I Do (Marriage of Convenience Romance) Read online

  “Could have?”

  “You’ve had some time, haven’t you? You didn’t think to use your ‘assets’ to get promoted already?”

  “I’m making an exception,” Rose said, and took him in her mouth. It was a stretch to get the whole thing in without letting her teeth drag. He didn’t seem to realize quite how small of an exception he was.

  After all, she’d already slept with him. Now it was just a change of scenery. If that was all he wanted, to ‘force her’ to relive the single wildest night of her life, he wasn’t going to have to push hard.

  She bobbed her head, trying to force him deeper into her throat. Her body tingled, readying itself to give him plenty of lubrication for when they moved onto the next phase. Dimly, Rose knew that there was a better-than-even chance that it wasn’t going to get the chance.

  Her hormones didn’t seem to be on the same page, though, and they weren’t particularly interested in listening to her. And then he pulled himself out of her mouth.

  “Can you stand up for me?”

  “Sir?”

  “On your feet and turn around.”

  She did as she was told. She hoped she didn’t look excited about what was going to come next. This was supposed to be blackmail. She was supposed to hate it. If it were anyone else, she would have hated it. Would have refused. But she’d been looking for an excuse to fall back into her mystery man’s arms for a year now.

  His hands toyed with her ass. His hands palmed at her ass cheeks. He pulled back and smacked hard enough to sting. It let out a sound that Rose worried someone else could hear. The blinds were drawn and the door was closed, but that didn’t mean that people couldn’t draw their own conclusions from the noises inside.

  “Tell me you want it,” he said.

  “Oh, fuck, I want it,” Rose whimpered. It didn’t take a great deal of acting to get herself to sound like she was desperate for it. She was.

  He pulled her panties aside and pushed himself inside.

  “Oh, fuck, you’re tight,” he growled. “Twins? You’re kidding.”

  She let out a hum of pleasure at the feeling of his cock stretching her out. Before he’d fucked her the last time, it had never felt so full. And now it seemed even bigger. The venue made her clamp down with every part of her body, some part of her subconscious knowing that she wasn’t supposed to have anything in there while she was surrounded by offices.

  “Oh, Sir. Please fuck me.”

  “You really want this job, don’t you?”

  “I want you to fuck me,” Rose said.

  He started to move, his movements rough. He started at a slow rhythm, making sure to use every inch of his length. After a few thrusts he seemed to get into a groove, and his movements started to speed up until Rose felt as if she was going to lose her mind.

  His hands dug into her hips with every thrust, the force of his hips slamming into hers pulling his fingers a little bit away from the crease of her hips with every thrust. His fingers dug in harder, trying to keep a grip. His thrusts grew even more forceful, then. His movements shortened until he was staying deep the whole time, just moving enough to drive himself the full depth with every thrust. All the way in.

  Rose’s body shuddered under him as an orgasm overtook her. Her memories couldn’t possibly measure up to the reality of what she was experiencing. She wasn’t sure that she could work for this man. Not unless she ‘had to’ start the day with this every day. And then, for a second time in her life, Rose felt him stiffen behind her, felt his cock twitch, and felt him release a load of seed inside her.

  If she was lucky, this time it wasn’t going to signal his running away for a year, and it wasn’t going to be the start of being a single mother of four instead of two.

  Though with Duncan’s daddy’s money, it wasn’t going to be that bad.

  But if she could have Duncan’s daddy’s money and her mystery-boss’s cock buried deep in her, that would be a compromise for the centuries.

  Four

  Four hours was enough time for the hormones to wear off. Enough time for Rose to start asking herself of she’d made a mistake. And, apparently, enough time for Duncan to whip up a batch of Mojitos. There were a lot of things that having a gay best friend weren’t good for. Sex was one of them, but she’d had enough of that for a day.

