My Fake Christmas Fiance (Kane Christmas #1) - Julie Kriss Page 0,9

know it’s cold and snowy, and I still forgot a coat. It just slipped my mind.”

She seemed really upset for some reason, so I didn’t have the heart to needle her anymore. “Don’t worry, Penny, it’s an easy fix. We’ll buy you a coat. In the meantime, wear this.” I took off my own coat, extra-warm and hip-length black fleece with a shell for the wet snow, and handed it to her.

She stared at it but didn’t take it. “What will you wear?”

“I’ll be fine.”

“You’ll be cold.”

“I’m not letting you go cold. Take the coat.”

She grumbled, but she reached for the coat. She grasped it with her right hand, and both of us paused as the ring I’d bought her flashed into view, right there between us.

I’d bought the ring to fulfill that part of the contract, but it looked…nice. Her hands were as pretty as I remembered, elegant and smooth. She didn’t wear any other jewelry.

I looked up and our eyes locked. Both of us panicked.

“Don’t get any ideas,” I said. “This doesn’t mean anything.”

“I know,” Penny said quickly. “I’m not marrying you, contract or no contract.”

“I’m not marrying you either.”

“Glad we have that clear.”

She had her hand on my coat, but she hadn’t taken it. I pushed it toward her. “Take the coat, Penny.”

“Got it.”

“Go get your suitcase, and I’ll go get my car.”

“Right.”

“I’m just being nice here, since you’re new to town and everything. Trying to keep you from freezing to death.”

“I appreciate it.”

She yanked the coat from me and put it on, and I turned and left, striding toward the tunnel to the underground parking garage like my ass was on fire.

There’s nothing that scares a guy like me more than the thought of a wedding.

Good thing Penny and I weren’t going to have one.

Chapter 4

Penny

Wesley’s car was a big black SUV. I watched him toss my suitcase in the back like it weighed nothing, and then we got in and drove away from the airport.

My brain was in a spin. I was embarrassed about the coat thing. That wasn’t like me at all; I must be stressed out.

I was also thrown for a loop by the way he looked. I’d met Wesley only a handful of times in my life, and each time had been at a business meeting, where he was wearing a suit. I was not prepared for the sight of him in well-worn jeans and a flannel shirt of dark red-and-black plaid, casually unbuttoned over a white tee. He had work boots on his feet. Except for his clean-cut hair, he looked like some kind of mountain man. He even had a layer of scruff on his jaw. He was a mountain man with gorgeous blue eyes.

I sank lower into his coat as he pulled the SUV out into traffic. The coat was warm and smelled like him—a faint waft of cologne and the tang of men’s deodorant. I’d never worn a man’s coat before, and this one had just been covering Wes’s body a few minutes ago. I wondered silently if I was suddenly ovulating.

“Are you okay?” he asked after a minute. “You’re awfully quiet.”

“I’m fine.” I waved a hand, trying to look casual. “I’m just, you know, fertile.”

His brows furrowed, as if he hadn’t heard me correctly. “What?”

“I think it’s futile,” I said loudly to cover up my gaffe. “I mean, it’s futile for me to be so mad at myself that I forgot a coat. Right?”

“Sure it is,” he said, and I was relieved I didn’t have to open the passenger door and hurl myself into traffic.

“Listen, Penny,” he said, ignoring the fact that I’d told him for the hundredth time that my name was Penelope. I didn’t correct him this time because I was sort of getting used to it. “I know we haven’t exactly gotten along in the past. And I know we don’t have much in common. But we don’t have to be enemies here. We’re both in the same boat, with our fathers gone and the two of us stuck handling this merger. I think we can get along.”

“Yes,” I said, trying not to stare at him. Who was this man? The Wesley I thought I knew was silly and never serious, a playboy. But this Wesley had looked up my flight and met me at the airport, then given me his coat, all without my asking. I wasn’t sure what to make of him, except that he really was good-looking up close. “We can