Could her temporary fiancé...

...become her husband for life?

To secure the job of her dreams, midwife Carmen Sanchez needs a fiancé, and fast! Paramedic Zac Taylor should be the last man she asks—there’s nothing fake about the attraction between them! Yet while lone wolf Zac might not be interested in forever, he pulls out all the stops to play fiancé of the year—and their make-believe engagement starts to feel all too real...

TRACI DOUGLASS is a USA TODAY bestselling author of contemporary and paranormal romance. Her stories feature sizzling heroes full of dark humour, quick wit and major attitude, and heroines who are smart, tenacious and always give as good as they get. She holds an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University, and she loves animals, chocolate, coffee, hot British actors and sarcasm—not necessarily in that order.

Also by Traci Douglass

One Night with the Army Doc

Finding Her Forever Family

A Mistletoe Kiss for the Single Dad

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk.

A Weekend with Her Fake Fiancé

Traci Douglass

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-0-008-90208-7

A WEEKEND WITH HER FAKE FIANCÉ

© 2019 Traci Douglass

Published in Great Britain 2019

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

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Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Note to Readers

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Extract

About the Publisher

CHAPTER ONE

CERTIFIED NURSE-MIDWIFE Carmen Sanchez swiped the back of her wrist across her forehead, careful to avoid the blood staining her glove. “One more strong push and the baby will be out.” She gave Teena, her twenty-eight-year-old patient, an encouraging smile. “You can do it.”

“I can’t!” Teena panted, her head lolling to one side on the pillows. “I’m too tired.”

Fifteen hours of labor would do that to a person, but there was only one way out of this and it was through. Having Teena’s husband there for moral support would have been ideal, but the poor man was working on a fishing boat somewhere in the Bering Sea right now and couldn’t be reached.

“I know you’re exhausted, Teena,” she said, her Caribbean accent drawing out the name. “But you’ve done such a wonderful job so far. All you need is the strength to push one more time on your next contraction and you’ll have your son in your arms. Don’t you finally want to hold him? After all these long months? Think of your husband’s face when he sees his son.”

Teena bit back a sob and nodded.

“Right.” Carmen used her most authoritative voice. “Then push as hard as you can when I tell you, okay?”

The patient nodded and took a deep breath.

It was Teena’s first pregnancy, and she’d been a difficult case from the outset, with sickle cell anemia complicating matters. Carmen had worked in conjunction with an obstetrician and a hematologist to monitor the patient and provide a safe delivery.

Another contraction hit and time seemed to slow as Teena groaned.

“Go!” Carmen got into position. “That’s it. Good. Good. Push!”

Teena leaned up on her elbows and bore down hard, toes curled and muscles straining. Finally the baby’s head crowned, followed in short order by one shoulder, then two. At last the tiny infant slipped into Carmen’s waiting hands and her patient flopped back onto the bed, exhausted.

Carmen cut the umbilical cord, then handed the baby to a waiting nurse, who wrapped the new arrival in a blanket and suctioned its tiny mouth and nose. Soon the boy’s wailing filled the room and Teena cried again, this time with relief and joy.

Once the afterbirth was dealt with, Carmen took a moment to enjoy the wonder. Even after years in practice the addition of a new life into the world still amazed her.

She slipped out into the hall, walking over to the desk at the nurses’ station so she could decompress and document the backlog of charts awaiting her.

Before she’d finished with the first one, she was interrupted.

“Just the woman I was looking for.”

Carmen’s heart tripped at the deep male voice, and she glanced up to see Zac Taylor. The zing of attraction she felt was decidedly inconvenient, given he was a paramedic and they saw each other a lot, both in the course of their work and hanging out with mutual friends. Also, they’d spent a steamy night together a few months back, after copious amounts of alcohol at the Anchorage Mercy Hospital holiday staff party, and since then things had been a bit awkward.

Flings weren’t her usual MO. Actually, love—the romantic kind—wasn’t even on her itinerary, so the way her heart continued to flutter whenever he was around, despite her wishes, was beyond annoying.

It wasn’t that she was against hearts and fluff. It was just that she didn’t have time for such nonsense. Not with her mother to care for, in the early stages of dementia. Some days her mother was fine, other days she didn’t recognize her own family. It was heartbreaking, the slow loss of the person who’d been the one constant in her life. Plus, Carmen was saving to put her younger sister through nursing school at the University of Alaska this fall, after she graduated high school. Between her own busy work schedule and her responsibilities at home Carmen was lucky to have time enough to eat and sleep, let alone date.

In fact, given her past, it was probably better for her to stay alone anyway. Growing up with virtually nothing in the poorest part of Port of Spain, Trinidad, had taught her self-reliance and self-sacrifice. There had only been so much to go around, and you’d had to look after what you got.

Carmen considered herself a tough, responsible, independent woman. Prudent. She didn’t need a man to make her life happy. And if she was lonely sometimes—well, that was the price she paid for safety and security. Lord knew she couldn’t rely on anyone else to give her anything.

Only problem was, she needed a favor. From Zac.

She bit her lip and watched him through her lashes as she finished her documentation.

The guy was temptation on legs. Gorgeous and charming. And the very things that drove her nuts about him were the very reasons he was the perfect choice for her needs. He had a reputation as a player. Which meant he was not a man for long-term, serious relationships. But he sure fit the bill for Mr. Fix-It-Right-Now.

“Hey, Zac,” said Priya Shaw, coming out of another delivery room down the hall, and Carmen tensed.

Priya was a fellow midwife and friend. She also happened to be Carmen’s biggest rival for the supervisor position at a new state-of-the-art birthing clinic in California. The job paid twice what her current salary was here at Anchorage Mercy, and the extra funds would go a long way toward getting her ailing mother into an assisted-care facility for dementia patients and also help offset the tuition fees for her sister’s university education.

“Hey, P,” said Zac, but his focus remained on Carmen.

He leaned an elbow on the counter beside her and his scent—soap and fabric softener mixed with warm, clean male—wrapped around her, teasing her senses and making her far more aware of the man than she liked.

“Tell Lance I’ll call him later about this weekend,” Zac said to Priya.

“Will do,” she called back, tucking her long dark hair behind her ear as she picked up a chart and headed into a delivery room.

Priya was engaged to Zac’s best friend, local firefighter Lance Marranto—a fact that only made the favor Carmen needed more complicated. But she’d find a way to deal with it because she was a survivor.

First, though, she needed to finish this chart.

Carmen sighed and blinked down at her writing. Her normally crisp cursive was going a bit wonky from fatigue. Teena’s long delivery had burned through what little energy she’d had left, considering she’d already been up late with her mother before coming in for the delivery.

Mama’s memory had begun deteriorating faster recently, and the poor thing had a hard time remembering she was in Alaska now, and not back home on her warm tropical island. The night before last she’d wanted to go outside in her nightgown and walk along the beach, meaning Carmen had been up constantly to stop her. It was only early spring, and the wilds on the outskirts of Anchorage were hardly a place for a sixty-five-year-old woman to traipse around in the middle of the night.

