Free Some Like It Ruthless (A Temporary Engagement) by Megan Bryce Page A

do?”
    She said again, “I will be returning phone calls.”
    “You’re the one who interrupted my workweek. You’re going to have to keep me entertained.”
    She shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
    “We’ll go to dinner tonight.”
    She groaned. “No. No more food.”
    “Then we’ll go dancing.”
    She sighed. “Cole.”
    He sat back, a satisfied look on his face. “You want a nap, too. Admit it.”
    A nap sounded wonderful. She just wasn’t going to take one with him.
    She said, “I’m going to drop you back off at home so you can take a nap and then I will go do more work. I have even more to do now that the tide is turning.”
    “But now you have someone to help, so really you have less to do and you can enjoy yourself on a Friday night. We’ll get back to work tomorrow.”
    “I wasn’t expecting you to help me.”
    “I’m a full-service fiance.”
    He wiggled his eyebrows at her and it took everything she had not to laugh.
    He said, “Come on, Maggie. What else am I going to do? We’re engaged. I can’t go out on a Friday night without my fiance. I need something to do. Something to take my mind off that mountain of paperwork we will be going through again .”
    “What about your video games?”
    He looked interested. “We can do that. I have a first-person shooter I think you’d really like. Blood, guts, bullets. I don’t want to oversell it but there are bankers.”
    “You think I’d like something like that?”
    “I think you’d love it.”
    She couldn’t help but smile at him. “I had no idea you were a gamer.”
    “Recreational only. It’s relaxing and fun. Drilling for oil is not always fun.”
    She couldn’t picture him sitting still long enough to play a video game.
    “Do you really get to shoot bankers?”
    He tapped his fingers on the table. “I’m torn here. Because on the one hand I can see you’d come play with me if you could pop a cap in some bankers.”
    “So that’s a no.”
    “I could have just lied to you.”
    “Why didn’t you?”
    “I don’t like lying to you, Maggie.”
    He’d never lied to her, ever. Not told her everything, sure. But he’d never lied. Even when he’d gone back on their deal, he hadn’t lied about it. If you asked Cole a straight question, you got a straight answer.
    And she knew that when he’d said he’d meant to go easy on the Beaumonts, it was true. He hadn’t made their deal intending to renege.
    If she’d known how much Cole and Tanner had hated each other, she might have done things differently. But she hadn’t known until years later that Tanner had planned Cole’s beating, had watched it. Had stood by silently when everyone else involved had been expelled, including Cole.
    It had hurt to have the blinders ripped from her eyes. It had hurt to have Tanner do it himself, drunk and unrepentant still.
    It hurt when the person you loved showed themselves to be someone else entirely. Especially when that someone was married to your sister.
    Cole put his hand on hers and she lifted her eyes from her plate. He said, “I don’t like lying, Maggie. The truth is usually ugly enough.”
    A little piece of her heart cracked. She knew why he didn’t like to lie. Richard Montgomery had lied to everyone. Had gone back on handshakes, spent millions in court to break down a contract he’d signed, laughed in the face of anyone who believed in anything he said or did.
    Maggie had no idea how many lies he’d told his son. But it looked like it had been enough.
    She said, “It’s too bad there aren’t bankers.”
    He nodded. “I don’t know why it hasn’t been done yet. But there are zombies.”
    “Of course there are zombies.”
    “Aliens?”
    She wobbled her head.
    “I can find something for you to shoot up.”
    “Oil drillers?”
    He grinned. “You want to come over and play with my controller, don’t you?”
    She didn’t know what it said about her but she did. It sounded fun, and she hadn’t had fun in a