From make-believe to matrimony? Only from USA TODAY bestselling author Katherine Garbera!

Dr. Derek Caruthers is up for the promotion of his life—if he can deflect his boss’s romantic designs. His solution? Single mom Bianca Velasquez—longtime buddy turned fake fiancée. Unfortunately, he’s feeling more passionate than platonic about beautiful Bianca...

She knows the engagement is only pretend, but seeing Derek with her son and having Derek’s strong body next to hers at night feels way too real. Can she convince the stubborn bachelor that he’s ready for a spouse?

The Tycoon’s Fiancée Deal is part of the Wild Caruthers Bachelors series.

All she could think about was that big bed and Derek pleasing her.

She flushed and cleared her throat, which was suddenly very dry.

She tried to push the images out of her mind—of his naked body moving over hers. But she couldn’t. She had seen him at the pool and knew his chest was solid and muscled. Now she wondered what it would feel like under her fingers.

He arched one eyebrow at her.

“What?”

“I think you just realized the most thrilling thing in this room is me.”

She shook her head. “That’s a lot of talk, Caruthers.”

“Again with you thinking it’s all ego. I promise you, it’s fact,” he said.

“Another promise?” she asked.

“This one I’m happy to demonstrate,” he said. Derek stood up and drew her to her feet next to him. “Don’t think. No more second-guessing. Let’s just see where it leads.”

* * *

The Tycoon’s Fiancée Deal is part of the Wild Caruthers Bachelors series: These Lone Star heartbreakers’ single days are numbered…

The Tycoon’s Fiancée Deal

Katherine Garbera

www.millsandboon.co.uk

USA TODAY bestselling author KATHERINE GARBERA writes heartwarming and sensual novels that deal with romance, family and friendship. She’s written more than seventy-five novels and is a featured speaker at events all over the world.

She lives in the UK with her husband and Godiva (a very spoiled miniature dachshund), and she’s frequently visited by her university-age children, who need homecooked meals and laundry service. Visit her online at www.katherinegarbera.com.

Sometimes we get lucky enough to meet people who will be more than acquaintances, more than friends… I’ve always thought of these people as kindred spirits, soul sisters. I’ve been very blessed to have these women in my life and on my journey, so this book is dedicated to them. Charlotte Smith, Courtney Garbera, Linda Harris, Donna Scamehorn, Eve Gaddy, Nancy Thompson, Mary Louise Wells and Tina Crosby.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

Title Page

About the Author

Dedication

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

Fourteen

Fifteen

Extract

Copyright

One

Derek Caruthers was a badass. He knew it and so did everyone else he passed in the halls of Cole’s Hill Regional Medical Center. He was one of the youngest surgeons in the country to have his stellar record and, aside from a few bumps along the way, he deserved his reputation as the best. Today he felt especially pleased with himself as he had been invited to meet with the overall hospital board. He was pretty sure he was going to be named the chief of cardiology as the hospital prepared to open its new cardiac surgery wing.

Mentally high-fiving himself, he entered the boardroom. Most of the members were already there but the new board member wasn’t. The first item of business in today’s meeting was to reveal who had been chosen to oversee the new cardiac wing. Derek had no idea who it would be, but given that Cole’s Hill was a small town, and he’d heard that the new board member had a local connection to Cole’s Hill, Derek was confident it would be someone he knew.

“Derek, good to see you,” Dr. Adam Brickell said, coming over to shake his hand. Dr. Brickell had been Derek’s mentor when he first started and the two men still enjoyed a close bond. The older doctor had retired two years ago and now sat on the board at the medical center. He had been the one to put Derek’s name forward for chief.

“Dr. Brickell, always a pleasure,” Derek said. “I’m really looking forward to this meeting. Something I usually don’t say.”

“Keep that enthusiasm, but there might be a wrinkle. What if the new board member has her own ideas about the cardiology department?” Dr. Brickell said.

“Her? I’ve yet to meet a woman I couldn’t bring around to my way of thinking,” Derek said. He didn’t want Dr. Brickell to see any signs of nerves or doubt in Derek. Whoever this new board member was, Derek would win them over.

Dr. Brickell laughed and clapped him on the back. “Glad to hear it.”

Derek’s phone rang and Dr. Brickell stepped away to allow him to check his call. Given that he was a surgeon he never ignored his calls.

He noticed that it was from his friend Bianca. She and he had been besties for most of their lives. It had gotten a bit awkward on his side when he’d developed the hots for her in high school but all of that had ended when she’d moved to Paris to model, fallen in love with a champion racecar driver and married him.

But for Bianca, the fairy-tale romance and marriage had been short-lived; after only three years together, her husband had been killed in a plane crash, leaving her to raise a two-year-old son alone.

Well, because of that, Derek had once again made being Bianca’s friend a top priority.

She’d been sort of fragile since she’d moved back to Cole’s Hill. He knew it was the pressure her mom was putting on her to find a husband so that Bianca and her son wouldn’t be “on their own.”

He glanced around the room and caught Dr. Brickell’s eye, gesturing that he needed to take the call. Dr. Brickell nodded and Derek stepped out into the hallway for privacy.

“Bi, what’s up?”

“I’m so glad you’re here. Did I catch you before the hospital meeting?” she asked.

“Yes. What’s up?” he asked again.

“Mom has another man lined up for me to go out with tonight. Is there the slightest possibility you’re free?” she asked.

No, and even if he were, he wasn’t going to go there. They were friends by her design and probably for his sanity, he wasn’t about to rock the boat by dating her. He would cancel for her but this was Wednesday and everyone in the Five Families area where they both lived knew that the Caruthers brothers had dinner at the club and then played pool on Wednesday nights. “It’s pool night with my brothers and your mom will know that.”

“Damn. Okay, it was worth a shot.”

“It definitely was. I’m sorry. Who is it tonight?”

“A coworker from the network. He’s a producer or something,” Bianca said.

Bianca’s mom was a morning news anchor for their local TV station. She’d been busily setting Bianca up on dates since she’d moved back to Cole’s Hill.

“Sounds...interesting,” Derek said.

“As if. Mom has no idea what I want in a man,” Bianca said.

And that was a can of worms Derek had no intention of opening right now. “I’ve got to go. The board is almost all here.”

“No problem. Good luck today. They’d be foolish not to pick you.”

“They would be,” Derek agreed. “Later, Bi.”

“Later.”

He disconnected the call and put his phone back in his pocket. He adjusted his tie as he looked down the hall for a mirror to check it and heard the staccato sound of high heels. He glanced over his shoulder, a smile ready, and his jaw dropped.