Thankfully, Carmen’s shift was almost done now. All she wanted to do was hand over Teena’s care to the nurses on duty and go home for a shower and a long nap. Clara was on Mama-watch duty until tomorrow.

She yawned before she could stop herself.

“Long day?” Zac asked.

His stupid dimples were making him look far too adorable. Not that she noticed. Nope. Not at all.

“Long night too. Fifteen-hour labor.” Carmen stretched her arms above her head. “Patient finally delivered this morning.” She shuffled her sore feet, then closed the chart she’d completed and shoved it aside. “Why?”

“We just brought a patient into the ER and I’ve got a few minutes to kill. Thought maybe you’d like to grab a coffee. Looks like you need one. If you drive home now, you’ll fall asleep at the wheel.”

He smiled the sexy smile that always got her right in the feels. No man should be allowed to be that handsome. Seriously. The navy blue fabric of his paramedic uniform only made his dark skin glow more warmly beneath the overhead lights, and the material seemed to cling to all his rippling muscle and highlight his pure masculine grace.

“Does that kind of pick-up line work well for you?” Carmen frowned, reminding herself that Zac was off-limits, firmly in the friend zone. And that was where he needed to stay if her plan was going to work. “Telling women how awful they look?”

“C’mon,” he teased. “You know you want some caffeine.”

She wanted to refuse, but he was right, darn it. Plus, she needed to ask him her favor, and now seemed as good a time as any.

“Fine. One coffee. Let’s go.”

He chuckled. “You’re cute when you’re cranky.”

She nudged him toward the elevator, their shoes squeaking on the shiny linoleum floor. While they waited her pulse kicked up a notch. Not because of his hotness—not entirely, anyway. No, it was nerves. She hated asking people for help. Especially when it was for a problem she’d brought upon herself.

If only she’d kept her mouth shut when the head of that clinic in California had mentioned Priya and Lance’s engagement. If only she’d stopped herself from letting the easy lie roll off her tongue, sweet and potent, like the rum she’d used to serve to tourists when she’d bartended at that all-inclusive resort in Trinidad to make ends meet while paying her way through school.

Yes, I’m getting married too!

Ugh. The memory of her statement made during the interview still made her cringe.

Because she wasn’t getting hitched. Hell, she hadn’t even dated a man in months.

To her horror, the clinic owner had seized on that information and invited her and her nonexistent fiancé to attend the upcoming national midwifery conference, where they’d announce their choice of candidate for the new job.

So here Carmen was, needing a fake fiancé for the weekend.

Unfortunately, time was running out and Carmen had only been able to come to one conclusion: Zac Taylor was the best man for the job. He was smart, funny, and not interested in forever.

Exactly what Carmen needed.

The elevator dinged and they stepped on board, the doors closing before anyone else joined them. She felt Zac’s gaze on her and resisted the urge to fidget. She probably looked a mess after working all night, but it wasn’t like she was trying to impress anyone—least of all him.

It wasn’t as if he hadn’t seen her at the end of a long shift before. They hung out together as part of a larger group of colleagues at the hospital, including doctors Jake Ryder and Molly Flynn, trauma nurse Wendy Smith and her OB doc husband Tom, plus Susan—Zac’s EMT partner—and Lance and Priya, and some of the other local firefighters and their significant others. It was a large group and easygoing. Uncomplicated. The last thing she wanted to do was mess up that vibe by allowing her attraction to Zac to get any farther along than fantasy territory.

So, yeah. Zac was a friend. A friend from whom she needed a favor.

They got their drinks, then found a quiet table in the sunny atrium of the cafeteria, away from the other patrons. Sade’s “Smooth Operator” was playing on the sound system overhead and Carmen couldn’t contain her ironic snort. If there was a better theme song for Zac’s serial dating, she didn’t know it.

“What?” Zac leaned back in his chair, stretching out his long legs. He was a good foot taller than her petite five-foot-four-inch frame. “What’s so funny?”

“Nothing. Just tired, I guess,” she said, trying to pass off her inappropriate giggles as fatigue. “Are you off work soon too?”

“Nah. I wish... Pulling a double shift.”

He sipped his iced chai tea. Zac worked almost as hard as she did, always picking up extra runs when he could. Work hard, play hard, apparently.

The favor nagged in the back of Carmen’s mind, making her jittery. “Do you have plans next weekend?”

“Not sure.” Zac frowned at her over the straw in his drink. “Why?”

Her cheeks flamed hotter. To distract herself, she toyed with a copper-colored curl that had escaped the ponytail at the nape of her neck. Her hair never obeyed, no matter how hard she tried to tame it into submission. She blamed her mother’s Ghanaian ancestry as much as the ever-changing Alaskan weather.

“I have a thing.”

“A thing?” Zac raised a brow at her.

“A national conference. Next weekend. I was hoping maybe you could come with me, if you’re not busy.”

She clutched her cup so hard the stiff cardboard threatened to collapse. She was so not good at this sort of thing.

Calm down. There’s no reason to be nervous. This isn’t a real date.

As far as their one-night stand went—well, she had no idea. But, given the fact he’d never brought it up with her, she doubted he even remembered their fling. They’d both had far too much to drink. It was water under the bridge. No reason for her pulse to race or her breath to catch. She was just another notch in his already well-scored bedpost.

An odd pain pinched her chest. Which was ridiculous. And stupid. She didn’t want a relationship with Zac any more than he wanted one with her.

So why was all this causing her more stress than delivering triplets?

“Wait a minute.” Zac sat forward, his dark gaze narrowed. “You’re inviting me to go away with you for the weekend?”

He looked about as shocked as she felt at the proposition. Her throat tightened and she swallowed hard against the lump of unaccountable anxiety lodged there. “Yes. No. Well, not exactly.” Nerves made her fumble her words. “I mean, yes. I’m inviting you to come with me for the weekend. To pretend to be my fiancé.”

There. She’d done it. Asked for the favor. Now all she needed was for him to say yes.

Minutes ticked by like hours as Zac blinked at her in silence.

“Fiancé?” he said finally, his tone incredulous. “Uh... I’m going to need a few more details.”

“Like what?” She frowned.

“Like why?”

She gave a heavy sigh and closed her eyes. “Because there’s a new clinic opening in Big Sur, California, and I’m being considered for a supervisory midwife position there. If I get it, it would be a huge bump in salary. But Priya’s up for the job too, and the company was really excited about her and Lance getting married. Not that being married is a requirement or anything, but I got caught up in the moment, and I didn’t want to be outdone, so I told them I was getting married too.”

She sighed and opened her eyes, forcing herself to keep going even as she avoided Zac’s gaze.

“I realize how stupid it sounds, but the words just came out. And once I’d said them I couldn’t take them back without making a fool of myself or risking being thrown out of contention for lying. So, yes. They’re announcing the candidate they’ve chosen at the national midwifery conference and they asked me to bring along my fiancé to help me celebrate if I get the job.”

