The Rented Husband (Southern Nights Series)

Chapter 6

Olivia gasped. She was beside herself. This man was a fool if he thought for one second that she would stand here idly while he told her to shut up. Not even her parents or her brother had ever dared to tell her to shut up and she was not about to let one, two-bit play boy start doing it now.

“You, mister,” she jolted forward aggressively, while jabbing her pointer finger into his chest, “Are out of line! You need to leave now before I call security and have you escorted out of my office.”

This time it was Brody who arched his brow. “Liv, Liv, Liv.” he repeated her name several times while shaking his head. “Why would you want to go and do something like that to your future husband? It wouldn’t look good to the family you know.”

Olivia wasn’t half listening to a word that Brody was saying. She continued to shove at his rock hard chest in an effort to make him leave her office. Wasn’t it enough that she had to suffer the humiliation of crying in front of him earlier? Couldn’t he just leave her well enough alone and let bygones be bygones?

But no, Mr. Brody O’Conner just had to come back to her office of all places and rub her face in her own shame, didn’t he; because that’s what guys like him do. That was the exact reason she didn’t want to get married. Men were imbeciles that only looked out for their number one; themselves. Well, Olivia was looking out for her nown umber one; herself.

Two words seemed to break through her fury at once. Future husband? Olivia stopped her incessant shoving and stared up into the piercing, sapphire like eyes of Brody O’Connor. She was panting heavily from the exertion and could only imagine how awful she must look right about now with her normally swept up hair do now straying wildly around her face.

“What did you just say?”

This time Brody let the grin spread wide on his face. “I said your future husband,” he clarified slower for her this time in a deep-toned voice.

Olivia froze; she must be dreaming. She shook her head in an effort to clear it and then stared back up at him. “You want to run that bit by me again?”

Brody tossed his head back and laughed at her dumb struck expression. One minute she was a feisty little hell cat and the next she was as meek as a kitten.

“Listen, I will do this Hawaii thing for you and you won’t have to pay me a dime. Instead, I need you to do me a favor.”

Olivia’s mind started to whirl about a hundred miles a minute. He did say that he wanted a favor in return. She could only imagine what type of favor a man like the cunning and resourceful Brody O’Connor would want from a conservative woman like herself.

“What exactly is this favor?” she asked cautiously. Her mouth twitched a little at the corner bringing Brody’s attention to how plump and tempting those pink lips of hers could really be.

Clearing his throat, Brody straightened himself and stared her in the eyes. “I need you to be my wife.”

“Okay,” she said slowly. There has to be more to it than that. Obviously, she would be his wife, all in pretend of course.

Brody cleared his throat again and this time looked a little more uncomfortable. “I mean, I need you to be my wife in front of my mother.”

Olivia sat down in the chair that was just behind her. This was good. This was real good, she mused sarcastically. “Your mother, huh?” she asked chuckling to herself.

Brody averted his gaze. This part of the conversation was the part that made him a little more compromising. Rubbing his palms on the side of his legs, in an effort to dry them, he tried to smile.

“Yeah, she has it in her head now that she suddenly wants grand-babies, one boy and one girl to be exact.” He snorted at the memory of her stating that little fact back in his office. “She had all but demanded that I should marry one of those stuck up debutantes back at home and there is no way in Hades that I can do that. No freaking way. So…” he reverted his mien and glanced up at Olivia with her immobilized gaze, “I sort of already told her that I was married and now…now I need a wife.”

Olivia wanted to laugh at the sudden irony of the situation.

“You,” she said pointing at him, “Need a wife?”

Brody nodded eagerly, thankful that she seemed to understand the situation.

Olivia sat in the chair for a moment drumming her fingers on the arm rest and thought about it. This could be the perfect answer to both of their problems; they would ultimately kill two birds with one stone. One fake marriage equals two happy families. What could possibly go wrong?

Brody was sweating it out as he stood in front of Olivia. What could be so hard about making this decision? She wanted a pretend husband and here he was offering her one on a silver platter. They both could play the happy married couple and they both win by getting overzealous parents off their backs. What could possibly go wrong?

Standing up Olivia held out her hand to Brody. “Alright, proposition accepted,” she said, smiling sweetly.

Brody smiled back in return feeling like a lead weight had been lifted off his shoulders. “Alright,” he agreed taking her smaller hand in his much larger one. Being this close to Olivia he couldn’t help but to notice the bright shimmer of her lip gloss coating those tempting lips that had been taunting him all afternoon. “How about we seal the deal with a kiss?”

Before Olivia could protest a demanding mouth came crashing down on hers. At first she was taken by surprise at his boldness but quickly succumbed to the tenderness as he coaxed her into sweet oblivion.

If felt so right even though Olivia knew in the back of her head it was so wrong. She knew that she should stop Brody from devouring her so wholly, but for the life of her she couldn’t find it in her to pull away. It was just too good.

“Am I interrupting something?”

Both Brody and Olivia jumped apart and stared at the door where Marcy was frowning at the pair.

Brody was grinning away looking very much like a sly Cheshire cat and stated boldly, “Yes.”

At the same time, Olivia looked like a petulant child being caught red handed with her hand in the cookie jar squealing, “No!”

Marcey lifted a questioning brow and then shook her head in disbelief. “I warned you girlfriend, you‘re on your own now,” she spoke directly to Olivia and then shuffled back out of the office closing the door behind her.

Olivia watched her friend leave and for a second wondered if she was making a terrible mistake. Lifting her fingers she touched her swollen lips that still tingled from his kiss. Nah, she told herself. She had this situation completely under control. It wouldn’t be a problem at all, none, whatsoever. Olivia had handled criminals of the worse kind on more than one occasion so she should have no issues handling Brody O’Conner.

The sound of her office phone ringing pulled Olivia's attention back to reality.

She was startled at the sound and turned to Brody who was staring at her intently. Blushing brighter than a ripened tomato she quickly turned away and went to her desk. Lifting the phone from the receiver she brought it to her ear and answered, "Olivia Murray."

At first she heard nothing. Only silence.

More than a little irritated she repeated her name a little louder this time. "Olivia Murray."

This time she did hear something. It was a cold voice that chilled her to the bone. "The clock's ticking down, Olivia, your times running out. Are you ready to meet your maker?"