Paper Marriage Proposition(41)

Landon greeted everyone by name and introduced Beth as his wife, and he put his arm around her. Beth felt shy and self-conscious, but when the partygoers returned to their mingling and Landon focused on her, holding her lightly against him, all her awkwardness melted under a creamy swirl of excitement.

“This is a really nice party,” she whispered, touching his arm briefly as she said this.

The candidness in Landon’s gaze affected her almost as much as the whisper of his fingertip trailing along her jaw. “It’s even nicer with you in it.”

A shiver raced through her, impossible to suppress.

God, what was happening between them?

Neither seemed to stop touching each other, neither seemed to stop staring, to want to put distance between them or be anywhere else but near.

Before she made a fool of herself, Beth told her husband the sweets buffet called to her and managed a smooth escape, leaving Landon with his mother.

“Never seen him smile like today,” an older woman hovering by the candy, who’d been introduced as Julian’s assistant, told Beth. “Mr. Landon, I mean. And all the girls and I agree it’s because of you.”

Landon smiling…

Because of her?

The thought moved her so powerfully Beth couldn’t speak through the ball of emotion in her throat. Because Landon Gage not only made her happy sometimes, too, but he also made her ache. Ache for him. For more.

She picked through the sweets and popped a handful of dried cranberries into her mouth, but they did little to appease the building urge to scan the room and find him.

She wanted him.

Admired him.

Loved his attitude, his strength, his dynamism. Loved his eyes, his face, even the way he scowled. She loved his… She loved all of him.

Oh, God, love, she thought with a wrenching in her stomach.

She loathed to think that this was how it felt—the helpless, excited, burning and frightened sensation she got every time she saw and thought about and stood near Landon.

“Blow it, brother!” Garrett cheered as they surrounded him near the three-tiered cake and the pair of flaming candles that boasted the big blue number 33.

Chuckling softly while shaking his head, Landon positioned himself at the end of the long table. That flattering white polo shirt really suited him, Beth thought dreamily from afar. He had such a thick, bronzed neck, his shoulders so hard—

“Beth!” Kate called her. “Get over there next to Lan for a picture. He won’t bite you.” She stuck her tongue out and held up the camera. “Not that I can say the same for the cake.”

Landon trapped her gaze from across the room. Was it caring she saw in his incredible eyes?

Weak-kneed, Beth started walking over, her heart pounding like a drum. At that very moment, Kate’s guarantee of him not biting didn’t reassure her. A gleam of possessiveness glimmered in Landon’s eyes, and the mine-mine-mine! they seemed to echo set the tips of her breasts on fire where they pressed against her top.

He watched her advance. The way his attention homed in on her made her blood simmer. If they’d been anywhere else, anywhere else but in a roomful of people, Beth didn’t know what they’d be doing. No, that was a lie. She had a pretty good idea of what they’d be doing, what they could be doing—like regular husbands and wives.

“Come on, brother, make a wish!”

Landon bent forward, and as his eyes met Beth’s over the candles, a slow smile spread on his lips and made her thighs turn liquid. Desire wound around her like a vine, bringing with it a world of emotions she couldn’t suppress. Love…

They weren’t normal husband and wife, but they were more than Beth had ever been with her ex-husband. More connected than Beth had ever imagined feeling to another living thing. The candles smoked as he blew them out all at once. Crazily, she wondered what on earth a man who had everything could wish for. And it struck her.

He wished for me.

The thought was irresistible. Her hands clenched at her sides, and she could almost hear the last weak little barrier inside her crumpling.

And maybe all my life I’ve been wishing for him.



Something accompanied them home.

Something searing and undeniable. Electricity leapt from him to her, her to him, charging Beth’s nerve endings as they entered the quiet house.

They took the stairs side by side.

Expectation tickled inside of her as she reached her bedroom door.

She half hoped Landon would draw up behind her, half expected for him to turn her around and claim a heated kiss. He didn’t.

Startled when he said good-night, Beth heard his footsteps, muffled on the carpet as he made his way down the hall.

With an awful disappointment, she slipped into her spacious lonely bedroom, then surveyed the contents of her closet.