She exhaled slowly and hazarded a look at Zac. He was still watching her with an unreadable expression. Her heart beat harder against her ribs as her embarrassment rose.

“If it helps, the conference is being held at a fancy resort in the Yukon called The Arctic Star. All expenses paid—even transportation. All you’d have to do is request the time off work—unless you’re already scheduled to have the days free? The conference runs Thursday night through Sunday.”

Zac’s posture had stiffened now, she noticed, and his handsome face had gone a bit ashen. She wasn’t sure if his distress had been caused by her avalanche of babbling or the fact that she’d lied to a potential employer. Both were pretty awful.

When she couldn’t take the awkward silence anymore, she said, “Say something.”

He shook his head and frowned. “Like what? You want me to lie for you? Pretend I’m something I’m not?”

She winced slightly at the edge in his voice. “I know this is not what you expected from me. Honestly, it’s not what I expected from myself either. But now I’m stuck. Please? I never ask for favors, but I could really use your help, Zac.” Feeling desperate, she added, “It’s a five-star resort. They have room service, massage, a spa—the works. So you should have plenty to keep you busy while I’m in my seminars and interviews. And we’d only have to pretend to be a couple when other people are around. It’s all harmless, I swear.”

“Harmless? Lies are never harmless.”

Zac exhaled slowly, a muscle ticking near his tense jaw. His voice was quiet, as if he was speaking more to himself than her. She’d never seen him as anything other than a smiling charmer before, and she found the change both disconcerting and far too intriguing. She wanted to ask him why the idea bothered him so much when he was used to being with a different woman every week, but now wasn’t the time.

He took a deep breath and rolled his shoulders, seeming to come to terms with something inside himself. When he met her gaze again the flash of hurt and anger she’d seen there before had been replaced by a flat guardedness.

“You’re inviting me to a midwifery conference for three days at The Arctic Star Resort as your fake fiancé?”

Yep. That about summed it up.

He sat there for a moment, fiddling with his coffee cup, then finally looked up at her. “I’m not sure this is a good idea.”

Crap. This wasn’t going well at all. Maybe she should’ve waited until later, when she’d had some sleep and some time to freshen up.

Carmen did her best to keep it light, regardless of the growing heaviness in her heart. “Seriously, Zac. I know this is coming out of left field, but I wouldn’t ask if I wasn’t in a bind. I really need your help. It’s a free weekend of luxury for you. And if you’re worried I’ll lose my head and seduce you, don’t be. You’re not my type.”

“I was once.”

So he did remember.

She opened her mouth to answer, then closed it, doing her best to hide her shock over that revelation and failing miserably. Heat prickled her cheeks and she stared at the tabletop, squeezing her cardboard coffee cup tighter than necessary.

“That night was a mistake. We were both drunk and—well, things happened. But we’ve moved on, right? We’re friends. That’s all.”

He shifted and his leg brushed hers under the table. Her heart rate kicked up another notch.

“Please. It’s just for three days. No commitments, no strings attached.”

“Right. You keep saying that.” He tapped one long, tapered finger against the side of his plastic glass. Sudden images of those fingers on her body, the way he’d touched her, stroked her, made her beg for more, flashed through her mind, unbidden.

No. No, no, no.

“Isn’t there someone else you can ask? What about that guy in Radiology you were dating? Jim or John or whatever his name was?”

“Jeff.” Carmen cleared her throat. “No. I can’t ask him. We didn’t part well. I found out he was cheating on me with his department’s receptionist.”

“Right.” He scowled down into his tea, then sighed. “Look, it’s not you. It’s... Don’t you have men lined up around the block wanting to go out with you?”

Flattering as his compliment was, Carmen just felt more exhausted now than she had before the coffee.

“No. There’s not. Trust me. I’m not exactly a party girl around here. I work too hard. Besides, I asked you because I feel comfortable with you. We know where we stand. I won’t beg, though. I’m too proud and too tired. If you say no, then I’ll contact one of those online escort services to help me.”

Zac gave her a look. “Arranging to spend the weekend with a guy you’ve never met and found on the internet? Yeah, great. Cause that’s not dangerous or anything.” He scrunched his nose, squinting at her. “Dammit. You really know how to put a guy on the spot, don’t you? Fine. I’ll go.”

“Good.” The relief was sudden, short-lived, as one more complication came to mind. “There is one more tiny hitch. Lance and Priya will be there too. In fact, they’re flying up to the conference with us on the same private jet chartered by the Californian clinic. So we need to get our story straight ahead of time.”

“Hold on. Are you nuts?” He leaned forward slightly, his voice angry. “It’s bad enough we’re fooling the people who might be your new bosses. Now you want me to lie to my best friend too? Because as far as Lance knows I’m not even dating anyone. I mean, we don’t share all the intimate details, but he’d sure as hell have noticed if I had a fiancée sitting around somewhere.”

“Are you dating anyone?”

“No.”

“That’s good, then. One less thing to worry about.”

He arched a brow at her and her cheeks flushed anew.

“Darling, you’ve got yourself so turned around here you don’t even see what you’re doing.”

The fact that he was probably right only served to annoy her more. “You’re overthinking it. We get our stories straight, learn the basic details about each other, and keep our cool. It will be fine.”

She picked at the edge of the table and kept her gaze downcast, because if she looked at him right now he’d be able to see exactly how uncomfortable she was with this, and she needed to fool him into thinking she was completely okay with it all.

She was completely okay with it all.

Or she would be once things got underway, because she had no choice.

“Okay. Say we do make it through this weekend. What happens if you get the job, Carmen?” Zac asked. “You get the job and you show up for work and suddenly there’s no fiancé. How do you explain to the new bosses that I’ve disappeared from your life?”

“I’ll deal with that if and when it happens.”

Honestly, she didn’t have the brainpower to devote to it right now. Her focus was solely on getting the job. She’d worry about the details afterward.

“We need to think of a way to get Lance and Priya to believe this has been going on for months, in secret. Maybe we could tell them we had instant chemistry and couldn’t forget each other after the holiday party. That we’ve been seeing each other since.”

Never mind that for her, at least, it was partially true. She’d never really forgotten about Zac and the way he’d made her feel that night—sexy, desired, beautiful, precious—even if it had been fueled by too much rum-spiked eggnog and fuzzy thinking.

“We need to convince them that things got serious fast and now we’re ready for the next step.”

Zac sat back and shook his head. “It’s not going to be as easy as you think.”

Carmen hid her wince—barely. “Because you’re an expert in deception?”

“I’ve had some past experience with it, yes.”

She didn’t miss the flash of hurt in his dark eyes before he dropped his gaze to the floor.

“I mean, yeah, maybe your story could work. Lance has been bugging me about being off my game lately.”

