One Fake Fiance - Jennifer Youngblood Page 0,5

eyes. Even though she was throwing him a look that could kill, Lucas couldn’t help but admire her spunk.

When Magnolia spoke, her voice was flat, as if she were reading from a script. “My grandmother was the daughter of Quinton Bentley.” She looked at Lucas as if waiting for him to react.

“Never heard of him,” he said dryly.

“He made his fortune in oil and then used it to invest in other businesses,” Magnolia explained. “He had one daughter—Carol Bentley, my late grandmother. My grandparents had one son, my father Oscar. I’m an only child, meaning I’m the only heir.”

“Your family’s not much for procreation, huh?” Lucas quipped.

“Shh,” Lexi warned, elbowing Lucas. The two were sitting on the couch with Magnolia across from them.

Lucas caught a blip of amusement in Magnolia’s eyes. It gave him a strange sense of pleasure to know that she thought his joke was funny.

“On my twenty-seventh birthday, December thirtieth, I’m to inherit my trust fund, totaling ten million dollars.”

Lucas felt his eyes bulge. “Ten million dollars?” he croaked. “Wow.” That amount of money was so far above his reach that it was staggering. He couldn’t even comprehend what it would be like to have one million dollars, much less ten. “Congratulations,” he threw out mechanically. That’s how it went. The rich got richer, while the rest of the world scratched and clawed to carve out a living. Magnolia Bentley had been born with a silver spoon in her mouth.

“Tell him the rest,” Lexi prompted.

Magnolia clasped her hands tightly in her lap. “There are a few conditions to me getting my inheritance.” She swallowed, rubbing her tongue over her lips. “I have to be married.”

Lucas made a face. “Seriously? What kind of trust is this?”

“Don’t even get me started,” Magnolia fumed. “I’m so ticked at my late grandmother. If she were here right now, I’d squeeze her neck until her head popped off.”

Lucas chuckled. “Okay, tell me how you really feel.”

“Believe me. I am!” Magnolia shot back.

The pieces of the puzzle were starting to shift into place. He eyed Magnolia. “So you need a fiancé.”

She nodded, looking away.

He turned to Lexi, his voice throttling up several notches. “And you thought that would be me?”

Color brushed his younger sister’s cheeks. “I did. You want to purchase a ranch.”

A disbelieving laugh tickled his throat. “Yeah, but you can bet your best boots that I’m not gonna marry a sugar mama to get it. You know me better than that.”

Magnolia’s face drained. “I told you this wasn’t going to work,” she said to Lexi.

Lexi moistened her lips, tucking her hair behind her ears. “Magnolia called me in a panic. Her boyfriend—the man she thought she would marry—cheated on her.” Lexi gave him a pleading look. “I figured if anyone would understand the pain that causes, you would.”

Lucas’s lungs squeezed, cutting off his air. A sense of shame cloaked him when he saw Magnolia’s sympathetic expression. He certainly didn’t need anyone—least of all Magnolia Bentley—feeling sorry for him. “I’m way past caring what happened to my failed marriage,” he said gruffly.

Lexi touched his arm. “I know. I only meant that you and Magnolia have something in common.” She glanced at Magnolia as she spoke. “Magnolia asked me to fix her up with a good guy.” Her voice quivered with intensity. “You are one of the best I know.”

Lucas’s thoughts were thrashing around his skull like a bronco, refusing to be reined in. “I’m not marrying for money.” The idea went against every core principle that made up who he was. “And I’m especially not getting hitched to some spoiled heiress who wouldn’t know what a hard day’s work was if it bit her in the butt.”

Outrage streaked over Magnolia’s face, turning it cherry red. “You don’t know me,” she hissed. “I’ll wager that I could work you and every other block-headed cowboy under the table. Despite what you think, I’ve worked hard to get where I am.”

Amusement simmered in his gut. “Oh, yeah, and exactly where are you? Front and center of the country club league or whatever you people call your little get-togethers?”

“That’s enough,” Lexi warned.

Magnolia looked like she might spring out of her seat any minute and flee the room. Well, maybe that was for the best, so they could put an end to this ridiculous conversation.

Lexi tipped her head thoughtfully. “What if Magnolia’s right?”

Lucas sensed a trap. “What do you mean?”

“I’m sure you could find plenty of work for Magnolia to do on the ranch. She could show