The Billionaire's Temporary Bride (Scandal, Inc #3)
By: Avery James
Prologue
Congressman Jack Coburn watched as the blonde in a cocktail dress and high heels ran across his lawn. While the rest of his guests were dressed down and relaxing, she looked like she was headed to the social event of the year.
Some things never change, he thought.
Of course, his idea of dressing down was wearing a lightweight suit and forgoing his usual power tie. He laughed at himself and turned his attention to the family and friends assembled outside his family's Cape Cod mansion.
"If you'll excuse me, gentlemen, my six o'clock has just arrived."
He shook a few hands, slapped a few backs and headed down to meet her.
"Callie," Jack said, "when I said I wanted to run something by you, I didn't mean you had to beat a path to the Cape."
Callie Haven was the fiancée of Jack's best friend Logan and one of the top political fixers in the country. Her energy and enthusiasm belied her great skill at defusing and preventing political crises of all kinds. While running across the lawn, she had been talking loudly into her cell phone and making emphatic gestures with her hands. She ended the call before reaching Jack and giving him a big hug. "Logan and I had been planning on crashing your party anyway. He's inside saying hi to your mother now."
"I should have known," Jack said. "It wouldn't be a Coburn family event without your fiancé appearing out of the blue."
"You're his best man," Callie said. "I'm just the one marrying him. If you asked me here for my input on the bachelor party, I've already said no to Vegas, Monte Carlo and anything involving women, cards or booze."
"No, I wanted to talk to you about business," Jack said. "As you probably know, there's an open Senate seat in Massachusetts this year, and I'm planning on making a run for it."
"Jack, there have been rumors about you running for Senate since the day you were elected to the House of Representatives."
"I was wondering if Haven Communications would be able to help with the campaign," Jack said. "You're a fixer, and I have a bit of a problem."
"Well, we specialize in political scandals," Callie said. "So unless you've had an affair, been blackmailed or committed a few felonies, I don't know if we'll be of much help. So what's the problem?"
"I have an image issue," Jack said.
"You're one of the nation's most eligible bachelors," Callie said. "You're the favorite son of one of America's great political dynasties, and you think you have an image problem?"
"I've gotten word that one of my opponents will be going negative as soon possible, painting me as a playboy and a dilettante. I mean, if you look at the past few years, it makes sense. I've had a string of girlfriends and broken it off any time things got serious."
"So you need a wife," Callie said.
Jack laughed. "Yeah, right. That would be one way to solve the problem."
"I'm serious," Callie said, "we've done this before. I might have a few candidates. I'll put a list together."
"I'm not marrying someone for political purposes," Jack said.
"Why not?"
"To start, I don't believe in marriage. It never ends well."
"You don't believe in marriage for love," Callie said. "I won't hold that against you when you're standing next to my groom at the wedding."
"I don't believe in marriage for me," Jack said. "You and Logan are a perfect match. It's different."
"So who would your perfect match be?"
"Really?" Jack asked.
"Yes," Callie said. "If you were to find a wife for the next two years, who would she be?"
"Someone beautiful and intelligent," Jack said. "Not runway beautiful. I'd need someone wholesome, someone believable."
"Beautiful is easy. Intelligent is harder, but we can find it. I can have a whole list of candidates for you by tomorrow morning."
"She'd also have to be funny and kind."
"Difficult but possible."
"One other thing: I'd want someone who has no interest in marrying me."
"Just to make things harder for me?" Callie asked.
"Hey, this was your idea."
"I'm just saying that most women would give their right arm to get stuck in an elevator with you. Who wouldn't want to marry you?"
"The right person," Jack said. "It wouldn't be fair to ask someone for a long term commitment when I couldn't give one if I wanted."
"I've got to say, Jack, it will be hard to pitch women on the idea of marrying you if one of your stipulations is that they can't be interested. Are you afraid of letting a woman get close to you?"
Jack tried not to let the smile on his face drop, but Callie was savvy. It was her job to pick up on subtle clues when a powerful man was hiding something from her.
"What are you hiding?" she asked.
"Let's get one thing straight right off the bat. That is the one question I won't answer, Callie. Not even to you. If we are going to come to an agreement, one of the terms has to be that you will not go asking about my private life, and neither will my wife."