  Mixed drinks, though, he could do. And maybe Rose shouldn’t have had any, but damn it, it had been a long day, and she was only having one, and she had plenty of milk pumped already so there was no problem with having a little indulgence. Right?

  He let her sit down with her glass before settling down into the couch opposite her.

  “Alright, so. Spill.”

  “Spill what?”

  “Why do you think I made these drinks? You think I’m the one who needs a buzz? Hardly. I can tell just looking at you. Like a sixth sense. Rose is feeling funny, my little voice says.”

  “Funny? Ha, ha.”

  “Not that kind of funny, you impossible ass. You know what I meant.”

  “Yeah, I know what you meant.”

  “Then why are you arguing with me?”

  “It’s my job,” Rose said, sighing. “Apparently.”

  “Says who?”

  “Who else is going to argue with you? Not your little boy-toys, I’ll tell you that.”

  “With that ring of yours and a flannel shirt, I’ll be pulling them in hook, line and sinker. I’m telling you. They’ll be thinking, oh, I’m tempting away this manly straight man. It’ll be great.”

  The drink was crisp and sweet and went down easy. The burn after wasn’t a surprise, but it had been so long that she wasn’t entirely ready for it. Like running into her boss had been. At the very least she finally caught his name: Bryce Kilpatrick.

  “Well, that’s it, then. I’m arguing with you because you’re a manly married straight man.”

  “It’s all an act, I tell you.”

  “You really want to know what happened?”

  “Yeah, I want to know. I figured I’d have to pump a little more alcohol into you before you’d tell me, but you bet your tight little tush I want to know.”

  “I ran into him today.”

  “Ran into who. Him?”

  “Him, him, yeah.”

  “Okay?”

  “Apparently, Michigan Chemical wasn’t doing that well.”

  “I’m not seeing what you mean.”

  “Apparently, not well enough that Bob decided he wanted out. And someone else was more than happy to pick up the slack for him.”

  “Your guy?”

  “My guy.”

  “What’s the story, then?”

  Across the way, Duncan crossed his legs and leaned back and waited for Rose to regale him with the entire story. As if there was no question that she would hold nothing back. And, she supposed, there was no reason that she ought to.

  “He thinks I cheated on you. With him. Today.”

  “Interesting. A bold choice.”

  “Yeah.”

  “So he decided that he’s going for round two?”

  “I don’t know. It felt like he was going for round one.”

  “Ouch.”

  “Well, I mean. At least he thinks I’m attractive, I guess.”

  “Way to look at the silver lining. Truly, you’re an inspiration to cock-riders everywhere, Rosie.”

  “I told you—”

  “Not to call you that, I know. And then I called you Rosie anyways. It’s a fascinating circle of life.”

  Somewhere in the house, Violet woke up. Rose set her glass down and rushed up the steps. If she took more than a few moments, then Vi was going to wake up Sarah, and then she’d have two hungry babies on her hands. At four in the morning, that would be infinitely preferable, and in those cases, it seemed like the babies could sleep through a bomb falling.

  But during the day, when life would be easier with only one at a time, they slept like cats. She grabbed the baby girl, picked her up, and started moving
down the stairs. More slowly this time. Duncan met her halfway with a bottle that she’d left out for specifically that purpose.

  The little girl in her arms took the bottle nipple with a vague curiosity, and then after a moment seemed to decide that milk was milk after all, and she wasn’t going to complain. Rose walked down slow, keeping the bottle positioned. One day, Violet could hold her own bottle. But that day wasn’t quite here yet. One day. Soon.

  “So? What’s the story?”

  “The story is, for now at least, no story. I have a job still.”

  “You know, Rosie…”

  “Don’t.”

  “I’m just thinking.”

  “Why don’t you just tell me what you’re thinking?”

  Violet pulled away from the bottle and started pawing at her breast. Rose could feel the alcohol going to her head already, and she’d barely had a third of the glass.

