Free Turn Me On by Faye Avalon

young, stupid, and
drunk. Turns out she was far from stupid.”
    She dreaded to ask, but when he fell silent she felt like she didn’t
have any option herself but to ask. “What was the pact?”
    He scoffed. “The old favorite. If neither of us was married by the time
we were thirty, we’d hook up. She blew out thirty candles on her cake two weeks
ago.”
    “And now she’s turning the screws?”
    “You could say that.”
    Lissa didn’t want to delve too deeply into the feelings flowing through
her. She didn’t care much for the thought that Reed simply saw her as a means
to an end, nor did she like the little buzz inside her head that prompted her
to hear him out.
    “Surely she can’t hold you to a drunken promise?” Lissa tugged at the
hem of Reed’s shirt as it skimmed across her thighs. “Anyway, it’s her word
against yours.”
    “Like I said, she wasn’t stupid. Apparently, she got me to sign on the
dotted line, or at least some scrap of paper that my legal man says is likely
to hold up if she wants to push it.”
    “You must have been really drunk.”
    He shrugged. “Can’t remember a damn thing, except that we got it on in
some back alley and then headed to her place. After that, it’s all a blank.”
    Considering her track record, she could hardly think badly of him for
his reckless behavior. And she hadn’t
had the excuse of youth to fall back on.
    “Can’t you pay her off or something?”
    “Tried that. She wants a ring on her finger rather than a check in the
bank.” He rocked back on his heels. “I won’t hold you to anything other than a
temporary arrangement. If you agree, we can do the legal thing, stay together
long enough to make it look genuine, have some irreconcilable differences, then
sever the knot.”
    Her stomach sank to her knees at his offhanded tone. “How romantic.”
    “You’ll have your debts cleared. I’ll set you up in your own business,
plus throw in a healthy bonus.”
    “For services rendered?”
    He narrowed his eyes at the snap in her tone, obviously taking her
inference. “I can’t deny the sex isn’t an attractive added extra, but I don’t
intend chaining you to the bed. At least not without your consent.” When she
remained silent, he shrugged again. “You’ll get what you want out of this. We
both will.”
    “There’s a name for women who sell their bodies for money.”
    “We’ve already had sex, and no money changed hands.”
    “What you’re proposing would change things.” Lissa drew the edges of his
shirt together, painfully aware of her nakedness beneath. She wanted to run, to
grab her clothes and hightail out of his claustrophobic presence and the insane
scheme he’d cooked up. Still, something kept her rooted to the spot. “Am I
supposed to move in with you?”
    “Yes.” When she didn’t move, Reed stepped forward. “Look at this as a
business arrangement with personal benefits.”
    Annoyed with herself, both that she hadn’t yet run and worse that she
was actually weighing his proposition in her mind, Lissa scoffed. “Marriage
with benefits. There’s a novel idea.”
    “We already know the sex is good.”
    Well, yes. She couldn’t argue with that. “ Don’t
you think this woman will get that you’re playing her? If she wants that ring on her finger,
something tells me it’ll take a lot more than a fake marriage to stop her.”
    “She’ll have no option but to back off. The paper I signed said the deal
was only if neither of us was married. I will be. To you.”
    Lissa shook her head in the hope that the movement would clear the fuzz
that had taken up residence in her brain. It didn’t help, but one thought ran
clear of the jumble of others. And if it were true, she wouldn’t touch Reed’s
proposition with a ten foot pole. “Is she in love with you?”
    He gave a humorless laugh and put down his glass. “She’s in love with
what being married to me can do for her.”
    “And what’s that?”
    “Keep her in the