Tempt Me - By Shiloh Walker Page 0,5

also be bad, bad news…

“You know, you could just find your own supplier,” Cole pointed out as he watched Mara adjust her costume.

She glared at him in the mirror. “I want Lush. Every damn person I’ve talked to has only thing to say: Lush is the best lingerie designer around. So Lush is who I’m going to get. She only does designs for that Rocki bitch and a few others, though, and she doesn’t have a website or any way for me to contact her. So if I want to talk to her, tonight is my best chance.”

Then she looked away from him and focused on her image. Her blonde hair was swept up in some intricate knot, leaving her neck and shoulders bare. The gown she wore was cut so low, it left next to nothing to the imagination. She smiled at him. “How do I look?”

“Beautiful,” he replied honestly. And she did. Mara would be hard-pressed not to.

“Excellent.” She squared her shoulders and reached for her mask. “Do you have your mask?”

He glanced down at the black one he’d picked up to wear with his tuxedo and sighed. “Yeah. You realize you may not even get through the door without an invitation, right?”

“I’ve asked around. All they care about is a donation—a sizeable one. The charity is some police thing—can’t remember what. We’ll make a donation and we’ll get in. Just make sure you have your checkbook. It’s not a concern.”

My checkbook. Shit. He sighed. “Fine. Whatever.”

“Really, Cole. You should be more excited for me. You know how badly I want this information.” Mara leaned forward and adjusted her mask, studying her face in the mirror. “You know, you could see if you couldn’t get some of the information from Rocki yourself.”

Something cold and unpleasant settled in his gut as he stared at her. “What?”

Mara laughed. “I saw how she looked at you. The dumpy bitch probably hasn’t had a good lay in years. No telling what kind of sorry loser she’s married to. She was all but stripping you naked with her eyes. Play up to it.” Slowly, she turned around and leaned back against the dressing table, smiling at him. “What do you say? Could you put that pretty face of yours to use and see what she’ll tell you?”

Cole sauntered up to her, keeping his face blank. He dipped his head, placing his lips right next to Mara’s ear. Slowly, he breathed her scent, waiting as she shivered. Then, in a low voice, he whispered, “Hell, no.”

Unwilling to look at her, he stormed out of their bedroom. Their bedroom...with a bed they shared, yet sometimes it felt like he was sleeping with a stranger. They hadn’t touched each other in more than two weeks, or maybe it was three? Oddly enough, other than waking up with a typical morning hard-on, he didn’t even care.

One thing that did bother him, though, was the fact that lately he’d been wondering if this marriage was really the ideal for them. But now, he was almost certain—it might be okay for Mara, but he was pretty sure it wasn’t right for him.

He’d go to the damn party. More out of a sense of obligation and to make sure Mara didn’t do anything that he might regret—he was a silent partner in her business, but he was still a partner. But then he was going to take a few days away. Decide whether this marriage was the right thing, or just the convenient thing. And if it wasn’t right, he was getting out before it was too late.

He was almost certain that he and Mara would be having an interesting discussion come Monday.

“Would you yank that stick out of your ass?” Mara bit off in a low voice as they settled into the line wrapping around the block.

Cole glanced down at her and then away. “Sweetheart, I’m so pissed off right now, you’d be wise to leave me alone unless you just want to go in there alone.” Unlike her, he didn’t bother lowering his voice. She squeezed his arm, her nails biting into his skin through his jacket. “And I’m rather certain you didn’t bring your checkbook.”

“What is your problem?” she snapped.

“Other than you expecting me to play man-whore just to get you information you don’t need?” He looked at her, tried to remember when she’d become this self-centered, this cold. Had she always been this way and he just hadn’t seen it? He didn’t know.

People were staring at