Her curiosity was piqued again before she could tamp it down. It was silly to think their night together had anything to do with it, but a little flare of hope still fizzed inside her anyway.

“Off your game? Since when?”

“I don’t know. A couple months. I’ve been busy, okay? That’s all.” He sat forward and rubbed the spot between his brows with his fingers. “Listen, if we do this, what about all the little things couples know about each other? Birthdays, favorite colors, favorite foods, pets, personal peeves? Trust me, Lance will see right through the whole thing in two seconds flat if you don’t know all that stuff about me. Hell, he knows all that stuff about me.”

The tension inside her ratcheted higher. She’d already gotten herself neck-deep in this situation and the tide was threatening to pull her under. All she could do now was keep her head above water and roll with it.

“We’ll each write it down. Create a dossier of our lives then give them to one another to memorize.”

“A dossier?” Zac snorted. “What are we? Super-spies?”

“I’m serious. It’s only three days. We don’t need to know every detail—just the big stuff, like you said.” She sighed and gave him an exasperated look. “How much of that will come up anyway? We’ll be sure to avoid Lance and Priya as much as possible at the conference, just to be on the safe side. Shouldn’t be hard with such a busy schedule. Okay?”

“I still think this is a mistake.” After an aggrieved sigh and a flat stare, Zac said, “Okay.”

Her posture sagged with relief. He wasn’t making it easy, but she was glad to have it out of the way. Carmen checked her watch, then pushed to her feet and tossed her empty cup in the trash.

“Thank you. I’ll text you with the flight details. And maybe you’ll fill me in later about why you’re so reluctant to go with me.”

“Don’t count on it,” he said as she walked away.

Carmen glanced at him over her shoulder as she exited the cafeteria. “I never do.”

Maybe you’ll fill me in later about why you’re so reluctant to go with me...

After Carmen had left, Zac sat alone in the cafeteria to finish his break, knowing he could never tell her the truth. His past was a secret he didn’t share with anyone. For good reason.

God, he was such an idiot. He never should’ve accepted her offer, no matter how much he wanted to revisit the chemistry between them. There were things about him that made a return to The Arctic Star Resort reckless or insane.

Neither option made him feel better.

Never mind the fact he’d spent the last twelve years putting as much distance as possible between himself and that place. Now he was going to blow it all to smithereens in one fell swoop. All because of the chance to reconnect with the one woman he couldn’t seem to forget.

Damn. The Arctic Star Resort. The conference just had to be there, in the one place he’d vowed never to set foot in again, owned by the one man he never wanted to lay eyes on again.

His father.

The man who’d cheated on his mother and betrayed his family’s trust.

The man Zac would refuse to forgive for as long as he lived.

It was because of his father that Zac trusted no one—because of his father that he kept everyone at a distance, never letting anyone too close, never trusting anyone enough to get hurt.

It was because of him that Zac feared he was cut from the same lying, cheating cloth.

And maybe he was, considering the state of his personal life. He was a serial dater—a player, according to the local gossip mill—and he’d cultivated that reputation carefully, never letting anyone close enough to see what he feared most—that perhaps beneath the charade it was entirely too true. That perhaps he was just like his father.

He rubbed his eyes, sighing at fate, or luck, or whatever the hell had brought this mess into his life. He’d thought he’d left it all behind him for good. Started fresh, created a new future of his own making. Yet, here it was, right back on his doorstep again, and he had no one to blame but himself.

It wasn’t like he could say no to Carmen. She was his friend. Never mind that he’d been secretly crushing on her since their incredible night together after that holiday party, or that what his best friend—Lance—teased him about was true. He was off his game. Because of her.

It didn’t matter. Nothing could ever come of it.

He didn’t do relationships and she was way too good for him. Had been back then—still was today.

Knowing that didn’t make him want her any less, though.

Lost in thought, he didn’t notice Lance walk up to his table with a half-eaten sub sandwich in one hand and a water bottle in the other until it was too late.

“Dude, shouldn’t you be out cruising for trouble? You’re on call today, right?”

The well-muscled firefighter plopped down uninvited in the seat across from Zac, his white T-shirt with the Anchorage Fire Department insignia embroidered on the chest pocket stretching tight over his chest, dark circles shadowing his blue eyes. All the Anchorage first responders had been pulling extra shifts lately, gearing up for tourist season in the spring.

“Your rig’s still parked out in the ambulance bay.”

“Susan’s manning the radio. She’ll text me when she needs me.”

Zac stared out the window beside him, as much to get his head together as to avoid looking at his best friend, who would too easily read that something was wrong in Zac’s face. He’d never had a poker face, despite the genes he shared with his father.

He sighed and squinted at the cars coming and going outside. “Let me ask you something, Lance. Did you ever do something so dumb, so out of your comfort zone, so crazy, that you ought to have your head examined for even considering it?”

Lance snorted. “You’ve met Priya, right? Still can’t believe she said yes when I asked her to marry me. She’s way out of my league, dude.”

Zac chuckled. “True. Still, things have worked out okay for you guys, right?”

“Right.” Lance halted, mid-bite of his sandwich. “Wait. Are we talking about women? Because I’ve been wondering when you’re gonna get back out there again.”

Sighing, Zac scrubbed a hand over his face. He’d walked right into that, dammit. He was probably overthinking all this. Maybe Carmen was right. Maybe he should just enjoy the fact that a beautiful woman had asked him to spend the weekend with her, all expenses paid and no strings attached. Chances were his father wouldn’t be at the resort anyway. He was probably off somewhere else, supervising his worldwide hotel empire. Zac hadn’t kept up with the family business much since he’d left, preferring peace of mind to profit reports.

“Oh, man.” Lance shoved his last bite of sandwich into his mouth, muffling his words. “The way you’re all quiet, with that sad look on your face, this is definitely about a woman. Don’t tell me the great Zac Taylor, player extraordinaire, has finally fallen.”

Zac blinked at his good friend. No. He hadn’t fallen. That was insane. Sure, he liked Carmen. And, yeah, they were friends. More than friends, if you counted that one night. But, no, he wasn’t in love with her. Zac didn’t do love. Not anymore. Keeping his boundaries intact was easier, safer. No messy emotions involved.

And if that pang of loneliness inside him nipped a bit harder when Carmen was around, well, that was just the price he paid.

This weekend wouldn’t be about anything more than helping out a friend. That was all it could ever be where he was concerned.

He had too many secrets and shadows haunting him for it to be anything else.

Zac focused on the snowplow driving by, clearing the parking lot from the fresh three inches they’d just gotten.

You had to love March in Alaska.

“Well?” Lance asked, drawing Zac back to their present conversation. “You gonna tell me her name or what?”

Zac shook his head. “There is no name because there is no mystery woman.”

His friend’s gaze narrowed as he zeroed in on Zac’s face. “Nope. Not buying it, dude. Something’s up with you, and it’s not just because you haven’t been playing the field lately.”

“Why are you so concerned about my private life anyway, man?” Zac shrugged and gave his friend an irritated glance. “Mind your own business.”

