Some Like It Charming (A Temporary Engagement) (22 page)

“If that really mattered I would still be with my very first girlfriend.”

She shook her head. “No. My guess is that you break things off when you start feeling the itch. Because you know it hurts less and for a shorter amount of time to break things off cleanly.”

“Maybe that’s why I was afraid of marriage. Afraid to find my devotion fading without being able to get out of it.”

He smiled at her, his hands still cupping her face. He’d known that if he’d just found that one, right woman his fears of marriage would seem silly. Powerless.

He’d been right. He’d just never expected that when he found her, she would want nothing to do with him. Never expected to find that she might like him just fine, but hated everything that made him him.

Hated his money, hated his family, hated his charming face.

He’d been looking for a woman who could see past all that since he was sixteen.

The woman he’d been looking for for nearly two decades said, “I’ve already said you’ve got issues. It’s like you’ve never heard the word divorce before.”

“It’s like budgeting. Just because I’ve heard the word before doesn’t mean I believe in it.”

She smiled up at him and started to undo his belt. He grinned at her and she said, “I’ve had a bad day. I thought we could stay in tonight.”

“What about dinner?”

“I thought I already got out of that.”

“You’re just going to let my mother win?”

She unzipped his pants. “I don’t think this is your mother winning.”

He backed her towards the bed. “I could tell them you came down with something.”

She smiled evilly. “Tell them I have to repair the hole I put in your wall.”

“You don’t want my mother dropping by again. And she’d come running if I told her that.”

She laughed. “Maybe I could just torture your mother for the next week. I might just make it then.”

He pulled her shirt over her head. “Or we could extend this for a few more weeks and really torture her.”

She said, “You can’t afford to pay me overtime.”

He popped the button on her jeans. “Oh, I probably could.”

“No. We already agreed on six weeks.”

“But if you’re not going back to work, there’s no rush. You can spend a million dollars just as easily in New York as you can in Los Angeles. And you still haven’t got that half out of me yet.”

“I really thought I was going to, too.”

“So stick around. Stop trying to do nothing, come to work with me, and stay a little bit longer.”

He sat on the bed and pulled her down on to his lap.

She shook her head and he said, “Stay. I like living with you.”

“Why?”

He squeezed her butt. “Guess.”

“Oh, please. You don’t need to live with a woman to sleep with her.”

“It’s nice knowing you’ll be here when I get home. We don’t have to coordinate.”

“It’s a scheduling issue?”

He rolled his eyes up to his head. “A scheduling issue. You do that on purpose. Kill all my moves just for the fun of it.”

She pointed to her backside. “You sneaked a butt squeeze past me. I didn’t see that one coming in time.”

“You saw it coming.”

She pinched his nipple and said, “Did you see that coming?”

“Ow!” He grabbed her hands, trapping them against his chest. “Vicious. No wonder my mother doesn’t like you. Just think of her head exploding when I tell her you’re staying a little bit longer.”

“I’m not staying any longer. I’ve got a new life to figure out.”

“You mean a non-life. I’ve got to be better than that.”

She shook her head, wriggling her hands free.

He said, “You know I’ll talk you into it.”

“Not this time. I’ve learned all your tricks now.”

He rolled her onto her back and held her hand to his heart. “Not all my tricks.”

He bent his head and she said, “You’re going to love me to death, aren’t you?”

“No, I’m going to love you into staying.”

“You can try,” she said and his heart thumped. He knew with Mackenzie that success was never guaranteed.

Luckily, he liked a good challenge. Dammit.

Mackenzie woke with a gasp, her heart trying to beat its way out of her chest.

Ethan murmured, “Okay?”

She slipped out of the covers, telling him to go back to sleep, and went into the bathroom.

She sat down on the rim of the tub, put her head in her hands, and stared down at the tile. Afraid to close her eyes.

Because Ethan had looked at her. He’d held her hands, and kissed her, and made love to her. And looked at her.

Is this what he did to his girlfriends? Looked at them like that? Like. . . like. . .

Like he loved her.

Like she was everything he had ever wanted. Like she was the most important thing in the world to him.

Mackenzie’s stomach heaved and she breathed in through her nose and out her mouth.

She knew he didn’t mean it. And she knew he wasn’t conning her.

This is what he’d paid her a million dollars for. To look into his eyes, to see love there, and to not believe it. To protect both of them. Because he couldn’t help it and he couldn’t stand to hurt anyone else.

