The Temporary Wife Read Online Free

narrowing.
    “I’m hoping you’ll listen to reason.”
    The oath she muttered under her breath was a little strong for kindergarten-land, and Jason almost laughed when she walked over to the table and unpacked box after box of markers. The anger was just sizzling, and she was damn cute when she was mad. “I’m not getting into this with you. Your idea is ridiculous.”
    “Why is it ridiculous? You need help keeping my parents in check, and I can help you.”
    “Getting married is not help, Jason. It’s absurd. No one will believe for one minute that it’s legitimate.”
    “Why not? We could make up a cover story. It would give you everything you need to keep my parents from getting custody of Molly.”
    “Why this sudden interest in me and Molly? Why do you care?”
    He took a step toward her, and then another. Crowding her was a deliberate attempt to make her uncomfortable and intimidate her, but when Meg folded her arms and gave him a look that could have frozen fire, Jason stopped with the game. “I don’t want my parents messing with Grace’s will. She didn’t want my parents in Molly’s life all that much when she was alive, and she wouldn’t want them to have a hand in raising her. This isn’t about you or me. It’s about my sister and my niece.”
    Meg looked away and then straightened her back before looking him right in the eyes.
    “Okay. But marriage? They’ll have their lawyers all over that. Everyone knows we can’t stand each other.”
    Jason felt a twinge of anger at the comment. “I don’t have a problem with you.”
    “Oh, well . . .” Meg fumbled with her words, and when she took a step away from him, her heels betrayed her once again and she stumbled. Fortunately for her, Jason caught her before she hit the deck. Although after that comment, he almost would have enjoyed watching her land right on that glorious ass of hers.
    “I think,” he said, “that you like me just fine, but you’re still hurt.”
Just like me.
“We broke up, what? Fourteen years ago?”
    Meg pushed away from him and tugged at her top. “Something like that.”
    “And you don’t want anything to do with me?”
    “I don’t particularly care for you, no.”
    “Well, that actually makes this perfect.” He had to find a bright spot here. Maybe this was it. “If you don’t like me, it will be easier to separate once we decide my parents have been sufficiently reined in.”
    “This has disaster written all over it. There has to be another way.”
    Meg went to the classroom door, poked her head out, and glanced around. Almost as if she was looking to see if anyone was listening. “I’d have to explain things to my family. My mother and sister won’t understand, and forget my brother. I have a boyfriend, and none of my friends will buy what’s happened. I don’t see how this could work.”
    “We’ll have to sell it. Make people believe that since Grace died, we’ve taken comfort in each other.” He stepped closer and took up a golden lock of her hair and let it slide between his fingers. “That our grief brought us back together and . . .” He leaned in and locked his eyes on hers.
    She sighed.
    “That we fell in love.”
    Meg swallowed hard, and Jason stopped himself before he went the final inch and took her mouth with his own.
Jesus.
    Both of them stepped back at the same time, and Jason shook off the lust racing through him. Even as he realized how hard this was going to be, he still believed marrying her was the right thing to do. The necessary thing to do.
    “I can’t,” she said, her breaths coming in fits and starts. “I talked to Kevin. He said he’d get me the best attorney. There’s no reason to go through with this.”
    He was sure the last person her brother, Kevin, wanted her married to was him. They were the same age and had been good friends until Meg and Jason broke up. And if it had just been a breakup, everyone would have weathered the storm okay, but when