Falling For Her Fake Fiancé (The Beaumont Heirs 5) Read Online Free PDF Page B

was not flattered by his attentions. This was not a date. This was corporate espionage in a great dress. This was her using what few resources she had left at her disposal to get her life back on track. This was about her disarming Ethan Logan, not the other way around.
    So she clamped down on the shiver that threatened to race across her skin as she lowered herself away from him. “That’s a great color on you. Very...” She let the word hang in the air for a beat too long. “Bold,” she finished. “Not just any man could pull off that look.”
    He raised his eyebrows. She realized he was trying not to laugh at her. “Says the woman who showed up in an emerald evening gown to hand out donuts. Have no fear, I’m comfortable in my masculinity. Shall we? I made reservations at the restaurant.” He held out his arm for her.
    “We shall.” She lightly placed her hand in the crook of his elbow. She didn’t need his help—she could walk in these shoes just fine—but this was part of setting him up. It had nothing to do with wanting another flash of heat from where their bodies met.
    The restaurant was busy, as was to be expected on a Saturday night. When they entered, the diners paused. She and Ethan must have made quite a pair, her with her red hair and him in his purple jacket.
    People were already forming opinions. That was something she could use to her advantage. She placed her free hand on top of Ethan’s arm and leaned into him. Not much, but just enough to create the impression that this was a date.
    The maître d’ led them to a small table tucked in a dim corner. They ordered—she got the lobster, just to be obnoxious about it, and he got the steak, just to be predictable—and Ethan ordered a bottle of pinot grigio.
    Then they were alone. “I’m glad you came out tonight.”
    She demurely placed her hands in her lap. “Did you think I would cancel?”
    “I wouldn’t have been surprised if you’d tried to string me along a little bit. Just to watch me twist.” He said it in a jovial way but she didn’t miss the edge to his voice.
    So he wasn’t totally befuddled. And he was more than sharp enough to know they were here for something much more than dinner.
    That didn’t mean she had to own up to it. “Whatever do you mean?”
    His smile sharpened. The silence carried, and she was in serious danger of fidgeting nervously under his direct gaze.
    She was saved by the sommelier, who arrived with the wine. Frances desperately wanted to take a long drink, but she could not let Ethan know he was unsettling her. So she slowly twirled the stem of her wineglass until he said, “I propose a toast.”
    “Do you now?”
    “To a long and productive partnership.” She did not drink. Instead, she leveled a cool gaze at him over the rim of her glass and waited for him to notice. Which, admittedly, did not take long. “Yes?”
    “I’m not taking that job, you know. I have ‘considered’ it, and I can’t imagine a more boring job in the history of employment,” she told him.
    She would not let the world know she was so desperate as to take a job in management at a company that used to belong to her family. She might be down on her luck, but she wasn’t going to give up.
    Then, and only then, did she allow herself to sip her wine. She had to be careful. She needed to keep her wits about her and not let the wine—and all those muscles—go to her head.
    “I figured as much,” he said with a low chuckle that Frances felt right in her chest. What was it with this man’s voice?
    “Then why would you toast to such a thing?” Maybe now was the time to take the jacket off? He seemed entirely too self-aware. She did not have the advantage here, not like she’d had in the office.
    Oh, she did not like that smile on him. Well, she did—she might actually like it a great deal, if she wasn’t the one in the crosshairs.
    He leaned forward, his gaze so intense that she considered removing her jacket just to