The woman walking toward him was Marnie Masters. Damn. She gave him a very calculated look from under her perfect eyebrows. Her blond hair was artfully styled around her somewhat angular face and teased to just the right height. She moved the way he imagined a lioness would when she sighted her prey and he didn’t kid himself that he was anything other than the prey.

“Marnie, always a pleasure to see you,” he said, though he’d been dodging her calls, texts and party invitations for the last eighteen months. So calling it a pleasure was a bit of a stretch.

“I would believe that if I didn’t have to resort to taking this role on the board and leaving my practice in Houston in order to ‘run into’ you,” she retorted.

“You’re back in Cole’s Hill?” he said, shaken. He knew he needed to get his groove back and put on the charm.

“Well, it’s the new me. Daddy donated the money for this new cardiac surgery wing—at my suggestion—and the board agreed to his suggestion that I be hired to oversee the new wing. I just finished doing something similar in Houston and Daddy really wanted me to come home... So it seems as if you and I will be working together for the foreseeable future,” Marnie said.

“I’m glad to hear the board has hired someone with your qualifications,” he said.

“I imagine we will get to know each other much better now that I’m working here. It will give us a chance to spend more time together and get caught up.”

Derek knew he couldn’t just say hell no. But there was no way he was getting involved with her again. “I’m afraid that’s out of the question.”

“Why? There are no rules against it,” she said, with a wink. “I checked.”

“Of course there aren’t any rules. It’s just that I’m engaged,” Derek said. “I wouldn’t want my fiancée to get the wrong idea.”

* * *

“Engaged?” Ethan Caruthers asked as he and Derek ordered another round of drinks at the Five Families Country Club later that night. “Why would you say something like that?”

“You know Marnie. She wasn’t going to accept a no. So I panicked and...”

“Said something over-the-top. Derek, that’s crazy. I think when it becomes clear you don’t have a fiancée, this could backfire,” his brother said.

Ethan had a point. Already, his lie had added a wrinkle to his prospects for becoming chief of cardiology. Marnie hadn’t been happy to hear about the engagement and had told the board that she was considering a few other applicants. Dr. Brickell had firmly been in Derek’s corner, saying that the decision needed to be made sooner rather than later, but Marnie had stood firm. She’d insisted it would be two months before the final decision would be made and had enough support from other members to win the argument and temporarily table the decision.

The board had adjourned and Derek had gone back to work, doing two surgeries that had wiped the fiancée problem from his mind until he’d shown up here. Ethan was the only one of his brothers waiting when Derek had arrived.

“Tell me about it,” Derek said. “If I could just find a woman...someone who needed a guy for a few months.”

“Would Marnie believe one of your casual friends was your fiancée?” Ethan asked.

“No. I told her it was someone special and that’s why it was under wraps.”

Ethan took another swallow of his scotch and shook his head. “Damn, boy, you always did have a gift for telling whoppers.”

“I know. What am I going to do?”

“About what?” Hunter asked, joining their group. Hunter had recently moved back to Cole’s Hill after spending the better part of ten years playing in the NFL and traveling the country promoting fitness while dodging the scandal of being accused of killing his college girlfriend. Recently the real murderer had been arrested and charged with the crime, which had enabled Hunter to finally break free of the dark cloud of suspicion. He was now engaged and planning the wedding of the century according to their mother and Ferrin, Hunter’s fiancée. Everyone was in wedding fever in Cole’s Hill.

“He needs a fiancée,” Ethan said with a bit of a smirk.

Derek reached over and punched his brother. Of course Ethan would think it was funny. With only eleven months separating the two of them they were “almost twins,” and as Ethan was the older of the two, he had always been a little smug.

“Do I want to know why?” Hunter asked, signaling the waitress for a drink as he sprawled back in his chair.

“Marnie Masters.”

Hunter threw his head back and started laughing. “I thought you broke up with her years ago.”

“It’s been eighteen months,” he said. He had broken up with her two years ago but had given in one night six months later when he’d been in Houston and slept with her again. It had just renewed Marnie’s belief that he wasn’t over her and that they should get back together. He’d been avoiding her ever since.

“So why do you need a fiancée?” Hunter asked.

“Marnie’s the new board member brought in to oversee development of the surgical wing at the hospital. I panicked when I saw her and announced that I was engaged when she suggested we’d have a chance to spend time together.”

“Ah,” Hunter said. “Do you have someone in mind?”

“Not really,” he said, but he knew that wasn’t true. His mind kept pushing one face forward. She had nicely tanned olive skin, thick long black hair and the deepest, darkest brown eyes he’d ever gazed into. She was also not looking for marriage and needed a break from her matchmaking mother. He could provide her cover. But she’d have to be crazy to go along with his idea.

And she wasn’t.

She was a single mom who needed her best friend to be there for her. Not come up with some scheme that would enable him to act out his long-held fantasies of calling Bianca Velasquez his.

Even if it was only for two months, three tops.

Damn.

Just then, Derek noticed her walk into the room with a guy who was a couple of years older than they were. She was smiling politely but he knew her routine. She’d brought him to the club for dinner so that when it was over she could politely bid him adieu and then walk the few blocks back to her parents’ house in a nearby subdivision.

She was elegant. Graceful. The kind of woman whom dashing A-listers fell for. Not the kind of woman who’d agree to a fake engagement.

“Uh-oh,” Ethan said.

“What-o?” Hunter said.

“That has never been funny,” Derek said.

“It’s a little funny,” Ethan pointed out.

“Not tonight,” Derek said.

“I’m still not caught up. Where is Nate?” Hunter asked. Nate was their eldest brother and the last of three of them to arrive. He had recently married the mother of his three-year-old daughter, Penny. Derek liked seeing his eldest brother take on the role of husband and father.

“He’s running late. Something to do with taking Penny on a ride before he could drive into town,” Ethan said. “Being a daddy has changed him.”

“It settled him down,” Hunter said. “You two should try it.”

“I am, sort of,” Derek said. The idea of really settling down and getting married wasn’t appealing. He was married to his job. It took a lot of focus and concentration to be a top surgeon and most women—even Marnie—didn’t really get that. They wanted a man who paid at least as much attention to them as the job.

“What you’re doing doesn’t count,” Hunter said. “Bianca deserves better than a fake proposal.”

“It’s probably as close as I’m going to get,” Derek admitted. He knew that Ethan was hung up on a woman who was married to one of his friends. So that was probably not going to happen, either. “You know we’re the ones who aren’t letting the gossips of Cole’s Hill down. They like to think of us as the Wild Carutherses, which we can’t be if we are all married up.”

“I’ll drink to that,” Ethan said.

