Dillon: A Fake Marriage Shifter Romance (The Johnson Clan Book 4) Read online

  I took out my phone and stared at it for a long time. The same text notification flashed on the screen, and searching those websites wasn’t getting me anywhere except closer to the bread line. I swiped my thumb over the screen and it blinked back to the same job post.

  Wife Wanted.

  What in the world did I possibly have to lose? No matter how old and ugly and rude he was, he was rich, and he wanted a wife. I had all the other qualifications, so why not? I let my thumb dangle over the Apply Now button, but I already knew the answer. He couldn’t possibly say anything worse to me than what Paulo just said. I didn’t need any accounting qualifications to be some trophy wife.

  I let my thumb fall. The button lit up, and the screen flashed to the application page.

  3

  Dillon

  I tossed the clipboard of application forms onto the table in front of me. “This is ridiculous. I am NOT marrying any of these girls.”

  Callie sighed for probably the twentieth time today. “It really doesn't matter what you think.”

  “Of course, it does,” I growled. “You don’t have to marry her. I do.”

  Julie uncrossed her legs on a chair next to me and recrossed them going the other way. She didn’t participate in these interviews. She didn’t have to say anything. She just came along to make me behave.

  I didn’t have to say anything, either. I listened to Callie and William question the girls. They paraded into the office, sat down for a while, answered a bunch of standard job interview questions, and left. They never knew I was there. They batted their eyelashes at William. They expected him to be the lucky groom. Lucky him.

  “Just put up with it for a little while longer,” Callie told me. “We’ve got three more girls to interview and then we’re done. Once we get the girl picked out, we can move forward. What’s good for your reputation is good for your bottom line, and more importantly your family and the business. Just remember that when you look at them.”

  I muttered something profane under my breath when the next girl walked in. She was a copy of every other girl that walked into the office. Nothing was special about her. Nothing attracted me to her. This was insane. No more clubs. No more girls for a year—at least, not the kind of girls I liked. How could they do this to me?

  I wouldn’t allow it. I would fight them. I would.... Then I remembered Julie’s threat. If I didn’t go along with it, the investors would leave. My brother would take control of my portion of the business and I’d likely be cut off. And if he didn't take control, I had a feeling Julie would make him, just to teach me a lesson.

  In the last week, Julie showed me her claws for the first time. I always knew she was a tiger under her professional exterior. She always used her claws in the courtroom and the boardroom for my benefit—until now. Now she turned them on me. The whole team claimed to be doing this for my own good.

  I couldn’t settle down. I just couldn’t. Even if I married the most gorgeous supermodel in the world, I couldn’t stay home and watch TV with her. I would have to go out. My bear didn’t seem interested in picking a mate, and neither was I. Monogamy just wasn’t my thing, and I had come to terms with that. I didn’t understand why my team couldn’t as well.

  I tried not to listen to Callie interviewing the next girl. “You said you left your last job to take a new position. Where are you working now?”

  Same old boring questions. I wasn’t marrying her. No way. At last, she got to her feet and walked out of the room. My stomach growled. Four long hours of this, and I was starting to get hungry. I could use a gin and tonic about now, too.

  Callie flipped the page on her clipboard and the second to last girl walked in. Her heels clipped along the floor and attracted my attention. Without really meaning to, my eyes gravitated to her. I caught sight of a nice, shapely curve where her thigh met her ass. Her tight skirt showed off her assets in crisp, neat lines.

  I couldn’t take his eyes off her. Her dark chocolate hair curled around her shoulders. She moved a stray curl out of her eyes with one finger. She wore just enough makeup to set off her bright green eyes and kept it light over the rest of her pretty skin. That beautiful glow shone out of her inner self like no one I had ever seen before in my life. My bear was captivated.

  She scanned the team with one quick glance. Her pupils dilated when she saw me, but she moved on in an instant. She gave the same appraising glance to each person in turn.

  Callie turned her page. “Bianca Dawson?”

