Married By Mistake

the computer at my place to work on your book, since you’ll have nothing else to do.”
    He smiled and Casey’s danger sensors went on alert. This man was used to getting what he wanted, and she suspected he might ride roughshod over others to get it.
    “It could be just what you dreamed of, a no-strings marriage,” he added.
    She’d dreamed of no-strings love.
    “It sounds selfish,” she said, trying to imagine lying to her family just so she could stay away from them.
    “Exactly,” Adam said with satisfaction. “This is all about being selfish for once in your life.” He regarded her doubtfully. “I suspect you’re no good at it, but I’ll show you how. Then, when our time is up, we’ll go our separate ways. No demands on each other, no... neediness. ” He all but shuddered at the word, and in that moment Casey decided to grab with both hands the opportunity he presented.
    “You’re right.” She felt a sudden, blissful lightening of her gloom, and sprang to her feet. “I’m sick of being needed. Let’s do it, Adam. Let’s be selfish.”
    “Utterly, totally, one hundred percent selfish.” He smiled broadly, and that furrow in his brow turned into a laugh line, making him look younger, almost carefree.
    He put out a hand to shake on the deal. By now, the buzz of electricity his touch produced was so familiar, Casey could almost persuade herself to ignore it.
    But could she ignore it for a whole month?

CHAPTER FIVE
    E LOISE C ARMICHAEL DIDN ’ T let her hesitation show in her walk. Sam Magill had eyes in the back of his head where she was concerned. She wouldn’t put it past him to have sensed her arrival and be watching her progress up his front path on this fine Sunday afternoon.
    She wouldn’t want him to get the wrong idea about her turning up at his house uninvited. She stiffened her spine and took brisk, businesslike steps, which wasn’t easy wearing delicate high-heeled pumps in the green silk-linen fabric that matched her suit.
    She pressed the brass doorbell near the wide front door and waited, clutching her green kid leather purse in front of her.
    Sam opened the door. He blinked twice in astonishment, making his face seem even more owlish than usual. Then a flush crept up his cheeks from somewhere below his chin. Today, that predictable reaction was a relief, not an embarrassment. Because Eloise was here to take advantage of Sam’s...interest in her.
    He smiled warmly. “Eloise, what an unexpected pleasure.”
    She had to admit it was nice to know at least one man was always happy to see her. Sam’s regard went some small way toward countering all the frosty welcomes she’d endured from her stepson over the years.
    “What can I do for you?” That catch phrase prefaced their every conversation.
    Eloise wondered if the man had ever heard of “Good afternoon” or “How are you today?” He was still smiling, hopefully now.
    She shouldn’t have come. She dropped her gaze from the transparent eagerness of his expression. Then blinked. He was wearing bedroom slippers on his feet! Brown-and-cream checked ones that had seen better days, judging by the pilling at the toes. Eloise drew in a breath. It was silly to be shocked, but James would never have answered the door in his slippers.
    James is gone.
    “I need to talk to you about Adam,” she said, the wobble in her voice part grief at the reminder of what she’d lost, but mainly anxiety for her stepson. “I should have called first, but I thought you might refuse to see me.”
    “Refuse... No, of course... Why would I?” Sam stepped back to let her in. He stumbled against an Oriental pot used as an umbrella stand and it toppled over, spilling two neatly furled black umbrellas onto the polished floorboards. “Oh, dear, just let me—” He bent to retrieve the umbrellas, and when he stood up, dislodged a hat hanging on a row of pegs on the wall.
    Sam had never looked twice at Eloise during her marriage, nor in those early years after James’s death. But for three years now, he’d had this crush on her. He knocked things over, blurted tactless remarks, blushed to the roots of his hair—just like a teenage boy, minus the acne.
    Knowing it would take him half a minute to regain his composure, Eloise waited in silence while he stumbled over words and furnishings.
    She valued loyalty, so she appreciated that his attachment to her never wavered. But she wished she wasn’t too much of a lady to tell him bluntly there was