My Big Fake Green-Card Wedding. Mollie Molay

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      Chapter Two

      Melina blushed. She’d agreed to go through the motions of getting married, but a honeymoon? He was talking about pretending to share the ultimate intimate interlude when they hardly knew each other! Of course, it was true that she could hardly control her attraction to him. Was it his broad shoulders, the laughter in his eyes or the strong reach of his hands set alongside hers on the table? Whatever the attraction, it was working. “A honeymoon? You’re joking, aren’t you?”

      “No,” he said with a quirked eyebrow. “That’s what people do when they get married.”

      Melina wasn’t sure she was comfortable with the way he was looking at her. The expression in his eyes made her feel as if he were actually imagining her in their marriage bed on their wedding night. The picture was so vivid, she instinctively warmed at the thought of his arms around her, the taste of his full, masculine lips on hers. Of heated skin gliding over heated skin and her hands running through his thick sandy-brown hair.

      What might happen next if she wasn’t careful, was what bothered her. As a virgin, she could only imagine such a scenario.

      Another woman might have been overwhelmed by the anticipatory gleam in Adam’s eyes, but Melina was too intelligent to believe what she saw there was real. Nevertheless, she had to admit that he was wonderfully sexy.

      At the moment she felt as if he was savoring her as a cat savored cream—or was it a canary? No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t keep all those odd American expressions straight. But considering this was only a game they had agreed to play, he looked entirely too pleased with himself.

      “Since this is going to be a marriage of convenience,” she said firmly, “we have to make a few rules.”

      “Rules?” Adam looked taken aback at her request, but she didn’t care. He’d laid out his thoughts about their so-called marriage. It was her turn.

      “Yes, rules. Agreed?”

      Adam smiled. “Sure, but remember, this has to look like a real marriage.”

      The more Adam appeared to be amused, the more Melina became determined to set limits. This wasn’t going to be a love-’em-and-leave-’em relationship she’d seen in too many American movies. She intended that they would appear loving without becoming lovers.

      “Actually, I have only two requests,” she said. “The first one is ‘no touching in private.”’

      Adam’s eyebrows rose. She could just imagine what he was thinking. “If this is a game, you have to remember all games have some rules.”

      “Okay, but remember, we’re supposed to be in love.”

      “In public perhaps,” she agreed reluctantly. “In private, no.” The no-touching rule was important to her. Not because of what Adam might do, but because she couldn’t trust herself not to go up in flames if he did touch her.

      “That’s all?” he asked with an amused grin that made her toes tingle.

      “No.” She ignored his crooked smile. He might think their proposed arrangement was amusing, but she was serious. “If we’re going to make this look real, you have to meet my father and mother.”

      The smile on Adam’s face disappeared. “I suppose I could do that. Anything more? Better get it all off your chest now, I wouldn’t want any surprises.”

      Chest! Melina blushed at the unintentional reference to her breasts. If he kept this up, she would have to make up a few more rules to help her keep her distance.

      “I can’t think of another rule right now,” she said, “but I’m sure I’ll have a few more as we go along.”

      Adam shrugged. “All right. Just give me some advance notice when you do. So, are you sure about my having to meet your father?”

      “Yes. I don’t know how they do it in your country, but in Greece a woman’s intended husband asks her father for permission to marry her.”

      Melina’s stomach roiled as she pictured the look on her father’s face when she brought home an American. How would he react when she announced she was about to marry him?

      Her father had made it clear from the time she’d entered her teens that the only man worthy of becoming his son-in-law was a Greek man, preferably from their village. The man would have to be old and wise enough to care for her. Just as her father had taken care of her mother, she could hear her father say. Privately, Melina knew just who had taken care of whom.

      Since Melina had watched her mother raise three children, run a household, help with the family pistachio business and satisfy her husband, she knew better.

      “You need your father’s approval before you marry?” Adam asked, sounding surprised. “You are over twenty-one aren’t you?”

      Clearly the man didn’t understand Greek culture. Stung, Melina defended herself and her family’s dearly held tradition—even if she found it confining. “I am old enough. In the first place, twenty-first century or not, most Greek women are brought up to believe that their father as well as their priest speaks for God. In the second place, you did say we have to make our bargain look good. That includes meeting my father.”

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