Free Marriage in Name Only? by Anne Oliver

me into popping the question, you didn’t want to wait another day.’
    Manipulated?
She did look up at him then and noticed a tightening around his mouth, which transformed into a lopsided grin when he caught her staring at him.
    ‘But I’m happy you did, Blondie,’ he assured her quickly.
    ‘Yeah? For how long?’ She couldn’t imagine anyone manipulating Jordan but the stormy depths of his gaze told her someone had tried.
    ‘Eternity. Right?’
    She narrowed her eyes. ‘Have you been married before?’
    ‘No.’
    Do I look stupid?
She received his message loud and clear. His blatant cynicism annoyed her. ‘You’d better change that attitude before we get there or it’ll be game over before we start,’ she said, frowning back at her notes. ‘Seriously.’
    ‘I am serious. How can you doubt it after the time and effort and expense I’m putting in to make it happen?’
    ‘Right.’ She wrote COMMITMENT PHOBIC in her ‘getting acquainted’ column. She believed in marriage when two people loved and trusted each other and were committed to making it work. But after Stewart, she didn’t believe that she personally could do the trust or even the long-term bit. Or maybe she was afraid to believe.
    Did that make her as commitment phobic as him? she wondered momentarily. Not at all, she told herself. She wasn’t phobic, just … careful. Right?
    ‘I’m also serious about sharing a little pleasure around the business aspect,’ he said.
    ‘Well, maybe I’m not.’ She added APPROACH AT OWN PERIL to the list and slapped her notepad shut.
    ‘You were enjoying it fine a few moments ago.’ His eyes dared her to take issue with the inconvenient truth.
    ‘You didn’t give me time to … to change my mind,’ she said, dismissing their kiss. ‘I wasn’t ready.’
    ‘You’ve been ready since the last time we bumped lips.’ Bracing his forearms on his knees, he gave her that sexy grin that made her want to throw herself onto the couch next to him and beg him to do it again.
    ‘No.’
    ‘Come on, you were curious. And it was good, right?’
    She exhaled through her nostrils. ‘Okay. Fine. It was good.’
    ‘As good as you expected?’
    He just had to keep pushing, didn’t he? ‘It was right upthere with white-water rafting, New Year’s Eve sky shows and soft-centre chocolates. Satisfied?’
    ‘Not nearly.’
    ‘But it’s not going to happen again,’ she went on, tapping her notebook with her pen. ‘It muddies our business relationship.’
    His grin widened. ‘I disagree. Our business relationship is about making our “recent marriage” look legitimate to our target audience.’
    ‘We can still do that.
I
can still do that. It’s what you’re paying me for.’ Which reminded her—the purpose of tonight’s meeting. ‘Think of me as a conservative, no-nonsense, PA …’
    ‘Hard to imagine when none of those labels suit you.’
    ‘Then
don’t
think or imagine, just listen and discuss.’ Flipping open her notepad again, she clicked her pen. ‘Accommodation—’
    ‘Already taken care of.’ He grinned, the lines around his eyes crinkling. He shrugged when she glared. ‘Can’t help it—I do like an enthusiastic partner.’
    An image played behind her eyes. A very active, very inappropriate image.
He means business partner, Chloe
. Didn’t he? ‘I … You’re making this difficult.’
    ‘Tell you what, we can go over this tomorrow evening at the airport or onboard our flight,’ he said, setting his mug on the coffee table in front of him. ‘It’s late. We’ll call it a night.’
    She let out a sigh. ‘You don’t know how relieved I am to hear that. I have so much to organise. To pack.’
    But her entire wardrobe fitted into one large suitcase and her relief was short-lived. The Jordan Blackstone she’d seen online dated stunning, statuesque women who knew how to dress to impress. He’d have been better off choosing someone with a sense of fashion who already knew the role to