Chapter 4
Maxie
My heart flipped at his words.
“Actually, yes.”
He paused with a chunk of bread at his lips. “You just like surprising me, don’t you?”
I laughed. “Well, we have to live together in the house. It’s one of the stipulations of the will.”
“Oh.” He popped the dripping bread in his mouth.
I nibbled on a corner of a piece of cheese. “Is that a deal breaker?”
“Not necessarily. I do have to spend a lot of time in my workshop. Is that all right?”
“That’s fine. You don’t have to spend all your time here.”
“Does that include a room upstairs?”
I licked my lips. “There are a few rooms you can choose from. I have to warn you, most of them need a lot of work.”
“I’m not afraid of work.”
“I don’t expect you to do work on your own time.”
“Just part of taking care of my wife.”
My stomach jittered. Why did he keep saying that?
I wasn’t even his wife yet.
“I don’t need you to take care of me. I just need you to be present enough to make sure that when the lawyer checks up on us it doesn’t look suspicious.”
“How many spot checks are we talking here?”
“I honestly don’t know.”
I picked up my wine. “I’m not sure if he actually cares if it’s a marriage in name only.”
He took a sip. “Is that what you want?”
“I’m only doing this to save the house.”
He grinned behind the lip of his glass. “Not that big payout?”
“The money is nice. It would allow me to stick around instead of going back to my soul sucking job.”
His eyebrows shot up. “What do you do?”
“Marketing specialist. I work my ass off there and idiots keep getting promoted over me.”
“Let me guess, male idiots?”
I busied myself with the bread on my plate, tearing it into shreds. Suddenly his hand covered mine. Startled, I looked up to find him far too close.
“I wish I didn’t know the type, but it happens around here too.” He squeezed my hand and gave me a sad smile before releasing it. “Better question…what do you want?”
“I honestly don’t know. I focused on getting out of Indigo Valley for so long.”
“Okay then, how about right now. If you didn’t have to worry about impressing anyone other than yourself.”
“What would you do?” I countered.
He leaned on the marble and my eyes couldn’t help traveling over his shoulders to the lean lines of his back. How the heck many muscles were hiding under that flannel shirt?
“Eyes up here, Maxie.”
Thankful my skin didn’t show off a flush easily, I straightened. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. I’m going to be your husband, right? You can look all you want.”
“I told you it was just—”
He grabbed his glass and straightened up. He had more than a few inches on me since I was just in a pair of socks. “On paper. Sure, if that’s what you want.”
“Bed and breakfast.”
He frowned.
“If I could have whatever I wanted. I’d convert this house into a bed and breakfast. It would need a lot of work to get it there.”
“Oh.” He looked around the kitchen. “Would you hire people to host or do it yourself?”
“Me.” Surprised when it came out, I realized it was true. “My grandmother raised me more than my mother. She showed me how to be a gracious host, how to throw a party, even how to run a household. Back then I thought it was like living in an episode of an old British television show.”
“And now, you have skills. Add in the marketing background you have and voila. You know how to do this.”
“I do.”
Now that I said it out loud, something shifted in me. The grief that had been sitting in my chest moved a little. It was still there, but excitement came to the forefront.
“Would you help me with that?” At his half smile, I backtracked. “I mean your company. The Murdock Brothers.”
“It would be a big job. Transforming a house into a shared space takes some refinement. A bed and breakfast is more forgiving of course. People are looking for more of a home than a hotel.”
“Yes. I’d have to do some research. I’d need more parking outside. Help with the grounds.”
“You might need a good bit of that inheritance to make it really work.”
“I don’t care.” Suddenly very excited, I grabbed his hands. “I love this house.”
“Would you rather want it for your family someday?”
I paused. “Honestly?”
He nodded. “Honestly.”
“There’s an old carriage house in the back. I’d rather have a small house that is cozy for myself.”
“Can I see it?”
“Now?” I glanced out the window. “It’s dark.”
“I just finished a big job. I’d like to take a look tomorrow morning.”
Unsettled that this could actually happen, I backed up and tried to release his hands.
“Hey, it’s up to you.”
