Free Marriage Made on Paper by Maisey Yates Page A

board.”
    “Tomorrow. They’ve only just flown in and will be eating in their quarters so that they can rest.”
    “Considerate of you,” she said, teeth gritted. “Although if I would have known we were eating in, I wouldn’t have dressed for a business dinner.” She was annoyed, but not necessarily about being out of the loop. Probably something to do with being alone with him.
    “I think you still would have.” He had a feeling that Lily would have added another layer if she would have known they would be eating alone together. It was clear that she wasn’t immune to him, that she felt the attraction, too. Also clear that she was equally determined to fight it.
    “Well, I guess technically if we eat together it’s a business dinner.”
    “This isn’t a business dinner,” he said.
    Her dark eyes were severe, her mouth pressed into a line. “If we were at a restaurant, I promise you I would save the receipt and write it off.”
    His body stirred, responding to the blatant challenge she was laying down. She wanted him, and she was determined to fight against it. He ached to release her hair from its tight confines again, to feel her lush, generous curves beneath his hands, to undo all of those little buttons, to undo her completely.
    It was the wrong thing to want. But the temptation she represented was one he was finding harder and harder to resist. He didn’t even want to resist it anymore.
    “Sit down, Lily.”
    She shot him a deadly glare but settled down on thelow couch. He went into the kitchen and rummaged until he found two wineglasses and a bottle of Pinot Gris.
    She took the glass, without comment, and allowed him to pour her a generous portion. A few moments later a woman from housekeeping knocked and came in with trays, setting them on the coffee table before exiting quietly.
    There was a wide variety of fish, rice and noodle dishes and for a while they ate in silence. Another shock, since it was a rare thing for Lily to be silent. She always had a smart remark for every situation, and she never spared anyone her lightning-fast wit. It was one of the things he enjoyed about her.
    But despite the fact that she usually filled the silence, he’d had very few real conversations with her. They kept it to work. Which was how he liked it. He’d been surprised when she’d shared about why she lived by the ocean, and felt put out when it became clear that she regretted sharing.
    And it shouldn’t have. It shouldn’t matter. It shouldn’t matter whether or not she lived by the ocean because she was a champion surfer, or if it was because she felt trapped in her home state. And yet, it had mattered.
    It was easy to look at Lily and see her as a two-dimensional person. Almost an accessory to his work life, something he took inventory of. Mobile phone, laptop, Lily. And he was certain she saw him the same way sometimes. Neither of them had ever gone out of their way to connect, to know each other. He didn’t see the point. When he was at work, he was at work. When he was with a woman, it was for a good time. Only Maddy and his close friends really knew much of anything about him. Even the press was ignorant of the fine details of his life. As he preferred it. If he hadto live publicly he wanted to keep some aspects of his life to himself.
    Now there seemed to be a shift happening in his and Lily’s relationship.
    It’s because you want to see her naked.
    That was all it was. Sex clouded a man’s judgment, and while he generally thought of himself as being above that, given his amount of experience, Lily seemed to revert him back to his teenage years. Which was extremely exciting in some ways, and something part of him—the part that was below his belt, he imagined—wanted very much to explore. While another part of him, likely his brain, was telling him to ignore it.
    “Have you spoken to Maddy?” Lily asked, looking at him over the rim of her wineglass as she took a sip, leaving the imprint of