“Don’t even try to change the subject.” Lance grinned. “I’m right, aren’t I? You are hung up on someone. I knew it! You’ve been acting differently since that holiday party. Been hanging around the apartment more...keeping to yourself.”

Despite knowing this would benefit his ruse about Carmen, Zac winced internally. It rankled. Zac liked his privacy. The scandal following his father’s affair had been splashed all over the tabloids, and having the spotlight glaring on him had been uncomfortable, to say the least.

It didn’t help that he’d acted out back in the day too. He’d only been sixteen when the news had broken about his father’s infidelity and he hadn’t handled it well. In fact, he’d crashed the new sports car his parents had bought him and injured the girl he’d been dating at the time, who’d been his unlucky passenger. She’d made a full recovery, but Zac still lived with the guilt of his recklessness.

One more reason he’d left his parents and all their money behind. The wealth had corrupted his dad. Who was to say it wouldn’t do the same to Zac?

Needing to get out of his own head and away from the pain of his past, he tried to change the subject again. “You and Priya ready for the wedding?”

Thankfully, this time Lance took the bait. “I guess... She’s in charge of all that. I just show up when she tells me.” He tossed his empty water bottle into the recycling bin nearby. “Like this fancy conference thing we’re going to next weekend. If she gets this new job it’ll mean a move to California. Not sure I’m ready to leave Alaska behind, but I guess sand and surf wouldn’t be a horrible change. Plus, we could always come back to Anchorage to visit.”

Zac nodded, not ready to reveal that he and Carmen would be at the conference too, and Carmen would be competing for the same position.

“Well, I don’t know what you got going on behind the scenes, but I’m telling you, dude, one of these days you’re going to find someone who’ll knock those player socks right off you,” Lance said, standing. “You’ll end up in wedded bliss just like the rest of us. See you later.”

Sooner than you think, buddy.

Standing too, Zac checked his watch. “I should get back to the rig. Help Susan check inventory.”

“I’ll walk with you.” Lance followed him out of the cafeteria. “Break’s over.”

They rode the elevator to the first floor and headed down the hall toward the ER.

“No man is an island, remember?” Lance said, apparently not about to let the matter drop.

“Maybe I am.”

Zac knew he sounded defensive—but, damn. Soon Lance and Priya and everyone else at that stupid conference would be all up in his business, so sue him if he wanted to fly below the radar just a little bit longer.

“Islands suit me. Some tropical place with fruity drinks and beaches for miles. I like that kind of island.”

They rounded the corner into the controlled chaos of the emergency room, where people were rushing around and the air was filled with the sound of babies crying and clacking gurneys. The scent of antiseptic and lemon floor wax mingled around him like a comforting blanket.

Across the way, Zac spotted Carmen talking to Wendy Smith at the nurses’ station and stopped short.

Lance glanced between Zac and Carmen and then clapped him on the shoulder and chuckled. “Sounds a whole lot like Trinidad to me, dude.”

Zac barely noticed his friend walk away, his attention focused on the gorgeous midwife with the warm green-gold eyes and even warmer heart. He’d agreed to help Carmen and he would. He’d go to her conference and play her besotted fiancé and keep his promise—because that was what he did. He wasn’t his father. He was trustworthy, moral, strong. He’d play her perfect date, wine and dine her to within an inch of her life, fool her potential bosses, and help her get the job.

He’d keep his emotions and his past out of it.

And maybe, if he told himself that enough times, he’d start to believe it.

CHAPTER TWO

“UNITS RESPOND TO motor vehicle accident on Arctic Boulevard at West Fifty-Eighth Avenue. Thirty-seven-year-old female, eight months pregnant, complaining of chest pain. Over.”

“Copy. FA14 responding,” Zac said from behind the wheel. “Two minutes out.”

He steered through the congested midday traffic toward the accident scene with lights blazing and sirens blaring, glad for something else to focus on besides Carmen. His weekend with her was only two days away now, and the closer the conference got the more worried he was that he’d made a horrible mistake.

What the hell had he been thinking, saying he’d pretend to be her fiancé in the last place in the world he ever wanted to set foot in again?

Besides the looming threat of being in his father’s world again, there was also the fact that the connection between him and Carmen had never gone away after their one night together. It wasn’t even a conscious thing, really—more an underlying thread of awareness that pulled a bit tighter each time he was around her. In truth, it was why he hadn’t dated anyone since they’d slept together. Much as he hated to admit it, since their fling he hadn’t wanted anyone but her.

Which scared him more than just about anything else.

Because if he did get serious with her, what was to say it wouldn’t end in betrayal, just like his father had betrayed his mother? Sure, his mother had found a way to forgive his father and work things out between them, but Zac couldn’t expect the same from Carmen if he screwed up. Or when he screwed up, since the odds weren’t in his favor given his genetics.

“What’s got your drawers in a twist?” said Susan, his EMT partner, from the back of the rig as she readied their medical packs for the scene. “You’ve got that look again.”

He glanced in the rearview mirror, scowling. “What look?”

“That brooding, pained one.” Susan snorted. “Either that or you’re constipated.”

“Funny. Not.”

Zac sighed and shook his head, pulling in behind one of four squad cars at the accident scene and jamming the transmission into park. He was unbuckling his seat belt as he opened the door.

“I’m fine. Why are you so nosy?”

“Not any of my business,” Susan said, climbing out at the back and handing him his pack. “Just figured you’d be a lot more cheerful since you have the whole upcoming weekend off. Lord knows I would be. I’d love to have three whole days to get away somewhere.”

They weaved through the crowd of onlookers and cops to where three vehicles were crunched together and blocking two lanes—a flatbed truck in front, followed by a compact car, and finally a four-door sedan. Pretty clear from the damage and the placement that it had been a rear-end accident.

“Going anywhere special?” Susan asked him as they stopped near the middle car.

Yes.

“No.” Zac dropped his pack on the ground near his feet and spoke to the cop in front of him. “EMT Zac Taylor. We got a call on a pregnant woman with chest pain?”

“Over here,” the cop said, leading them around the vehicles to where two women stood near the curb, one perhaps around sixty, the other holding her very pregnant belly as she leaned against a lamppost. “That’s her.”

“I got it,” Susan said, walking over to the pregnant woman.

Zac approached the older woman, who looked pale as death and was visibly shaking. “Were you involved in the accident, ma’am?”

She nodded. “Yes.”

“This car?” He pointed to the middle car.

The woman raised a shaky hand toward the last vehicle. “That one.”

“Are you hurt?”

“No...”

Her voice was barely more than a whisper and her trembling worsened as shock set in. She cradled her left hand and Zac noticed blood on one of her fingers, oozing from a fairly deep laceration.

The woman swayed slightly, and Zac grasped her arm to steady her. “Ma’am, how about I take you inside the ambulance and we see about getting your finger bandaged up? You can rest there a moment, okay?”