  Bianca. Beautiful. I couldn’t imagine a more perfect name for a more perfect girl. She was just the kind of girl I liked to pick up in bars and hammer in the back of my limo before dropping her off at her place for the night.

  I scanned her up and down one more time. I surprised myself by thinking that I could get on board with this. I could look forward to her waiting for me every night. Hell, I could peel off that tight suit and find all the treasures hidden underneath.

  Even sitting there watching her made the blood rush to my cock. I spread my legs just a fraction of an inch to give it room. She couldn’t see under the table separating us. She had no idea what she was doing to me.

  She burst into a brilliant smile when Callie said her name. “Yes.”

  “Thanks for coming out to interview today. Please, have a seat,” Callie instructed.

  Bianca settled herself on the chair and crossed her legs. Those legs made a perfect inverted V joined at the knee. Her ass bent against the chair, and her curvy chest plunged into her neckline. Her dark blue blazer buttoned across the stomach.

  “I see you have an accounting degree,” Callie’s voice interrupted my thoughts.

  Bianca stiffened. “Yes. I do.”

  Callie continued. “You stated on your application that you worked for five years at your last job, but you didn’t mention why you left it.”

  Now she really froze. “I didn’t want to say why I left it because the firm got investigated by the FBI. The senior partner got convicted of money laundering, and now everybody thinks all of us who worked for him were a part of it as well. I haven’t been able to get a job since.”

  Callie lowered her voice. “Oh. I see.”

  Callie looked over at Julie. Bianca noticed that look and waved both hands. She got to her feet. “You know what? Just forget it. I never should have come here. Just forget all about it. Thanks for considering me. I’ll see you later.”

  She headed for the door. Her ass swayed under her skirt in the most enticing possible way. I couldn’t let her walk out that door. I couldn’t take the chance on my team giving this job to anybody else. My hand shot out. “Wait!”

  She turned around at the door. Her eyes widened when she looked at me, but the next minute, she squared her shoulders. She moved her chin sideways. “Forget it. I’m not marrying anybody for money. I might be desperate to pay my rent this month, but I’m not some kind of whore. You can get somebody else.”

  I climbed to my feet. I towered over the rest of the team. “Don’t leave yet, Miss Dawson. Sit down and let’s talk about this.”

  She arched one eyebrow. I didn’t have to explain. She saw at one glance I was the groom in question. “You can call me Bianca. That’s what everybody calls me.”

  I colored in spite of myself. How many dreary, weary years passed since any woman made me blush like that? I waved toward the chair. “Sit down, Bianca...please. These guys can leave. I want to talk to you alone.”

  “No, you don’t,” Julie snapped.

  Callie started to say, “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” but I chopped my hand through the air.

  “I think I can talk to her, just one on one. If we’re gonna go through with this, that’s the least I deserve.”

  The team exchanged glances until William got up. He adjusted his jacket around his waist and buttoned the button. “All right, Dillon. Just remember what we told you. Keep it on the straight and narrow. The last thing we need is you trying something at the interview.”

 
; I stood still while they filed out of the room. Bianca eyed them sidelong until the door clicked shut behind Jacob. She turned her flashing eyes on me. “Well?”

  I waved toward the chair. “Sit down. Please.”

  4

  Bianca

  So, this was the famous groom. He wasn’t old and ugly. I couldn’t have imagined a hotter guy if I tried. Go figure. I studied him from across the room, but I wasn’t going to sit down in that chair just because he said please.

  His dark hair was cropped close around his ears, but it tussled on top. It shone with some kind of hair product, but it grew lush and thick to cover his whole scalp. Not one bald patch anywhere. I caught his brown eyes scoping me out. Any woman with eyes in her head knew exactly what he was thinking.

  His shoulders filled out his jacket to the tailored seams. He spent a lot of time and energy on that body. His muscled thighs stretched his pants tight around his...oh, my God. He did NOT have a hard-on right now.

