Favorite Places (A TroubleMaker Novel, #2) (4 page)

“So you jumped
on the first bus? Coming from where?”

“Caliente. It’s—”

“I know where it
is. And what is it you do in Caliente?”

Somehow, even
with her guard up, he’d done it. Frazzled her with nothing more than his touch,
and she’d blabbed why she was really there. Lost in his eyes and to the heat of
his touch, she’d told a complete stranger about her inheritance, which was none
of his business in the first place. She needed to annul the marriage before the
inheritance came through. If they remained married, even if it was only on
paper, there was a slim chance he could get half. As wealthy as he was, she
couldn’t see him trying to exploit her in that way, but she also didn’t know
the man or what lengths he might go to bulk up his bank account. Every last
dime of that inheritance belonged to her, and she wanted their fake marriage
annulled before he had a chance to lay claim to it.  

“Let’s not get
personal here, Mr. Lennox. Although the meal was good, I’m through being
nice
.
I’m here for one reason and one reason alone, and that’s to get those papers
signed.”

Without a word,
he stood up from the table, walked over to her, and offered her his hand. When
she accepted it, he pulled her up from the chair. His eyes landed on her mouth,
and her pulse accelerated again. Her body tingled all the way to her lips. She
wanted him to kiss her right there in the crowded restaurant. Take her to some
dark corner and devour her with that delicious mouth. Rip her clothes off and
put those hot lips on every heated part of her body.

A cutting grin
spread across his mouth, as if he’d read the dirty little fantasies floating
around in her head. Denuded—and not in the way she wanted—her eyes darted up to
his. He glared down at her through heavy lids. “I get it.” He jerked her
against his hard body. “Like most other women, Ms. Landi, you’re all about the
money.” His eyes dropped back to her mouth. “But maybe you want a little something
else too, huh?”

Chase considered himself to be a pretty good judge of
character. And he was usually prepared to be disappointed by people. But when
it came to Jessina Landi, he’d read her all wrong. With her makeup-free face
and the nearly transparent white peasant shirt, all that wholesomeness almost
convinced him that she was different. But she wasn’t. Even with the flip-flops
and chipped toenail polish, she was indeed the most beautiful woman he’d ever
seen. And all that sweet, homegrown shit had blinded him from the truth. When
it came right down to it, she was just like all the rest. He should have known
better. In his experience, most of the female population was and always would
be only out for themselves.

At the ripe old age of seven, he’d discovered just how bad a woman
could hurt you. How she could reach right in with her manicured daggers and rip
your heart out of your small, defenseless body. His mother had done exactly
that to Chase and his older brother, Dylan. She’d ripped their hearts out,
tossed them on the ground, and then walked away. At the time, his father’s
small investment company wasn’t making enough money for the greedy woman, so
after two years of unfulfilled demands, she packed her things. Without even a
goodbye kiss on the forehead, she hauled her miserable, gold-digging ass right
out of their lives. Chase hadn’t seen her until about a year ago, when she’d
tried to make contact with him but he’d refused to let her back into his life. Chase
had learned from her and so many others, women of that breed were only after
money. And even though he had plenty of money, he wasn’t about to give any woman
the chance to get her hands on it—least of all, his sorry excuse for a mother.  

Chase tapped his pen on
the desk, glimpsed at the time on his laptop. He only had another hour to
decide what he was going to do with Ms. Landi. She’d stomped off down the
street after their lunch, stating she’d be back in an hour for their scheduled
appointment to pick up the papers he had agreed to sign. Since then, he’d been
debating whether to go against his better judgment and offer her some of his
money, to present an offer the selfish, greedy, impromptu spouse of his
couldn’t possibly resist. In two weeks, he’d have another opportunity to go
after the deal he’d lost the day he met her. Chase’s newfound wife
could
help him with closing the deal.

“Mr. Lennox!” Katie
stormed through his office door without knocking. Her voice shaky and face pale.

“Yes?” He stood
up, her fear rousing the protector in him. “What’s wrong Katie?”

