He shook his head and chuckled. Yeah, she was gorgeous, but he wasn’t in the market for a new woman in his life—let alone a wife. No, he’d complete this deal his way. And he wouldn’t need Melinda Stanford to do it. Chuckling again, he said, “The only way to get the land is by marrying you.”
“Exactly.”
He frowned. “You’re actually serious.”
“Absolutely.”
“Are you on medication?”
“Not yet,” she muttered. Then louder, she said, “Look, my grandfather is on a campaign to see me married with babies at my feet.”
Sean shuddered. Sure, his brothers and far too many of his cousins had been taking the marital plunge lately. Lucas just last year. But not Sean. Nope. Been there, done that, survived to tell the tale. Not that anyone in his family had ever heard about Sean’s thankfully brief trip into marriage hell.
He wasn’t about to get married again.
“Good luck with that,” he said and started to get up.
She reached across the table and grabbed his hand.
Instantly, heat sizzled where their palms met. Sean’s body responded to that heat in a blink. It caught him off guard, that flash of something…tantalizing. One look into her eyes told him she was as surprised as he was. And just as determined to ignore it. He could be attracted to a woman without doing anything about it. Hell, he hadn’t been led around by his dick since he was nineteen.
Though…the heat was still there, so to avoid temptation, he pulled his hand free of her grip and told himself he didn’t miss that sweep of heat.
“You could at least listen to me,” she said.
Frowning now, Sean eased back down in his chair. Not that he was interested in what she had to say, but why take the risk of offending a member of the very family he’d come here to do business with? “Fine. Listening. Make it fast.”
“Okay. Bottom line is, I want you to marry me.”
“Yeah, I got that. Why?”
“It makes sense.”
“In which universe?”
“You want the land for your cousin to build a hotel. I want a temporary husband.”
“Temporary?”
She laughed shortly and the sound was rich and musical. She shook her head until her soft, black hair floated around her like a dark halo. “Of course temporary. Did you think I was proposing a lifetime deal? To a man I’ve never met?”
“Hey,” he reminded her, “you’re the one proposing before I even knew your name, so watch the insults.”
“Fine.” She nodded, serious again. “Here’s the deal. When you meet with my grandfather, he’s going to suggest a merger/marriage.”
“How do you know?”
She waved one hand. “Because he’s already tried at least four times.”
“He didn’t try this with Lucas or Rafe.”
“Because they’re already married.”
“Ah. Right.” Why was he trying to make sense of a situation that was clearly nuts?
“Anyway,” she continued, “my grandfather will offer to sell you the land if you marry me. All I’m asking is that you accept.”
“And marry you.”
“Temporarily.”
“How long is temporarily?” He couldn’t even believe he was asking the question. He didn’t want a wife, temporary or not. All he wanted to do was buy the land.
She frowned a little and tapped the tip of her finger against her chin while she thought about it. “Two months should be enough,” she finally said with a nod. “Grandfather believes that even a business deal marriage could become something real given enough time. I don’t.”
“Right there with ya,” Sean said, tipping his beer bottle at her in salute.
“My point is, if we’re married two months, then Grandfather will think we’ve given it a try and it just didn’t work out. Long enough to soothe him and short enough that neither of us should mind too much.”
“Uh-huh.” He looked at her, wondering how this day had gone from normal into the world of weird. “And you’ve chosen me for the honor of temporary husband…why?”
She sat back in her chair and drummed her fingertips on the table. She might look cool and composed, Sean told himself, but her nerves were showing anyway.
“I did some research into you.”
“What?”
“Well,” she explained, “I’m not about to marry just anybody.”
“Oh yeah,” he said nodding, “I can see that.”
“You were a good student in college, majored in computer sciences. You graduated and went into business with two of your half brothers. You’re the tech guy, but also the one they call on to make the hard sell.” She took a breath and Sean just stared at her. “You live in a rehabbed water tower in Sunset Beach California and you love your sister-in-law’s cookies.”
He frowned and took a long drink of his beer. Sean didn’t much care for being researched. And he really didn’t care for what she had to say next.
“You don’t do commitment,” she said, still tapping her fingers on the tabletop. “You’re a serial monogamist—one woman only until you move on to the next one. Your exes all speak highly of you though, so that tells me you’re a nice enough guy despite the fact that you can’t maintain a relationship.”
“Excuse me?”
“The longest relationship you had was in college. That lasted nearly nine months, though I couldn’t find out what happened to end it—”
And she never would, Sean thought, deciding he’d had enough. Beautiful or not, she was starting to annoy him.
“That’s it. I’m done.” He leaned across the table and stared into those beautiful, sea-blue eyes of hers and said, “I’ll get the land and I’ll do it my way. I’m not interested in your schemes, babe, so try them on somebody else.”
“Wait. Just…wait.” She gave him a wide-eyed look out of those beautiful blue eyes and he felt himself weakening. “This is coming out all wrong and I know it. I’m sorry if I offended you.”
“Not offended,” he assured her. “Just not interested.”
Melinda felt a quick jolt of something like panic. She’d completely messed this up and she didn’t want to risk having him turn her down. So she took a long breath and said, “Just, give me a chance to start over, okay?”