Read When Lightning Strikes for Free Online Page B

never seen a grown woman turn so red.”
    She grimaced. “With my coloring, it doesn’t take much.” Which
hardly seemed fair, since the two of them were tanned to a perfect café au lait
despite the fact that summer had ended two months ago.
    Ian’s grin stretched wider. “I’m starting to like you, you know
that? For someone who’s so uptight and controlling, you’re not bad.”
    God, he made her sound like her father. She cringed at the
militant image that presented. But she was her father’s daughter. She’d heard
that before. She’d even inherited his freckles and strawberry-blond hair, both
of which she hated as much as his intensity.
    “I don’t care if you like me or not,” she said. But it wasn’t
true. She was the worst kind of type A, worse than her father, because she was
also a pleaser, which meant she’d work herself to death to meet everyone’s
expectations, no matter how unreasonable they might be.
    “Is there an answer in my near future?” Simon shook his drink,
causing the ice to clink against the glass.
    Lifting her chin, she addressed him herself. “Yes.”
    “Yes, what?”
    “Yes, I expect you to go two years without sex. That’s what the
job requires.”
    He took another drink of his club soda as if this didn’t bother
him, but a subtle tightening around the mouth and eyes said otherwise. “So
you’ll be my wife in name and pocketbook only.”
    “Basically. Although I’ll be signing a prenup, so I’ll have
enough to make you look generous and in love, but no access to your millions.
You’ll pay for our wedding rings and the kind of wardrobe your wife should have.
The sale of the pictures will cover my contract.”
    She got the impression he was circling, searching for
vulnerability, like a buzzard.
    “A rock on your finger and a few clothes. That’s all you’ll
need from me to get you through the next two years?”
    “That and some privacy. Once I’m Mrs. O’Neal, my business
should recover on its own. I say we go our separate ways behind closed doors,
don’t you?” How else would they survive suddenly being shackled to each other,
two people who were so opposite and ill-suited?
    “For the most part…yes.”
    She’d expected him to be more adamant that she keep her
distance whenever possible. He’d had no interest in her on a personal level
before. In the past year, neither had he listened to anything she’d told him
professionally, despite paying a hefty monthly retainer for her guidance and
advice. He was only listening now because he’d bottomed out.
    “We’ll need personal space and time alone,” she went on.
“Considering the number of mansions you own, having our own space shouldn’t be a
problem.” There was definitely room enough for two at his
twenty-five-thousand-square-foot home in Belize, for instance. Room enough for
her to handle her business remotely, with Serge’s and Josh’s help; it would grow
by leaps and bounds as soon as word of their union got out. Simon could…read
scripts or whatever he did when he wasn’t shooting a movie. “We should live a
few weeks here and a few weeks there—preferably out of the country as much as
possible. That’ll help us keep ahead of the paparazzi, control which details get
out.”
    He pursed his lips. “You won’t miss sex? It won’t be hard for
you to sleep alone for two years?”
    She gestured carelessly. “I’ll miss it, but…my world doesn’t revolve around getting
lucky. I’m a mature adult. I can delay gratification until our marriage is
over.”
    If he got her hint that he should be able to do the same, he
didn’t let it deter him, didn’t act the least bit chastised or embarrassed. “And
if I feel more strongly about not having to go so long?”
    She curled her fingernails into her palms. “I’m afraid you—you
don’t have any choice. It’s the only way this will work.”
    “You could change your mind.”
    That was what he’d been getting at all along. Gail’s