Derek toasted his brother and when Nate joined them a few minutes later the conversation thankfully changed from his fake engagement. Derek ate and drank with his brothers and kept one eye on the bar area where Bianca and her date were. He was ready to help her out. Like a friend would. That was all. Hunter had been right: there was no decent woman who wanted a fake fiancé.

* * *

Bianca Velasquez wasn’t having the best year. She’d rung in New Year’s by herself on the balcony of a royal mansion in Seville while Jose was en route to meet her. His plane had crashed and that had been...well, devastating. She’d never had the opportunity to finish her business with Jose. She’d been mad at him and had said to herself she’d hated him but the truth was he’d been her first love. They had a child together and no matter how many women he slept with while traveling the world on the F1 racing circuit, she...well, she hadn’t been ready for him to leave her so abruptly.

She rubbed the back of her neck as what’s-his-name droned on about a hobby he’d recently taken up. To be honest she had no idea what he was talking about. She’d zoned out a long time ago. And the thing was, he seemed like a nice man. The kind of man who deserved a woman who would engage in conversation with him instead of marking time and eating her dinner and dessert so quickly she gave herself indigestion. But Bianca couldn’t be that woman.

“And I’ve lost you,” he said.

She smiled over at him. He was good-looking and charming, everything she’d normally like in a man. “I’m sorry. This is a case of it really not being you, but me. I’m just...”

He shook his head. “I get it. Your mom mentioned this was a long shot but I couldn’t resist seeing if you were as beautiful in person as you were in your photographs.”

She blushed. She’d been a full-time model by the time she was eighteen and had gotten a contract that had taken her to Paris and launched her career as a supermodel. It had been in Paris where she’d met Jose and fallen for him. But she was older now and no longer felt like that carefree girl. “Those photos were a long time ago.”

“Which photos? I’m talking about the one on your mom’s desk,” he said.

“Oh. This is embarrassing. I am totally not myself tonight,” she said. “I’m sorry to have wasted your time.”

“It wasn’t a waste and if you ever feel like trying this again,” he said, “give me a call.”

He got up and left and she sat there at the table, staring out the windows that led to the golf course. The sun had long since set. She should head home but her son was already in bed and her mom would probably want to grill her about the date. And that wasn’t going to go well.

So instead she signaled her waiter to clear away the dessert dishes and ordered herself a French martini.

“Want some company?”

She glanced up to see Derek Caruthers standing next to her table. He wore his hair short in the back and longer on top; it fell smoothly and neatly over his forehead. When they’d been kids his brownish blond hair had been unruly and wild, much like Derek himself. These days he was a surgeon renowned for his skills in the operating theater.

“I have it on good authority that I am not that charming tonight.”

He pulled out the chair that her date had recently vacated and sat down. “Surely not.”

“It’s true. I was the most awful date. I felt like the worst sort of mean girl.”

He signaled the waiter for a drink, and a moment later he had a highball glass filled with scotch and she had her martini.

“To old friends,” he said.

“To old friends,” she returned the toast, tapping the rim of her glass against his.

“How’d the meeting go today?” she asked. She envied Derek. He had his life together. He knew what he wanted, he always got it and unlike her he seemed happy with his single life.

“Not as I’d planned,” he said.

She took a sip of her drink and then frowned over at him. “That’s not like you. What happened?”

“An old frenemy showed up, making problems as is her habit and I had to shut her down,” Derek said, downing his drink in one long swallow.

“How?” Bianca asked. “Tell me your troubles and I’ll help you solve them.”

It was nice to be discussing a problem with Derek. A problem that didn’t involve her. The thirty-something who’d moved back in with her parents. She knew the gossips in Cole’s Hill had a lot to say about that. From jet-setter to loser in a few short months. She pushed her martini aside realizing she was getting melancholy.

“Actually you can help me out,” Derek said, leaning forward and taking one of her hands in his.

“Name it. You’re one of my closest friends and you know I would do anything for you.”

“I was hoping you’d say that,” he said.

She smiled. Of course she’d help Derek out. He’d always been her stalwart friend. When she’d dreamed of leaving Texas and going to Paris to model, he’d listened to her dreams and helped her make a plan to achieve them. When she’d been lonely that first year, he’d emailed and texted with her every day.

“What do you need from me?”

“I need you to be my fiancée.”

Two

Fiancée.

Was he out of his mind?

She shook her head and started laughing. Once she started she couldn’t stop and she felt that tinge of panic rise up that she thought she’d been successfully shoving way deep down in her gut.

“Thanks, I needed that,” she said. “You have no idea what kind of week it’s been.”

Derek leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest, which drew the fabric of his dress shirt tight against his muscles. Distracted, she couldn’t help but notice the way his biceps bulged against the fabric. One thing that had been hard for her in the years of their friendship was to ignore how hot Derek was. He worked out. He had said one time that a surgeon had to be a precise machine. And that everything—every part of his body and mind—had to be in top shape.

“I’m not joking.”

“Uh, what?” she asked. She was tired. Life hadn’t worked out according to her plans and if she’d thought that once she reached this age she’d have everything all figured out, she was wrong. Really wrong.

She pushed her martini glass away, feeling a bit as if she’d followed Alice down the rabbit hole. But she knew she hadn’t.

“I need a fiancée,” Derek said. “The new board member who holds the fate of my career in my hands? It turns out she’s a borderline obsessive I dated a while ago. The only way to keep her off my back is to make sure she knows I’m off the market.”

“And how do I fit into this?”

Derek tipped his head to the side and studied her. “You could use a fake fiancé as well.”

She still wasn’t following. She was tired and her heart hurt a little bit if she were completely honest. Derek was one of her best friends and this sounded fishy to her.

“Why?”

“So your mom will quit setting you up on blind dates. You’re too kind to tell her you aren’t ready to date. If we are engaged then everyone will back off and leave us alone. I can focus on wowing everyone on the board at the hospital so that they have no choice but to name me chief. You can figure out what you want to do next without the pressure your parents are putting on you.”

She put her elbows on the table and leaned forward. When he put it like that she’d be a fool to refuse. “Are you sure about this?”

“I am,” he said.

When wasn’t Derek sure? She should have already known that would be his answer.

“If we’re engaged, why would we have kept it quiet?” she asked.

He leaned in closer to her. “To give Hunter and Nate time in the spotlight. Hunter’s wedding is really taking up everyone’s energy.”

“It is. And Kinley is busy planning it. She’s going to wonder why I never even mentioned we were dating.”

Bianca and Kinley were good friends. They both had been single mothers with toddlers the same age. Of course, Kinley wasn’t single anymore and had found happiness with Derek’s brother Nate.

