The Rancher's Hired Fiancée

Yet tonight, with lovely Catherine on his arm, the hospital benefit had not only been tolerable, but surprisingly pleasant.

Of course, now as the evening was winding down, he and Catherine had become separated once again. Usually they’d split up due to someone wanting to speak to him privately about one matter or another. But a couple of times, someone else had whisked Catherine away to introduce her to somebody she “just had to meet.”

However, they’d always managed to find each other in the midst of the milling crowd.

Even from across the room, their gazes would meet. And when they did, Catherine would look at Ray with a lover’s yearning. At least, that’s the way it felt to him.

The first time it had happened, he’d been so unbalanced by the expression on her face that his breath had caught. But after a while he’d actually come to look forward to their eye contact.

What was with that?

He knew that their so-called romance was all an act, but he’d gotten so caught up in their performance that he’d found himself seeking her out, just to catch her eye.

And there she was now, standing next to a potted palm, talking to one of the doctors’ wives. And here it came—the glance his way, the look, the smile, the expression that announced she would much rather be curled up in bed with him.

She was good. Really good. And it was all he could do to remember that they’d only just met, that she was his employee, that they hadn’t slept together—and that they would never even consider it.