He wasn’t sure why he thought it should be her. He’d spent the previous week going through his contacts list, the Pentagon staff directories, and even memories of old girlfriends. None of them were right. Some he knew too well—they’d be horrified at the mere suggestion of a marriage of convenience. Others he didn’t know well enough—what possible incentive would they have for helping him gain his promotion? He also had to admit that while he knew a lot of bright and attractive women, none of them inspired him to consider marriage. Granted, it could be a marriage in name only, but all the same, he preferred the idea of marrying someone he felt something for other than run-of-the-mill admiration.

Then he’d walked into that second grade classroom in a Virginia elementary school and seen her. She wasn’t exceptionally beautiful although she was certainly pretty enough—medium height, long wavy brunette hair, slender build, and big gray eyes. But there was something about the way she wore her skin—something that said she’d seen more, had more cares than the average thirty-ish school teacher. Something that called to his own old soul. A quiet determination that looked very familiar to a man who’d been raised in a crumbling excuse of a family in the very poor, rural south amidst racism, neglect, and a million reasons why he could never be a Brigadier General in the United States Army, a million reasons why he’d never have a wife who loved him and a family he could be proud of.

But he had seen her, and in that moment his mind had latched on to the idea she was what he was looking for. Then he’d discovered she was the one who’d organized the event, she was known for those skills in fact, the very skills the Army wanted him to have a wife for. It sealed something in his mind, and he’d known what he wanted. He’d decided right then and there that he could make a business proposal to her—one that involved a marriage of convenience—and it would solve all his problems. He had no idea why or how, but Jeff had spent much of his adult life following his gut. It had kept him alive through Iraq and Afghanistan, kept him moving up the ranks of the military, kept him away from his destructive family. He trusted his gut, and yesterday it had told him Lisa Scotch was the woman who was going to get him his promotion.

So now Jeff sat in the small office in his Virginia townhouse and stared at the computer screen. He’d done a lot of questionable things in his life—all of them in the name of friendship or national security. And frankly, he’d never had any guilt about it. He was sort of an expert in covert dealings—finding information, settling delicate negotiations, eliminating threats of all sorts. It was what made him an asset to his commander, and to his friends in the Powerplay Club.

But now he’d used it for personal gain, and while he wasn’t quite sure how he felt about that, the deed was done, so he sat in his study and looked at what he’d uncovered.

Lisa Scotch, recently Lisa Mason, newly divorced, living less than two miles from him in the Virginia suburbs outside DC, and in debt up to her eyeballs. That last item was the type of leverage he’d been hoping to find when he’d started his highly unethical examination of the woman and her life.

He clicked from one tab to another, peering at the personnel records of her deadbeat of an ex-husband. The bastard had married her one year, left her the next, and proceeded to run up a few hundred thousand dollars in debt under her name before she finally divorced him a few weeks ago. It explained the tense set to her face, the haunted look in her eyes, and the antipathy she had towards military men.

But he could work with it. While she might hate soldiers, he was willing to bet she’d hate losing her home, car, and every other worldly possession more. And his research showed that scenario was exactly what would happen if she didn’t get bailed out, and fast. Conveniently, he’d been investing the majority of his earnings since his first posting right out of ROTC. Jeff didn’t have much time, he didn’t have many options, but he had plenty of money, and he could use it to pay off her debts if she agreed to marry him.

He leaned back in the big leather chair. It was one of the few luxuries he’d allowed himself. He didn’t spend a lot of time sitting at a desk, but when he did he wanted to be comfortable—something about all those years in standard-issue military metal chairs. Yes, he thought, he was going to proposition a sweet school teacher he’d only spoken to once for five minutes, and use her greatest failure to pressure her into helping him become a General in the United States Army.

He ought to feel bad about that.

He didn’t.

Jeff Thibedeux didn’t generally have a lot of time to spare for feeling bad. He did what needed to be done. He was a man of action. There’d be time for guilt and a conscience after he was dead. For now, it was time to pay another visit to Arlington Elementary School, the students would be leaving soon, and he needed to have a chat with their teacher.

* * *

Lisa stared at the man in front of her and felt her face flush.

“You’re kidding,” she said, her voice semi-hysterical even to her own ears.

“I realize it’s unorthodox, but—”

“Unorthodox?!” she said far too loudly. “I know exactly three things about you, Colonel—your rank, your first name, and your last. I’ve spoken to you a grand total of ten minutes, and seen you twice in my life. I think you asking me to marry you is beyond unorthodox.”

He nodded, his hard body displaying perfect posture while somehow still being relaxed. He’d made no movement to approach her from where he stood just inside the door to her classroom. The students had all left fifteen minutes earlier, and she could still hear the sounds of other staff outside in the halls. Thank God too, because she was beginning to think Colonel Thibedeux might be unhinged, and she very much didn’t want to be alone with him if he snapped. She didn’t see a weapon on the man, but he was military, he probably had some secret gun holster somewhere. What if he turned into a school shooter? Lisa edged closer to her desk where her cell phone lay in a drawer.

He gave her a condescending smile as if he could read her every thought. “If you’d feel better having this conversation in public that’s fine. We could meet at a coffee shop or go sit outside at one of the picnic tables? Also, feel free to get your cell phone. I want you to be comfortable.”

She felt her face flush with an unexplainable humiliation that he’d known what she was planning. And she shouldn’t be embarrassed—the man was crazy.

“I don’t need to meet you anywhere, Colonel. The answer is no—hell no. Even if I was interested in getting married, which I am definitely not, it wouldn’t be to a man who I don’t know and is only using me to get a promotion.”

He scratched the back of his neck like he had the other day when he’d been about to ask her on a date. It was a tell when he was uncomfortable. Good, bastard deserved to be uncomfortable. He’d made her exceedingly so.

