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

stock up on booze if she was going to be spending a lot of time with his mother. Chocolate just wasn’t going to cut it.
    He took a sip of beer, watching her. “Sounds like a plan. Whose bed?”
    She couldn’t help but laugh. “You’re trying already? I’m not staying here with you.”
    “I’ll get you another suite. The paparazzi will still be waiting for you at home.”
    “I’m staying at a friend’s house.”
    He grabbed pen and paper from the desk and held it out to her. “The number you can be reached at.”
    She thought about giving a fake one but decided that ship had sailed. She was going out shopping with his mother– and wouldn’t everyone involved just love that– and to dinner with him tomorrow night. She accepted that he would probably need to get ahold of her. She scrawled Cassandra’s number on the paper, then headed for the door.
    He followed her. “Tell me again why you are the only person in the world who doesn’t have a cell?”
    “Because I don’t like being instantly available to anyone and everyone.”
    “That’s what the off button is for.” He shook his head. “You’re even stranger than I thought you were.”
    She smiled slightly, shutting the door behind her before he could follow her out. She walked to the elevator, her hand clenched to keep his ring from sliding off her finger, her lips still tingling from the lightest kiss she’d ever received.
    This she knew: she was stupider than she thought she was.

    Ethan watched through the peephole until the elevator doors closed behind Mackenzie. Then he took out his hard-earned contract.
    He flopped onto the couch, propping his feet up, and read over the contract quickly. He shook his head. A million dollars for a fiancé. Bad deal, Ethan . But he couldn’t stop grinning.
    He really couldn’t tell who’d won that negotiation. And that was always the way with Mackenzie. He’d go in thinking he could get her to do what he wanted, just like he could with anybody else, and he’d come out later in a great mood, with a lot less money in his pocket.
    A million dollars!
    And if she kept after that half, he knew he’d eventually give in. He was turning her life upside down and he felt an inkling of guilt about that. She’d ferret that guilt out eventually.
    He frowned when he read again that she would leave O’Connor Capital at the end of their “engagement”. She was his best salesman. How she did it, he didn’t know. She wasn’t personable, friendly, chatty, sexy. . .
    Okay, she was a little sexy. In a hold-the-whip, take-no-prisoners kind of way.
    But she could see if and how much others wanted what she was selling. He couldn’t remember how many times he’d heard her clients say they wouldn’t have paid a dollar more.
    He’d talk her out of leaving at the end. He knew she didn’t want to.
    Even if she did suddenly find herself holding a small fortune.
    It was the game that drove her, and if she left she’d have no one to compare herself to. No one to compete against.
    Ethan knew she was too competitive to flourish without that in her life. She’d get gray and boring without that drive. Ethan had six weeks to point that out to her.
    He pulled out his cell and called up his grandmother.
    “You might want to get Mother something strong to drink. I talked Mackenzie into playing fiancé.”
    “Good. Not more than three percent, I hope?”
    Ethan grimaced. “She didn’t want it. She wanted payment up front.”
    “How much?”
    “A million. With a possible half at the end.”
    “A possible half your shares at the end?”
    He laughed. “No. Another half mil.”
    “I guess it’s a start.”
    He shook his head. “We’ll go to dinner tomorrow night, give the paparazzi some happy couple pictures. Can you take her shopping in the morning? She’s out of her element with all the cameras and I don’t want her to feel self-conscious.”
    “I’ll bring your mother. They’ll fight each other and distract