Derek took her hand in his and a tingle went up her arm. “Tell her I asked you to keep it quiet.”

“Hmm...it might work. Could I have until the morning to think about it?” she asked.

He nodded.

She pulled her hand away and then sat back, linking her hands together in her lap. Her palm was still tingling. She knew that saying yes would be the easy choice. But what about her son? Benito wouldn’t understand that they were just pretending. Though given that he was only two years old he might not understand much of anything that was going on. He was good friends with Kinley’s daughter...so he had been asking about his papa lately. He really didn’t remember Jose at all.

“That sounds like it would be ideal but we live in the real world.”

“Really? I hadn’t realized that when I was operating on two different patients today,” Derek said.

She recognized the sarcasm as one of his defense mechanisms and she didn’t blame him. She was scared. The last time she trusted a man it had been Jose and his word hadn’t been worth much.

“I’m not bringing this up to be difficult. I have a son. He’s not going to understand why you are in our lives for a short time and then gone,” she said. “We aren’t twenty anymore, Derek, it’s not like when you came to Monaco and we were wild. I’m a mom. You’re in line to be chief of cardiology. We’re...we are adults.”

“Dammit. We can be adults and still be ourselves. You know me, Bi. You always have. I’m not going to disappear from your life when this is over. We’re still going to be friends and I’d never cut Benito out. He’s your son and just as important to me as you are.”

Derek stood up. “Come on. Let’s go for a walk where we can talk without worrying who might hear us.”

She looked around and noticed they were gathering attention. She should have realized it sooner. “What about the pool game?”

“The boys can make do without me,” Derek said. “This is more important.”

There was a sincerity in his eyes; she wanted to believe in him. Well, that stunk, she thought. She’d thought she’d somehow become immune to the charm of handsome men. Of course, this was Derek and not some playboy whose parents she didn’t know.

But still she’d like to think that her heart beat a little faster when he said she was important. She’d always liked Derek. He’d been one of her closest friends in middle school. He’d had the classic Caruthers good looks, but he’d been supersmart and once he’d graduated high school early and gone off to college and then medical school, they’d kept in touch first on AOL messenger, then on the different social media apps.

Years had passed before she’d seen him as an adult and she’d been blown away by how attractive her old friend had become. Of course, she had a different life by then, but there were times when it still surprised her. She never grew tired of the strong, hard line of jaw, his piercing eyes and the way his hair curled over this forehead. There was something about him that made her want to keep looking at him.

Dangerous.

As dangerous as listening to his idea for this fake engagement. Was there ever an idea that sounded dumber?

Maybe her mom setting her up with young men she knew in the South Texas area.

“What would this entail?” she asked.

* * *

Derek didn’t allow himself to relax. This was Bianca. Bianca Velasquez. She’d been the prettiest girl at the Five Families Middle School. Though he’d taken an accelerated course in Houston so he’d be able to leave Cole’s Hill and go to college early, they’d always kept in touch. At first he’d thought it was because of their families. Growing up there had been a lot of cotillion dances and Junior League events where their moms had thrown them together. But then as they’d both become adults, he’d thought the crush would fade.

It hadn’t.

He knew that she wasn’t the girl he’d dreamed about in middle school and high school anymore, but there was another part of him that wanted to claim her. That wanted to know that he had won over the prettiest girl from the Five Families neighborhood. That she was his.

Even just temporarily.

She was watching him cautiously. Almost as if she were afraid to trust him. That hurt.

More than it should have.

Granted, he was coming to her with a harebrained scheme, the kind that make his dad laugh his ass off at him. But she did need a break from the blind dates. And he did need a fiancée. He wasn’t about to get involved with Marnie again and she would be relentless if he didn’t provide a distraction.

“The hospital board has promised to make a decision in two months’ time. So I’d need you to be my fiancée for about three months just so that you can attend the gala after I’m announced chief and the wing is opened,” he said. Three months. That should be enough to convince him that any crush he’d had on her was well and truly dead. He could go back to being her friend and stop having hot dreams about her.

“Three months? Would we live together?” she asked. “I’ve been looking for a job and have some modeling gigs set up so I won’t be in town continuously during that time. Would that be a problem?”

Derek leaned back in his chair trying to stay cautiously optimistic, but it seemed to him that she was almost on board with the idea. “I don’t think so. In fact, I might be able to swing some time off and go with you. It would probably enhance the entire engagement story.”

“Fair enough. What about the bachelor auction? I see you’re already on the list. Would an engaged guy be on there?” she asked.

“Yes, because we were hiding our engagement. You can bid on me and win me now,” he said with a wink.

“If we’re engaged why do I have to bid on you?” she asked with a wink back. “My brother is already into me for a month of babysitting if I win him.”

Derek had to laugh. The bachelor auction might have been one of the Five Families Women’s League’s largest fund-raisers but the men were always trying to get out of it. He just didn’t like the idea of being at the mercy of someone who’d “won” him.

“I’m offering you three months of no blind dates,” he said.

“That’s something that Diego can’t match.”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure people would not believe you were dating your brother.”

“Thank God,” she said, laughing. This time there wasn’t the manic edge to her tone that had been there earlier when he’d first mentioned the whole engagement scheme.

“Yes. So what do you say? Are we going to do this?” he asked.

“Where would I live?” she asked.

“With me or not. Your choice,” he said. “What do you want to do?”

He hadn’t thought of anything beyond finding a woman who’d agree and then telling Marnie about her. But now that Bianca had mentioned living with him he knew he wanted her in his house.

Then he immediately had a vision of her in his bed. That thick ebony hair of hers spread out on his pillow, her chocolaty brown eyes looking up at him with sensual demand. Her limbs bare...

“Derek?”

“Huh?” His mind was fully engaged in the fantasy that had taken hold.

“I said, would you mind if I lived with you? I’ve been staying with my folks but we really need our own space.”

He nodded. Living with him worked. “That sounds perfect. What do I need to do to get the place ready for you? Are we doing this?”

She leaned forward and he saw that same concern and uncertainty in her eyes and he realized that fantasies aside, he never wanted to put Bianca in a position where she was anything but a friend to him. He wanted her to be able to count on him. Even if that meant ignoring his own need for her.

“I want to say yes. Can I have the evening to think it over?” she asked, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear. “I want to make sure I haven’t missed any details and I want to run it by Benito. Make sure he’s okay with another man in my life.”

“He’s two, right?”

“Yes, but he and I are very close and I just...after losing his father, I want to make sure he’s going to be okay,” Bianca said.

Derek nodded. He wasn’t going to force her. He was surprised she’d considered his offer and was willing to go along with it as far as she had this evening.