“She’s pregnant...” the woman said, her voice dazed as he guided her toward the ambulance. “I want to make sure the baby’s okay. I was driving behind her and she slammed on her brakes. I didn’t realize I was so close and I went right into her.”

Susan was already at the rig, getting the pregnant woman loaded onto a gurney. As he helped the older woman up the stairs into the back Zac caught snippets of what the woman was telling his partner.

“I was hit from behind and then pushed into the flatbed in front of me.”

Given the damage to the vehicles, things could’ve been a lot worse for everyone, thought Zac.

He got the older woman situated on a bench in the rear of the rig, then climbed back out to help Susan load the gurney inside as well. Once both patients were secure, he tended to the older woman’s lacerated finger while Susan checked the pregnant patient’s vitals.

A bit of color had returned to the older woman’s cheeks since she’d sat down and Zac handed her a cup of water. Her focus, though, remained fixated on the pregnant woman across from her, her expression anxious. “It all happened so fast. Then she got out and said the wheel had pushed into her stomach.”

Zac glanced over to where Susan was hooking up a portable Doppler to the pregnant woman’s stomach to monitor the fetal heart rate. A comforting thump-thump rhythm soon filled the interior of the ambulance. Susan looked up at him and hiked her chin to let him know everything sounded okay for now. They’d still transport the patient to the hospital, to make sure everything was fine, but it appeared she’d been lucky.

“Right,” Zac said, finishing up with the bandage on the woman’s finger. “This isn’t as deep as I first thought, so you should be fine taking care of it at home, ma’am. Keep the wound clean and dry and change the dressing daily until it’s healed. Any questions?”

The older woman shook her head.

“Okay, then.” Zac stood. “You’re done here. I believe the police officers outside might have a few questions for you.”

“Blood pressure’s one hundred and two over sixty-nine,” Susan said, adjusting the cuff on the pregnant woman’s arm.

“Is that good?” the other woman asked Zac.

“Fine. It’s usually a bit low when you’re pregnant.” He helped the older woman stand, then led her toward the door. “Watch your step on the way down. I’ll keep ahold of your arm until you’re safely on the ground.”

“Oh, wait,” the woman said, stopping to turn back to the pregnant patient. “I’m so sorry about all this.”

The pregnant woman nodded. “Thank you.”

Once he’d gotten the older woman out of the rig and over to the cops, Zac secured the rear doors on the ambulance, then climbed behind the wheel and radioed the ER to let them know they were coming.

“Anchorage Mercy, this is Frontier Ambulance Fourteen en route to your facility with a thirty-seven-year-old female who is thirty-eight weeks pregnant, involved in an MVA. Five minutes until arrival. Over.”

“Copy. We’ll have OB on standby,” came the voice of a trauma nurse. “Any visible injuries?”

He glanced back at Susan in the rearview mirror.

“I have a midwife there,” the pregnant woman said. “Carmen Sanchez. I want her present.”

Zac nodded. Of course it would have to be Carmen.

He relayed the information, then signed off. “Be there soon. Over.”

Thankfully, traffic was lighter now, and they pulled into the ambulance bay at the hospital in under six minutes. Zac and Susan unloaded their patient from the back, then wheeled the gurney through the automatic doors into the brightly lit ER.

As they headed down the hall toward one of the open trauma bays Zac gave the ER team a rundown from Susan’s notes, doing his best to ignore the fact that Carmen was rushing along beside him, her arm brushing his and sending all sorts of inappropriate zings through his system.

“Patient states her abdomen struck the steering wheel hard during the accident. Fetal heart rate was normal during transport, no bleeding, spotting or cramping, though patient did complain of some chest pain post-accident. Patient has a history of three previous miscarriages and one stillbirth.”

“Thank you. I’m familiar with her history,” Carmen said, and she nudged him aside as they pushed the patient into an empty trauma bay where the OB on call, Dr. Tom Farber, raised a hand to Zac in greeting.

“We’ve got it from here.”

The curtain abruptly swooshed closed in his face, and Zac stood there a moment, blinking at it, while Susan chuckled beside him.

“There’s that look again, buddy.” Susan clapped him on the back and chuckled. “Don’t worry. Carmen’s too good for you anyway. I’m going back out to the rig to clean up.”

Zac moved over to the nurses’ station to get out of the way. He didn’t usually hang around after they’d dropped off patients, but things had been slow all day and his shift was almost over. Besides, he wanted to make sure things were all right with the baby.

That was the excuse he was going with anyway.

“You’re still here?” Carmen said when she emerged from behind the curtain twenty minutes later.

The words had emerged snarkier than she’d intended—but darn it. Bad enough that she hadn’t been able to sleep well since their conversation in the cafeteria, her mind whirling with thoughts of him. Now he was distracting her at work too. The only way her plan was going to work was if she kept her wits about her and her feelings out of it. In fact, most things in life worked better that way, in her experience. Caring too much only meant trouble.

She stepped around Zac, who stood far too close for her comfort. The weekend conference was approaching fast. And, as if that weren’t stressful enough, she’d just worked three twelve-hour shifts in a row and now, with this new patient’s arrival, her already long night was about to become even longer.

“Figured you’d have a hot date or something.”

“No dates for me. I’m off the market now, remember?”

She gave him a pointed glance. If Zac had taken offense at her snapping at him, he didn’t show it. He just stood there, grinning and looking smug.

“Just getting into practice for my role this weekend. Besides, my shift’s almost done. And since when do you care so much about my schedule?”

“I don’t care,” Carmen lied. “I just don’t want any rumors starting around here about us. You know how people gossip.”

Zac snorted. “You don’t think they’re going to hear about it from Priya and Lance anyway? The guy’s my good friend, but I don’t tell him anything I don’t want the rest of the hospital to know. He’s worse than social media when it comes to privacy.”

He laughed, but she gave him a dark look. “Don’t remind me.”

“Hey, this was your idea, remember?” he said, leaning closer.

Close enough that his warm breath ghosted the shell of her ear and made her shiver.

“Speaking of remembering—I’ve been thinking about that night we spent together. I remember those soft little sounds you made when I held you close. The way you gasped and sighed when I kissed that sensitive spot on your neck...the one near your collarbone where...”

The sound of a clearing throat had her jerking away from Zac. Good thing too, since her pulse was throbbing in her ears and her skin felt too tight for her body. As if the memories she had of that night weren’t naughty enough, now she had to think about Zac reliving them too. Lord, help her. When had it got so hot in here?

Carmen swallowed hard and looked over her shoulder to see Tom standing outside the trauma bay as she tugged at her collar.

“Sorry,” Tom said, glancing between her and Zac. “Didn’t mean to interrupt.”

“You weren’t,” Carmen answered, too fast. After smoothing her hand down the front of her pink scrubs, she raised her chin. “What’s your assessment, Doctor?”

