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She feared she’d made a mistake.

Not in deciding on the engagement. She still believed in making sure that rat bastard running against him didn’t get to exploit anyone else.

But this ring? She turned her hand to catch fragments of sunlight in the facets of the stone. The ring was perfect, exactly what she would want in a real engagement and now she could never have it because the marquise cut would always remind her of Matthew Landis and the way he’d hurt her.

She couldn’t help but think of how he’d hotfooted toward her door. When this relationship didn’t benefit him anymore, he would likely hotfoot his way out of her life just that fast. She didn’t want to view him in such an unfavorable light, but what else could she think? That’s what he’d shown her, and he was a politician, after all.

Although she’d seen signs he wasn’t the typical politician, she reminded herself he was used to spinning things to his own advantage. She needed to remember that in order to survive this debacle.

Ashley slid into the backseat of the Suburban, the driver closing the door after her while she settled into the decadently soft leather. A built-in television played a twenty-four hour news channel.

Matthew tossed his briefcase to the floor before buckling his seat belt. “Thank God, that’s past. We should have some time to talk before we reach my place.”

Her ears perked up and she lost focus on the ring. “Your place?”

“Yes, you should familiarize yourself with the property.” He angled to face her, his knee brushing against hers and stirring more than nerves in her stomach. “It would seem strange if you’re unfamiliar with where I live.”

“Of course. That makes sense.” She forced her face to stay blasé even though inside she couldn’t ignore the frustrated twinge that his reasons for taking her home were merely practical. “Why didn’t your campaign manager come along then? Where is he now?”

“Don’t know.” Matthew shrugged as a golf course with a lush lawn and palm trees whizzed past.

“I thought he wanted to tell me more about the upcoming agenda.” She tugged her lightweight sweater closed over her floral sundress she’d borrowed from Starr. The outfit was pretty, but Starr wasn’t as busty so the darn thing didn’t fit quite right and the press of Matthew’s knee against hers was starting to make the dress even more uncomfortably tight as her breasts ached for his touch.

She should have been shopping for clothes rather than a ring in order to pull off this charade.

“Brent and I decided I could give you the information just as easily. He has enough to keep him busy.” Matthew clicked open his briefcase and pulled out a printed agenda roster. “I’m slated to speak at a Rotary breakfast in the morning and a stump gathering in the afternoon. On Saturday evening, there’s a harbor cruise fund-raising dinner.”

He paused reading to glance over at her, seemingly unaware of the havoc he wreaked on her senses with just the touch of his kneecap, for Pete’s sake. If only the photographers hadn’t caught those compromising photos, she could have gone on with her life, pissed off at him, certainly, but free of this painful attraction.

“Ashley?” He ducked his head into her line of sight. “Are you with me? Do you have a problem with any of this? You don’t have to attend everything. It’s not like you’re a politician’s wife.”

“Of course I want to come. It’s fascinating to hear all of the political ins and outs up close. And it’s not as if I have a job at the moment. Everything’s at a standstill with Beachcombers until the insurance company finishes its report and cuts us a check.”

She forced her eyes to stay dry when more than anything she wanted to shout her frustration over her out-of-control life.

She liked simple and uncomplicated.

Matthew Landis was anything and everything except simple and uncomplicated.

His handsome face went somber with concern. “I could always float you a loan—”

“Shut up about the money already.” God, he really didn’t have a clue about her values and pride in spite of the ring. Still, she eased her words with a smile even as constant reminders of his affluent world whipped by outside in the shape of waterside mansions and high-end cars. “But thank you for the offer. It’s very generous of you.”

“Don’t overrate me. The amount you need wouldn’t even put a dent in my portfolio.”

She wrinkled her nose and planted her legs firmly on her side of the car—away from his. The leather seats teased at the back of her calves with a reminder of lush accessories she could never afford. “Why did you have to take such a nice offer and downplay it that way?”

“I’m not bragging, only speaking the truth.”

That might be so, but it still didn’t mean she planned to let him open his wallet to her. Taking money from a man she was sleeping with seemed…icky.

