Work Wife by Dee Ellis
Chapter Six
Karina
Sometimes reality is a hell of a lot better than fantasy.
The beautiful estate Jase and Milo are hosting us at for the long weekend looks like something out of a fairytale book. Chauffeured from the airport in a classy old Rolls Royce, I feel like a movie star. And I guess I should—I am about to play the role of my life.
Part of me agreed to do this for Kolt just because I thought it might be fun. Live up the lifestyle he and his family bust their asses to enjoy. The kind of life I could never have dreamt of living but for now, I am. For a few days, at least. Even if it is based on a lie, I don’t care.
It did not feel like a lie when Kolt kissed me.
Flying scares me but with him there holding me, I barely cared about being 30,000 feet in the air. Somehow our playful touches turned less playful and more intimate. Nothing improper but beyond how a boss ought to touch his assistant. I wound up in his lap as we talked about our marriage. I wanted it all to be real. Wanted it so badly I held him tight and asked him to kiss me.
That kiss was not just a kiss—it was life changing. Our careful rules washing away with each stroke of his tongue. Months of will we or won’t we going up in flames. For a few days at least, it seems we will. It was all I thought it could be and so much more. I never wanted it to end, never wanted him to let me go. As we pull up to the estate, I realize I need not worry—he has not let me go since.
“Fallon wants to steal you away from me,” he says now, grinning that crooked grin that reaches his eyes and makes his dimple flash.
“What does she need?” I wonder though I would never deny her.
Fallon reached out earlier in the week to talk about plans for the weekend. Besides a cocktail party the first night and a huge barbecue the second day, it sounds as if she has had a blast planning it all. I suggested a few things too, but I was...distracted. Spending the weekend and then every day since with my hot boss was to blame.
“Been staying with Kolt have you?” She teased when we talked at lunch one day.
“I have,” I flushed and shook my head, waving away her questions before she asked them, “for work. For this deal he wants with Mr. Hill. He thought it would be best....” her laughter cut me off.
“Stop it. Kolt wanted you there once he got a taste of you out of the office. Period. End of story. You two can sell it however you want. Work wife. Hot CEO and sexy secretary. However, you spin it, Masters men go after what they want and you, my sweet soul, are what he wants. Not some deal with Holden Hill,” she had insisted with another round of laughs.
“To torture me somehow, I assume,” he is smiling wide though so whatever torture he thinks is coming he doesn’t seem to mind.
“Fallon is harmless,” I shoot back, flushing because a woman with two husbands might not fit in that box.
“Exactly. Go on. There she is waiting for you,” he says on a sigh, slowly letting my hand go when he nods up at her waiting atop the grand staircase.
“I will be back,” I say gently, ducking my head before I start to go.
“You better be back. I don’t want to be without you this weekend,” he husks the words, and his eyes go so soft I am lost in them. Then he clears his throat and his eyes dart around.
And I realize what he means. He wants to be sure Holden Hill meets me and sees us together. Knows that we are a happily married couple so he will trust him enough to work this deal with him. Seems silly to me to get a deal by lying. But I need this job and I want to do whatever it takes to make him happy.
Even if it means risking my heart in the process.
“Yes, sir,” I nod my head and turn away before he can see how crushed I am. It is a job. This whole weekend is a job, and I can do it.
Hell, for the past few months, I have been doing a job that I am clueless about. I went to college for liberal arts—my way of pissing off my money hungry parents. Winding up with a degree I had no real idea how to use and cut off from my parents, I was doing temp work when Fallon found me. I was thrilled for a chance to work at Master’s Media where maybe some of my knowledge with marketing might be useful. I wound up at Master’s Tech and I was so out of my element I thought I would not last a week.
Kolt has made it easy on me though. Since day one, after he asked all the right questions and I gave all the right answers, he has taken me as I am. If I am unsure about something, I do everything I can to learn it and he helps make it so simple. We work together great, but I always feel as if I am slowing him down.
“Come on doll,” Fallon calls to me as I reach her at last, “we are going to get pampered for the party. Want to look pretty for our men,” she states, grinning at me as she hooks her arm with mine and winks down at Kolt.
“Why do I feel as if I am in for some trouble with you?” I ask with a quirked brow as she leads me down the hall.
“Because in every friendship there is a good girl and there is a bad girl. I am married to two men so....” she trails off with a laugh and pulls me through a set of double doors.
Inside the huge room it looks like a fashion show. Racks of beautiful dresses and rows of shoes line one wall. Stylists and makeup artists wait by two vanities, the tops covered with more makeup than a Mac counter. Before I can protest, she leads me to one table and spins me to face the mirror.
“Make her more beautiful than she already is, folks,” Fallon commands and a buzz fills the room as they all go to work.
Two hours later, I have been curled, coifed, and contoured. My dark hair spills down my back in silky waves and a dramatic part on one side makes me look very chic. Smokey eyes and nude lipstick softens my face and my body shimmers from being scrubbed and rubbed with delicious lotions.
“Is it too much?” I whisper to Fallon as I turn in the huge floor to ceiling three-way mirrors.
“No way. You look like a movie star,” she whispers, reaching out to touch at the black lace of the designer dress she suggested I try on.
It’s backless with a corseted front and the lacy train trails behind me as I spin. I spin again because, yes, I kind of do look like a movie star. When I slid the dress on and she zipped it up, the stylists all gasped. Looking at my image, I ignore the sting of tears in my eyes. Because looking back at me is a woman who looks like she belongs on Kolt Master’s arm, wearing his ring.