“Sir…she’s…” She
clasped her hands together, so tightly that her knuckles whitened as she came
to a halt in front of his desk “Sir, it’s your five o’clock appointment. She,
uh…well, she, um…”

“What? What did
she do?” The urgent, demanding tone was quite out of character for him, but he
could only imagine what his five o’clock, the sweet, wholesome little Ms. Landi,
had done now.

“Um, Mr. Lennox,
there’s been an accident down the street. She was hit by a car!”

Jessina blinked
twice, but still, everything was dark and obscured.

“Miss…can
you…I’m…Burnett.” The unfamiliar voice came distorted and broken.

Head pounding, she
placed her hand on it. She tried to focus on the shadowy figure in front of her,
tried to hone in onto the sound of his voice.

“How are you
feeling?” the man’s voice finally came through clearly.

The shape of his
head started to take form, and the color of his eyes came into view. They were
brown, nearly black, but appeared gentle. The man who had to be in his sixties
was dressed in a blue shirt and a white jacket that resembled a lab coat. There
was a nametag on it, and suddenly it dawned on her. “Am I in the hospital?”

“Yes. I’m Dr.
Burnett. Do you remember anything?”  

She tried to
recall what had happened, but her mind was blank. She shook her head. “No.
I…um…I-I don’t really know how I got here, and—”

“You were
walking across the street, and a car hit you. You’ve got a nasty bump on your
head and a couple bruises and abrasions on your hip and thigh, but all of your
tests have come back negative. I was just telling your husband—”

“My what?” She
sat up in the bed.

“Your husband, Mrs.
Lennox.” He turned to look over his shoulder.

Jessina followed
his gaze and looked past the doctor. Her eyes met Chase Lennox’s. He gave her a
hesitant smile and everything else came rushing back to her. She’d just left Chase
at the restaurant and had been checking her messages on her phone. When she’d stepped
off the curb, she looked up and saw the big, silver teeth of the front fender
before it struck her in the side. Her body had flipped over the hood of the car,
and everything went black.  

“I tried to
convince your husband to go home last night to get some sleep, but he refused.
I was just telling him that when you wake up, we’ll observe you for a few
hours, and if you feel well enough, we may be able to send you home.”

“He’s not my
husband!”

“What?” The
doctor looked concerned. “You don’t remember your husband?”

“Now, now, honey.”
Chase walked over and placed his hand over hers, then gave her two soft pats. “You
know me.”

Impulse pulled
her hand from his as she studied him and his odd behavior.

“The doctor said
you might experience some amnesia. Hon’, you have to remember me, or I won’t be
able to take you home for a very,
very
long time. And you want to go home,
don’t you?” he said—or, more so, warned, as though he was the sole possessor of
her get-out-of-the-hospital-for-free pass. “Please say you remember me, Jess.”

Oh, she
remembered him all right. And she was furiously trying to figure out what he
was up to. The man was charming, manipulative, and impossible to decipher.

He glanced up at
the doctor. “Could I have a few minutes alone with my wife?”

The doctor looked
at her for approval.

Jessina nodded,
only because she wanted answers herself.
Why the hell is Chase Lennox acting
like I’m really his wife?
She watched the doctor leave, and the second he
cleared the door, she looked at her fake husband. “What the hell are you doing?”

His eyebrow
lifted. “First, do you know who I am?”

“Yes. You’re the
egotistical asshole I’m illegally married to!”

“Good,” he
smiled. It came off as gentle, and sincere. “You had me worried there for a
minute. I thought maybe you really had amnesia.”

“What’s going on
here?” she demanded to know, ignoring the mixed signals she got from that smile.

“Are you okay?”
His hand reached toward her head, to the spot where the ache was coming from.

She inched back
from his approaching touch, and settled in the bed. “Yes! I’m fine!”

“Great.” He pulled
his hand back. “I wanted to make sure you’re of sound body and mind before I
proposition you.”

“Proposition me?”
Well, doesn’t that sound a little sexy-dirty coming out of that delicious
mouth of his…Stop it! You’re in the damn hospital!

