Forever With The CEO: A marriage of convenience romance (The Whitley Brothers)

“We only saw each other sporadically, at the occasional birthday,” I said, playing off Nick.

“It was only after the funeral,” he continued, “that we started growing closer.”

“That’s not such a long time ago. Certainly not enough to get married,” Bob said sternly.

“Not really any of your business,” Nick said.

Ha! I loved that he was using that bossy tone.

Both looked as if Nick had slapped them.

“So when is this… this marriage going to happen?” Sophie said, and I cringed. We should have discussed this more.

“We’ll see,” Nick replied. “Depends on when city hall has time.”

“Well, we definitely want to be there,” she continued, and I narrowed my eyes.

“It’s going to be close friends and family, Sophie.” Then I rolled my shoulders back. “I’m sorry to say, but you and Bob are neither of that to me.”

“We are the twins’ family,” Bob said through gritted teeth.

Yeah, and there was no way past that. In case they won custody, which would totally destroy me, I wanted to be able to visit the little ones. I couldn’t just throw Bob and Sophie out without thinking about the repercussions even though I truly wanted to.

“We’ll let you know when we have more details,” I assured them.

“And where will you two live?” Sophie went on.

“I’ll move in here with Allison and the kids.”

“In this tiny house?”

“It’s in a fantastic neighborhood,” I said. “And it’s a decent size.”

“The twins don’t even have their own bedrooms,” Sophie retorted.

Nick chuckled. “Sophie, I bunked with my brothers until we were much older. It’s going to be a while before they need their own rooms. If we need more space, I have a six-bedroom penthouse in Back Bay.”

He said that nonchalantly, but Bob’s eyes bulged. They might not be from Boston, but they knew property prices around here.

“We don’t want to relocate them again because they’re comfortable here and they’ve already been through a lot,” I informed them.

“So, you’re going to live in two separate places?” Sophie asked. Boy, she was sly.

“No, Sophie. As I just said, I’ll move in with Allison. I am, however, looking at renting out my home in the interim until we decide whether we want to sell it or move into something bigger. It’s not that big of a deal to me. Home is where my wife and kids are.”

And I swooned. This was exactly what I would want in a husband. Nick would definitely make his real wife very happy one day.

“You could have just moved into the mansion with the kids,” Sophie said.

I cringed. “There is no way I could have covered that mortgage.”

Bob smiled triumphantly.

I glanced over at Sophie, who looked like she had shit under her nose and couldn’t stand the smell anymore. Neither of them was bringing up the custody issue, but I wasn’t going to force it. What could we talk about anyway? I was afraid that if the subject did come up, I’d lose my cool.

Nick had one hand on my waist and started stroking my arm with the other one. The gesture seemed almost absentminded, a reflex. And I loved it.

“Sophie, I think it’s time for us to go,” Bob finally suggested.

Relief flooded me. This hadn’t been as bad as I’d thought. I’d imagined that they’d stay here for hours and confront me about taking the kids. But I should have known better. Nora always said that Bob and Sophie rarely communicated face-to-face. They liked to hit you over the head with “advice” via phone calls and text messages once they were back home.

As the two rose to their feet, Nick moved me around on his knees so I was sitting sideways.

“Will you look at that, babe? We’ll have the rest of the evening for ourselves.” He wiggled his eyebrows, and I felt my face flush.

A devilish smile appeared on his face. He was up to something, but what?

Just then, he kissed me. Heat spread through me like wildfire. I kissed him right back because I desperately needed it. His mouth was hot, and the kiss was completely shameless, Nick swirling his tongue seductively around my mouth. I couldn’t get enough, and then he pulled me even closer so my ass was right across his cock. I nearly moaned.

Is that a zipper or a hard-on? Hell, there was no way to confuse the two. It was definitely the latter. Knowing I did that to him fueled me even more.

The sound of someone clearing their throat broke through our make-out session. I realized Bob and Sophie were still here.

Oh, shit.

Two things dawned on me right then.

One, the PDA had been for their benefit.

Two, I’d completely forgotten that. I’d practically climbed him because I’d wanted to.

I turned around, smiling at them.

Sophie was looking at my mouth with utter dismay. I figured it meant my skin was red from Nick’s kissing. Was it odd that I was proud of it?

“Sorry, we lost our heads,” Nick said. “Newly engaged and all. I’m sure you can understand.”

He was barely holding back laughter, and I wasn’t far from bursting into guffaws myself. I was willing to bet half my savings that Bob and Sophie hadn’t so much as kissed in decades.

“We’ll be going,” Sophie said curtly. “It was nice seeing you again, Nick. We look forward to the wedding invitation.”

That sounded ominous.

Neither of us bothered to walk them to the front. They could see themselves out.

I only went after them a few seconds later to close the safety gate for the kids so I wouldn’t forget to do it in the morning.

While I secured the gate, I became deeply aware that I was now alone with Nick. My body was still humming from that kiss. We hadn’t discussed how things like this would work. How often would we have to do that?

I didn’t want to overthink all of that now, though. I was still a bit in a daze as I walked back to him.

He was sitting in the same spot, smiling lazily.

“That went well, didn’t it?” He sounded smug and full of himself.

