Free Because a Husband Is Forever by Marie Ferrarella

even worse than she thought. “I have to live with him?”
    Alan nodded. The details had already been worked out with the man who had returned with MacKenzie. “For a couple of weeks.”
    â€œA couple of weeks?” she echoed incredulously. My God, that was an eternity. She tried to suppress a wave of annoyance. One would think that after all this time, she wouldn’t have to resort to gimmicks to hang on to her audience.
    â€œCouldn’t I just live with a Bengal tiger for a couple of weeks instead? Damn it, Alan, it’s an invasion of privacy, it’s living with an albatross around my neck, it’s—”
    Alan looked at her innocently as he said the magic words. “It’s sweeps month.”
    She sighed, knowing that he was right, that at the last staff meeting, she’d found that they didn’t have a gimmick in place for the occasion that governed the lives of everyone in television. During sweeps month everyone tried to outdo the other for the tiniest percentage point. Resignation did not feel good.
    She looked at MacKenzie. “Do I at least get to choose which one?”
    She couldn’t read MacKenzie’s expression as the latter said, “The audience already chose for you.”
    â€œOf course they did.” Dakota was afraid to ask. Maybe because she already knew the answer. It was Ian. Why else would Alan care if she was building “a rapport” or not? Still, she heard herself asking, “And which one did they pick?”
    â€œThey picked Ian.” MacKenzie told her.
    A spark of hope rose to the surface of the quicksand in which she found herself standing. “He’s never going to go for this.”
    MacKenzie wasn’t fazed. “Randy was very excited about the idea. A little put off that he wasn’t the one the audience wanted, but he still thinks this is a great idea.”
    It didn’t matter what the other man thought of the idea. He wasn’t the one who would endure being a bodyguard to a woman whose body didn’t need guarding.
    â€œIan is not going to go for this,” Dakota repeated. She might not know him all that well, but she recognized stubbornness when she saw it.
    Alan began again, more insistently this time. “But if he does—”
    Never happen , she thought happily.
    She loved her show, didn’t mind doing strange stunts, but they only lasted for a few hours at the most. This threatened to take out a large chunk of her life, and she didn’t want to volunteer it. The last thing she wanted was to have a good-looking man hovering over her as if she was some dolt incapable of tying her own shoes or crossing the street without getting hit by a car.
    â€œThen I’m on board,” she told him with the casual assurance of someone who felt that could never happen.
    Alan grinned. “Then you’d better prepare your boarding pass.”
    The sinking feeling was back, larger than before. “Why?”
    Alan beamed, well pleased with himself. “Because I offered to hook them up with someone who could do a commercial for their firm. I’m having the station underwrite the costs.”
    It didn’t get any better than that. She could see how the men, especially Randy, would have a difficult time turning that down.
    So she was going to have a roommate for the next two weeks. “You play dirty.”
    Alan made his way to the door, then stopped to look at her before leaving. “Never said I didn’t.”
    Â 
    â€œNo.”
    The single word was a cross between some unintelligible guttural sound and a bear growling. All the more intimidating because it had come out of Ian’s barely moving lips.
    Randy had pounced on his friend with the news the moment he’d walked into the office. He’d been behind Ian by five minutes and was still hearing the promises ringing in his ears.
    The two men now stood facing each other on opposite sides of the small