  “No,” she said softly, and put the bottle’s nipple near Vi’s mouth again. The baby took it for a moment, gave it a tentative suck, and pulled away. So it was fussy baby tonight. Good timing.

  “I was thinking, you’ve been talking about this guy since you knocked boots with him the one time, you know?”

  “And? No, come on, Violet, just… just take the bottle, okay? For mommy?”

  “And if you wanted to pursue him…”

  “What? You’d be willing to step aside? How gallant, Duncan.”

  “I’m just lookin’ out for my girl.” He leaned in and poked Violet gently in the tummy. She gave a shriek that might have been amusement and tried to squirm away. “And you, too, I mean.”

  Five

  Work was interesting. Rose was only human, after all; there was some expectation that something would happen. It was always possible that she’d had another classic Bryce Kilpatrick wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am experience.

  But there was a big difference between a night of fun between two people at a business conference, and a bit of workplace blackmail… even if there was more than a little complicity on her part. Complicity that he hadn’t recognized at the time, and the law certainly wouldn’t.

  When you’re in a position like that, with the tiger by the tail, there’s only one thing you can do: keep holding on. There was no reason that he was going to walk away this time, because the minute that he walked away, she sued for enough money to live more than comfortably for the rest of her life, and if there was any justice in the world at all, then she would probably win it with no trouble at all.

  In fact, it was so obvious that she would probably win that Kilpatrick would want to settle out of court before they even got to the part where she did more than have a lawyer file some paperwork. And even that sum would probably be enough to keep her a very long time.

  Which was to say, simply, that there was no way that was what would happen. She would be so lucky. So whatever was going to happen, it was going to happen today or soon, and it was going to be more than a little bit nuts. And, of course, she was looking forward to whatever it was, because she might have been a slut, but she wasn’t stupid. She knew when things were about to go well for her.

  Rose sucked in a breath and stepped off the elevator. They had the entire fifth floor of the Fisher building. Her cubicle, which wasn’t a particularly special one, was placed prominently in the exact opposite side of the building from Bob’s. Well, Bryce’s, now. So when she didn’t see him, it wasn’t a surprise.

  Everyone gave her curious looks as she walked in. That was normal. Maybe she had something to talk about. Maybe interesting gossip. Maybe not. It was always hard to say. But the one thing that was absolutely certain was, everyone had something to tell, and everyone had something to hide. That was what made the grapevine run.

  Someone’s secret is another person’s gossip, and the circle goes around and around. Of course, she’d been on the chopping block yesterday, and that meant that there was certainly a secret, and someone was certainly gossiping about it. It was just hard to know how much was which, and where the gossip was going to be coming from, when it came. And it would come, she knew that.

  Marcus was her direct manager. There were others above him, and likely, there were others above them, as well. Somewhere at the very top, Bob had sat, and now, apparently, somewhere at the top was a new man. The father of her children, as it happened. Bryce Kilpatrick. If only he knew about it himself.

  She looked over at Craig. He kept his eyes on the computer screen. He looked busy. It was possible that a big order had just come in, and he was rerouting something. Or maybe he was doing a ton of research for a client.

  But that wasn’t all that likely. It was much, much more likely that he was avoiding her. And if he was avoiding her, then something else was about to drop on her head, unforeseen. Or at least, that was what he expected to happen. And while Craig was lazy, a gossip, and prone to blame other people for his own failures, he was anything but a fool.

  So she was on the lookout, and this time, Marcus didn’t surprise her.

  “Rose?”

  “Sir?”

  “Is this a bad time?”

  “Not at all, sir,” she said. It was always a bad time.

  “You ought to come with me.” He said it with the sort of grim voice that a cop uses to tell a bank robber that they ought to just come quietly.

  “Yes, sir,” I said. There was one possibility, I had to admit, I hadn’t really considered. The chance, however slight, that what was going to come down on my head wasn’t to be ignored. Maybe I’d get fired after everything.

