"I don't know. I thought it was just a business deal. I thought..." She trailed off. "I'm glad to know," she said with a smile. "His mother isn't here tonight?"

Brie smiled back, and Deanna felt like they'd made a real connection. They were around the same age. Maybe they could even be friends. "No. She lives in Florida with my aunt. He's not telling her about the marriage yet because she'd figure out why he was doing it and get upset. He wants to surprise her with the restaurant after it's over."

"Does it really mean that much to her?"

"I don't know. It means a lot, but I think it means more to Mitch.e.l.l. Some sort of gesture of devotion. He's just got it between his teeth and won't let it go."

"I think it's kind of cool," Deanna admitted.

"So you're really okay with his," Brie asked again.

"Yes, I'm really okay. It's just six months. It's not like it's a forever thing. We can be professional about it."

"Yeah. I guess that's true."

Deanna's eyes were still on Mitch.e.l.l, as she tried to process this new knowledge of him.

He seemed more real than he had before-like there was a heart and soul inside the fine body-and her attraction for him intensified even more.

He noticed her watching him and smiled. It was probably just for show, but the smile was intimate, and prompted a little shudder of pleasure inside her.

It was so strange-so crazy-to think he would be her husband.

And it was nice to know he wasn't too bad of a guy.

He walked over to her, and he slid an arm around her as he approached, pulling her against his side.

Obviously, it was done to convince the onlookers that they were really in love, but it felt nice.

He was big and warm and strong and masculine, and it was hard not to enjoy the feel of him against her.

Everyone was smiling as they looked on.

"Oh, how the mighty have fallen," someone said-a middle-aged man who was some sort of business a.s.sociate of Mitch.e.l.l's. "After all your talk of not believing in marriage, you surrender the moment you fall in love."

Deanna felt Mitch.e.l.l stiffen slightly, which was interesting, but the smile never left his face. "I admit it. I was a goner from the very beginning." He leaned down and pressed his lips against Deanna's, and she felt a shiver of response.

The kiss was fake. Of course, it was. But she couldn't help but respond to it anyway.

There was some more laughter and some more teasing, and Deanna had drunk one too many gla.s.ses of champagne. She felt a little fuzzy and overly warm when people started to leave.

"Well, that seemed to go well," Mitch.e.l.l murmured. He was still standing beside her, his arm around her once again. There were only a few people left in a conversation across the room.

"Yeah. They all seem completely taken in. Either we're good actors, or people are pretty gullible."

"Probably both." He was speaking low, so his mouth was close to her ear, and she felt another spiral of pleasure and attraction rise up inside her.

If she had to marry a man for a weird fake reason, Mitch.e.l.l wasn't a bad one to end up with.

"How are you feeling about everything?" he asked.

It was nice of him to ask, and his gray eyes were serious and attentive, like he really cared. She'd been wrong about him at first. He wasn't really as thoughtless and selfish as she'd thought.

She couldn't get over the fact that he was doing all this for his mother.

"I'm fine. I think it's all going to be fine. I think we'll be able to get along just fine."

She was saying "fine" a lot. Too much. She couldn't look away from his deep eyes, and his face was getting closer and closer to her.

And she wanted it to. The scent of him-masculine and real somehow-filled her senses, and her heart was beating like crazy in her chest.

She wanted him to kiss her. Again. And not just for show.

"I think so too," he murmured, his voice definitely husky.

His face drifted closer to hers until his lips brushed against her mouth, very gently. "I think we'll get along very well," he murmured, just before he kissed her again.

It wasn't a deep kiss, but it lingered. Deanna's mind roared with excitement and pleasure as her hands rose unconsciously to cling to the lapels of his jacket. Her breath hitched when he took her bottom lip, very gently, between his teeth and gave it a little tug.

The sharp desire that tightened inside her was impossible to mistake. She was trembling as she tried to press herself against him.

A laugh across the room distracted them, and Mitch.e.l.l pulled away.

The remaining guests had caught them kissing and thought it was funny. Deanna found it frustrating.

The laughter reminded her it was fake, which was weird enough. But mostly she wasn't pleased with the interruption.

Maybe s.e.x shouldn't be as off the table as she'd originally a.s.sumed.

An hour later, Mitch.e.l.l was waiting for Deanna to come out of the bathroom so he could drive her home.

She said she could just go home with her grandmother, but Mitch.e.l.l thought it would look better and more natural if he took her home himself.

Mitch.e.l.l was surprisingly tired after the evening, but everything had gone smoothly.

Everyone was convinced. Gina Fenton was convinced. And Deanna was definitely proving to be amenable to his advances.

His phone rang as he waited, and he picked it up when he saw it was Brie.

"Hey," he said. "What's up?" He certainly wasn't expecting a call when she'd just left the party.

"Just calling to tell you once more that I think this is a very bad idea."

"I know that's what you think." Mitch.e.l.l sighed and walked out onto a terrace, so Deanna wouldn't overhear if she happened to come out of the bathroom before he expected her to. "But I think it's going to work out fine."

"Someone is going to get hurt, and I think it's going to be Deanna."

"You talked to her, didn't you? I a.s.sume she didn't tell you she was forced into this against her will."

"No, of course not. But that doesn't mean she won't get hurt."

"I'm not going to hurt her. What the h.e.l.l do you think I'm going to do to her?"

"You're going to be your normal charming self, and she's going to fall for you, thinking it's real."

"She knows it's not real. I've been nothing but honest with her."