“I know. I’m just freaking myself out.”
“It’s okay to be excited about it.”
Was it though? My grandmother was barely interred.
“It doesn’t have to be now.” He lifted one of my hands and kissed my wrist. “One step at a time.”
My skin buzzed at his lips and the brush of his beard.
“Just practicing being a husband.” He settled the same hand on his chest. “Gotta get used to me around you.”
“Right.”
“Or no one will believe it.”
I nodded. “Right. You’re right.”
“Now the next question is—are we telling people?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, if we’re getting married to fulfill this loophole in the will, do you want people to know we’re married. Is that part of the stipulations?”
“I don’t know. My lawyer just said we had to live together.”
“Well, I have tomorrow off. Do you want to start the paperwork? I know you said you have a contract in mind, which I totally think you should do. You need to be protected.”
My heart kicked from under the stone sitting in my chest. No one other than my grandmother had ever thought to protect me. Certainly not my mother. And my grandmother’s version of protection was control of everything.
“I should talk to my own lawyer. Not my grandmother’s.”
“Good plan. Now, the next question is are we using the local town hall to do this? You know it’ll be everywhere within the hour.”
“Right.” My fingers dug into the hard planes of his chest. “Everyone would talk.”
“We can go into Saratoga and do it. Or down to Albany even.”
I nodded. “That would probably be smarter.”
“But?”
“But it would look more realistic if we did it here. For my grandmother’s lawyer.”
Sure. That was the important part. The lawyer.
What the hell are you doing, Max?
“Why are you doing this?” When he grinned, I narrowed my eyes. “And not the charming answer.”
“You probably don’t want the real one, honey.”
“I told you not to call me honey.”
“That’s the problem. I want to call you honey.”
I took a step back. “This is just a business arrangement.”
“And I’m very aware of that. If that’s where you want it to stay, I’m happy to keep it platonic.”
“But you don’t want that?” Nerves jumped in my belly and something far too warm for my peace of mind.
“As teenagers, I always wondered what it would be like to be with you. As the man I am now, I’m still wondering.”
“Why?”
He laughed. “You’re a beautiful woman, Maxie. Do you have to really ask that?”
“Just because I’m physically attractive?”
“That’s the first level. Sorry to break it to you, guys can be very surface level.”
“So, you just want me because you think I’m hot?”
“I said first level. Attraction is always important.” He slipped an arm around my back and stepped into my space until we were chest to chest. “And it’s there.
Between us. The buzz of the what ifs are between us.
Don’t you want to find out if it’s something more?
” His mouth hovered over mine. “Also, there’s nothing wrong with hot, sweaty sex just because two people are into it. ”
I licked my lips. “I’m not ruled by my hormones.”
“Sometimes it’s fun.”
My heart raced and my traitorous nipples were definitely on board.
“We could be just this. Hot, sweaty sex for days in between the business.”
I swallowed.
Then he slowly retreated. “But if you’re not interested in that, I’m good with just being your friend who has the hots for you.”
Off-balanced, I grabbed for the counter.
He picked up his wine and walked around the kitchen island.
“Just like that? You can turn it off.” Exasperated and pissed, I picked up one of the dishes and put it in the sink.
“Oh, honey it was not easy to do that.” He gulped the rest of the wine in his glass. “I’d rather find out what this wine tastes like on your lips and tongue, but I came on too strong.”
“What if I said not strong enough?” I met his gaze, four feet of marble in between us.
“Your ass would land on this marble slab, and I’d kiss you until neither of us could breathe.”
I arched a brow. “Why on the counter?”
“Because one kiss would end up two.” He placed his palms on the veined white marble countertop.
“Then it would be your neck, and that distracting shoulder showing from your sweater.” His gaze dipped to my nipples pushing at the material.
“Then those. I’d want to find out if you are sensitive there or maybe you just want my mouth lower. ”
My mouth dropped open.
“So, yeah. That’s why I’m over here.” He pushed away from the counter. “I’m going to go.”
That was the better idea.
Safer.
Smarter.
He got halfway down the hallway.
“Don’t go.”