He frowned, plucking again at his wet shirt. “Ouch.”
“Yeah, the cleaner is starting to burn a bit,” Lani admitted regretfully, shifting uncomfortably herself. “I’m sorry.”
Without another word, Colin pulled the shirt over his head and tossed it aside.
Oh, man. Oh, man. He was perfect. Wide sinewy shoulders, hard chest, flat belly, lean hips, and the most amazing eyes that drew her right in… She was getting light-headed, and it most definitely wasn’t from the cleaner fumes.
Colin ran a hand over his bare chest with obvious relief. “Better.”
Better, Lani agreed silently. There was a solid thunk behind her. Carmen had banged her forehead on the glass attempting to get a better look.
The phone rang again and Colin sighed resolutely. “I have to get that.” He looked as though he’d rather face a firing squad. “But I’ll be back. We have to go over some things.”
Lani nodded, wondering if some of those things involved her wifely duties.
Now why did just the thought of that give her a heady rush of anticipation? She wasn’t promiscuous, not by a long shot, but somehow, with a man like Colin, she thought she might learn something about being a woman.
Yep, the chemicals in the cleaning stuff she used were most definitely going to her head—and really starting to burn her skin. Too bad she couldn’t rip her shirt off, too. At the thought, she let out another laugh.
“Lani?” Colin dipped his head down a little so he could see into her eyes. “Don’t leave yet.”
Did he honestly think she’d disappear now? He didn’t know much about her if—
What was she thinking?
He knew nothing about her. Still speechless, a truly unusual state for her, she shook her head.
She wouldn’t leave.
He looked at her for a long moment, and she wondered what was going through his mind, what he saw in her.
Again, the enormity of what she’d agreed to do staggered her. What was she going to tell Great-Aunt Jennie, who was likely to be so excited to have wed off her old-maid niece, finally? She’d have a heart attack!
It was just pretend, she reminded herself. No real heart involved. Walk away when the project’s done.
Lani watched her half-naked boss—and, good Lord, her future husband—as he walked out of the room.
Another unstoppable giggle escaped and she slapped her hand over her mouth. Giggling wouldn’t do, it didn’t become the future Mrs. West. “Oh, my God.”
Quietly, and since her knees were very weak, quickly, with a wide, silly grin on her face, she sank to the nearest seat, which happened to be the floor.
THE PHONE had stopped ringing by the time Colin got to his home office, which suited him.
Everything was good, he thought with relief. He had his fictional fiancée, and now, finally, he could concentrate on his work.
All other troubles faded away as he did just that, with a hyper-focus born of necessity. Nothing intruded, not the Institute’s hurry for his completed laser, not the fact he still had to talk to his well-meaning if meddling mother, nor that he had conned his cleaning lady into a pretense she clearly wasn’t prepared for.
His fingers raced over the keyboard of his computer, his mind locked deep in the complicated equations he was formulating. He was so close to perfecting his compact mini-laser, all he needed was time, uninterrupted time.
Turning to the console behind his desk, he lifted part of the scale model of his invention. He worked on many projects at a time for various conglomerates and institutions all over the world, but he had also incorporated himself. Generally he worked out of a large converted warehouse downtown, but this home office allowed him the privacy he sometimes craved.
The laser component hummed when he activated it. A miracle, and the miracle lay in the palm of his hand. Finally, after months and months of work, everything had begun to gel. Just as he let out a rare smile in response to the thrill of that, the phone rang, startling him from his intense concentration.
Blowing out a breath of frustration, he grabbed the phone.
“Darling, you haven’t returned a single one of my calls,” said his mother before he had a chance to open his mouth.
Thirty-two years old and that tone could still plant a headache between his eyes as fast as lightning. “I know. I—”
“How are you? I hope you’re good, you work too hard. Listen darling, I’m in town for the night only. I’m at the Towers with Aunt Bessie and Aunt Lola.”
Oh, God, all three of them at once. They were just women; petite, innocuous, elderly. But together, this team of New York, Italian, Catholic-raised siblings had guilt-laying and conformity-forcing down to a science. Colin was convinced that together they could have conquered Rome in a day.
And now they were in town. He rubbed his temples, knowing they cared about him beyond reason, which made it all the more difficult to hurt them in any way. “I thought you were going to be traveling all summer.”
“We are, we’re just back to check on things.”
Namely, him.
Since his mother had been the only sister to have a child, the three of them felt they co-owned him. Growing up, Colin had been raised by committee. His father had bowed out under pressure; after all, he was only one man. As a result, Colin had been fiercely watched over, fiercely disciplined and fiercely loved.
He was still fiercely loved, he had no doubt.
He just wished they would do it from a greater distance. Jupiter, maybe.
“I