Against his will, Mitchel remembered how she'd felt against him when he kissed her. She was absolutely delectable, and she'd been warm and pa.s.sionate-responding to the slightest of his touches.

He was already dying to get her into bed. He didn't think it would take very long.

"Yeah, but knowing is different than knowing. I saw you two tonight. Please don't hurt her. She seems really nice."

"I'm not going to hurt her. Give me a little credit, d.a.m.n it. We've both been honest about everything."

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean it won't get complicated."

Mitch.e.l.l stared out at the lush gardens that his staff carefully tended. The lighter blooms of flowers glowed in the moonlight. "It's not going to get complicated."

"That's what you say now, but people are complicated, and I don't think she's as much of a pushover as you think."

"I don't think Deanna is a pushover. But I don't think she'll be difficult. She's smart enough, but she's...she doesn't have a lot of backbone."

He thought about her at the negotiations-her stiff shoulders and gracefully held neck-but she was only that way because she had Harrison Damon at her side.

She wouldn't have a champion in their marriage. She wasn't going to cause him any trouble.

"That's not very nice, Mitch.e.l.l."

"I know, but it's true. She does what she's told. She'll be easy to manage."

A slight sound behind him had him whirling around, and he felt a cold, stark chill when he saw Deanna at the door to the terrace.

But he relaxed when he saw she was just opening it. She was smiling at him and looked perfectly composed.

She hadn't overheard.

That was good. Mitch.e.l.l might not be particularly sensitive, but he didn't actually want to hurt her feelings.

He wasn't the nicest guy in the world, but he didn't like to think of himself as heartless.

Four.

Deanna and Mitch.e.l.l got married at four o'clock in the afternoon on the following Sat.u.r.day. He wore a charcoal gray suit, and she wore a pretty, simple, cream-colored dress that fell to mid-calf, since she would have felt stupid in a real wedding gown for a mostly fake wedding at the courthouse.

She carried a small bouquet of pink tulips and spent most of the short ceremony telling herself not to claw the obnoxious smile off his handsome face.

She hadn't seen him much for the past week, since they were both busy-him with work and her with preparations for moving into his house and finishing up at her job. She'd been brooding on the conversation she'd overheard at the party all week, though.

He thought she was weak. Spineless. Easy to manage.

And what made it worse was his charming act at the party had started to work on her, proving that he was partly right.

He wasn't completely right, though. She did hate to say no to the people she cared about, and she'd done a lot out of loyalty to her grandmother. But she wasn't as malleable as he seemed to think she was, and he'd find out how wrong he was soon enough.

It didn't help that she found him just as attractive today as she had last week. Even the knowledge of what he really thought of her didn't change how appealing, how compelling she found his handsome face, his strong, masculine body, the charisma that always lurked under the surface of his persona even when he wasn't letting it out.

She wasn't going to be fooled by the attraction again, though.

She kept a smile on her face as they repeated simple vows, and Mitch.e.l.l slid a sleek, modern wedding band on her hand. It felt weird as he did so. His eyes never left her face, and he held her small hand like it was crystal-but obviously it didn't mean anything.

He was good with women. He obviously always had been. He a.s.sumed he could be good with her too and get her to do anything he wanted. Deanna had always been proud-taught to be so by her grandmother and forced to be so by a family that others found to be a source of amus.e.m.e.nt. She was certainly too proud to let Mitch.e.l.l Graves be proven right about her.

She pulled her hand away from his as soon as she could, since the feel of his warm fingers against her skin was disturbing.

She felt his eyes on her face, but she held onto her smile. Then they paused for a few pictures as evidence of their matrimonial reality.

They hadn't invited anyone else to the wedding. The story would be they decided not to wait and just got married quietly without a big fuss. Deanna was glad. Marrying Mitch.e.l.l would feel more like a lie if her family and friends had been present.

"Is everything all right?" he asked quietly, leaning down to murmur into her ear as they walked out into the lobby.

She carefully pulled back from him so his lips weren't quite so close to her face. "Yes, of course." She smiled at him, desperately trying to look relaxed and casual, even though a chill of anxiety was shivering up and down her spine. "Why wouldn't it be?"

"I don't know. You just seem...stiff or upset or something." He was still studying her face, looking for evidence of what he sensed in her mood.

She understood what he was picking up from her-she must have been sending out vibes that she didn't like him, she didn't want to be close to him. It was true, but there was no sense in bursting out with it, since they were stuck in this marriage now.

She was his bride now-bought and paid for so the Beauforts could rebuild their ancestral home.

She had to do a better job of fooling him. They'd be seeing each other a lot now. This afternoon, she'd be moving into his house. She'd have her own suite of rooms. That was already arranged. But they'd be living together and going about as man and wife-obviously, they'd run into each other a lot.

She willed herself to act natural as she smiled again. "I'm not upset. Honestly, I'm a little...a little nervous about this whole thing. It's strange, you know."

His smile widened again, nearly taking her breath away since it appeared genuine. "I know. It's very strange. But I think it will be fine. Nothing to be nervous about. Do you want to go get something to eat or just head home?"

Home. His home, not hers, although she'd be living there for the next six months. She wouldn't even have much of her own stuff there. She'd already moved over the few possessions she was taking with her. All of her clothes would be new-to suit the wardrobe of a wife of Mitch.e.l.l Graves.

She wished now she'd brought all of her beads. At least that would have given her something to do-something that brought her joy. She'd left them because they hadn't seemed to fit with her life as Mitch.e.l.l's wife, but now she realized that was ridiculous. She was still herself, even married to him.