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speak, but nothing came out. Her elbows brushed his chest as she lowered her arms, her thighs bumped into his. Now his jeans were beginning to cut off circulation, belying his self-assurances that he didn’t find her attractive.
    How could he have known that beneath her awful, huge clothes, his cleaning lady/fictional fiancée had been hiding a body to die for?
    â€œI think I burned my skin in a couple of spots.” With her head bent, her silky hair slid over his arm as she stared down at herself.
    Colin stared, too. She was slender yet wildly curved, and he wished she would pull her overalls back up.
    She drew a deep breath and opened her eyes, smiling at him in relief. “You didn’t tell me how much better that felt!”
    Speech was impossible. Her overalls had dropped to just below her waist, so he had a front-row view of her smooth, very flat stomach, her slim but curved hips, the outline of her firm, high, unencumbered breasts.
    Good Lord. No doubt in his mind, he was attracted to his cleaning lady.
    To his fiancée.
    She flashed that brain-cell-destroying smile again. “You okay?”
    He wasn’t sure. He couldn’t think. He remembered a bawdy joke he’d been told, about how men had both a brain and a penis, but only enough blood to operate one at a time. He believed it now. “Uh-huh. I’m fine.”
    â€œSo we’re going to live together to prove we’re a loving couple.”
    A loving couple. Damn, but that was terrifying. Unable to help himself, he looked at her again, and felt his body’s surging response. She was one of the sexiest women he’d ever seen. And he was going to live with her. “We have to fool my mother, never an easy thing,” he said a bit hoarsely. He cleared his throat. “She has eyes in the back of her head, and…” at her questioning look, he sighed again, loudly, “she thinks we’ve been living together already.”
    Her gaze widened briefly, then ran over his body once before she swallowed hard. “Well,” she said.
    â€œYeah. Well. ”
    They stared at each other, awkwardly. Colin couldn’t get past her easy forgiveness, her willingness to want to help him. Or her huge, expressive eyes.
    â€œIt’s certainly not going to be a hardship to live at your house instead of here,” she said finally. “You have air-conditioning.”
    That wasn’t the hardship he was worried about.This was pretend, this whole crazy scene, and it would be over as soon as he could finish his project. Lani would leave, and in spite of the fact that he was discovering an attraction, he wouldn’t hurt her by letting her think there was more involved here.
    â€œMy work won’t change,” she said, almost as a question, touchingly uncertain.
    â€œNo, I don’t want to disrupt your work. Lani…I have to know… Why are you doing this?”
    She tilted her head, a small smile about her lips. “Your project,” she said simply. “It’s unselfish and hopeful and full of promise. I want you to finish it. If I can help, then it makes me feel useful and a part of it.”
    â€œIs that the only reason?”
    A flicker of unease crossed her face, then disappeared. “Of course.”
    He didn’t know what to make of her, she wasn’t like any woman he’d ever met. And they were going to live together. Her razor in his shower. Her toothbrush on his sink. Her panties in with his whites. His head spun at that last thought.
    He wondered if those panties were as revealing as the teeny, tiny, little top she wore now. And oh boy, sometime in the past minute or so, she’d gotten cold. Her nipples, rosy and mouthwateringly perfect, were pushing at the thin cotton, straining for freedom.
    â€œSo we’re on?” she asked innocently.
    He was a dead man, but they were on. “Yes.”
    She laughed, dove at him and flung her arms around his