With one kiss he’d seal this marriage. But was that all this kiss was about? This moment?
No. He knew, deep in his gut, that there was something else happening here, something he wasn’t sure he wanted or needed in his life. He could have been standing at the edge of a cliff, ready to plunge—
Into the cushion of water, or the danger of rocks? He didn’t know.
All he could feel was this insistent want. For her. For just one taste. He lowered his mouth to hers, and at the instant that his lips met hers, he knew.
Knew that kissing Ellie was going to change everything.
Her lips were sweet and soft beneath his, her hair a silky tickle against his fingers. She leaned into him for one long, blissful second, and he inhaled, drawing in the scent of her, memorizing it, capturing the moment in Technicolor in his mind.
Ellie.
Then she drew back and the kiss was over, nearly as quickly as it began. The flush in her cheeks had deepened to a light crimson. Her gaze met his for one hot, electric second, then she looked away, and turned back to Charlie.
Platonic. Business relationship. The heady rush gone. He told himself he was glad. That it was exactly what he wanted.
“There. It’s official now.” Charlie grinned, then he reached out and shook hands with both of them. The witnesses murmured their congratulations before slipping out the door. “Congratulations,” Charlie said. “May you have an abundance of happiness and children.”
Children. Or, rather, a single child. Half the reason they’d embarked on this fake union. Finn glanced over at Ellie, but her gaze was on the window, not on him, hiding whatever she might have thought about Charlie’s words.
A few minutes later, they left the courthouse, a newly minted marriage license in hand. The paper weighed nothing, but felt heavier than a concrete block.
Married. To a near stranger.
A stranger whose kiss had awakened a roaring desire inside Finn. He had thought he was doing this just for business reasons, but that kiss was as far from business as the earth was from the moon. And he needed to remember his uppermost goal.
Don’t get involved. Don’t fall for her. Don’t lose track of the priority. Don’t get swept up in a tsunami that would leave him worse off in the end.
As they walked down the street toward the parking garage, Finn dug his car keys out of his pocket, then paused. They were married. And that meant the occasion, even if it was merely a professional alliance, deserved some kind of celebration. “How about we get some dinner before we head back to Boston?”
“I should probably get back to work. I left in the middle of my day and have a lot on my To Do list.” She stepped to the side to allow a quartet of lunch workers to power past them. “But thanks for the offer.”
His To Do list was probably just as long, but for the first time in a long time, Finn didn’t want to go back to his office, didn’t feel like sitting behind that mahogany desk, even as the sensible side of him mounted a vigorous objection. “It’s not every day you get married, you know. We should at least have a glass of wine to celebrate. Or iced tea for you. I’ll have the wine.”
“Don’t you have work to get to, too?”
“Always. But it’s waited this long. It can wait a little longer. Regardless of why we got married, this is a big moment for both of us.” He grinned. “Don’t you agree?”
It was Finn’s smile that swayed Ellie. There was something … disarming about the way Finn McKenna smiled. He had a crooked smile, curving up higher on one side of his face than the other. She liked that. Liked the way nothing about him was exactly what you would expect.
Neither was his kiss. She’d thought that he would just give her a perfunctory peck on the lips, a token gesture to seal the deal. But he’d done so much more. Kissed her in a way she hadn’t been kissed in forever.
Their kiss had been short, but tender. When he’d touched her jaw, he’d done it almost reverently, his fingers drifting over her cheek, tangling in her hair. He’d leaned in, captured her gaze and waited long enough for her heart to begin to race with anticipation before he’d kissed her. When had a man ever taken such time for something so simple?
It left her wondering what it would be like to really be Finn’s wife. Would he kiss her like that at the end of every day? Before he left for work in the morning? For just a moment, she wanted to hold on to that fantasy, to believe that this was real, and not just a means to an end.
Even if it was.
Finn was right—it wasn’t every day that she got married, and she wasn’t sure she was quite ready to go back to her ordinary world, and all the questions this was bound to raise. They still had to settle on their story, and deal with other practical issues, like where they were going to live afterward.
Whatever little thrill she might have felt faded in the light of reality. This wasn’t a date, it wasn’t a celebration. It was business, pure and simple.
And nothing more.
“You did what?” The shock in Riley’s voice boomed across the phone connection. “You got married?”
“Uh, yeah, but it’s not …” Finn was about to tell Riley it wasn’t a real marriage, then he glanced across the sidewalk at Ellie, standing in the shadowed circle beneath an oak tree. She was talking into her cell phone with someone at her office, her hand moving to punctuate her words. Little bits of sunshine dappled her blond hair, kissed her delicate features and gave her a slight glow.
He had seen hundreds of beautiful women in his lifetime, but none that had that whole package of incredible looks and incredible personality. The kind of woman any man in his right mind would be proud to call his wife.
Except, this was merely a way to resurrect his business. Besides, he didn’t need the complication of a relationship, the heady distraction of a romance. He liked his life as straight as a ruler. And he’d continue to keep it that way.
“It’s unexpected, is what it is,” Riley finished for him. “What were you thinking?”
“I wasn’t.” That was true. He’d thought he was challenging her offer, then once they were standing in front of Charlie, he’d stopped thinking about the pros and cons of what he was about to do and just … done it. Eloped. He, of all people. He hadn’t thought about the incongruity of that when he was in Charlie’s office. All he’d seen was Ellie’s smile.
“I thought you were all antimarriage. Especially after the Lucy thing.”
“I was. I am. This was …” Finn paused. “Different.”
“Well, congratulations, brother,” Riley said. “You’ll be all the talk at the next family reunion.”
Finn chuckled. “I’m sure I will be as soon as you get off the phone and call Brody. You spread gossip faster than a church picnic.”
Riley laughed with him. “So, where are you guys going on your honeymoon?”
The