“That sounds fair,” he said, pulling his phone from his pocket and checking his calendar. “I don’t have any surgeries scheduled for tomorrow morning so I’m free. Would you and Benito like to come over to my place for breakfast? You can check it out and he can meet me.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

Too bad she didn’t seem so convinced of that. He wasn’t too sure how to convince her. This wasn’t like the operating room where he knew all the variables and could make sure nothing went wrong. This was life where he tended to make mistakes, and he really hoped this didn’t turn out to be a big one.

* * *

As she sat there with Derek, Bianca knew that one night wasn’t going to be enough time to ensure she made the right choice. But then a two-year-long engagement to Jose hadn’t really been beneficial in hindsight. This would work. She needed it to.

She had been struggling since she’d returned to Cole’s Hill. She’d stayed in Spain for nine months after Jose’s death and then just after Benito had turned twenty-two months old had decided to come back to Texas but she was no closer to figuring out what was next. She was the first to admit that her knee-jerk reaction of divorcing Jose when she’d found out about his mistress had been just her way of getting out of a bad marriage. She’d never thought beyond hurting him the way he’d hurt her. Now that he was dead, she’d hoped the anger would be gone, but she knew it was still there.

And not working, living with her parents where they had a cleaning staff and wanted to hire a nanny for her, just gave her too much time to think about—dwell on—the past. It was humiliating and not productive.

This idea of Derek’s was a little bit on the crazy side, she knew that, but there was a part of her that really liked it. From certain angles, she saw it as the solution to all of her problems. She wanted to be out of her parents’ house and out from under their overprotectiveness. She could research some career options besides modeling and give her a chance to be the kind of mom to Beni that she wanted to be.

“Yes. That sounds good to me,” Bianca repeated. She realized she might have been staring at Derek. As their eyes met something passed between them that never had before.

A zing.

An awareness.

Oh, no. Had he figured out that she’d been secretly crushing on him for the last few months? How embarrassing. She gave him her cotillion smile—the one she always used to put boys in their place back in the day—and then pushed her chair back. “I think I should be getting home.”

“I’ll walk you back,” he said. “Or we can steal one of the golf carts.”

She shook her head. “I thought we both agreed to never speak of golf carts.”

“No one will suspect a thing,” he said.

“That’s what you thought the last time. And I’m pretty sure that the groundskeeper knew it was us, even though he could never prove it.”

“I’m pretty sure you’re right. So, walking might be the safer option,” Derek said in that easy way of his.

She felt silly thinking that there might have been something between them. It was probably all on her side. It had been a very long time without sex—since before Beni was born—and she wasn’t dead. She had been hoping she’d at least feel okay hooking up with one of her mom’s blind dates. But so far it hadn’t worked out.

“You okay?” he asked, coming around to hold her chair while she stood.

“Yes. Sorry. Just tired. Being ‘on’ with a stranger is draining,” she said.

Derek put his hand on the small of her back and she felt that zing again. This time a shiver spread up her spine and she stepped aside, fumbling for her handbag.

He followed her out of the dining room. She had an account at the club like all of the families who were members, so they didn’t have to settle any bill.

“I need to let my brothers know I’m leaving,” Derek said.

She nodded, still more in her head thinking about what he’d asked of her. His family was large, like hers, and she understood the dynamics of having siblings around.

The evening was warm; the unseasonable heat of the day hadn’t dissipated yet. The parking lot was full of cars and though it was the middle of the week it felt like the weekend. The night was busy and full of life and she realized that was what she’d been missing.

She hadn’t felt busy in a long time. She wasn’t saying she had the whole mothering thing licked but she and Beni had fallen into a routine where she knew what to expect. And life had become routine instead of fun. She knew that was why she was thinking of taking Derek up on this idea. It was the first unexpected thing to happen to her since...well, for a really long time.

“I’m glad you’re back in Cole’s Hill,” he said.

“Me, too. Remember how badly we wanted to get out of here?” she asked. “I really thought modeling was going to be the life for me. I mean I figured I’d be like Kate Moss and spend the rest of my life living in the jet set...but now, I’m sort of glad that I’m right here.”

“Was Benito planned?” he asked.

“That’s kind of personal,” she said, but only because he’d stumbled onto an argument she and Jose had had many times.

“We’re going to be ‘engaged’ and we’re friends,” he said. “Just asking because your dream life didn’t sound like it included motherhood.”

“It didn’t. With all my brothers, I never thought about having a family of my own. I figured I’d be the cool auntie to my nieces and nephews,” she said.

“So what happened?” he asked.

“Well...” She paused as they turned off the sidewalk onto the path that led to the manmade lake adjacent to her parents’ house. She stopped on the bridge over the lake.

“Well?”

She put one hand on the railing and looked over at Derek. He was her good friend but there were so many things about her he didn’t know. The embarrassing stuff that she shared with no one. And this was something that she never needed to tell him. This bit of humiliation had died with Jose.

She looked into Derek’s eyes and started to tell him what she always did when she was asked about the baby. But in her heart, she remembered Jose saying that a baby and a family would stop him from looking outside of their marriage bed for company. That a family would ground him in a way nothing else could.

Three

Derek thought she’d have some sort of easy answer. Her modeling career hadn’t been conducive to children, but she came from a big family as he did. It might be a bit old-fashioned but he had assumed she would end up wanting kids after she married. But her hesitance told him there was something more to it. He’d struck a nerve that he hadn’t meant to and he should have just let it go.

But this was Bianca, and there was that look of sadness in her eyes that he didn’t glimpse very often. He put his hand on her shoulder, felt that spark of awareness and shoved it down. She needed a friend not a guy who was turned on by her. That damned perfume of hers wasn’t helping. It was subtle and floral and when the wind blew, he couldn’t help inhaling a little more deeply.

“Bia?” he asked. “It’s okay if you don’t want to answer me.”

She just glanced over at him with those big brown eyes of hers and he was lost. He realized this was exactly how he’d let himself get friend-zoned by her. She had very emotive eyes and he had always been suckered into wanting to comfort her, to be there for. To slay dragons for her. But Jose was dead so if he was the dragon there wasn’t anyone to slay.

Besides she’d had the fairy tale: first-love marriage with Jose. That wasn’t the problem.

“Hey, forget I asked. I was just making small talk,” Derek said even though that was the farthest thing from the truth.

He heard his old man’s voice in his head: start out as you mean to go on. Well, lying didn’t seem like a really good place to start. But he’d asked her to be his pretend fiancée, not his real one. So maybe that meant they both were entitled to their secrets.

“It’s okay. It’s just that once I got married my life changed... I mean my priorities changed and then I got pregnant and once I held Beni in my arms, everything just sort of...” She paused, glancing over at him and arching one eyebrow. “Don’t make fun of me.”

