Married By Mistake

no.”
    She took the wind out of Adam’s sails. He gripped the railing, breathing hard. “Why the hell didn’t you say so?”
    “You didn’t ask, you just assumed.” She flounced past him, and he reached out and grabbed her by the elbow.
    “What else would I think when you’re such a pushover? You’d still be in Parkvale with your sister if I hadn’t dragged you out of there the other week.”
    “I learned something that day,” she said. “You showed me how to say no, and today I did it for myself.”
    He grinned at the pride in her voice—and deliberately shut out the relief that made him almost light-headed. “That’s my girl.”
    “I did it for me, not for you,” she said, annoyed.
    “Of course.” His grin widened. “Sorry I yelled.”
    She smiled back. “One good thing about you, there’s no chance of you manipulating me with sweet talk and neediness and adoring.” She sat back down on the swing, and Adam did the same.
    “Do you realize we just had our first fight?” Casey turned to look at him and found him closer than she’d thought, his face just inches from hers.
    “Do you realize,” he parroted, “that your new friend next door probably heard every word of it?”
    Casey clapped a hand over her mouth.
    “You see,” Adam said in a superior tone, “if you’d never met him, it wouldn’t bother you. Now you’ve opened a can of worms, and it’s your problem, darling. ”
    “Likening Bob Harvey to a can of worms is very rude.”
    Adam slung an arm over her shoulders. It was casual but nice. “So how do you feel about Joe? It can’t have been easy.”
    She leaned into him, just the tiniest bit. “It was pretty awful. But now I feel...free.”
    “You’re a married woman,” he teased. His hand tightened on her shoulder, and a tingling warmth spread down her arm. She looked away from him.
    “Joe’s the only guy I’ve ever dated,” she said, partly to explain to herself why she reacted so strongly to the unfamiliar excitement of Adam’s touch. “I need to learn how to build healthy relationships without getting sucked into that need thing. I guess I should start dating. After our annulment, of course.” She patted his knee in reassurance, and left her hand there a moment longer than she should just because it felt good.
    Adam’s heart stopped. He’d only just gotten over the shock of believing she was going back to Joe, and now she was talking about dating other men.
    His reaction to that news, on top of his overreaction to her lunch with Joe, confirmed that his attraction to Casey was more than physical. He didn’t want her thinking about dating other men while she was still living with him. Which meant he had to decide what he did want.
    Keep her close...but not too close.
    He twirled a strand of her hair around his finger. “You don’t have to wait for the annulment.”
    Her eyes widened. “Our fake marriage won’t be very convincing if I start dating other guys.”
    “You could date me.”
    Casey’s stomach flipped. “Date...you?”
    “I was Memphis’s most eligible bachelor,” he pointed out. “I’m considered quite a catch.”
    She looked at him, at his tall, graceful physique, the strong planes of his face, his intense blue eyes. “I don’t doubt it. So how come you don’t have a girlfriend?”
    He shrugged. “I haven’t met anyone suitable in a while.”
    There was that word again. “Suitable?”
    “Someone who wants to make the most of it when we’re together, but doesn’t demand a lot in between times. And who’s happy to say goodbye when it’s over.”
    It sounded as if he dated the way he did everything else. Logically, with decisive intent.
    He smiled, a flash of white teeth. “Like you said, I’m not about to manipulate you or need you.”
    “When we were staying at the Peabody, you warned me there was no chance of a relationship between us.”
    “I said a permanent relationship,” he corrected. “We still have a time limit.”
    “I want to learn how to date,” she said. “What do you want?”
    He ran a finger along her jaw. “Do you need to ask? You’re a beautiful, sexy—” his voice turned husky “—desirable woman.”
    Adam wanted her.
    “What exactly would dating you involve?”
    Her practical question made him smile. “We go out together,” he said. “Out for meals. Sometimes, we stay in together. It’s not much different from what we do already, except there’ll be more of this.” He moved closer, so