A quiet knock on the door made her jump.

“Mackenzie? Honey?”

Her stomach clenched and she rubbed her face.

She opened the door slowly, bracing herself. His green eyes were filled with concern and she said, “I was just. . . I had a bad dream.”

He took her hand, leading her back to bed, and wrapping his arms around her.

She put her head on his chest, right on the spot that had become her unofficial pillow. Right where she could hear his lying heart beating. She lay there in Ethan’s arms and knew that a million dollars hadn’t been enough.

But at least she knew he couldn’t help himself. That it wasn’t real.

Not her fault that she’d fallen for it. Every woman did.

One week and three days later, Mackenzie woke early and rolled quietly out of bed. She’d packed her bags yesterday while Ethan was at work. Had bought a plane ticket. And hadn’t told him.

He’d spent the last week trying to get her to say she would stay. But she couldn’t. And she already knew he could talk her into uprooting her life when she should run screaming.

It wouldn’t be hard for him to do it this time since she liked being with him. Liked living with him. Loved New York.

But their contract was up, which meant if she stayed it would be real. She would
really
be living with him.
Really
be sleeping with him.
Really
be in love with him.

She couldn’t really be in love with Ethan Howell O’Connor. Women who fell in love with him fell hard when he moved on.

He would break her and this time there would be nothing left to start over with. Nothing left but a bitter woman. With an intense desire to give an interview to the National Enquirer.

She didn’t want to be that kind of woman.

She wasn’t that kind of woman.

She stared down at him, memorizing his face. The sunlight streamed through the window, shrouding him in a golden halo. His long fingers lay loose on the sheets. She loved his fingers. Loved feeling them, holding them, touching them.

She closed her eyes and turned away.

She didn’t say goodbye, but she left anyway. She left a copy of their engagement pre-nup, her cell phone, and her ring lying on the kitchen counter.

Their time was up.

When she arrived home, the phone was ringing. It rang and it rang. She thought about unplugging it but knew he’d just show up on her door. She took a deep breath and answered the phone. She didn’t say anything, just listened to him breathe. Imagined him looking out at the buildings, his shirt half-buttoned, his bare feet sinking into the plush carpet. Her heart hurt thinking she’d never see him again. But she said, “Did I forget something?”

There was a pause and then he said, “Oh yeah, you forgot something. You’re fired.”

“What exactly are you firing me from? As of this morning I no longer work for O’Connor Capital. And as of last night I am no longer your hired fiancé. There’s nothing left.”

“There’s nothing left. . .” He said it slowly, not quite a question. More like he was tasting the words, seeing how they felt in his mouth.

Obviously, he didn’t like it very much because he nearly shouted, “Goddammit, Mackenzie. There’s nothing left, my ass.”

She couldn’t help her half-laugh, half-sob. And there was the Mr. Charming she knew.

“Ethan. I wish you the best. I know the OC will continue on well without me, although of course you’ll have to hire three people to replace my sales. And I know that you will find that woman who is worth half your fortune. Probably. Maybe. I really think you should abandon that tradition.”

“Mackenz–”

“Good-bye, Ethan.” She hung up and sat down on her couch.

She let herself cry this one time, just for a little while. Then wiped her tears and started packing up her house. Time to start her new non-life.

Ethan’s grandmother answered the door with her eyebrows furrowed. “Why the hell aren’t you in L.A.?”

Ethan pushed his way in. “She doesn’t love me.”

Ellen slammed the door shut behind him. “Coward. I never thought I’d say that to my own grandson. But that’s what you are. A coward. And a chicken. A lily-livered chicken.” She flung her hands into the air. “A spineless, yellow-bellied coward.”

He started laughing, his shoulders shaking silently. He headed to the kitchen, grabbing two beers and handing one to her, a smile still on his face.

He said, “It’s karma, that’s what it is. How many women have fallen hopelessly in love with me? It was my turn.”

“What you’re telling me is that you’re not a coward. You’re just stupid.” She shook her head. “I don’t know what’s worse.”

“I am everything she doesn’t want.”

“But she wants you anyway? I don’t know what you think love is supposed to feel like but that’s as good a description as any.”

“She’s too smart to fall for me.”

Ellen snorted. “If those good looks you were cursed with, along with that charm you constantly deploy, and a copious amount of cash at your disposal can’t get the woman you love to lose her mind long enough to get a ring on her finger, I don’t know what the point was.”