“Why would I?”

“Well, when I had my son it was like a veil was lifted from my life and I realized how shallow I had been. When I considered that little face I wanted to be more. To be better. To give him the world—not material things—but experiences. It changed me.”

He could see that. She pretty much glowed whenever she talked about her son. And Derek had seen her in town with the little boy and she seemed to be in her element when she was with him. He couldn’t reconcile it but she almost seemed prettier when she talked about her son.

He remembered something his brother Hunter had said once...that women in love were more beautiful. And he finally saw that. He saw it on Bianca’s face when she talked about her son. He had to be very sure that he was careful when she moved in with him. She might be his secret crush from adolescence but she was a woman now, a mother, and he couldn’t afford to explore a “crush” unless she was looking for the same thing.

He took a deep breath, put his hands on the wooden railing and looked out over the lake. He’d grown up on the Rockin’ C but he’d spent a lot of time with his dad on the golf course and hanging out at the club after school.

And as he looked at the moonlight reflecting on the water he thought about how much his town had changed. There was now a NASA training facility on the Bar T. Bianca was a famous supermodel, his brother a former NFL wide receiver. It was crazy.

“I don’t think anything has lifted a veil from my life,” Derek said out loud. He was still the same inside as he’d always been: determined to do whatever he had to in order to keep on track with his medical career. He’d left the ranch at fifteen and Cole’s Hill to go to college, finished undergrad in three years and then gone on to medical school. There had been no stopping him.

“Maybe that’s why this setback with being named cardiology chief has been such a shock. I just have always been focused on becoming a surgeon and then on making sure I was the best.”

“You are the best,” Bianca said. “You’re lucky, Derek. You’ve always known exactly what your purpose is. Some of us stumble around until we find it.”

“You? You never seemed to be stumbling.”

She threw her head back and laughed, and he listened to the sound of it, smiling. She had a great laugh.

“That’s just because I only let people see what I want them to.”

“Like the Wizard of Oz?” he asked. They’d both been in the play in middle school. He’d been the Tin Man and she’d been Dorothy.

“Just like that. ‘Pay no attention to the woman behind the curtain’ should be the motto for my life.”

“But not now, right? You have Beni,” Derek said.

She shrugged. “I’m still faking it sometimes. I mean, he has given me purpose, but being a mom is tough. Every day as I reflect on what has gone on, I wonder if I’ve screwed him up...that’s why I want to think this engagement over. I don’t want to say yes and then realize that this decision is the one that ruined him.”

Derek nodded. He was pretty confident in his personal life and in the operating theater but there were times when something went wrong and he had to keep going over the surgery to see what had happened. Had he missed something? Had the error been his? How could he keep it from happening again? He’d never thought that Bianca would be like that.

She seemed confident and able to conquer anything. Seeing that she wasn’t perfect made him want her even more. It made her real. Not the image of the girl he’d had a crush on, but the real woman.

* * *

This night had taken a turn and she wasn’t sure she was that upset by it. She had been saying that she wanted something different to happen. That she was tired of the Wednesday night blind dates set up by her mom that coincided with her dad taking Beni and her brothers out to dinner at the Western Two Step. Her father had missed out on bonding with Beni after his birth as they had been living in Spain. So her father was determined to make up for lost time. And the Wednesday nights with the boys were a long-established tradition in their family. It was a sports bar of sorts that had a huge gaming area in the back; they served what her father called “man food.” Pretty much just burgers, steaks and fried everything. It was a tradition in their family for as long as Bianca could remember.

When she’d been in her teens every Wednesday she and her mom would have a spa night and go and get pedicures and manicures or facials or massages. And have a “girl’s night out.” Somehow her mom’s desire to see her with a new man had taken over girl’s night. Bianca knew that saying she was engaged to Derek would probably make her mom happier than just about anything else right now. The top of her bucket list was seeing her daughter happy again.

She’d said that to her.

And now she was standing next to the lake with the cicadas singing their song in the background and Derek was watching her with that too intent look of his. It was something she associated mostly with him when he was in surgeon mode. But tonight, he was concentrating on her.

She knew how important being named chief of the cardiology department was to him. He’d laid out his life plans when they were fifteen; at the time, he’d been getting ready to leave for college and she’d just gotten her first modeling job in Paris. They had been sort of thrown together as the two outsiders. The two who were leaving. And here they were again.

There was a bubble of excitement in her stomach, something that she hadn’t felt since Beni had started walking and talking. She shook her head and cursed under her breath.

“What? Are you okay?” Derek asked.

She nodded wryly at him. “I just hate it when my mom is right. I mean, it would be nice if she started screwing up sometime. But every time I rail against her interfering in my life, something happens to show me she’s onto something again.”

“What are you talking about?” he asked.

She realized she couldn’t tell him how she felt. He wanted a friend. Not a woman who was feeling all tingly and very aware of the shape of his mouth. He had a great-looking mouth. Why was she noticing it now? And now that she’d noticed it why couldn’t she stop wondering how it would feel pressed against hers?

“Nothing... I think I can make it safely home from here if you want to get back to your brothers,” she said. The sooner she got away from the temptation that Derek offered the better she’d be. Maybe it was just her reaction to being with a guy who—what? The nice man her mom had set her up with had been good-looking, too. So why was she attracted to Derek and not to him?

And shouldn’t that be a mark in the con column for going through with the pretend engagement?

But she knew she wasn’t going to say no. Not now. Not since she’d noticed his mouth and couldn’t get out of her mind if he was a good kisser or not.

It was shallow, but for once the weight that had been on her since Jose’s death seemed to be long gone. She didn’t feel like the hot mess she’d been. She felt almost...well, almost like her old self and there was nothing that would make her walk away from this.

She’d forgotten how fun it was to not know what was coming next. How much she enjoyed the first flush of attraction. And this was safe. Right? Derek wanted a fake fiancée. She could do that. Be close to him, have her little infatuation but protect her heart. She wasn’t going to fall for Derek Caruthers. The man was married to his job.

Everyone knew that.

There was no sense in pretending that he’d ever be interested in any woman for longer than a few months. It was precisely why he’d suggested a temporary pretend engagement.

“You have the funniest look on your face,” he said. “I’m not going to abandon you before I see you home. My dad would whup me if word got back to him.”

She smiled because she knew he meant for her to. “You can see me to the sidewalk outside the house. If you come to the door my mom is going to grill us both and we haven’t made a decision yet. You promised me time to think.”