  He strolled around the table and sat down on the edge. He jerked his head toward the chair. “Come on, Bianca. Sit down and talk to me.”

  I set my hands on my hips. “As long as you’re certain we’re just talking.”

  He laughed, and the cutest little dimples appeared on his cheeks. A squirrelly twist of a thrill quivered through my insides. Man, he was hot! He bent forward to grin at me. “I’m not going to hold you down and marry you right here and now, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

  That laugh disarmed my defenses. We were just talking. I came all the way here for a job. I might as well see what it was all about.

  I marched across the room and sat down in the chair. I crossed my legs the way I did before. That should keep him off me for a few minutes, anyway.

  He didn’t swoop in. He didn’t do anything. He perched on the edge of the table and smiled down at me. “I think you have the most promise for this job of any woman who has applied. We just need to get the details ironed out.”

  I cocked my head. “Like what?”

  He leaned closer. “Look, Bianca. I’m not gonna lie to you. I don’t want to go through with this marriage business, either. I think it’s a terrible idea.”

  “Why are you doing it, then?”

  He rolled his eyes toward the door. “My lawyer and PR team made me. Well them and my brother. They say I have to clean up my image and settle down. That I have to show the public I’m not some womanizing hound.”

  My green eyes snapped. “Are you a womanizing hound?”

  He bit his lip. “Look. If we’re gonna do this, we better be honest and upfront with each other from the beginning. I can see you play it out front, too, and I appreciate that, so I’ll give you the same consideration. I never wanted to get married. I’m the love ‘em and leave ‘em kind. Shit, that’s what got me into this situation in the first place.”

  I cast my weather eye over him one more time. So that’s what this was all about. The love ‘em and leave ‘em kind. I understood guys like that too well.

  “Well, it’s not like a real marriage, is it?” I remarked. “It’s just a business arrangement.”

  He pointed at me. “Yes! A business arrangement. Exactly, and it’s only for a year. Did they explain that to you during the application process? It’ll be over before you know it.”

  I glanced down at my own foot bobbing in mid-air. “I don’t know. A lot can go wrong in a year.”

  “You said you were desperate. You said you couldn’t get another job.”

  I shrugged. “Yeah. That’s the only reason I showed up at all. If it gets me back on my feet, that’s all I care about. I mean, now that I’ve met you, I don’t hate the idea. I thought....”

  He inched closer. How did he get so close? God, he smelled good. “What did you think?”

  I turned bright red. “I thought you’d be some kind of geezer. I thought you’d be ugly and... you know.”

  His voice dropped to a sultry purr. “And what do you think now? Do you like what you see?”

  My eyes migrated up his pant leg, past that rounded bulge to the hard abs and chest under his jacket. Yeah, I liked what I saw. I liked it a lot. “I guess it’s not too bad.”

  He smiled again and showed me all his bright white teeth. “I like what I see, too. Do you think we might get along all right for a whole year? You wouldn’t get bored with me, would you?”

  My eyes widened. “Get bored with you?”

  He set both hands on the table edge next to his hips. His eyes made languid circuits over my face and mouth and neck. They dallied down my chest to the spot where my buttons hid my cleavage. “How would you like to go out with me tonight—not on a job interview—just the two of us, you and me? Get to know each other a little better.”

  My eyes glided the rest of the way up to his face, and we locked our gazes on each other. “What would we do?”

  “I dunno. What do you like to do on a date? We could go out to dinner. I know a couple really nice restaurants. We could go see the fireworks in Times Square.”

  “I didn’t know there were fireworks going on in Times Square tonight.”

  He bit back a smile. “Maybe there isn’t. Then we could go out to the harbor and take a walk on the pier. That’s a nice way to spend some time with someone you’re trying to get to know better.”

  “Are you trying to get to know me better?”

  He leaned so far forward his body came away from the table. He murmured into my face. “I’m doing my best. Come on, Bianca. Tell me what you like. Do you like going back to a guy’s place on the first date, or are you more of the kiss and don’t tell type?”

