know there’s a sympathetic person on staff who knows about the situation, maybe I could see my way to reopening the show, at least for the next few months. Especially if it would make Nora happy.”
Sunny sat forward, her eyes full of worry for his grandmother. “I will do anything to make sure she doesn’t overdo it when she’s visiting us.”
“She won’t appreciate being coddled,” Cole warned her sharply.
“I know she won’t. And I won’t coddle her, I’ll just make things easier for her, I promise. If you put the show back on, you won’t regret it.”
He nodded as if he were giving her idea of helping out serious consideration as opposed to leading her straight into his trap. “The only thing is that even the show isn’t enough to make her happy these days. You won’t believe what she— No, I don’t want to drag you into this.”
But Sunny shook her head. “No, tell me. Maybe I can help.”
“You could, but it would be weird. I couldn’t...”
“Please tell me, Mr. Benton.”
Cole put a reluctant tone into his voice as he answered. “The thing is my grandmother is very fond of you.”
He pretended to hesitate some more and waited for Sunny to prod him along, so that she could think this whole conversation was her idea.
“Yes, you told me that,” she said, right on cue. “But what does that have to do with the state of her health?”
“She’s so fond of you, that her wish—I guess you could call it her dying wish is that I...”
Again he stopped and waited.
Sunny was leaning all the way forward in her seat now, her pretty brown eyes wide with curiosity.
“That you what?” she asked.
“Marry you.”
He could hear Sunny’s breath catch, and he again went silent. Biding his time. Like the predator she had no idea he was when it came to business.
“Are you serious?” she finally asked after a few opens and closes of her mouth.
He laid a solemn hand on his chest. “Believe me, Ms. Johnson, I would never ever joke about something like this.” Lie through his teeth, yes. But joke? Never.
“I don’t...I don’t know what to say.”
“You don’t have to say anything right now,” he answered, his mind working furiously behind his calm eyes to figure out how to make this next thing sound less like a threat and more like a win-win for both of them. “You want something from me and I need something from you for my grandmother.”
“You want me to help you trick her?” Sunny asked. He could practically see her struggling with her conscience.
It must be tiring to have one of those, he thought to himself. “I want you to help me make my grandmother happy,” he rephrased.
“And making Nora happy...what would that entail?” Sunny’s voice was hesitant, but Cole could tell she was mulling the idea over, which meant he was in.
He somehow kept the smirk off his face as he answered. “There would be a whirlwind romance for a couple of months, and then we’d announce our engagement—probably at one of my grandmother’s events.”
“Like her August Children’s Charity ball?”
He pointed at her. “Perfect.” Nora had been nagging him to attend that stupid event for years and this year it would be the weekend before the end of summer board meeting. Why not kill two birds with one stone?
“It would make Nora very happy to have us announce it there.”
“And if I agreed to this...to making Nora happy, it would just be pretend, right? We wouldn’t have to...be intimate. Would we?”
This time Cole let the silence drift on for much longer than he knew was suitable, even in business. He was aware this question was meant to be a deal closer. He should just say no, there wouldn’t be anything intimate required and leave it at that—he knew that would be enough to close the deal and ensure that his playboy brother didn’t get his grubby mitts on his business.
However, he found that he didn’t want to make the woman sitting in front of him this guarantee. He surreptitiously let his gaze roam down her body. Her yoga pants and tank top combo, while not the jewel-covered bikini she was required to wear for The Revue, only seemed to accentuate her curves. An image of himself disrobing her, yanking that thin cardigan down her arms, and pulling that tank top over her head to reveal what lay underneath flashed into his mind.
He considered himself already married. To his job. The occasional discreet one-night stand arranged when he found that his other needs were getting in the way of his concentration at work. But obviously he’d let the time between one-night stands go too long, because he found himself suddenly unable to focus on the business at hand. Maybe Nora had been right about the needing to get laid part.
In any case, he found himself going off script to say, “Ms. Johnson, you are doing me a great favor, so this arrangement can be whatever you want it to be.” He then asked her, “Do you want it to be intimate?”
“Do you want it to be intimate?”
Sunny felt something catch in her throat and then there came a flood of emotion, suffusing not just her cheeks but also her entire body.
And though she barely knew the man, suddenly she was wondering what it would be like to kiss him. The lines of his face were so sharp and hard. Did they soften when he kissed a woman? What would his hands feel like on her body? She could almost feel them now, disappearing underneath Sunny’s cardigan, pushing it off her shoulders—
Sunny! she chastised herself. What are you thinking? Get it together, girl!
Obviously she’d been single way too long. It had been a year since her breakup with Derek, the one that had inspired her to finally apply to grad school, and apparently the longtime drought was making her mind go to some seriously inappropriate places.
She averted her eyes, trying not to notice how rock solidly handsome Mr. Benton was in real life, how much hotter and sexier he read than his picture downstairs, as she answered, “I think it’s probably best if we keep this strictly professional, don’t you, Mr. Benton?”
Cole’s face remained impassive, but she could sense him smirking behind those green eyes. “Professional it is behind closed doors, but you do understand that when we’re out in public, we’ll have to at least act intimate...for my grandmother’s sake.”
Sunny thanked the heavens for her melanin, because she could once again feel her cheeks burning. “Yes, I understand, Mr. Benton.”
“Then perhaps you should call me Cole.”
Sunny bit down on a rising panic, wondering how she’d come up here to fight for the
