Married?

Arianna opened her mouth to ask what the hell he was talking about, but Duke climbed into bed beside her and pulled her to lie against his half naked body. It had been so long since she’d been held like this, and despite the fact that the man next to her was a virtual stranger, it felt good. Right.

Heat radiated from his bronze skin and he smelled so good that she almost pressed her nose closer before she remembered what he’d just said. She pushed up onto her elbow and looked down at him. A sexy smirk turned his full lips upwards.

Electricity still buzzed through her veins and it was hard to concentrate, so soon after too many amazing orgasms. It had to have been her muddled mind because no way would a virtual stranger tell her they were getting married.

“I think I heard you wrong just now,” she said.

His tongue ran over his bottom lip and he stared into her eyes. There was still so much fire burning within his pupils. Her entire body responded to the invitation she could read clear as day.

God, he was distracting.

“It’s the perfect solution,” Duke told her. “We’ll show people that I’ve settled down and make the ranch respectable again.” His eyes darkened as he ran his fingers along the curve of her waist. “And we can keep doing this and no one will bat an eyelash.”

Ari swallowed loudly. When he touched her, she forgot everything. No it was worse than that. When he touched her, the insanity he spouted actually made sense. She pulled away enough so that contact between them was broken. She had to think straight.

“You’re not serious,” she told him.

Duke reached out and snagged her arm, hauling her body to half lie over the top of his. His arm anchored her against his chest. When she half-heartedly tried to roll off him, his eyes grew darker and she felt him hardening against her thigh.

His smirk brought heat to her face.

“Oh I’m serious, darlin’. Let me prove it to you right now.”

Her nipples tightened and she fought the urge to rub herself along his body. Getting lost in the way he could make her feel wasn’t a good idea. Not yet. She needed to know more. Was this part of what they’d hired her for, or was this something else entirely?

Ari wasn’t naive enough to think that Duke was telling her they were getting married because he’d fallen in love with her. Lust maybe, but enough emotion to build a marriage? No way.

So this had to be part of her job. Disappointment sank into her gut like lead. She drew away from him even further. But she didn’t know if she was upset at his arrogance, or at the fact that he didn’t have real feelings for her.

Before she could ask him anything else, though, there was a quick knock at the door and it opened.

“Arianna, I wanted to ask you…” Molly pulled up short and her eyes widened. Her gaze lingered on Duke and then slid to Ari. Emotion flashed over her face, too quickly for Ari to see clearly, but it looked like the woman was pissed.

Ari pulled the covers up over her chest. Duke just grinned and slid closer, putting his arm around Ari’s shoulders to pull her close.

“Hey, Mol, we have some great news. We’re getting hitched.” Duke kissed Ari’s forehead and missed the look of sheer frustration that once again contorted Molly’s features.

But Molly seemed quick to get herself under control.

“What?” Molly sputtered. “How and why?”

Duke didn’t exactly answer her questions. “We’ll start shooting promotional pictures tomorrow morning,” he announced, “and you can let all the right people know about this. The wedding will take place here at the ranch in three weeks.”

Wait, three weeks? Ari struggled to sit up, her gaze darting from Duke to Molly. This was insane.

“I’m sure that the relationship will provide enough good press to turn things around,” Molly argued. “There’s really no need for something as extreme as marriage.”

“It’s what I want.” The finality in Duke’s voice caused a surge of panic in Ari.

Molly sighed. “Fine. Tomorrow morning, shoot some video and have a few stills done up and I’ll put out a selective amount of press releases.”

But Molly’s gaze rested on Duke a few seconds too long before she looked away. It made Ari wonder just how close these two had been. Alone in the country with nothing to do but milk cows and ride horses…

“I’ll put together a list of sites I have in mind to break this story. I can have it ready in fifteen minutes if you’ll meet me in the office? If you want to do this we should have everything ready to go.” Molly pulled out her phone and started tapping on the screen. “I’m sure you already have ideas on what you’d like to see.”

Ari didn’t miss the heated glance Duke sent her way. A devilish smirk tilted his lips up. “Yeah, I’ve got a few ideas in mind.”

Heat climbed up Ari’s face and she scooched down a little lower under the covers. Did they even care she was sitting right there? Neither had asked her if she was okay with all this.

Molly nodded, all business now. “Okay then, I’ll see you both in the morning.” With one last unhappy look in Ari’s direction, Molly left the room and shut the door.

“What just happened?” Ari asked. “Are we really getting married in three weeks?”

Duke shrugged and sat back down then leaned back against the headboard. Ari struggled to turn and face him. Her frantic hands kept getting tangled in the damned covers.

“Seriously, what did she mean about putting together sites and press releases? I need to think about this. I was hired to do publicity shots and then you tell me that I’m your fake girlfriend. Now all of a sudden I’m your fiancé?”

Her mind spun in a thousand different directions.

“Breathe,” Duke said, pulling her against his bare chest. “You don’t have to decide everything right now, but if you agree, I’ll double your compensation for the month. For your time.”

Crap. That was a lot of money.

“So are we supposed to really get married?”

He kissed the top of her head. “Don’t worry about the little details, Boston. All you need to do is get used to being called my fiancé.”

Ari closed her eyes and forced her body to relax.

How the hell had she gone from being single only one day ago to having a fiancé? But despite the adrenaline rush, the longer Duke held her, the more she felt herself getting sleepy and the last thing she thought about was how she could have done a lot worse in the fiancé department.