She’d already come too close to crossing a moral conscience line with this fake engagement. She couldn’t take one step further. “I see plenty of wealthy people traipsing through Beachcombers who will stiff the waitress on a tip without thinking twice. I know affluence and generosity do not always go hand in hand.”

“Since I already have enough debates on my schedule, I won’t bother disputing your kind assessment of my character.”

She chewed her lip to keep from arguing further and simply listened to the roar and honks of street traffic. The last thing she wanted was to wax on about the wonderful attributes of Matthew Landis. That would do little to bolster her self-control.

He tapped her brow with a warm callused finger. “Penny for them.”

She forced a lighthearted smile on her face. “Come on, surely with your portfolio you can do better than that.”

RICH MAN’S FAKE FIANCEE

15

CATHERINE MANN

SILHOUETTE DESIRE 1878

THE LANDIS BROTHERS

“Touché.” He chuckled low, the rumble of his laugh sliding as smoothly over her senses as his arm along the back of the seat to cup her shoulders.

His touch burned along her already heightened nerves, tightening an unwelcome need deep in her belly. She’d always been attracted to him, but the sensual draw was so much more intense now that she knew exactly how high he could nudge her pleasure with even one stroke of his body inside hers.

She inched forward on the seat, her light linen sundress suddenly itchy against her knees. “You don’t need to keep up the shows of affection. No one is around to snap a promo shot.”

Slowly, torturously so, he slid his arm away, his green eyes glinting with a hint of bad-boy charm that showed he knew exactly how much his touch affected her. “I didn’t mean to overstep.”

“Apology accepted.”

Sheesh, she hated sounding so uptight, but she could barely hold her own with this guy when he wasn’t touching her. She’d enjoyed having his hands all over her, but she’d hated the way he made her feel the next morning.

“So, what’s the going rate for your thoughts?”

“Actually, they’re free at the moment.” She struggled for some new direction to take their discussion that had nothing to do with touching, needing, wanting. “I’m just not sure if my question is polite.”

“I’ve developed a thick skin over the years.”

She wished she could say the same. “All right, then.” She tipped her face confidently—and so the vents could shoosh some cooling air against her warming skin. “I can’t hush up the accountant in me that’s wondering how your family accumulated such a hefty portfolio.”

“Dumb luck, as a matter of fact.” He scratched his hand along his jaw, which just happened to draw his pointer finger over his top lip in a temptingly seductive manner. “My great-grandfather bought into a big local land deal that paid off well when it just as easily could have tanked.”

She remembered clearly how that mouth of his felt exploring every inch of her body, lingering once he discovered a particularly sensitive region. She cleared her throat if not her passion-fogged thoughts. Too easily she could be lured under his sensual spell again and she needed to hold strong. “Uh, where were these land plots?”

“Myrtle Beach.” He dropped his hand back to his knee, giving her overloaded senses a momentary reprieve.

“Ah, that explains a lot.” Interesting how he downplayed his family’s fortune. Wealth that large didn’t accumulate on its own or grow by taking care of itself. “But it doesn’t explain everything. Plenty of people blow a fortune before it ever reaches their kids.”

“We’ve invested wisely over the years,” he conceded, fingering his cuff links, an antique-looking set that she suspected must have family sentimentality. As she looked closer, she recognized his father’s initials. “We’ve lived well, without question, but always kept an eye on growing the principal.”

“Very smart move.” Her accounting brain envisioned numerous creative ways to diversify a large holding. Some lucky number cruncher must be having a field day playing with all that capital. “Families expand, so if you don’t increase the size of the pie, the pieces will get smaller with each generation.”

“Exactly.” His thumb polished a rounded cuff link. “We’re lucky that we’ve been able to pursue whatever career dream we wanted without worrying about putting a roof over our heads.”

His grass-roots practicality touched her as firmly and stirringly as those callused fingers ever had and that scared her. This man could hurt her, badly, if she wasn’t careful.

“It’s admirable that you all think that way rather than simply living a life of leisure.” The Suburban slowed to a crawl behind cars backed up from a wreck ahead. She forced her drying-up mouth to keep the conversation flowing. “You could simply see the world or something, and nobody would think less of you.”