“I think she’s good to go. No signs of fetal distress. Baby’s heart rate is normal and strong. Mother’s blood pressure is fine too.” He walked over to the counter. “No spotting or cervical effacement on exam. I’d say she’s fine to discharge—unless you disagree.”

“Agreed. Excellent.”

Carmen was doing her best to portray her usual efficient self, even though her insides were still fluttering from Zac’s heated flirtation. Lord help her... If one brief encounter with him had her this riled up, she was in big trouble for the weekend ahead.

“I’ll go in and talk to her for a bit...answer any questions she might have...then send her on her way. Thank you, Dr. Farber.”

“My pleasure.” Tom gave her and Zac one more assessing look before backing away toward the elevators. “You kids have fun.”

“We will, thanks,” Zac said, raising his hand.

“No, we won’t.” Carmen gave him a narrowed stare. “Fun is the last thing we’ll be having this weekend.”

“Remind me again why I’m going, then?” He raised a brow at her, then sighed. “I know... To help out a friend. Got it. Trust me. This won’t be a party for me either.”

It was her turn to snort now. “Really? Why not? Free stay at a luxury resort, all expenses paid? Sounds like a great time to me.”

When he didn’t answer right away she looked up from the paperwork she was filling out and noticed his playful expression had turned serious.

“What?”

“Nothing. It’s not important.”

He looked away and she saw the shadow of something cross his handsome face. Before she could ask about it though, one of the nurses came up to the desk and started talking to him.

Carmen felt a quick pinch of unaccountable jealousy before she pushed it aside. She had no claim on Zac Taylor. He was helping her out this weekend. That was all.

She sighed and returned to her documentation, doing her best to ignore Zac and failing miserably. Seeing Tom and Wendy so happy together with their new baby, plus Tom’s daughter Sam from his previous marriage, had given Carmen hope that she’d find the same for herself someday—if she ever found the time to date again in her busy schedule.

Until then she was stuck with fake fiancés and imaginary lovers.

Exhaling slowly, Carmen signed off on the patient’s discharge papers and handed them to the nurse, telling her to let the patient know she’d be in momentarily to answer her questions, then continued scribbling on the patient’s chart.

Zac remained steadfastly beside her, and she gave him a side glance and rubbed her stiff neck. “Don’t you have another EMS run to go on, or something?”

“It’s Tuesday. Things are slow. Susan and I are just hanging out until the clock runs down or another call comes in.”

Her stupid neck cramped again and she winced, cursing softly.

“Here.” He brushed her hand aside, massaging the knots in her neck and upper shoulders with those long, strong fingers of his. Between the heat of his body behind her, penetrating her scrubs, and the heavenly feel of his talented digits easing away her tension, Carmen nearly melted into a puddle of goo at the man’s feet. Good thing she had the desk there to hold her up.

“You shouldn’t push yourself so hard.”

She scoffed. “I push myself because that’s what it takes to survive.”

“Last time I checked this was Alaska, not the apocalypse.”

“You never know when things could fall apart. Slack off and you could lose everything.”

She closed her eyes as he worked on a particularly sore spot between her shoulder blades with his thumbs, leaving her feeling far too relaxed and vulnerable.

Reluctantly, Carmen forced herself to step away from him. “Besides, I’ve got more than myself to provide for.”

“Hmm? Tell me more about that,” Zac said, leaning against the counter once more. “I know we’re exchanging fact sheets, but if we’re going to pretend to be in love I’d like to hear about your family and your responsibilities from you. What’s important to you should seem important to me if we want this to be believable.”

The reminder of the upcoming weekend was like a glass of icy water to her face. Carmen straightened and moved out from under his touch. She had to keep her head and be cool, calm, and rational about this if she wanted to succeed.

“My mother and my sister live with me. My mother is ill and requires round-the-clock care. My sister is trying to get into the nursing program at the University of Alaska after she graduates from high school in May. Both things are expensive. This new job in California pays more money and has more responsibility. That’s all you need to know for now. If you’ll excuse me? I need to go back in with my patient. Unlike you, I still have several hours left on my shift.”

She started to walk away, only to have him tag along next to her.

Damn. Hopefully he’d drop the subject of her private life. She didn’t like talking about herself. She especially didn’t like feeling such a strong attraction to a man who made her want to open up to him, made her want to confide in him and lean on him. All of that was completely unacceptable.

Men were unreliable. Her father had taught her that lesson the day he’d walked out on them, leaving her poor mother to work three jobs just to keep a roof over their heads. Because of that, Carmen had virtually raised her little sister Clara.

Forget childhood. She’d had to grow up quickly. The more self-reliant she was, the better.

Perhaps her upbringing was the reason midwifery suited her so well. Well, that and the fact that her patients needed her. Carmen liked to be needed. She was used to being needed, no matter the time involved or the personal cost. When a call for help came in she shut off her feelings and got the job done.

Which was just as well because messy emotions only got in the way.

Instead of heading back into the trauma bay she continued on around the corner, deciding to burn off a little energy before speaking with her patient again. The nurse would be busy going over the discharge papers anyway.

They reached the stairwell and Carmen stopped, pushing open the door.

“I thought you were going to see your patient?” Zac said.

“I am—in a minute.” Carmen’s phone buzzed in her pocket and she pulled it out. “Need to take this phone call first.”

Not exactly true. But if she didn’t get away from Zac soon she was liable to do something stupid—like push him up against the wall and have her wicked way with him.

He continued to stand there, staring at her, looking far too gorgeous for his own good, which annoyed her to no end. “Anything else I can do for you?”

Zac opened his mouth and then closed it, as if reconsidering his words. He backed away slightly. “It’s okay to let people in sometimes.”

“Seriously?” She laughed and shook her head, doing her best to sound flippant. “Maybe you should take your own advice, then, mister, instead of shutting me down each time I ask a personal question about you. See you later, Zac.”

“Is that a challenge?” he called from behind her. “I love a challenge.”

Carmen chuckled as the door closed behind her, leaving her alone in the stairwell. She leaned back against the wall, her heart still pounding and her mind still racing.

Silly. So silly. Just infatuation. That was all her reaction was.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath to calm herself—only to have more images of their one night together flash through her head. The two of them entwined in her sheets...him bringing her to release again and again as she cried out his name in ecstasy.

No matter how drunk she’d been that night, a girl didn’t forget something that good.

Weys, dat boy rel bess...

The Trinidadian slang echoed in Carmen’s head. And it wasn’t wrong.

Zac was really sexy. Sexy times a thousand. Sexy times infinity and beyond.

She was in trouble and the conference hadn’t even started yet.

Hands shaking, Carmen pulled out her cell phone and called her sister back as she climbed the stairs to the third floor.

Clara picked up on the second ring. “Ey, wam?”

“I might have done something incredibly stupid. That’s what’s up.”

Before she could stop the words, an explanation of her fake engagement and the upcoming weekend with Zac tumbled out of her. She felt like she had to tell someone or else she’d burst.