As if thinking was going to do her any good now that lust had entered the picture. She closed her eyes, desperately tried to remember what fifteen-year-old Derek had looked like. Tall, gangly, still wearing braces and with a little bit of acne, but it didn’t matter because as soon as she opened her eyes she found herself staring at his mouth.

Adult Derek’s mouth was lush; his lips just looked kissable. She’d kissed her fair share of men and some of the kisses had been disappointing but his mouth...he looked like he wouldn’t disappoint.

“Bianca, I’m trying not to notice but you are staring at my mouth,” he said.

“Mmm-hmm,” she said.

“It’s making me stare at your mouth and that is putting some decidedly different thoughts into my head.”

“Like what?” she asked, throwing caution to the winds. Maybe he’d suck at kissing and she’d be able to walk away from him.

Or maybe not.

* * *

Derek knew he was treading very close to the edge of someplace that there would be no turning back from. He might be able to make the whole platonic-friends-helping-each-other thing work if he was able to keep his mind off the curve of her hips and the way she nibbled her lower lip when she was mulling over something. But when she looked at his mouth, chewed her lower lip...it didn’t take a mind reader to figure out what she was contemplating.

And for the first time since his ill-fated affair with Marnie he was on the cusp of doing something that might derail his career goals. Because he was afraid one kiss wouldn’t be enough. He wasn’t ready to settle down until he’d been established as head of cardiology. He wanted to keep his focus on medicine. He needed someone like Bianca because she was respectable, well-liked and not the kind of woman Marnie would ever believe he’d coerced into being his fiancée. A smart man would remember that instead of reaching out and touching a strand of Bianca’s hair as it blew in the summer breeze—and possibly blow his chance of her going along with the fake engagement.

A smart man would be taking two steps away from her instead of one half step closer and letting his hand brush the side of her cheek. Her skin was soft, but really that wasn’t a surprise. She looked like she’d have prefect skin. The scent of her perfume once again drifted on the breeze and he couldn’t help himself when she tipped her head to the side and her eyes slowly drifted closed.

She wanted his kiss.

He wanted to kiss her.

He leaned in and felt the soft exhalation of her breath over his jaw just before he touched her lips with his. Just a quick brush. That was all he intended but her lips were soft and parted slightly under his and he found himself coming back and kissing her again. He angled his head slightly to the right and she shifted as well and the kiss deepened. His tongue slipped into her mouth. She tasted of Indian summer and promises.

He shifted his hand on her head, cupping the back of her neck as he took all that she offered in the kiss. She was like the sweetest addiction he’d ever encountered and he knew that walking away, just forgetting this, wasn’t going to happen. He wanted her.

He felt the stirring in his groin and his skin felt too tight for his body. He started to draw her closer to him but stopped. He didn’t want to rush any second of this. He wanted this embrace to last forever.

Because this was Bianca. The girl who’d always been too pretty, too smart and some would say too good for him. He didn’t want the kiss to end and her to come to her senses.

Maybe it was the moon or the night or the warm breeze making her forget that they were friends. That she’d friend-zoned him a long time ago but he knew he wasn’t going to want to let her go. Not tonight.

But he had to.

He pulled his head back, looking down at her. Her lips were parted, moist and slightly swollen from his kiss. Her eyes slowly blinked open.

“Derek...that was...”

He put his finger over her lips. He didn’t want to discuss it. “Just a kiss between friends. We’re doing each other a favor and tonight, seeing you here in the moonlight, I just couldn’t resist.”

She chewed her lower lip for a second and then nodded. “Do you think it was an aberration? That maybe it won’t happen again?”

Lying to himself was one thing, but lying to her was something else. “Honestly, I think we’d be kidding ourselves—or at least I’d be kidding myself—if I said I wasn’t going to be tempted to kiss you again.”

“Me, too,” she admitted. “I was sort of afraid that you didn’t feel the same.”

“That kiss was...”

“Magic,” she said. “Like you intimated earlier it was probably the pale moon and the balmy night that are making us a little crazy. We’re friends. We are doing each other a favor. Complicating things by kissing each other and thinking about each other in a non-friend way—”

“Non-friend way?” he interrupted. “I didn’t realize friends couldn’t kiss each other.”

“You know what I mean,” she said, crossing her arms under her breasts in a defensive pose.

“I do. But I wanted you to know that your friendship comes first. I have to admit I’ve thought about kissing you since you came home this summer. I hadn’t realized how much you’d changed. You’re prettier than I remembered, which is saying a lot, since you were so beautiful when we were teenagers.”

“Thank you. That is one of the sweetest things I’ve ever heard. I should be getting home,” she said.

He took her hand in his and led her up off the footbridge to the sidewalk in front of her house. She didn’t say anything else and neither did he. He felt like there had been too much between them for this one night. He needed her.

For his career.

And he wanted her.

For himself.

And never had he been so conflicted about what he wanted.

“I guess this is good-night.”

“Good night,” he said. “I’ll see you and Benito in the morning?”

“Yes. Probably around eight unless that’s too early.”

Normally eight on a day off would be too early but this was Bianca. And he had a feeling he was going to spend a restless night remembering that kiss. And trying to figure out how he was going to keep from repeating it once she moved in with him. Unless he could sleep with her and then let her walk away. But since he’d promised to stay friends with her and her son, Derek thought it would be wiser to try to keep them from becoming lovers.

And his gut seemed to say that her answer would be yes. That they were going to be living together.

He needed a plan to keep himself together when that happened.

“That’s perfect,” he said.

He stood there until she entered her house and then headed back to the club.

Four

Her mom was waiting for her in the formal living room when she walked in the door. Bianca took her shoes off and then walked into the room and sat down on the settee next to her mother.

“Another dud?” her mom asked.

“Sí,” Bianca answered her in Spanish. “But I did have something interesting happen.”

“Good. Tell me all about it,” she said.

“Not yet. Probably tomorrow. I’m tired and need to process it.”

Her mom reached over and pushed her hair back from her forehead. “Are you okay?”

She shrugged. She’d kept the gory details of Jose’s cheating from her parents but her mom had somehow figured it out. Somehow talking about it out loud had always made her feel like it would be more real. Bianca had almost been able to fool herself into believing that no one else knew if she kept it silent.

“I’m getting there,” she said. And she was. “I think you might be right that dating is a good idea.”

“Of course I’m right,” her mother said with a smile. “Want something to drink?”

“Not tea. Maybe sparkling water with lime.”

“I have to work early tomorrow,” her mom said as they approached the kitchen. Their housekeeper always kept the bar cart stocked with sliced citrus, maraschino cherries and olives.

