Chapter 1

Ethan Bennett went overseas for a month. While he was gone, his family found him a wife.

Faced with the furious man himself, I panicked and blurted out the worst possible greeting.

“Hi, hubby.”

He flushed, then scowled. After a moment, he gave a short, disbelieving laugh.

“Get out.” His low voice left no room for discussion.

Later, though, he would be the one holding me tightly around the waist.

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Our department dinner dragged on past midnight. By the time I climbed into a cab, I could barely keep my eyes open.

I'd had far too many fruity cocktails, and my head was swimming.

The cab dropped me at the gated community's entrance. It felt like forever before I finally reached the Bennetts' house.

I let myself in. The housekeeper seemed to have gone to bed, so I crept upstairs to my room.

Those drinks had tasted so sweet. Who knew they'd hit this hard?

At least I didn't have work tomorrow.

Hot and uncomfortable, I slipped off my dress as I entered the bedroom, then fell onto the mattress in my underwear.

I didn't notice the man on the other side of the bed opening his eyes.

A hand clamped around my wrist.

It hurt.

I blinked at him, struggling to focus. In the dim bedside light, I could make out an exceptionally handsome face.

“Are you robbing me?” His voice was dangerously quiet.

He glanced down at what I was wearing, then narrowed his eyes.

“Or did someone send you to my bed? How did you get in?”

His grip tightened. The pain cleared some of the alcohol from my head.

He looked exactly like the man in the photograph Mrs. Bennett had shown me.

“Hi, hubby,” I blurted.

He pulled the belt from his robe and tied my wrists together, then got up and switched on the lights.

I squeezed my eyes shut against the glare. When I could finally look again, he was standing beside the bed, staring at me with a grim expression.

He picked up a throw and dropped it over me.

“How did you get in?” he repeated coldly.

Without its belt, his robe hung open. I could see his chest and stomach, and even under the circumstances, I couldn't help noticing how good-looking he was.

Unfortunately, he also looked ready to kill someone.

“I know the code,” I said shakily. “Your grandmother gave it to me. She told me to stay here.”

Ethan frowned.

“My grandmother?”

He clearly didn't believe me.

I nodded quickly. “Yes. You can ask her.”

He gave a humorless laugh, picked up his phone from the nightstand, and called her.

I couldn't hear what she said. I could only watch him grow more exasperated by the second.

“Grandma, have you lost your mind?”

He hung up, untied my wrists, and fetched the dress I'd left near the door. He tossed it into my lap.

“Get out.”

I stood, keeping the throw wrapped around me.

“She explained everything, right?”

“She did. Sleep somewhere else. I don't share a bed with strangers.”

He looked so forbidding that I gathered my things and hurried out.