Fiancee for Hire Read Free

carefully.
    “No. Though I appreciate the fact that his initials spell PUTZ.”
    “You’ll want to refrain from pointing that out if you meet him.” Mac stopped speaking as he steered her around a gnarly piece of driftwood. “Pedro is one of the most notorious crime bosses in Mexico. Gangs, drugs, arms deals—he’s got a hand in all of it. The latter is of a particular interest to the U.S. military.”
    “Arms deals?” she repeated, sounding leery.
    “The United States government is dedicated to keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of terrorists,” he said. “Zapata has a massive cache of stolen weapons he’s preparing to sell to the highest bidder. The U.S. military has contracted with me to serve as one of those bidders. There’s also another man vying for the weapons. Have you heard the name of Faouzi Ahmed Al-Zawahiri?”
    “That sounds familiar. Was he the guy in that CNN special about the FBI’s most wanted terrorists?”
    “He’s number one,” Mac said, pleased by her knowledge of current events. And by the way their height difference allowed him to see down the front of her dress. But mostly by her knowledge, dammit. “Obviously, it’s in everyone’s best interest if I obtain the weapons over Al-Zawahiri, and I’ve been cleared to pay handsomely to make that happen.”
    “So what’s the catch? I mean, why do you need me?”
    Mac frowned. He’d rehearsed his answer to this question, but still felt embarrassed saying the words aloud. “Zapata’s lovely young wife, Griselda, is a woman with whom I once had relations.”
    “Ah,” Kelli said. “I see.”
    “Her husband is mistrustful.”
    “Got it.”
    “The situation is rather delicate.”
    Kelli nodded and stopped walking. She looked up at him with the moonlight casting a glow on her soft features, and for an instant, Mac felt his heart stop.
    “So you boned his babe, and he doesn’t trust you,” she said.
    Mac blinked, taken aback by the blunt statement coming from those perfect pink lips. He nodded, too flummoxed to reply right away.
    “More or less,” he said at last, conscious of her hand on his arm. “Or more accurately, he doesn’t trust her. Or at least he didn’t until I identified myself as a happily engaged man. At that point, negotiations began to swing in my favor.”
    “I see,” she said, trailing a toe through the sand as she began to walk again. Mac followed, not sure how she’d taken the lead, but feeling no urge to take it back. “So what would I have to do?”
    “Appear at several casual functions with Zapata and his wife,” he replied. “Remain smiling, silent, sweet, and elegant. Play the role of the adoring fiancée.”
    “How much adoration are we talking about?”
    “I beg your pardon?”
    “Adoration.” Kelli looked up at him and smiled. “Am I looking at you like I appreciate the fact that you pulled my chair out at dinner, or like you pulled my hair while doing me against a wall?”
    He swallowed and pushed back the image her words painted in a dark corner of his mind. Christ, she was something. “Uh, how about something in between?”
    “Gotcha.”
    Mac kept walking. There was one last thing he needed to say, but he wasn’t sure how to phrase it. “Look, I need to make it clear up front that this is strictly a business arrangement. In real life, I’m hardly the marrying type.”
    “Are you always this romantic?”
    “Yes.”
    “Good.” Kelli laughed. “Romance isn’t my specialty, either.”
    He nodded, relieved at her response. “Any sort of emotional entanglement would compromise my ability to protect you in that environment. Keeping you safe is a top priority. That, and securing the arms deal, of course.”
    “I understand completely.”
    She didn’t. Not completely anyway, not the reason he’d always been this way. That was something he didn’t talk about with anyone. Not ever.
    They walked in silence for a moment, Mac conscious of her every footstep, every