  And that was going to be even worse than the alternative. For Bryce Kilpatrick, that is. He ought to have realized that you don’t get rid of a blackmail victim by firing them. You give them a nice, cushy job and hope to Heaven that they go away with time. That’s the only way you could do it, as far as Rose knew. Otherwise, they come forward, and they reveal what you did. What you made them do.

  Which meant that either there was some misunderstanding, or Bryce Kilpatrick was just ready for a hell-storm to come down on his head, or worse still, he was too short-sighted to see the hell-storm coming down on him for what it obviously was.

  Marcus looked back at her as they walked, and kept his voice low. “You should have been more polite, I told you.”

  “I did everything was asked of me, and I did it with a smile,” Rose said. “If there’s a complaint, it’s not about something I did wrong.”

  He shrugged. “If that’s how you want to play it, go right ahead. But I told you.”

  “I know.”

  He knocked on the door, opened it a moment later, and guided Rose inside. She looked around. It was dimly lit, and the blinds were mostly shut to the outside.

  “Miss Sewell?”

  “Sir?”

  “Good to see you again.”

  “Is it, sir?”

  “Of course. I’ve got a bit of a business… kerfuffle.”

  “Oh?”

  “And I had to ask you again. Which are you more committed to? Your income, or your fiance?”

  “I’m not going to do anything until I know where I stand.”

  “I’m not asking you to get on your knees again. I think you’ll find what I’ve got for you quite… interesting.”

  “I’m listening.” Rose shifted from one foot to the other, hoping to look standoffish, because otherwise she wasn’t sure she could avoid hiding how bad she wanted him.

  “Good. You had better be.” He leaned onto the desk. “Because I’ve got a much bigger, and much better, offer for you today.”

  Six

  “I’m listening.”

  Rose’s blood pressure jumped ten points in the space of a heartbeat, and she felt it thumping hard in her neck. At the same time she felt like she was about to pass out. So whatever was going on it evened out in the end because she clearly wasn’t capable of handling the situation that she was in, not really.

  “I’ve run into a little bit of trouble, and I could use someone’s help.”

>   “What makes you think that I can help you? What makes you think I would help you?”

  “Almost anyone could help me. Fifty percent of the world’s population.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “I need a woman.”

  “They tell me that they’re easy to get when you want them. Heck, a man with your finances, I can’t imagine that it’s that hard to find one who will do it for a few dollars.”

  “More than a few dollars, I think you’ll find.”

  “Yeah. More than a few dollars. But I imagine that you could find somebody. Why me?”

  “We’ve got a connection.”

  “Yeah?” Her blood pressure jumped again. Did he know? “What’s that?”

  “You’re on the hook for me, and I’m on the hook for you. You’re at my mercy. I could fire you any time. Call it insubordination. Your manager seems to think that you’re… here’s the paper. ‘Highly insubordinate.’ There wouldn’t be any question.”

  “Hah! Good luck trying that.”

  “If I were to try to fire you, though…”

  “Your little scheme yesterday comes out. And it destroys you, and everything about you. You go to jail, but not until after your assets become my assets.”

  “That’s right. You’ve got me by the balls. But I’ve got a good position, myself. As long as neither of us decides to go nuclear, I think we’re pretty even.”

  “Okay, then. What are you trying to get at?”

  “I’ve heard that there are several government agencies planning to come after me, with everything they’ve got.”

  “You managed to piss of Uncle Sam that bad? What did you do, fail to pay your taxes?”

  “Nothing quite that extreme.”

  “I assumed you types never paid your taxes.”

  “Of course I pay taxes. The IRS pays me, I pay so many taxes. That’s how they caught Al Capone, and I’m not nearly so friendly.”

  “You make yourself sound like some kind of international terrorist.”

  He laughed. It was low and rough. Like the rest of him. “Not quite that unfriendly, either. But I’m in this to make money, and as much as some people wouldn’t admit to it, that’s not a popular position these days.”