  My cheeks burned, but I didn’t gasp in horrified astonishment. I could only sit there and stare up at him. He held me hypnotized with his soft voice and his burning eyes. If he got any closer, his lips would touch my mouth. Then what?

  Before I could answer, he put out his hand. His warm fingers landed on my bare knee. They swirled once over my skin. They burrowed just an inch under my skirt hem. He gave my leg a squeeze, just enough to send a jet of burning hot excitement up my legs in between my thighs.

  “I don’t like to take a girl home on the first date, either,” he whispered. “I like to give them a good time and take them home wanting more. I like wining-and-dining them until they can’t stand it any longer. I like to savor every last little morsel of their delicious company if you know what I mean.”

  Oh, I knew exactly what he meant. I couldn’t mistake what that hand on my knee meant, and I wanted it. I wanted that hard man right now.

  As quickly as his hand was on my leg, it was gone just as fast. He got up off the table, walked around it, and picked up his clipboard. He made a big show of checking over a bunch of job application forms under the clip.

  He waved the clipboard sideways. “Well, Bianca, I think we can safely say this interview is over. You can have the job if you want it. It pays thirty thousand dollars a month for twelve months, plus bonuses for press conferences, photo shoots, and a generous spending allowance every month.”

  I stared at him aghast. “Thirty thousand a month! Are you out of your mind?”

  He set down the clipboard. “I would have to be if I agreed to this nonsense. I wouldn’t go through with it at all if we didn’t have a candidate as good as you. What do you say? You’ll have to go through a legitimate wedding ceremony. Once that’s over with, you can relax and kick back in my penthouse until the end of the year.”

  “Will you be living there?”

  He shrugged. “Unfortunately, I have to live at the same address as my.... you know, my wife. That’s the only way to make the thing look legit. I have a separate guest wing. I’ll live there while you take the master bedroom.” He glanced down at my chest and rolled his tongue around his mouth. “If that’s what you want, of course.”

  I looked away, but I couldn’t hide my red-hot cheeks. My heart hammered in my chest. Was I really doing this? Thirty thousand a month? Jesus.

  “All right. I a
ccept.”

  5

  Dillon

  I peered through a window on the second floor of the courthouse building. Police officers shut down the whole block outside. They linked elbows to hold back the roaring crowds. Girls craned their necks across the barricade to snap photos of the courthouse decorated with white roses. Reporters trained their video cameras on the building, the crowd, the decorations—everything. My PR team let every major news outlet know what was going on. And of course, Abraham and the rest of the family had to be in attendance to make sure I actually went through with it.

  An immaculate white limo crawled through the crowd. The screaming girls crushed the police officers forward until they tumbled into the street. They pressed their bodies against the car so it could barely move.

  At last, it eased up in front of the curb. My bear roared in anticipation. I had to keep cool right now. I had to stay calm until I got through this.

  The police fought back the crowd until a tiny pocket of space opened around the limo door. Two police officers blocked the door when it swung open. A white figure in streaming lace and satin bows stepped out and glanced up at the courthouse towering above her.

  I reeled on my feet. Rockets exploded in my head. She looked even more stunning in that dress than I dared imagine. She looked right at me hidden behind the window.

  I couldn’t look anymore. I hurried back to the clerk’s office. Abraham and my best friend Carter waited there for me. I tugged my jacket down and adjusted my tie. I took a wide stance next to Carter and crossed my hands in front of me to await my fate. Abraham stood on the other side of me, as if to trap me there. There was no running, no letting my bear loose to free me from the chains about to bind me for the next year.

  “Here we go,” Abraham leaned over to whisper to me.

  “Yeah, all thanks to you.”

  Minutes passed. The noise outside escalated to a deafening crescendo. All at once, the courthouse door swung open downstairs. The noise broke up the ringing staircase. Then the door banged shut, and the noise died to nothing.