“I would have if there had been time,” Luke reiterated, meaning it. “But I needed to move on this before she changed her mind.”
“So what if she had? I’m sure you could find another one willing to be the surrogate,” Jake said reasonably. “And you might not have had to get married to get what you wanted.”
Luke shook his head. “I didn’t want anyone else. This woman is perfect. She has every trait I’m looking to pass on to my heir.”
Several long seconds passed before Jake spoke again. “Well, now that you’re out of the running, I guess it won’t bother you if I make my move on that sweet little assistant of yours. You know how hot I’ve always thought she was.”
“I have it on good authority that Haley’s husband wouldn’t appreciate your plan to include her as the object of one of your sexual interludes,” Luke grumbled, suddenly more angry with his brother than he could ever remember and not entirely sure why.
He told himself it was because Jake was a notorious player and changed women as often as he changed his socks. But the truth of the matter was, Luke couldn’t stand the thought of any other man touching Haley.
Jake was silent before he finally spoke again. “Well, I’ll be damned. Haley is my new sister-in-law, isn’t she, Luke?”
Still trying to come to grips with the uncharacteristic possessiveness threatening to consume him, Luke ran his hand over the tension building at the back of his neck. “Yeah.”
“I wondered how long it would take for you to finally wake up.” Jake sounded genuinely surprised. “I’d almost given up on you noticing what a looker she is.”
“I told you the sole purpose of the marriage is to have my heir. It’s only a temporary thing.”
To Luke’s immense displeasure, Jake laughed like a damned hyena. “You keep telling yourself that, bro, and you might just start to believe it.”
If Luke could have reached through the phone, he’d have cheerfully choked his twin. “Did anyone ever tell you what a smart-ass you are, Jake?”
“You do just about every time we talk,” Jake declared, his continued laughter irritating Luke beyond words.
Luke took a deep breath. “We’ve spent more than enough time talking about me and my current situation. Can we get back to the real reason you woke me up in the middle of the night?”
“I just wanted to give you the heads up about Arielle,”
Jake confirmed, his voice turning serious. “Maybe you can figure out what’s wrong the next time the two of you talk.”
“I’ll give her a call when I get back to Nashville,” Luke indicated. “If I find out anything, I’ll let you know.”
“Okay.” His brother paused a moment before adding, “And in the meantime, you tell that sweet little woman of yours that her favorite brother-in-law said ‘welcome to the family.’”
“It’s temporary, Jake.”
“So you say, bro. So you say.”
“Shut up.”
“Then I don’t suppose you’ll have a problem with me kissing the bride the next time I see her?”
Luke knew that his brother was baiting him, but it didn’t seem to matter. “Try it and die.”
At the sound of Jake’s hearty laughter, Luke punched the end button and walking back into the bedroom, tossed the cell phone on top of the pile of clothing on the floor. He wasn’t sure who he was angrier with—Jake or himself.
In all fairness to Jake, he’d just been his typical devil-may-care self. But Luke, on the other hand, had abandoned his usual reserve and displayed all the self-control of an enraged bull.
What he couldn’t understand was why his brother’s kidding bothered him so much. And why, when Jake mentioned making a move on Haley and then warned that he was going to “kiss the bride,” Luke had been angry enough to bite nails in two.
But as he looked at Haley still sound asleep, he abandoned his speculation. He had a warm, willing woman in his bed and a lot more pleasurable things on his mind than his smart-aleck brother’s sense of humor.
Chapter Seven
A week after their return to Nashville, Haley gathered a report on one of Garnier’s current building projects and walked into Luke’s private office. “I’ve run the numbers on the Robinson build as you requested and it appears that we’re going to come in under budget by at least a few hundred thousand dollars, maybe a little more.”
“Good to hear,” Luke said without looking up from his computer. “Close the door, Haley.”
Anticipating a confidential discussion on one of the current Garnier construction projects, she closed the door and sat down in the chair in front of his desk. Since their return to the office, they’d resumed their business-as-usual relationship during the day. Luke was still the no-nonsense, workaholic boss he’d always been and she was the executive assistant he relied on to keep his office running smoothly. To the outward eye, everything was just as it had always been, no single thing had changed. They even drove to the Garnier office in separate cars.
But at home it was an entirely different story. When they were alone in his mansion, Luke was warm, compassionate and an absolutely insatiable lover. And she was the object of his attention from the moment they closed the door until they walked back out the next morning for work.
Looking up from the computer screen, he motioned for her to come around to his side of the desk. “There’s something here I think you’ll want to see.”
When she rounded the desk, she glanced at the computer monitor. It wasn’t even turned on. But before she could question why he’d been intently focused on a blank screen, he turned his chair sideways, wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her down to sit on his lap.
“Good lord, Luke, what are you doing?” She’d assumed that his hands-off attitude at the office had been to keep from feeding the ever-present rumor mill. “What if someone notices your door is shut?”
“No one will think anything is out of the ordinary,” he said, nipping at the sensitive skin along the column of her neck. When he leaned back to look at her, his grin was as promising and wicked as she’d ever seen it. “I’m the boss and you’re my executive assistant. It’s not at all unusual for us to have a private meeting with the door closed.”
“That’s true, but what about—”
When his mouth covered hers, Haley abandoned trying to reason with him. Luke still hadn’t informed anyone about their marriage beyond his twin brother. But she wasn’t surprised when he told her on the way back to Nashville that he’d let Jake know about their arrangement. Being mirror twins, they had always shared a special bond.