I grinned. “All in all, I think it was a success.”

“I wanted to throw them out a few times but managed to restrain myself.”

“Funny, I had that urge too.”

I felt so much more at ease now. I walked right up to him and then realized I couldn’t sit back on his lap. Stopping myself just as I was about to, I abruptly turned to the table as if that had been my destination the whole time. Only there wasn’t anything for me to do because Nick had actually cleared the table while I was up with the twins.

He rose to his feet, and the side of his thigh brushed my ass. I straightened up instantly as a current of heat went through me. I was in huge trouble.

“I loved their faces after we kissed,” he whispered.

I turned around and smiled. “You were very convincing.”

“Of course. I can’t half-ass a kiss. Not when the stakes are that high.”

His comment disappointed me. What was up with that?

“Right,” I said.

Nick tilted my chin up, holding it with two fingers. The contact singed me. “All good, Allison. Are you worried?”

“I’m wondering if there’s any chance that they’ll change their minds so we won’t have to go through with this. They barely interacted with the twins.”

His eyes instantly changed. They went cold as he dropped his hand. “Don’t remind me. I’ll have a word with Hugo. I truly can’t believe anyone would hand those two custody. I can’t believe they even want it.”

“Maybe they will change their minds. Maybe it was just a whim, and now that they’ve seen the twins in action, they’ve realized how much work it is. Of course, I’m sure she’s planning on hiring help. I mean, she didn’t even want to help put them to bed!”

Nick looked at me intensely, then nodded. “I was going to tell my family about our decision this weekend, but I can certainly hold off until we have more news from Bob and Sophie.”

My disappointment only grew. Why? Because I didn’t have to fake being married to Nick? I couldn’t understand what was happening to me.

“Thanks a lot for tonight. Everything was amazing: the spaghetti, the way you handled them.”

“The kiss?” he suggested.

“Nick!”

“Come on. We have to talk about it. It’ll be weird if we don’t.”

I swallowed hard, laughing nervously. I felt like it was weird already, but clearly I was the only one.

“I didn’t mean to blindside you,” he continued. “I didn’t even plan it. I just thought it would add a nice touch, you know?”

I nodded.

“And we need to talk about the other thing.”

“What thing?” I was genuinely confused as I snapped my gaze up to him.

His eyes were playful as he tilted his head. “Don’t tell me you didn’t feel it. That would be a complete blow to my ego.”

I gasped, covering my mouth with my hand. “Nick.”

“In my defense, it was just my body’s reaction.”

I shook my head. “You really don’t have to explain yourself.”

Could he not see that I was already blushing like mad? Who talked about these things out loud? I sure didn’t.

“I’d like to say that if we have to fake more kisses, I’ll keep it under control, but I don’t like to make false promises.”

I laughed nervously. “I’m not sure what to say.”

“I just wanted to bring it up to clear the air.”

I ran a hand through my hair, licking my lips. I wanted to fan myself even though the evening wasn’t even that hot. I wasn’t sure this had cleared the air at all, but obviously Nick was built differently than me.

I yawned. “Thanks for bringing dinner too.”

His eyes sparked once again. “You didn’t pay attention, did you?”

“To what?”

“I brought something extra just for you. I put it in the fridge.”

“What is it?”

“Chocolate. I figured you might need the reinforcement tonight.”

Oh my goodness, I could truly kiss this man.

No! There would be no more kissing. In fact, if things went the way I hoped and Bob and Sophie gave up, there would be no kissing Nick Whitley ever again.

But I didn’t like that thought at all either.

“I’ll get it, and we can share.”

“Actually,” Nick said, “I need to go.”

“Oh.”

Why did I keep getting more disappointed as the evening went by? What did I expect? That he’d stay the entire night with me? The man had been traveling all week. He probably wanted to go home and relax. Or he wanted to go out on the town and have fun.

It was on the tip of my tongue to ask him what his plans were for the rest of the evening, but it was none of my business.

“Let me know if Bob and Sophie say something, okay?”

“Sure. They probably won’t reply anytime soon, though. Have fun tonight,” I added, hoping he’d give me a hint regarding what he was up to.

“I definitely will.”

Well, what does that mean? Is he going on a date?

No, I couldn’t think about that. My whole body rejected the idea. My stomach sank, and my heart felt heavy. Would it be like this when we had to move in together as well? I couldn’t imagine feeling like crap every time he wanted to do something on his own.

Don’t get ahead of yourself, Allison. Most likely you can forget this whole crazy idea because moving in together probably won’t be necessary at all.

“Good night, Allison.” He tilted forward, and for a split second, I was certain he was going to kiss me again. My entire body geared up for it. Then he brought his lips to my cheek. It burned where he kissed me. He scratched my skin lightly with his five-o’clock shadow, and when I shuddered, I hoped to God he didn’t notice it.

After he straightened up, my cheek was still on fire. “You, too, Nick.”

I watched him walk away and sighed. Damn, he even had a sexy walk and a sexier backside. Under the porch light, I caught the glimmer of the diamond he’d given me. Temporarily, Allison—get it together.

Wow, there were no two ways about it. Nick Whitley was an absolutely gorgeous man—who might or might not become my fake husband.