Read Online Some Like It Charming (A Temporary Engagement) by Megan Bryce - Free Book Online Page A

public performance. Will there be any of that?”
    She placed her fist in his belly and his breath rushed out. He said in an exaggerated wheeze, “I’ll have to remember you have a temper.”
    “Please do.”
    He rubbed his stomach, then grinned. “Okay, you can have the half. But I expect something good for that half.”
    “Mmm. If only we were in Nevada. Because that is illegal in California.”
    He sighed heavily. He grabbed the pen from her, scribbling one million only where she’d put one and a half, and signed it with a flourish. He held the pen out to her. “Very well. At least this way I’ll know that if I get you into bed it will not be because I’m paying you.”
    She took it gingerly. “You’re not getting me anywhere near a bed.”
    “Semantics. It could be the couch, a table, the floor.”
    She shook her head.
    “But a bed is the most comfortable. A guy’s got to hope.”
    She paused, staring at the paper, then closed her eyes and scrawled her name hastily.
    She whispered, “Shit.”
    He chuckled, folding the paper and putting it in his pocket. “I’ll keep this until we can get a copy made for you.”
    “You’re the devil.”
    “You’re the only one that thinks so.”
    “That doesn’t make me wrong.”
    His fingers circled her wrists, pulling her gently out of the chair and towards him. She resisted. “What are you doing?”
    “Sealing it with a kiss.”
    She reared back. “No, no, no.”
    He kept pulling her closer. “We’re engaged. I think it’s tradition for a man to steal a kiss from his intended after a lengthy battle.”
    She kept her eyes wide open as his lips touched hers, as his breath mingled with hers, as his heat touched her skin.
    He looked at her through lidded eyes and whispered against her lips. “Thank you, Mackenzie.”
    When he pulled back, she nodded and tried to pull her wrists out of his grip.
    He held on. “Really, Mackenzie. Thank you.”
    She looked into his eyes and saw no twinkle, no charm, no persuasion. She stopped fighting and simply said, “You’re welcome.”
    He smiled, releasing her wrists. “Before we leave L.A. we need to give them some pictures. That’s our best chance of having it clear in New York. It’s harder for the paparazzi in New York but they’ll do it if they have to.” He looked her up and down. “I’ll have mother and grandma take you shopping, get your hair done. Tomorrow night we’ll go to dinner and let the paparazzi get all they want.”
    Mackenzie grabbed her beer bottle. “Oh, God. I need hazard pay.”
    He pulled a blue box out of the desk and set it beside her. She looked between it and him, and said, “What’s this?”
    “Your temporary engagement ring. We’ll get a better one in New York, but as my grandmother noted, an engagement’s not real until there’s a ring on your finger.”
    She didn’t touch it. She took another pull of her beer. He stared at her for a minute, waiting for her to open it, then said, “This is the first time I’ve given jewelry to a woman who didn’t jump in my arms at the sight.”
    She snorted.
    He flipped the box open, showing off a diamond as big as a sugar cube.
    “Holy crap!” She looked up at him. “That’s the temporary one? Just how big do you think a diamond has to be?”
    “For my fiancé? Big.”
    “And when this is all over?”
    “Keep it.” He smiled. “We’ll call it hazard pay.”
    She shook her head and he said, “You never complained about those bonus checks I signed. Just think of it like that.”
    “Yeah, I earned those.”
    He took the ring out, reaching for her hand. “You’ll earn this, too.”
    He slid it on to her finger. “We’ll get it sized tomorrow.”
    She tried to laugh. “Good thing I’m taking some time off. There’s so much to do now that I’m your fiancé.” She looked up into his face, so close, and took a step back. “I’d better get to bed early tonight if I’m to spend the day with your family.”
    She might need to