“I could go stark raving nuts, you mean. I like playing golf as much as the next guy—” he gestured at the rolling course packed with players “—but I’m not good enough to make a living at it, therefore it can’t be my life’s pursuit. For me, politics keeps me in touch with the rest of the world and how they’re living. That’s a real grounding kind of thing. My brother Kyle says the same about serving in the Air Force.”

So this conversation thing wasn’t working out as well as she’d expected since he actually got nicer with each sentence. If the traffic jam didn’t clear soon she would be in serious trouble. “What about your other brother Sebastian?”

“He’s the business lawyer who keeps us all bank-rolled for the next generation.”

“And Jonah?”

His smile tightened. “The jury’s still out on him.”

“He’s the youngest, right?” She seemed to recall from the publicity photos of Ginger Landis Renshaw with her boys. “I seem to remember reading he only just graduated from college.”

“So did you, but you’re not jaunting around the world.” He thumbed the crease between his eyebrows. “I’m just not sure how my parents brought up a playboy son.”

She followed his words and the mounting proof that there might be something more to him than a fat wallet, a handsome face and slick politician’s persona. Definitely dangerous with a warm magnetism that radiated from him and reached to her even when they didn’t touch.

“You’re a good listener, Ashley.”

“You’re an interesting speaker.” And that was the truth, damn it. Why couldn’t he have been a pedantic slug? “I look forward to hearing what you have to say at all those functions. I honestly believe you’re the better man for this job and I want to do whatever I can to help make that happen.”

“Thank you. You sound like you actually mean that.”

She shared a quiet smile with him, unable to miss the enclosed intimacy of just the two of them in the back of the Suburban with a privacy window closed. She started to sway toward him, then jerked her body rigid.

“What’s the matter then?” He smoothed a finger along her furrowed forehead much the way he’d smoothed the crease between his own eyebrows.

“I don’t have a problem with attending the events with you.” She forced her best prim tone in place to put things back on a more practical keel. “My concern is actually more logistical. I don’t know how I’m going to get to Charleston and back in time to make everything.”

RICH MAN’S FAKE FIANCEE

16

CATHERINE MANN

SILHOUETTE DESIRE 1878

THE LANDIS BROTHERS

“Who says you have to go back and forth to Charleston?”

Her jaw dropped as her pulse skyrocketed. A fake engagement was one thing. But moving in together? Matthew must have been dipping into the vehicle’s liquor cabinet.

Six

A shley considered availing herself of the Suburban’s drink selection after all, time of the afternoon be damned. She could be stuck in here with Matthew for hours if the cops didn’t clear the wreck soon.

She tugged at the hem of her dress, because yes, she’d felt his heated gaze stray to her calves more than once during the ride to his house. “You can’t be suggesting I should move in with you. The press will chew us up.”

“We’re engaged.” He cupped her elbow.

She shrugged her arm free. She’d been lured by his sexual draw once before and look where that had landed her? Half dressed on the front page of countless newspapers. “Don’t be obtuse and stop touching me.”

His eyes narrowed and Ashley mentally kicked herself. Another gauntlet moment.

He slowly removed his hand. “So you’re still every bit as attracted to me as I am to you.”

Ouch. He played tough.

Well, she would have to meet the challenge. “That line of discussion will not go far in persuading me to stay with you.”

One side of his mouth kicked up in a smile. “Point well made.” He stretched his arm along the back of the seat, this time without so much as brushing any part of her. “I live in a family compound as do two of my brothers. We all have our own quarters.

Mom and the general live in both D.C. and South Carolina. The general’s at the Pentagon right now, but Mom’s around, so you even have a chaperone.”

“By living quarters, what do you mean?” She eyed him warily. He’d made it clear he was still attracted to her and that it wasn’t an act. Yet having an affair, with a ring on her finger and the intent to break things off felt wrong. How ironic that she’d been willing to consider sleeping with him when there’d been no jewelry or fake commitments involved. “Is everybody in the same house with a suite, but all still bump into each other walking around in the hall?”