“The doc says
you need two to three days of complete rest, and you shouldn’t be alone. So,”
he looked at her from slightly raised eyebrows. “I’d like you to come and stay
with me.”

“What? Are you freaking
nuts?” She sat straight back up in the bed. “There’s no way I’m gonna—” The
dictatorial raise of his hand instantly blunted her words.

“Just hear me
out.”

She eyed him suspiciously,
but her curiosity got the better of her. She clamped her mouth shut, fell back
onto the pillow and waited to hear what he had to say. It wasn’t as if she had
much of a choice.

“When we first
met at the airport, I was on my way to make the most important deal of my life,
but when I showed up fat-lipped, disheveled, and missing the presentation that
had been in my stolen luggage, Arthur Caplin took one look at me and wouldn’t
give me the time of day.”

“What? You mean
you couldn’t win him over with that award-winning smile, that charm, and all your
money?  Hmm. This Mr. Caplin, now he sounds like a very smart man to me.”

“See? This is exactly
why I enjoy spending time with you. I find your sarcasm so… Well, it’s refreshing.
It makes me want to get to know my wife better. That’s just one of the many reasons
why I’d like for you to come and stay with me, Mrs. Lennox.” His banter thick
and heavy, matching her mockery blow for blow.

Jessina crossed
her arms over her chest and sneered up at him.  

“Arthur Caplin
has agreed to meet with me again in two weeks. I’m ready for him, the presentation
is tweaked, I’ve got no fat lip, and my clothes are in order. The way I see it,
it wouldn’t hurt to have a wife on my arm, to prove to Caplin that I know how
to commit. Of course, I’m not really ready to be married,” he clarified, “but Caplin
doesn’t need to know that,” he finished with a smile.

“You want me to
pretend
to be your wife?”

“Yes.” He
shrugged and threw a different smile her way this time, the one that had no
doubt won him countless deals in the past. “I’ll make it worth your while.”

“Oh yeah? And
just how are you going to do that?”

“First, I’ll sign
your papers—”

“Hold on right
there, buddy! You’ll sign those damn papers whether I agree to this ridiculous
proposition or not.”

“I will?”

“Yes, because you
already agreed. And, if you don’t, as your wife, I’ll…well, I’ll take half your
damn fortune!”

“Impossible. You
already signed the papers stating that our marriage is fake. Remember? You left
them with me back in my office. And believe me when I tell you, hon’, I’d have
to be clinically insane, deadly infected with a bad case of the loves before I’d
give one penny of my hard-earned fortune away to any woman. With that being
said, if you don’t agree to be my make-believe wife for the next few weeks, I
will keep you tied up in court for months, maybe even years, before I let you
get your little hands on any annulment.”

“You exploiting,
conniving son-of-a—”

“And that brings
us to the second part of my worthwhile deal,” he said, ignoring her outrage. “If
you agree to my proposal, not only will I sign the papers in three weeks, but I
will also match your inheritance. Whatever Aunt Lulu has left you, I’ll double
it.”

“How do you know
you can afford it? You don’t even know how much it is.”

“Don’t worry
about that. I’m good for it.”

“What does this
Mr. Caplin have that you want so bad? Why are you so willing to go to such
lengths to impress the man?”

“That’s none of
your concern, sweetheart.” He reached over and pushed the call bell. “We have
two weeks to iron out all the details and to get to know each other. Right now,
if you’re feeling better, we need to get you the hell out of here.”

“Can I help you?”
a woman’s voice came through the intercom. “My wife is hungry, can she get
something to eat?”

“Sure. I’ll send
a nurse in,” the voice responded.

Jessina looked
over at Chase. “Why did you tell the hospital you’re my husband?”

He tilted his
head and gazed at her thoughtfully. “Do have health insurance?”

She rolled her
eyes, crossed her arms over her chest, and turned away from him.

“Exactly.” He
tapped her under the chin until she looked up at him. “Don’t worry. They’ll
bill me.”