“If you’d let me finish, I think I can explain why this arrangement could be beneficial to both of us,” he said calmly.

Oh yeah, this ought to be good.

“Let me guess, you’ll be rescuing me from certain spinsterhood and I can benefit from your magical male—” she waved her hand in front of her, “thing, which all women must surely be dying to get into bed with.”

He raised an eyebrow and chuckled. “I really couldn’t say. I’ve never had any complaints, but there aren’t women approaching me on the street about it or anything. As for the spinsterhood, if that’s what you prefer, then I won’t keep you from it. A year should suit my purposes and then you’re free to go back to whatever marital status you’d like.”

“You’re disgusting,” she shot back. It didn’t seem to deter him.

“Honestly, the more you protest the more I’m convinced you’re the perfect person for this. If you’ll indulge me for two more minutes I’ll explain how this will benefit you as well.”

She had no idea why she indulged him but she did, crossing her arms in front of her chest protectively and nodding once, sharp and fast. “Two minutes.”

He returned the nod, then took a step further into the room, propping a foot with a well-polished shoe on a nearby chair, resting his arm casually on his raised knee. She had a moment of anger at how relaxed he was about all this when she was ready to explode from tension and something else she couldn’t quite put a name to.

“I have…” he paused, as if searching for the right word, “resources. And I used them to find out your background. I know that your ex left you holding the bag to the tune of about three hundred thousand dollars.”

She gasped, her lungs forgetting how to take a new breath for a brief moment. “How—”

“I’m sorry for that, by the way. And you can rest assured that I’ll make sure his remaining time in the military is as unpleasant as possible. That means it’ll be pretty damn unpleasant.” He shifted a touch, taking his foot off the desk and beginning to pace slowly back and forth in front of the door. “You’re in debt. It’s not right, and it’s not fair, but it’s still the truth. Your mother is a widow with a small life insurance policy, a retirement fund that she won’t be eligible to collect for five more years, and a job that pays hardly more than minimum wage.”

He glanced up at her and for just a moment Lisa thought she saw a softness, a sympathy in his eyes, but it was gone as fast as it appeared.

“Your only sibling lives a few hundred miles away and has two kids of her own to take care of. You’ve sold your one asset—the house in Alexandria—the proceeds barely put a dent in what you owe, and you’ve signed a year lease on your townhouse. Your salary covers the rent and your car insurance, but there’s not much left over for paying off high interest credit cards.”

She snapped then, losing patience with his litany of her shame. “I’m working with a credit agency to set up payments, Colonel. I’m not sure what your purpose in all this is—you’re only pissing me off—hardly conducive to your proposal.”

He stopped pacing and turned to face her fully, his crystalline eyes boring into her, his entire body set in determination. “I can make your debts go away. I have more than enough money. I can buy you a house and anything else you need, and you can keep all of it when the year is up.”

She blinked at him, stunned speechless.

“All I’ll need from you is a year on paper, some appearances together at diplomatic functions, and a prenup so we’re clear on what you walk away with at the end.”

The emotions tumbled through Lisa like water over rocks. Anger, shame, relief, desperation. She swallowed, trying to sort through them enough to be able to answer him.

Then, as if he knew she wasn’t able to respond, he continued.

“In no way am I suggesting we’d have a…standard marriage. No consummation—” He cleared his throat uncomfortably. “But I would have to ask you not to see anyone else. I’d, of course, abide by the same rule. It would be embarrassing for me professionally if someone were to find out either of us was unfaithful.”

“Of course,” she answered sharply. What the hell kind of woman did he think she was?

He watched her for a moment, then said more gently, less stiffly, “I know this is odd, and I apologize for invading your privacy. I’ve been in the military for fifteen years, and all along I’ve worked for this—being a General—and now there’s one archaic thing keeping me from getting the position that my superior has already told me he wants to give me. I’m acting desperate because I am. If I knew someone I could ask to do this, I would.” He chuckled darkly. “Trust me, I’d rather that than have to beg a stranger.”

“Why me?” she asked softly, suddenly sympathetic to this rigid, domineering man.

He looked away for a moment, then back at her, his eyes softer than she’d seen them yet. “I’m not sure. But when I saw you, I knew it needed to be you. I felt—” He struggled for a moment searching for the words. “I felt like I understood you. You’re a warrior too.”

Her chest tightened but she held on to her breath, waiting for him to finish.

“What he did to you—so many people would have collapsed under that kind of weight. But here you are, still fighting it, still trying to conquer the mess he left you with. I didn’t know what battle you were fighting until I dug it up, but I could see you were fighting one that first day.”

“I can’t marry you because you looked at me and saw a kindred spirit,” she said so quietly it was almost a whisper.

“Then marry me because I can help you win your battle and you can help me win mine. You’re obviously an expert at planning and organizing events, that’s what the Army will ask of my wife. You can do something I need, I can give you something you need.”

She rubbed at her forehead, an ache lodging between her eyes. “Colonel—”

He took a step closer, then another. “Jeff. Please call me Jeff.”

“Jeff. This is insane. You know that, right?”

He grinned then, the first time she’d seen him smile, and it was so boyish and charming she felt herself sway toward him, all pretense of being offended flying right out the window of her classroom.

“You only live once, Lisa,” he said. “Maybe we all need to do something insane occasionally.” Then he erased the remaining distance between them and stood in front of her, taking one of her hands in his. A warm frisson of electricity ran up her arm like fire through her veins. Her breath caught at the sensation, and she saw his eyes go wide for a moment before he leaned forward and whispered, “Think about it. I’ll pick you up for dinner tomorrow night at six. We can get to know each other.”

Then he brought her hand to his mouth. His lips whispered across her knuckles before he released her, turned, and strode out of the room, every inch commanding, demanding, and in charge.