His Indecent Proposal (3 page)

He didn't even crack a smile and a scary
premonition slinked through her system.

He continued to watch her until finally he
spoke. "I need a wife for stability. To solidify a persona of
family values, to imply a conservative bent that people might
otherwise miss if they are on the outside of my life looking in."
He punched the words out, then questioned softly, "Know anyone that
could help me out with that?"

This guy needed help finding a wife?
That in itself was impossible to believe. Her blood pulsed quickly
through her veins as her mouth went dry and speech became almost
impossible.
Please don't let this go where she thought it was
going.

She tried to calm her nerves so she could
answer his question and get the hell out. "N-no. I'm new to
Cincinnati. I don't have many girlfriends here yet." She began to
stand.
She needed out of
this room before he said
anymore
. "I'm sorry I can't help you--"

"Sit down." The demand was sharp.

She sat, her tummy clenching and the
butterflies churning.

He continued to tap the pen on his desk as he
contemplated her. "What about you
?" Tap, tap, tap
. "Did you
mean what you said in the break room?"
Tap, tap, tap.
"You
want to
apply
for the job?"

Jenna's eyes closed briefly and her face lost
all color as she was immediately swamped with the same distress she
felt every time she found his eyes on hers. But now it was
magnified a hundred fold. She sat as still and silent as a woodland
creature trying to remain camouflaged from a predator.

His posture straightened as he began laying
out his requirements. "I need an arrangement more than a marriage.
A business partnership, if you will. Somebody that will agree to
marry me for a short period of time. I'm not looking for a love
affair, or happily ever after. I just need a marriage façade, and
I'd be happy to pay for it."

Bells started clanging in her brain and
nerves tightened her stomach into twists of apprehension so thick
it threatened to make her hysteria rise. He seemed perfectly
serious and she didn't want to offend him in any way, shape, or
form. Marry him?
No way.
He was off his rocker. She silently
castigated herself for this. This was her own fault she was sitting
here. If she had only kept her damn mouth closed. But it was too
late to look back and she needed to handle this carefully and
diplomatically. This job was the only thing that stood between
Jenna and the bread line. Her parents were far away and struggling
to make it themselves. She searched his eyes for a hidden motive
and tried to answer him without causing offense. "Thank you, n-no.
I don't--"

"Do you have a boyfriend?" David waited for
her answer with hooded eyes, his mind already clicking ahead to
getting rid of an encumbrance that had his teeth grinding.

"No. It's j-just that I don't really
think--"

"So, there's nothing stopping you from
considering it? No boyfriend and your family lives in Texas, right?
They'd never even have to know. Do they come here often?" He was
glad she didn't jump at the chance right away. A mercenary bitch
wasn't what he was looking for, and his legal team would throw a
fucking fit, no matter what kind of spin Craig put in front of
them.

Jenna stiffened
. He knew her
background
. She was sidetracked by that question and had to
think to answer it. "No, they don't have a lot of extra money for
plane tickets. It was--it was really n-nice of you to consider me,
I'm s-sorry if I gave you the wrong impression the other day. I was
joking, I didn't think you were serious about it." She stopped
rambling and the silence in the room was deafening. She tried
again. "I thought it was a joke and I was only kidding."

She waited while he studied her.

"Do you have debt, Jenna?"

A cold, sick feeling of dread slipped down
her spine. What did he know?

"Why d-do you ask?"

"A lot of young people your age have debt,
need money. I can help you out with that. I'm not expecting you to
do this favor for me for free."

She hesitated, then slowly answered him. "I
have a small amount of debt." Her eyes watched him, watching her,
and guilt washed through her at the white lie. Then she continued.
"But this is more than just a favor." Her voice remained soft and
gentle.

His eyes searched hers. "Look, we need to
talk privately about this some more. We can't do that here. I'll
pick you up at seven, we'll have some dinner and continue this
conversation."

He was already looking down at the thin gold
watch strapped to his wrist and pushing his chair back.

Jenna knew she was being dismissed, but
didn't want to meet him tonight. She came to her feet and stood
next to the chair. "I don't want to m-marry anybody. There's no way
I can--"

He came around his desk and advanced on her.
He took her chin in his hand and casually threw out a bomb. "How
about a hundred grand? Will that help sway your decision?"

Jenna hung in silence, shocked at the feel of
his rough palm holding her face up to his. Her heart tripped out of
time from the effect of his hard body so close to hers and her
vocal chords wouldn't function. His heady scent hit her nostrils.
Masculinity radiated from him, and she wasn't immune to it. Far
from it. Her breathing fractured and she bit her bottom lip as his
thumb grazed slowly across her cheek.

In the back of her mind, the amount of money
he was offering was staggering.

He felt the currents of awareness between
them, her soft skin silky against his fingers. As shock held her
immobile, the throbbing in his groin intensified as her scent went
to his head and he found himself sweetening the deal, extending the
length of the commitment he had originally planned. "A hundred
grand a year. I need two years, so two-hundred thousand
dollars."

Jenna shook the cobwebs from her mind. She
could pay off all her debt with that amount of money. Then she
could concentrate on getting a better job, something she could use
her education with. She could at least listen to what he had to
say, right?

"Just dinner? I'm not agreeing to anything
yet." She managed to pull away from him and with jerky movements
turned toward the door. She stopped, looked back at him with an
expression that conveyed that she didn't know what the hell she was
getting into.

****

That night, David had one thought only.
Getting her to agree. He wanted her to agree to his plan, and get
the marriage underway as quickly as possible. He had a vague idea
of hustling her to Vegas for a quick ceremony.

At seven o'clock, she was waiting for him on
the sidewalk of an old brownstone where she rented the basement
from an older couple.

