Seven
Rose looked at him with a cocked eyebrow. There was a lot to think about. And yet, as she worked her way through it in her head, as quickly as possible, she wasn’t sure that there was anything that she hadn’t already thought through. After all, she’d already gotten Duncan’s blessing. Which seemed strange to think about. But it was true, she knew. It was a strange position to be in, and yet… she found that she didn’t mind it all that much after all.
“So let’s say I agreed.”
“So quick?” Bryce shrugged his shoulders. “Okay. Well, what’s the question.”
“What about my wifely duties?”
“You mean sex?”
“Of course I mean sex.”
“What about it?”
“You don’t think there’s a conversation to be had there?”
“A conversation? Sure.”
“I don’t want to be regarded as some kind of ice queen. Not by you, and not by the general public, if I’m going to suddenly be Mrs. Bryce Kilpatrick. Which means that you’re going to have to slow down on the women.”
“Slow down, huh?”
“Slow down to stopped, I mean.”
“That’s quite a demand.”
“And yet, you’re going to go for it.”
“Is that right?”
“It’s exactly right.”
“Alright. So? What’s your angle.”
“I’ll step in for them.”
He ground his jaw left to right. He looked annoyed, maybe even angry. And at the same time, it was impossibly sexy.
“You think that’s even possible?”
“I think you’ll agree to it.”
“Do you?”
“I think exactly that.”
“You’re not necessarily wrong, but I’m interested in what makes you so certain.”
“I’m willing to do whatever it takes,” Rose said.
“Oh?”
“That’s right. Whatever it takes.”
He smiled at her across the desk. The implication was impossible to miss, even for him.
“You’re an interesting woman, Miss Sewell.”
“I wasn’t raised no fool. And besides. I don’t intend to raise my girls in some kind of dysfunctional home. You don’t have to love me, but you have to put up appearances.”
“I could always pass on you.”
“Could you? How many women do you approach with this story before someone talks?”
He nodded to himself. Rose put up a finger.
“Just one.”
“You mean you?”
“I mean me. You pass on me, and the new Mrs. Kilpatrick is immediately outed for a stooge, before you even approached her with the offer.”
“It seems like you’ve thought this through.”
“I know what my options are, and they’re not good. Not unless I can force myself into this.”
“You’re right.”
“Maybe I’m not as smart as you, and maybe I haven’t thought it all the way through. I’m sure there’s some kind of trouble in it for me. But I’ll tell you this, I’m not going to go down unless it’s fighting.”
“No?”
“Or on you,” Rose said, making a suggestive face.
“Oh yeah?”
“I don’t mind that. Not one bit. As long as you don’t try to screw me.”
“I wasn’t going to.”
“Good. That’s what I like to hear.”
“What do we do, shake on it?”
“Not as if there’s any sort of contract I can draw up. I could have a pre-nup.”
“What, you think I want to be paraded around as a tramp by divorcing you?”
“I think that you’re willing to accept that shame if it meant getting half my assets.”
“Or I could have all of them.”
“How’s that?”
“Not divorcing you.”
He smiled. “I like the way you’re thinking. I’m glad I picked you.”
“I’m glad you’re glad.” Rose took a step toward him. The office wasn’t large. It was never intended to be well-used. Bob didn’t plan on sticking around much on a day-to-day basis. And very likely, neither did Bryce.
“What’s this?”
“Call it a signing bonus.”
“For who?” Rose slid into his lap. He smelled like a man. His beard scratched as she brushed a kiss across his jaw.
“Who knows?”
Her lips pressed into his. He took a moment to decide how he wanted to respond. Then he seemed to decide that he was going to go with it after all, and kissed her back. His hand found the curve of her ass, and she pressed herself back into it.
“Now that we’ve settled this,” she said softly, “There’s something I should tell you.”
He bit into her throat. There was a big part of her that she wasn’t sure about telling him. A very, very big part. He seemed to get something out of forcing her into this. If he were to get a whiff that she were chasing after him, what were the odds that he would let that pass?
“Oh?”
Her heart pounded hard. She shifted until she was straddling him in the office chair. It was cramped. The only position that she could find that was halfway comfortable pressed her mound hard into his hardness.
“I love your cock.”
She hated herself for pulling back. Her daughters weren’t supposed to be a big secret. It was just something that she hadn’t told him because he was nobody at all. Some guy she met.
But now, at the brink, it was a little bit too big to tell someone. Sufficiently big, she knew, that it would require a certain amount of thinking about it. What he was planning to do, how he would respond.
It would be better to wait until they were married, she told herself. Then he could find out about the girls, and their father. He could find out that things had worked out better than intended.
But only after. She ground her hips forward, his hips rising to meet her, pressing his erection against her. It was better that way. Now she just had to convince herself that was the truth. And for now, she had to forget about them completely. Bryce’s hands cupped her breasts.
There were more pressing matters at hand. His other hand undid the buttons on her blouse, and she forgot all about the lies she’d told. She had other things to think about at the moment. Then he pinched a sensitive nipple, and there wasn’t any thinking going on anyways.