The Billionaire's Temporary Bride (Scandal, Inc #3)(31)

"Really?" Charlotte asked. "I think it's a good look for you. Come on. Dinner's almost ready, and you still need to meet my mom. Try not to ruin these clothes in an attempt to impress her. Otherwise, you'll have to spend the rest of the trip in the buff."


"Be careful what you wish for," Jack said. He took the towel from Charlotte. "Come on, your dad asked for help."

"And you could have just helped instead of insisting on making everything perfect," she added.

Jack had a glow to him, an excitement and warmth she hadn't seen since the night he proposed to her. His wet hair was a mess, jutting off in wild directions, and he smiled back at her as he lifted the towel to his head. The muscles in his chest and abs danced as he vigorously rubbed his hair dry.

God, when he's not in the suit he looks so… normal, Charlotte thought. Well, Jack could never look normal, but for once, he looks like someone I could imagine dating instead of impossibly gorgeous political royalty.

"Dressed down is a good look for you," Charlotte said. "Remind me to leave you out in the rain more often."

"I'm not sure shirtless counts as dressed down, Bean," Jack teased.

Charlotte bit her lower lip and stared at him. "Not funny."

"I think it's cute," Jack said. He grinned.

"You can make fun of me, but don't make fun of my parents, ok?"

"I'm not." Jack put his hand over his heart. "I need a nickname for you, and Bean works better than Char, or Lottie. Though, I'm not quite sure if any do you justice."

Why is he looking at me like that? Charlotte wondered.

"Can we just try to make it through this trip?" she asked.

"Sure thing, Bean," Jack said, grinning at her displeasure.

Charlotte crossed the room and stepped right in front of Jack, all but pressing her nose against his.

"I told you not to call me that," she whispered.

As she stared him down, she realized she hadn't been this close to Jack since the night he had proposed to her. He looked back at her with a mischievous look, like he couldn't wait to keep pushing her buttons.

"I know that look, but I'm serious," she warned him, "don't do it again."

Jack placed his hand on her hip and leaned in a little closer, brushing his cheek against hers as he whispered in her ear. "That's not what I was thinking of doing."

He turned and pressed his lips against hers, sending an electric thrill through her body. Charlotte closed her eyes and smiled despite herself. It was nice. It was really nice.

Why did that have to be so nice? she wondered. Why couldn't the kiss have been terrible?

It would have made it so much easier to get through this weekend if she didn't love to kiss him. Jack nibbled at her neck and she felt her desire growing stronger.

She pushed herself back, but her hands lingered on his naked chest. "That's enough for now. I thought we agreed to get this out of our systems that one night only."

"We didn't say anything about no more kissing. We're going to be married. Kissing is bound to happen."

Charlotte sighed with pleasure and exasperation as Jack's lips returned to her neck. "This isn't exactly how we're going to behave for the cameras. Why do you have to kiss me this way when we're alone?"

"Because I want to. And you want me to," he said, "and right now it seems like the thing to do."

Charlotte hated to push him away. "Put on the sweatshirt and come down for dinner," she said. She pursed her lips and stared at him with what she hoped was a disapproving look. Her eyes darted back to the bookcase. "And don't touch anything in here."

She turned and headed for the door.

"Sure thing, Bean," Jack said.

Charlotte didn't even look back, she just shut the door behind her and headed for the stairs. So much for just getting through the trip.





Chapter 12

Jack looked around. Like everything else about Charlotte's house, her room was perfect and just like her: cozy, warm and bright.

In one corner of the room, her bed sat under the sloping ceiling of a dormer. In another corner sat her desk. Well-worn books with broken spines overflowed from a wall's worth of bookcases. There must have been a hundreds of paperbacks and dozens of hardcovers. He scanned the titles, recognizing more than a few.

So this is where she came from, he mused. The sweet scent of Charlotte's perfume lingered in the air even after she'd left, and Jack couldn't stop thinking about that kiss. A week ago, when he had proposed, he'd broken the first rule he'd set for himself. He had crossed the line and slept with her. It had been incredible, thrilling in so many ways.

He'd thought he had understood Charlotte's insistence that it would only be a one-time thing, that she wasn't about to start sleeping with him just because they were about to get married. It was a bad idea. She had been right, just like she was right to break off his latest kiss.

Looking down at the clothes he had changed out of, Jack thought of the secret cell phone in his coat pocket. He hoped the phone wouldn't be ruined from the rain, but didn't dare ask Charlotte for the jacket back. She had seen him using his normal phone, and would be rightfully suspicious that he was hiding something from her if she found out about the second phone. If it was soaked beyond repair, he would just have to get a new number to contact Maria and little Jack.