He pulled up to the curb and without giving
him a chance to get out, she slid in the vehicle. She avoided his
eyes and began to fasten her seatbelt.

Jenna hadn't known what to wear, so she had
opted for the middle ground, dress slacks with peep-toed pumps and
a red sweater. Fall was definitely in the air, and she knew it
would be chilly tonight.

She had been having nothing but second
thoughts about this. They weren't really second thoughts, because
he had railroaded her into this dinner meeting. That was the only
way she could think of this outing, because it certainly wasn't a
date. Her aim tonight was to make him see reason, and have some
really nice food for a change. Counting every penny sucked, and it
was a rare treat to get to have a nice restaurant meal. She just
hoped her nerves would allow her to eat.

She softly cleared her throat and began to
try to make him see reason. "Mr. Bennett--"

"David. My name's David."

"Okay. David." She lost her train of thought
as she glanced his way. His eyes were on the road, and she watched
him silently. His profile was rugged, his hair badly in need of a
trim. All at once it hit her exactly what her co-workers saw in
him. She had a moment to study him, without his intense gaze
focused solely on her. That predatory attention that usually had
her so flustered and disturbed was not focused on her at the
moment, and she had a chance to observe his features, to notice the
dark beauty his eyes imparted to the rest of his face.

The silence continued until finally, he broke
it. "What were you going to say, Jenna?"

Her name rolled off his tongue and slid like
molten lava through her. She shook herself and tried to get a grip.
She couldn't remember what she was going to say. She saw the world
passing outside the window, and realized they were heading south,
toward the river. "Are we going to the riverfront?"

The Ohio River was a natural border between
Ohio and Kentucky and separated Cincinnati, Ohio and Covington,
Kentucky. The two cities were connected and divided by the river.
The stadium of the Cincinnati Reds was on the Ohio side of the
river, and the River Center in Covington was a famous tourist spot
with lots of floating bars and restaurants. Jenna had been there a
couple of times and loved the whole atmosphere.

"Yeah, that okay with you?" His voice was
deep and controlled, his Midwest accent vibrating through her.

"Mmm-hmmm." She continued to stare at the
night sky out the window, wondering why she suddenly had that soft,
satisfying feeling of safety she usually only felt when it was
raining in great sheets of water and she was at home in her bedroom
in Texas. It was a pleasurable feeling. It was probably just a
visceral reaction to an enclosed space that reminded her of the
coziness of home. It confused her, but she didn't dwell on it.

Soon they were crossing the huge suspension
bridge and travelling parallel to the river. She sat up straighter
when they continued to pass the restaurants, one by one, and he
never chose one. Minutes later, the pleasurable feeling in her
stomach was replaced by nerves as he pressed a button, and a black,
wrought-iron gate began to open. He pulled into the long drive, and
pulled up to a house that was so impressive she thought for a
moment they were at a restaurant. But it was too deserted to be
anything but a private home, and a feeling of trepidation grew.

She turned to him as he parked the car.
"Where are we?"

He pulled the keys from the ignition and
popped the handle on his door before answering. "My house." With
that, he swung out of the car and moved around to open her door
while she sat, still as a statue.

Her door opened and he took her hand in his
and began leading her to the front door.

David didn't entirely understand the reasons
behind his actions. He knew he wanted her to see his house. He felt
like a kid trying to impress a girl at school. But if he could get
her to want to live here, see what it was like, maybe it would be
one more reason for her to agree to his proposal.

It was an old, stately home, located on the
river. He had a housekeeper that came in every day to take care of
the incidentals that he neither had the time or desire to do
himself. Mrs. Hudson cleaned for him, cooked his meals and
disappeared before he got home from work. He had more or less
inherited her with the house when he had bought it five years
before. She had worked for the previous owners for years, and knew
the house front to back. She had also learned exactly what he
expected from a daily housekeeper. They got along fine.

Jenna was still fighting shock at their
location when he led her in through the front door. She stood in
awe and admired the cathedral ceiling. She had never been in a
private home that even remotely compared to this. It was beautiful,
every inch of it decorated in the traditional style, and Jenna
didn't know what shocked her more, the way he lived every day of
his life, or the fact he had brought her back here when she thought
they were going out to eat in a public setting.

She looked around as he led her to the French
doors overlooking the river. The water was beautiful, black and
inky, except for where the lights glistened and then you could see
for a long distance, everything glowing and shimmering in the
night.

"You--you live here?" The serenity she had
experienced earlier was gone. She tried to maintain her fragile
control as she desperately tried to make conversation. She was
entirely out of her element. She had never met a man like him
before, and her emotions were conflicted, in turmoil.

"Yeah." His answer was short, succinct.

"Alone?" She couldn't hide the dismay in her
voice that all of this was for one person.

He chuckled. "Yeah."

Jenna turned to him and blinked. He was
watching her intently.

"It's beautiful."

"Thank you."

She sucked in a breath. "And you want me to
marry you and live here with you?"

"Yeah, I do."

She studied the inflexible way he held
himself. "But it's so wrong. What you're considering is wrong. I
should say yes just to teach you a lesson."

"I don't need you to be my conscience, or my
moral compass, or worry about my soul. I just need you to agree to
the deal and help me present a façade of marriage to the world for
awhile."

"Sort of like a marriage of convenience,
right?

His eyes ran slowly down her length and back
up again. His reply was slow in coming. "Sort of."

Jenna felt both a flare of excitement and a
quiver of fear at the all-consuming, territorial look he was giving
her.

Before she agreed or disagreed to anything,
she needed to get to the bottom of why he wanted this, and what
exactly it meant. To her person, and for her future. But she didn't
feel capable of dealing with it just yet, and besides, she was
hungry.

"You have a lovely home. Can we go to the
restaurant now?"