“How about we go wow our men? Party should be starting and we wives,” she teases me, lacing her hand with mine because yes, she got the entire story while we were getting pampered, “we need to make a grand entrance so our husbands can enjoy us before business starts.”
“Here goes nothing,” I whisper to myself before I follow her out.
Taking a deep breath, I hold her hand as I step the way-too-high-heels she insisted I wear onto the first step. I can hear music and voices, so it seems people have started to gather for tonight’s cocktail party. Glancing down towards the foyer, I see the tall doors open and people arriving. But my eyes don’t focus on all the people watching us make our entrance. My eyes are locked on just one man—my pretend husband.
Wearing a tuxedo and looking more stunning than any man ought to, he waits at the bottom of the stairs. His suit fits his broad build like it was made for him, and I suspect it was. Even from a distance, I see the platinum band on his ring finger and something in my chest goes tight. It may be for show, and it may be just for a few days, but that ring means he is mine.
“Holy Christ,” Kolt mutters when we reach them.
“I do decent work,” Fallon declares with a grin, going to loop her arms with her waiting husbands, “not that she needed work, now did she, Kolt?” she teases, winking at Kolt.
Fallon, Jase, and Milo all laugh, but we stay silent. I do not notice them leave but suddenly we are alone. All around us people are talking, and music is playing. I think I even see some people dancing. But we just stand there together at the bottom of the stairs. I am one stair up, so I am eye level with him and when he reaches a hand up to grasp my jaw and tip my head down, I can see heat flare in his green eyes.
“Karina you look absolutely stunning,” he breathes, his thumb rubbing slowly at my mouth.
“Thank you,” I say with a flush, bowing my head, “I clean up good, I guess. I think they will believe I could be your wife now,” I stammer my words and his thumb covers my mouth as he lets out a growl.
“Don’t let me hear that sort of talk again,” his words are rough, and it excites and confuses me, “you are beautiful. So fucking beautiful,” he murmurs, and I am aware of him tugging me down a step until I am against his chest, his hand slipping around my waist and gripping my backside.
Just when I think he might kiss me again—without me asking—he lets out a groan. I start to push at his chest, afraid my weight is too much. I am a big girl. I tried on a dozen dresses before we found one to fit my curves. But his arm goes tight around me and he hauls me off my feet as if I weigh nothing.
“Jesus not yet,” he grumbles before he sets me beside him and puts on a smile as he turns away.
I frown before his hand on my ass yanks me closer. Then I see him. Or them, rather. Holden Hill and his wife Emrie approach us. He is in a tuxedo, but she is impossibly beautiful in a bright pink dress, platinum hair with pink streaked in the waves, and colorful make up. Mr. Hill’s hand isalready out to reach for Kolt’s. He keeps one arm on his wife, hooked around her waist, and Kolt mirrors him, tugging me close. Before the men even greet each other, Emrie speaks up with a bright and bubbly voice.
“Your dress is so beautiful,” she gushes, moving away from her husband to hook her arm with mine, “let the men be boring together. I want to talk that dress! It is my favorite part of these sorts of things, talking with the girls a little.”
Before I can object, she leads me towards the ballroom, going on about meeting more wives. After we circle the room, grabbing flutes of champagne, we wind up huddled together with a few of them. Fallon is there talking and laughing with us, as well as Aria Holmes and Rian Thorne, both here with their husbands for the long weekend.
Aria is from Crystal Cove and we chat about her movie star husband and her bar back home. Rian owns an elegant jewelry store in Paris Isle and her husband came to woo Fallon’s husband to do some work for his wineries. By the time we are headed for dinner, it feels as if we’re all old friends. It feels good—I never really had girlfriends before. But I am here to do a job, not to make friends. I can’t for one second let myself think it is anything more than another task Kolt needs me to do.
“Going to steal my wife away, ladies,” Kolt declares just as we head to the grand dining room.
“Bring her back and we will allow it,” Emrie shoots back.
“You got it,” he replies with a charming smile and a nod of his head.
Taking my hand, he leads me away from the others. We take a turn, he pushes a door open, and we walk into darkness. All alone, I realize I am breathing heavy, my heart thundering in my chest. He spent most the night talking with Holden so I wonder if he is about to tell me the deal is done so our ruse is over. I get no words out before he pushes me against a wall and I feel his hard body against mine.
“Came here to seal this deal but all I can think of now is you in this dress,” he pants hotly against my mouth, “and you out of this dress. I am breaking the rules, but I can’t stop it now. Not since I tasted you, Karina. Let me taste you again, please,” he begs, a hand tangling in my hair and tipping my head back.
“Yes,” I moan before his mouth crushes to mine.
Tangled together in the dark, we kiss until I can’t breathe. Until I need him to be able to keep breathing. Then just as suddenly as it started it stops. He clears his throat, pushes away from me, and pulls me from the room. Seated together at dinner, he keeps his hand on my thigh and I can still feel his body pressed to mine and his tongue in my mouth.
Once the night is over, he leads me to the bedroom we will share. As I step inside, I realize I am shaking. I thought I could share a room with him but I can’t. Not if he doesn’t want what I want. I turn to tell him this when I hear the snick of the lock—it sounds so loud in the quiet I jump.
“Take the dress off, Karina.”