A Wife for One Year. Brenda Harlen

to his dry tone. “Almost as crazy as the two of us getting married.”

      “But we did that anyway,” he pointed out.

      “You set out the terms,” she reminded him. “A one-year marriage on paper only.”

      He had set out the terms—desperately and impulsively. And he would have offered her anything, agreed to anything, because getting her to that chapel in Vegas had been a prerequisite to the release of his trust fund. But agreeing to twelve months of marriage on paper only when he’d already been celibate for more than six had not been a well-thought-out plan.

      Especially now that he’d seen his wife’s underwear.

      “What if I want to renegotiate?” he asked.

      Kenna shook her head. “Not going to happen.”

      He took a step closer, deliberately invading her personal space. “You know me well enough to know that I can’t resist a challenge.”

      She held up a hand, no doubt to push him away, but her palm hovered in the air, as if reluctant to touch his bare skin. Her gaze dropped to the towel slung around his waist, and her breath hitched.

      Clearly his wife wasn’t as unaffected as she wanted him to believe. He caught her wrist and pressed her palm against his chest, so she could feel his heart pounding against his ribs.

      She moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue, drawing his attention to the tempting curve of her mouth. And he was tempted. Since the brief kiss they’d shared in that Las Vegas chapel, he’d spent an inordinate amount of time thinking about the lushness of her mouth, wanting to sink into the softness, savor her sweet flavor.

      One simple kiss had blown the boundaries of his relationship with Kenna to smithereens, and he didn’t know how to reestablish them. Or even if he wanted to.

      “Aren’t you the least bit curious about how it might be between us?”

      “No,” she said, though her inability to meet his gaze made him suspect it was a lie. “I’d prefer to maintain my unique status as one of only a handful of women in Charisma who haven’t slept with you.”