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Chapter One

“What you need is a wife”

David Bennett leaned back in his chair, crossed his hands behind his head and gave his best friend and legal counsel the kind of look that indicated he was insane

Craig Brantley continued “Don’t look at me like you think I’ve lostto fuck you You know it” He paused and then continued with his opinion “You should have this shit wrapped up tight The presidency should be yours You’ve got the education and the experience Fuck, you’ve got the faoddale-handedly running the business for years”

David conte out loud was nothing new to hi a reversed for their feet was because he was family He was a Bennett

The old bastards were taking it one step too far They were considering handing the job to a younger ood, valuable employee, true But Troy Johnson didn’t have the backbone it would take, much less the ruthless drive to expand when the time was called for It was a fine line Always a fine line If you didn’t expand, you were sunk If you expanded too quickly, you were sunk Johnson didn’t have the knowledge or the balls it would take to advance the company

It was a private corporation, and David’s frustration and resentht about the risk the old dinosaurs on the board were taking by not seeing the forest because of the trees They were not only fucking around with hi with his preferred stock, his inheritance, and his family name

He steadily concentrated on thein front of his desk “How do you think a ould help me?” David asked

Craig leaned back and crossed a large, booted foot over his knee “It’s simple, man They see you as a risk because you’re not settled You’re nothing but a player to the old geezers A liability They listen to the ruet back to the board Johnson’s steady He has a wife and the designated two-point-five kids A house with a yard A godda” He paused and crossed his aret that shit, David You need to get a wife, and quick-fast”

David raised a semi-amused eyebrow “And where the hell am I supposed to find her? 1-800-HOTWIFE?”

Craig raised his eyebrows and responded seriously “You’ve got wo out of the damn ork Just choose one”

David scowled “I pay you a shitload of money to keep you on retainer Is this the best idea you can come up with?”

“Yeah You payyou what you have to do to win this fight I’ll have the pre-nup ready in two days Choose a girl, man”

Jenna Marie Hardin sat at her desk at work and ruh her botto, and as usual, she didn’t have any money She usually kept ramen noodles, microwave popcorn and cups of macaroni and cheese for such occasions The proble a lot of such occasions lately Her draas depressingly empty

Frustration gripped her She liked to think of herself as relatively smart How the hell she had ended up in this situation was a mystery Not a corown, and her circumstances were dire Why the hell didn’t they h school take a basic financial class? Then maybe she wouldn’t have listened when everyone told her to take out student loans It’s okay Go to a good college and take out loans Then when you get an aweso out real well for her

Now, the whole college thing just seeone to a state school? No Private college was for her At the ti She had been a serious student, and didn’t feel the need to party as rand in debt with a fine arts degree that apparently

Oh, the irony of it all She had actually had to duet this job As far as the people she orking for knew, she didn’t have any college under her belt,for a job that ree, the recession had finally forced her to take anything she could get And she was dairl had to eat And now she sat all day in front of a ter information for accounts receivables for this wholesale safety distribution network

She looked up frolanced around the office She worked in a large central room, at one of many open desks lined up and surrounded on two sides by cubicles The cubicles were the offices of ement and were adjacent to the executive corridor that was better known as any row That here the offices of the corporate executives were located Where the guys sat at any desks all day The uys in suits She had worked here for six months now, and had never spoken to any of thenize the employees she had ever had a conversation orked in Human Resources

Her sto heart that she wouldn’t get to feed it until she got hoone without meals before, so this wouldn’t kill her Still, a cup of coffee would dull soar She needed soet, oh well

She stood up and made her way to the lunch room It was almost two o’clock, and the ss of the coffee into a Styrofoaar packets in She upended the crea the cabinet below her, she knelt down and began opening a new box of coffee supplies

She heard the door shut, the shuffle of feet and an irritated o

What the fuck a for a wife?”

Jenna heard the disgusted words and amusement came to the fore Advertise for a wife? How funny was that?

She stood to her feet and turned in a graceful movement to face the men she realized hadn’t seen her when they entered Her eyes landed on the firstexpression on his face She vaguely recognized hiany row Before she could stop herself, she heard the words that iave hi smile and moved her eyes to the next man and the smile fell from her lips David Bennett

She froze by the countertop as she recognized the man that ran the coirls in accounting had certainly pointed hiht he was freaking God’s gift, but Jenna didn’t see it Whenever she saw hiuely threatened She had found his eyes on her lanced up from her computer screen as he walked to the elevators As if they were connected by an invisible live wire, she could feel when he watched her And he watched her often

When it came to men and attraction, she had encountered two types of ht past her to the blue-eyed, skinny blonde girls of the world The other type of men saw her and stared They stared at her C cups, down her hourglass shape, and back to her C cups as if they’d died and gone to heaven David Bennett was one such man She’d known frohten and her breath hitch It also made her uncomfortable

He had an aura of ruthlessness that chilled her He was tall and brawny and his face held a hawkish countenance that was onlyeyes Eyes that were directed on her now

She shifted restlessly and h her when she realized he had been the one thatcomment She seriously doubted the blond man would have used that tone of voice to the boss So thatfor the role of his wife Agitation filled her and all she wanted was to slink from the room

The men stood in a frozen tableau by the door and the quiet after her question was deafening as they continued to stand and stare at her

Her hands shook slightly as she grabbed her coffee sans creao The at before she got the hell out of there She looked at the handsoerous of the two “I’et back to work”

The blond ently teased, “No problem He’s the one that needs a wife”

Her eyes skittered to his co eyes watched her with a feral, territorial look that froze the air in her lungs She shifted restlessly as nerves tightened into distress He was looking at her with a punishing intensity that she didn’t think the situation called for Like she had co to have to pay for it She cleared her throat and looked away “Yes, well… g-good luck with that”

Jenna balanced her coffee carefully in her hand and side-stepped the men in front of the door She twisted the handle, squeezed through it, and fled for her life