“I don’t want
them to bill you. I refuse to have basically a stranger, paying for my—” she
began to argue, but his finger slipped up from her chin to her mouth to hush her.
The trouble was, Jessina wasn’t about to be hushed by any man. “Stop it!” Her
hand shot out at him. “And back up! Remember this, Mr. Lennox?” She circled her
finger around in front of her. “This is my space.”

He didn’t move.
Chase stood there staring at her, as though trying to figure her out.

The longer he did
so, the more everything closed in around her. She rubbed her hands together, a
habit she’d picked up that calmed her nerves sometimes when people got too
close. What would have helped so much more was if he’d move back a few feet. But
he didn’t seem willing to do that. The rubbing intensified as she glanced down
and realized she was wearing a baggy, backless hospital gown. “Where the hell
are my clothes?”

Turning to the
small closet, he slowly responded, “In there.”

“Oh.” She pulled
the sheet up, praying he’d back away before she submitted to the brewing panic
attack. She needed some space!

He looked at her
hands as she clutched the sheet, which was just beneath her breasts. His eyes
hooded and lifted a little.

Noting the
attention, her breasts swelled beneath the thin hospital gown, and her nipples
hardened. She suddenly felt naked. “Who took them off?”

“What?” His eyes
snapped back to hers, then darkened. “Your clothes?”

“Yes! Yes! My
damn clothes. Who took them off?”

A grin peeled
back from his delicious mouth. “Why me, your husband, of course, but don’t
worry. I didn’t look at or touch you inappropriately.”

“You?” Every
look from the man was inappropriate. She could only assume every touch would be
too.

He lifted his
hand and moved it toward her, shutting down any possible reaction on her part.
Jessina couldn’t speak or move for that matter as he placed a finger on her
shoulder.

“I didn’t touch
you inappropriately here.” His finger slid down to her arm. Her flesh rippled
with goose bumps. “Or here.” He drew a line to her wrist, the track of his
finger leaving a heated trail. “And definitely not here.” Watching her beneath
heavy lids, his large hand drifted over her stomach. Her belly tightened.

Shamefully, she
wanted him to continue with his little venture.

“When I removed
your clothes, I didn’t look here.” He raised his hand but left the tips of his
fingers to dangle on the sheet that was covering her. They started to move
south. Everything inside of her moved with that faint touch. Slowly,
tauntingly, his fingers drifted closer to the ache between her legs. Her front
teeth sank into her bottom lip. Her hormones screamed for more. Her grip
tightened on the feeble yet protective sheet.

“But I cannot
guarantee you that I didn’t take an inappropriate peek,” he paused as his
fingers were about to skim over her pussy, “right here.”

Jessina pushed
his hand away just as the nurse entered the room.

“Oh good! The
nurse is here.” Chase turned with a wide smile. “My wife is hungry. Can you
please get her something to eat?”

 “Sure,” the
nurse said and batted her eyes at Chase before she walked over to the
nightstand, opened the drawer, and handed Jessina a menu. “Just call the number
on the front and tell them what you want.” She turned, and then stopped. “Oh, and
by the way,” she twisted back to look at Jessina, “your clothes are in the
closet. I put them in there after I helped you into that hospital gown.”

Jessina grabbed
the front of the gown. “You put this on me?”

“Yes. Your
clothes were torn and a bit filthy from the accident. You may just want to have
your husband bring you a fresh change of clothes and just throw them out.” She
shrugged. “Of course, you’re welcome to keep them if you want.”

Jessina’s eyes
slithered over at Chase, who was looking very pleased with himself for
torturing her with the thought that he’d seen her naked.

“Is there
anything else you need, Mrs. Lennox?”

Counting the
ways she could kill her faux husband, she pulled herself away from Chase’s
swanky grin and shook her head. “No.”

The nurse gave
Chase one more slow bat of the eyes before she walked out of the room.

Jessina tried to
shake the queasiness in her gut. Unsure what was causing it. Either Chase or
Nurse Flirty, or, quite possibly, both of them had succeeded in making her
sick. Most stomach-churning of all, she was tired of being called “Mrs. Lennox”
when the whole thing was nothing but a big fat lie.