Her mom drove to Houston very early in the morning for work at the TV station. She could have requested that the family move to Houston to make her commute easier but she never had. The Velasquez family was rooted in Cole’s Hill. Bianca’s father’s family had settled here with a land grant from the Spanish king generations ago. The fact that they now made their money from a world-class breeding and insemination program for thoroughbred horses instead of from actual ranching didn’t make a difference.

“Beni will have me up very early, too. And I have an appointment in the morning.”

“That little scamp does like sunrise,” her mom said. “Sit down. I’ll get our drinks. I gave Caz the night off. No sense having her in the house with just me.”

“Makes sense. Do you and Dad think you’ll downsize any time soon?” Bianca asked. She wondered how long her parents would keep the big house now that it was just the two of them. Having her and Beni here really hadn’t made a difference in the huge house. Growing up with four brothers she’d never felt crowded.

“I don’t know. Your poppa doesn’t want to consider moving. Instead he wants to be here for our grandkids. Are you thinking of moving somewhere else?” her mom asked.

“I don’t know. I am really happy being back here and am trying to find something I can do so that Beni can grow up here, too,” she said.

Her mind drifted to Derek. His idea was a sort of solution. This was what she needed to mull over. Was the risk of the attraction she felt for him worth the chance she’d have to really figure out what she wanted? The fake engagement would give her space to think. She was afraid if she kept living with her parents she’d start to want what they wanted for her and Beni. Not what she wanted for herself.

Her mom talked about the housekeeper and her father’s new idea to trade his pickup in for a Harley and Bianca listened with half an ear. She missed her son. It was only a little after eight o’clock but he had a late nap on Wednesdays so he could stay out until nine with his uncles and his grandfather. She wished he were home so she could stare into his little face and try to decide if going along with Derek’s idea was the right thing or not.

It was hard to believe that she was considering it. Why wouldn’t she agree to it?

After that kiss she had another reason to think twice about his proposition. This wasn’t as straightforward as it had been when Derek had first sat down at her table in the club and made his offer.

But she didn’t regret the kiss.

How could she?

“Don’t you think?” her mom asked.

“What?”

“You aren’t listening to a thing I’ve said. Are you okay, sweetie?”

She shrugged. “Yes. But I have a decision to make and I’m not sure what to do.”

“Can I help?”

“No!”

“Well, I was just offering.”

“Sorry, Mom, I didn’t mean it like that. This is just something I need to decide for myself. And it’s weighing on my mind. I didn’t mean to ignore you. What were you saying? Something about Dad and a motorcycle?”

Her mom took a sip of her sparkling water and then reached across the table, putting her hand on Bianca’s and squeezing it. “When I was trying to figure out if I should give up my job and be a stay-at-home mom like everyone expected me to, I spent a lot of time mulling things over. And in the end, well, you know I chose the morning news job.”

“I know. That must have been hard, Mom,” Bianca said.

“It wasn’t as hard as living with the decisions afterward. The first three or four months I second-guessed everything. Should I have been home when Diego fell off his skateboard and broke his arm? Was my job the reason it happened? All of these were making me crazy and I was very unhappy. But your poppa pulled me aside one night and sat me down and said no matter what decision I had made, not picking the other choice was going to haunt me. He told me to commit to the decision I had made. And enjoy my life.”

Bianca hadn’t thought she needed to hear anything from her mom tonight but as always, her mom had found the exact right thing to say.

“Thanks, Mom. Every time I think I’m all grown up and know what you are going to say you surprise me.”

“Good. Keeps you on your toes,” she said with a wink. “Want to talk or watch a reality show?”

“Reality TV, please. I need some fake drama in my life,” Bianca said.

They spent the rest of the evening watching TV until her dad and Beni got back home. Beni was dozing in her dad’s arms and her father carried the little boy up to his bedroom. After her parents left, Bianca changed him into his pj’s and then lay down on the bed next to her son, watching him sleep.

She wanted to say yes to Derek’s proposition. And if she was very careful maybe he could be the transition between this and the next phase of her life. He wanted temporary and she had the feeling temporary was all she could really handle right now.

Plus, it was Derek. He was one of the few men she could count on always having her back and usually not expecting anything in return. And he had never asked her for anything before. She was intrigued and knew that she wanted to do it.

Why was she hesitating?

The last time she’d followed her gut, it hadn’t worked out so well, she admitted.

* * *

Derek had taken the long way back to the clubhouse and now was headed to the billiards room—which was just what the club called one of the fancy private rooms that had a pool table.

“What’d she say?” Nate asked as Derek walked into the room.

What had she said? He hadn’t thought of anything but that kiss and how complicated she really was. So much more than he’d anticipated when he’d first thought of asking her to help him out. But he realized now that even though they were friends there was a lot about Bianca he didn’t know. He was intrigued—he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t. And a part of him was worried that if she said yes she’d be a constant distraction. The other part of him was concerned if she said no that he wouldn’t be able to stop thinking about the kiss and he’d go after her.

And his track record with long-term wasn’t the best. So that would mean losing her completely from his life when they were done with their arrangement. He wasn’t sure exactly what it was he did wrong with women but generally speaking he wasn’t friends with any of the women he’d slept with.

“D? Something wrong with your hearing?” Hunter asked.

Derek gave him the finger while he opened a bottle of Lone Star beer and took a deep swallow.

“She’s thinking it over,” Derek said, turning to face the room and his brothers. Ethan and Nate stood near the table, while Hunter was racking the balls.

“That’s not really much better than a flat-out no. Are you sure about this?” Hunter asked.

Hell, yes. If he’d had any doubts they had been amplified the minute her lips had melted under his. He rubbed the back of his neck, glanced at his watch and realized only forty-five minutes had passed since he’d left her. How was he going to make it until eight the next morning when time seemed to be moving so incredibly slowly?

But telling his brother that wasn’t something Derek wanted to do.

“Yes. I’ve never been as sure of anything other than that I am the best surgeon in the world.”

Hunter clapped him on the back. “Okay. But you know we are going to tease the hell out of you about this.”

“How would that be any different than what you always do?” Derek asked. “You’re forgetting that you have a honeymoon and a wedding night coming up. I think you’re in for your share of teasing.”

“But you also have the bachelor auction,” Hunter added. “You and Ethan are going to be representing the Carutherses. Don’t let us down. Or are you going to use your engagement to get out of it? I wouldn’t blame you one bit.”

“That’s a good idea. I should line someone up. We need to bring in the big bucks like we always do,” Ethan said. The auction raised money for the women and children’s shelter.

“We don’t always beat everyone else. The Velasquez boys beat us last year. And the Callahans think they are going to have a better shot this year because of Nate and Hunter being taken,” Ethan said. “Liam was bragging about it over at the Bull Pit last night.”

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