“Wait—wait!” Clara said, as the sound of their mother’s favorite soap opera droned on in the background. “You did what?”

“I lied to my potential new employer in California. They’re very pro-family, and they were so impressed with Priya and her engagement to Lance I felt like I had to make something up in order to still have a shot at the job. I need this promotion, sis. We need this promotion. The extra money would pay for Mama’s care and help put you through university.”

Carmen stopped on the landing between the second and third floors, trying to convince herself as much as her sister that she’d done the right thing.

“Look, it’s no big deal, right? Three days of pretending and then it’s over and hopefully I get the job. Easy.”

“What about leaving Alaska? I thought you liked it here. I like it here,” Clara said.

“I do like Anchorage,” said Carmen.

She loved Anchorage the same as Mama and her sister did. She’d hate to leave. But that was beside the point. You did what you needed to do.

“California is pretty too, though. If I get the job it will be like we’re living on the island again. Beaches and sunshine and the ocean. They have good nursing programs at their colleges too.”

“Hmm...” Clara didn’t sound convinced, but it was too late to back out now. “And you think taking this man you had a fling with and having him pretend to be your fiancé will get you this new job? After you two...you know...?”

Yeah, she’d told her sister about the one-night stand. Hard to hide a man staying over in your bed when you shared the same living space. Ugh. Clara was right. Whatever had made her think inviting Zac to be her fake fiancé was the most brilliant decision ever?

In the end, though, what choice had she had? With Priya’s stellar background and experience, Carmen needed to produce someone who could seriously schmooze. Priya’s family was rich, and she’d had the best education and training money could buy. Carmen had worked nights and weekends to pay for her RN degree at the University of the Southern Caribbean.

After that she’d scraped together enough money from tips at the bar and working third shift at a twenty-four-hour convenience clinic to move her family from Trinidad to Anchorage, where she’d interned at Anchorage Mercy and completed her graduate degree.

Then she’d sat for the national certification exam and applied for her Advanced Nurse Practitioner license. The whole process had taken a decade, but it had meant a more secure future for the ones she loved and she’d do it all again, if asked.

Carmen said at last, “Zac knows the score.”

“Does he?” Clara said, her tone skeptical. “I don’t want you to get your heart broken.”

Carmen didn’t want that either. Problem was, she’d never really had a Plan B when it came to this weekend. And, honestly, their mutual attraction might be a good thing if they could keep to the script and use it to their advantage, making their ruse more believable. Lord knew their chemistry was still sizzling hot, despite the fact months had passed since they’d done the deed.

“I’ll be fine—promise,” she said, to convince herself as much as Clara.

She pushed away from the wall and squared her shoulders before walking out of the stairwell again. The hallway was delightfully empty, thank goodness.

“You’re all set to take care of Mama this weekend?”

Clara sighed. “Yep.”

Regret pinched Carmen’s chest. She hated to ask her little sister to care for their mother, but it couldn’t be helped in this situation. She wanted Clara to experience all the things she’d never had at her age—parties and fun and boyfriends and dating and all of life’s good things.

“What time’s your flight?” Clara asked.

“We fly out Thursday morning. Zac’s meeting me at the airport.” Carmen picked at her nails—a bad habit that tended to recur when she was stressed. “On a private jet.”

“Weys! Well, try to have a good time this weekend. You deserve to let loose. Just not too much, eh?”

“Don’t worry. It’s still a working midwifery conference.” Carmen laughed. “Mama doing all right?”

“She’s fine. Watching her telenovela.”

“Good. Okay. I need to go. Tell her I love her and I’ll see her later tonight.”

Carmen ended the call and headed back into the busy ER. She’d hoped her little walk would help clear her mind and sort out her thoughts. Instead, it had only brought more concerns to the surface.

If she was honest, her sister had touched on something she feared herself. Not that she and Zac wouldn’t be able to fool people into thinking they were a couple, but that Carmen wouldn’t be able to stop fooling herself into believing they were...

CHAPTER THREE

LATE THURSDAY MORNING, Zac took a moment to collect himself as he stepped into the ticketing area of Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. There were, of course, dozens of people milling about, but his eyes went immediately to a petite beauty with glowing mocha skin and copper-streaked curls, standing on the other side of the security gate, checking her watch.

Dressed in jeans, an emerald-green turtleneck, a black parka and black suede boots, Carmen looked a far cry from the way she looked dressed in her usual scrubs at the hospital. Younger and way sexier, if that were possible.

Whoa, cowboy.

He took a deep breath and reminded himself why he was here. This wasn’t a vacation. This wasn’t about sex. This was work.

After going through the security checkpoint, he strode toward her, coming up on the side opposite to where she was looking.

“Sorry I’m late,” he said, setting his leather carry-on bag on the floor near his feet.

She turned and looked him up and down, checked her watch again, then took off for the nearby escalators, calling to him over her shoulder as she went. “You are late. I hope this isn’t a sign of how the rest of the weekend will go. And you’re also overdressed.”

“I wasn’t sure what to wear. We didn’t discuss that,” he muttered, racing after her and catching her up near the end of the concourse, feeling uncomfortable now in his dark jeans and tweed blazer, with the open collar of his white dress shirt suddenly too confining for comfort. “You already have the gate number?”

“Don’t need one,” she said to him over her shoulder. “Private jet, remember?”

“Right.” Zac nodded, feeling even more like an idiot. He knew that. Should’ve remembered from the days traveling with his father.

He forced his attention away from the seductive sway of Carmen’s hips as she walked slightly in front of him and focused straight ahead instead.

Mind on the game, buddy.

A flight attendant waited for them near a side door and escorted them out onto the chilly tarmac, where Zac got his first view of the plane, which was similar to the one his father had owned when Zac was growing up. The knots in his gut tightened.

They approached the small, sleek white aircraft with the fancy logo of the California clinic painted on its tail. Whoever owned that clinic certainly had cash in the bank. These things carried a sixty-five to seventy-million-dollar price tag. Flew like a dream too.

Back in the day, before his father’s betrayal had caused the world Zac knew to crash down around him, he’d logged enough flight hours to become a pilot himself. But that had been another life—a different Zac.

“Here we are,” the flight attendant said, stopping at the bottom of a set of steps. “Enjoy your flight.”

“Thank you.”

Carmen climbed the steps in front of him and Zac did his best not to notice how her jeans cupped her cute butt perfectly. She stopped just before the top and turned to face him. Distracted, he nearly collided right into her. Good thing he had a firm grip on the railing, otherwise he might have had to grab her to keep his balance. And touching her at this point, even for safety reasons, would be a big mistake.

“Ready for this?” she asked. “Did you bring your dossier?”

He squinted up at her in the sunshine and avoided staring at the gold cross necklace nestled atop her bosom. “I am. I did. Did you?”

She inhaled deep, then nodded. “Yes. We can go over them during the flight. I was hoping you’d be on time so we could do it beforehand. I think Priya and Lance have already boarded.”

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