In Name Only: Best Friend Bride (In Name Only) / One Night Stand Bride (In Name Only) / Contract Bride (In Name Only). Kat Cantrell
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to the simmering awareness between them. Jonas had convinced himself it was easy to honor the pact because he really didn’t feel much when it came to relationships. Sure, he enjoyed sex, but it had always been easy to walk away when the woman pushed for more.
With Viv, the spiral of heat and need was dizzyingly strong. He felt too much, and Marcus’s experience was like a big neon sign, reminding him that it was better never to go down that path. What was he supposed to do, stop being friends with Viv if things went haywire between them? Neither was there a good way to end their relationship before the merger.
So he was stuck. He couldn’t act on his sudden and fierce longing to pull this car over into a shadowy bower of oak trees and find out if all of Viv tasted like sugar and spice and everything nice.
“Maybe we shouldn’t touch each other,” he suggested.
That was a good solution. Except for the part where they were married. Married people touched each other. He bit back the nasty word that had sprung to his lips. Barely.
“Oh.” She nodded. “If you think that won’t cause problems, sure.”
Of course it was going to cause problems. He nearly groaned. But the problems had nothing to do with what she assumed. “Stop being so reasonable. I’m pulling you away from your life with very little compensation in return. You should be demanding and difficult.”
Brilliant. He’d managed to make it sound like touching her was one of the compensation methods. He really needed to get out of this car now that he had a hyperawareness of how easily she could—and would—reach out to slide a hand full of questing fingers into his lap.
Viv grinned and crossed her arms, removing that possibility. “In that case, I’m feeling very bereft in the jewelry department, Mr. Kim. As your wife, I should be draped in gems, don’t you think?”
“Absolutely.” What did it say about how messed up he was that the way Mr. Kim rolled off her tongue turned him on? “Total oversight on my part. Which I will rectify immediately.”
The fourteen-carat diamond on her finger was on loan from a guy Jonas knew in the business, though the hefty fee he’d paid to procure it could have bought enough bling to blind her. Regardless, if Viv wanted jewelry, that’s what she’d get.
They drove into his parents’ neighborhood right on time and he parked in the long drive that led to the house. “Ready?”
She nodded. “All that talk about jewelry got me over my nerves. Thanks.”
That made one of them.
His mom opened the door before they’d even hit the stone steps at the entryway, likely because she’d been watching for the car. But instead of engulfing Jonas in the first of what would be many hugs, she ignored her only child in favor of her new daughter-in-law.
“You must be Viviana,” his mother gushed, and swept Viv up in an embrace that was part friendly and part Thank you, God, I finally have a daughter. “I’m so happy to meet you.”
Viv took it in stride. “Hi, Mrs. Kim. I’m happy to meet you, too. Please call me Viv.”
Of course she wasn’t ruffled. There was so little that seemed to trip her up—except when Jonas touched her. All practicing had done was create surprisingly acute sexual tension that even a casual observer would recognize as smoldering awareness.
He was currently pretending it didn’t exist. Because that would make it not so, right?
“Hi, Mom,” he threw in blithely since she hadn’t even glanced in his direction.
“Your grandfather is inside. He’d like to talk to you while I get to know Viviana. Tell me everything,” she said to her new daughter-in-law as she accepted the box of cupcakes with a smile. “Have you started thinking about kids yet?”
Jonas barely bit back another curse. “Mom, please. We just got here. Viv doesn’t need the third degree about personal stuff.”
Right out of the gate with the baby questions? Really? He’d expected a little decorum from his mom. In vain, obviously, and a mistake because he hadn’t had a chance to go over that with Viv. Should they say they didn’t want children? That she couldn’t have any?
He and Viv clearly should have spent less time “practicing” and more in deep conversation about all aspects of potential questions that might come up this weekend. Which they’d have to rectify tonight before going to bed. In the same room.
His mother shot him a glare. “Grandchildren are not personal. The hope of one day getting some is the only reason I keep you around, after all.”
That made Viv laugh, which delighted his mother, so really, there was nothing left to do but throw up his hands and go seek out Grandfather for his own version of the third degree.
Grandfather held court in the Kim living room, talking to his son. The older Jonas’s dad got, the more he resembled Grandfather, but the similarities ended there. Where Brian Kim had adopted an American name to match his new homeland, Kim Jung-Su wore his Korean heritage like the badge of honor it was.
Kim Electronics had been born after the war, during a boom in Korean capitalism that only a select few had wisely taken advantage of. Jonas loved his dad, but Grandfather had been his mentor, his partner as Jonas had taken what Jung-Su had built and expanded it into the critical US market. They’d created a chaebol, a family-run conglomerate, where none had existed, and they’d done it together.
And he was about to lie to his grandfather’s face solely to avoid marrying a disaster of a woman who might cause the Kim family shame.
It was a terrible paradox and not for the first time he heard Warren’s voice of reason in his head asking why he couldn’t just tell Grandfather the truth. But then he remembered that Sun’s grandfather and Jonas’s grandfather had fought in the war together and were closer than brothers. Jonas refused to out Sun and her unsuitable lover strictly for his own benefit. No, this way was easier.
And it wasn’t a lie. He and Viv were married. That was all anyone needed to know.
Grandfather greeted Jonas in Korean and then switched to English as a courtesy since he was in an English-speaking house. “You are looking well.”
“As are you.” Jonas bowed to show his respect and then hugged his dad, settling in next to him on the couch. “It’s a pleasure to see you.”
Grandfather arched a thick brow. “An unexpected pleasure I assume? I wanted to meet your new wife personally. To welcome her into the family.”
“She is very honored. Mom waylaid her or she’d be here to meet you, as well.”
“I asked your mother to. I wanted to speak with you privately.”
As if it had been some prearranged signal, Jonas’s dad excused himself and the laser sights of Jung-Su had zero distractions. The temperature of the room shot up about a thousand degrees. One misstep and the whole plan would come crashing down. And Jonas suddenly hated the idea of losing this tenuous link with Viv, no matter how precarious that link was.
“Now, then.” Grandfather steepled his hands together and smiled. “I’m very pleased you have decided to marry. It is a big step that will bring you many years of happiness. Belated congratulations.”
Jonas swallowed his surprise. What was the wily old man up to? He’d expected a cross-examination designed to uncover the plot that Grandfather surely suspected. “Thank you. Your approval means a lot to me.”
“As a wedding gift, I’d like to give you the Kim ancestral home.”
“What? I mean, that’s a very generous gesture, Grandfather.” And crafty, as the property in question lay outside of Seoul, seven thousand miles away from North Carolina. Jonas couldn’t refuse or Grandfather would be insulted. But there was an angle here that Jonas couldn’t quite work out.
“Of course I’d hoped you’d live in it with