Let's Pretend (Romantic Comedy, Contemporary, Second Chance, Sensual) Read Online Free Page A

cooperation this last time. “Actually, there is. You can’t let anyone know we’re divorced. I don’t want Gran to have any stress until we know why she brought us here.”
    “You want to pretend our marriage is solid?”
    Belle beseeched him with her eyes. “That’s the only option. Can you imagine how Gran might react if we announced our break-up? I’d rather err on the side of caution and pretend everything is perfect between us for now.”
    He blew out a sigh and rubbed his jaw with the hand that wasn’t sending sentient sparks down her back. “How hard can it be to pretend for the next couple of days?” Luc’s familiar Irish lilt did little to soothe her.
    “Exactly! How hard can it be?”  

4

    B elle may not have loved him any longer, but she wasn’t immune to him; she’d melted in his arms less than twenty minutes ago. Perhaps the kiss she’d greeted him with had started out as a frantic effort at pretence, but it had ended in white hot, bona fide awareness.
    Luc smiled. He could see where going along with Belle’s plan could work in his favour. He didn’t like being part of a divorced couple, and certainly not when Belle made up the other half. He regretted every nanosecond of the minutes it had taken him to allow Belle to throw him out of their home. For months before that last fight, he could feel her pulling away from him; he’d touch her and she’d flinch. He’d walk into a room, and she’d find a reason to walk out. His off days were spent waiting for her to get off her hospital shift only to get a call from her—when dinner was good and cold sitting on the table—to say she had to pull a double shift because of some emergency surgery or other.  
    He didn’t resent her job—at least not to begin with. She was a great A&E trauma surgeon and had put together more accident victims than he cared to count. She’d been the surgeon on duty when one of his men had needed immediate lifesaving surgery, after a near-fatal injury while fighting a house fire.
    It was after that that Belle started to change toward him. Luc didn’t feel he had much of a choice when she finally asked for a divorce. He’d rather release her from their vows than risk the kind of marriage his parents had.
    Those two hated each other. Had only stayed together for his sake, and by the time he went off to university, they could barely hide their loathing for one another.
    He couldn’t bear for Belle to hate him.   She needed him, and he’d be there for her. He’d go along with her pretence. She didn’t realise it, but she’d just handed him the perfect opportunity to remind her of the love they’d once shared—to show her how much he still loved her.
    “Okay,” he said, sliding his hand from her back to her shoulder, drawing her close to his side. “I’ll do it.”
    Belle turned her grateful gaze on him. Gratitude wasn’t what he wanted to see reflected in her blue eyes. He would’ve given anything to get a glimpse of the passion he’d seen just after she’d planted that all-fire kiss on him.
    “Oh, Luc, thank you.” Belle reached up and kissed his cheek.
    Talk about lukewarm gratitude. No time to start on his plan like the present. Belle hadn’t yet applied for the decree absolute. He still had time to change her mind about filing. To his way of thinking, three days wasn’t a lot of time, and wasting even a second could be detrimental to him winning back Belle’s love.
    He lowered his head, intent on covering her lips with his.
    Belle leaped off the bed so fast she nearly lost her footing. “What are you doing?”
    He grinned. “Sealing our agreement with a kiss.”
    She wagged a finger at him. “There’ll be none of that. Let’s get ground rules ironed out straight away. All displays of affection are to be kept strictly public. Behind closed doors, we’re still a couple well and truly divorced.”
    He was afraid she’d say that, but he couldn’t stop grinning, and when she frowned at him