HelenKay Dimon - Pregnant By The Ceo

“My house is big.” His gaze wandered again. This time over to the boxes she’d gathered in case she needed to move in a hurry. “But I prefer you not live out of boxes. Haven’t you been in this apartment for seven months, like right before Noah started working for me?”

She snapped her fingers. “Derrick.”

“Don’t do that. Ever.” He put his hand over hers and lowered it. “What do you want to say?”

The touch, so simple and innocent, shot through her. She felt it vibrate through every cell.

She pulled her hand from his and forced her breathing to slow. “We’ve barely spent an hour together.”

“We’ll have separate bedrooms.”

As if that were the only problem. “But you expect me to act like a fiancée.”

“Whatever that means, yes.”

“It’s a direct quote from paragraph twenty of this thing.” She shook the agreement at him.

“I’ve never been engaged, but I figure we can work out the details as we go. You know, like do the usual things engaged people do.”

She suddenly couldn’t breathe. A big lump clogged her throat and she had no idea why. “Usual?”

“Shows of...affection.”

He may as well have said poison. “You should hear yourself.”

He exhaled as he stepped back. His hand swept through his hair and, for a brief moment, his thick wall of confidence slipped. He looked vulnerable and frustrated. She didn’t think any of it was aimed at her. Not directly. This was more about the circumstances they’d gotten stuck in.

“We both need things, Ellie. You want to help your brother. You have some work issues that I can resolve for you.”

“Are you going to give me a job?” She thought about her bills and her fears about losing her apartment. Growing up she never felt welcome or comfortable. Home hadn’t been a sanctuary, but now it was. The idea she could lose that security left her shaken.

“Yes, as my fiancée.”

With him that did sound like a full-time job. But pretending to have feelings might not be enough. They didn’t run in the same circles. She didn’t know anything about charity functions or season tickets to the Kennedy Center. “People aren’t going to buy this.”

He stepped closer again. This time his hands came up and his palms rubbed up and down her arms, gentle and warm. “We tell them we met while haggling about your brother. There was a spark and...boom.”

“Did you just say boom?”

Instead of backing away, he leaned in. “The legal fees stop. Your brother gets some direction and guidance. Your bills get paid and my shareholders stop whining.”

“You make it sound reasonable in a weird sort of way.” She was practical and everything about this plan, including the very real problem of lying to her brother, was anything but.

“It is.”

“My brother will go ballistic.” And she feared that was an understatement.

“Trust me. We can sell this.”

She didn’t miss the fact his words sounded like a plea. She doubted he begged for anything. He probably didn’t even ask others for help, but he was asking now.

The realization had her stomach tumbling. This close she could see the intensity in his gaze and feel the heat rolling off him.

“You can’t fake a spark.” Her voice sounded breathy even in her ears.

“Let’s see if we need to.”

He lowered his head as his hand slid into her hair. Fingers expertly massaged the back of her neck. His mouth lowered until it hovered over hers. For a second he hesitated, with his eyes searching her face, then his lips met hers. Mouth against mouth, he brushed over hers once. Twice. So enticing.

His scent wrapped around her and his fingers tightened on her. One second they stood a foot apart. The next he closed in. The caress turned to kissing, deep and alive with need. Energy arced between them. Every touch, every press of his lips, proved hot and inviting.

He pulled her tight against him and her common sense faltered. Heat burned through her as her arms slipped up to wrap around his neck. She’d just balanced against his body when he pulled back.

“Right.” He cleared his throat as his chest rose and fell on harsh breaths. “There we go.”

A haze covered her brain. “There we go?”

“Sure. That was fine.” He set her away from him. Increased the distance between them to a few feet.

The man was an idiot.

“Fine?” She could barely feel her legs.

“Yes. I’m confident we can fake it.” He started walking around the room, almost pacing. “We’ll start with dates. In public. Let people see us together.” He nodded as he continued the one-sided conversation. “I’d say in a week we move you into my place and announce the engagement.”

“That’s too fast.” She was impressed her brain even spit that sentence out. Right now she couldn’t think at all. The kiss had blown out every rational thought and had her wanting to slide that tie right off him.

“Well, it looks as if you’re ready to pack.”

“I need to sit.” She plunked down hard on the armrest of the couch and struggled not to run her fingertips over her lips.

“We’ll have a party—”

“No.” Good grief, he was already planning. That was enough to snap her out of it.

“Not a big, flashy Christmas party. Just the normal engagement party.”

It took a few seconds but her common sense came back. Doubt rushed in right behind it.

“First, it’s March. Second, I’m Jewish.” That seemed important to throw in there even in a fake engagement, so she did. “And third... I fear your idea of normal.”

“We invite the people who need to see us.”

People who would later wonder what happened and why it all ended, but he seemed to ignore that part. Fine. It was his problem and they were his friends, so he could figure it out. But she did have one issue she could not ignore. “And what do I tell my brother to keep him from killing you?”

“That we sparked. Tell him a one-night stand turned into something more.”

Derrick. Sex. She blocked the thoughts that rolled through her head. The kiss had been enough to unravel her. Anything more would be a huge mistake. “You want me to lie to him?”

“That’s the point. We lie to him and the public to diffuse Noah’s claims.”

She couldn’t blame Derrick for that requirement. Noah hadn’t exactly been subtle in his attack on Derrick to date. But something about his self-assurance about this agreement and all these details started an alarm bell ringing in her head. “You have this all figured out, don’t you?”

“I thought so.”

She swung her foot, letting the pink slipper flip through the air. “What does that mean?”

“You’re not what I expected.”

She stilled. “Right back at ya.”

“Lucky for us, I can adapt.”

Yeah, lucky her. “You don’t exactly strike me as a guy who enjoys surprises.”

Some of the tension drained from his face as he stared at her. That sexy little smile of his returned. “Maybe I can change.”

She hadn’t known that to work with any guy ever. “Oh, come on.”

He walked up to her and picked the agreement off her lap. “Sign.”

“You know you can’t date anyone else while we’re pretending to like each other, right?” For some reason it was suddenly very important to her that he know if she did this, they did it together. They’d both suffer.

He made a face. “Does it say that?”

“It will when we write in a bunch of notes in the margin and both initial them.” She tapped the agreement. “Basically, every ridiculous provision that applies to me will now apply to you.”

He didn’t hesitate. “Fine.”

That was almost too easy. “That means you’re stuck with me for... Wait, there’s no end time on this agreement.”