Millionaire Husband by Leanne Banks Page A

the reason you offered to marry me because you once lived at the Granger Home for Boys?”
    “Kate’s been talking.”
    “A little,” Amy said, wondering why his voice felt like it rubbed over her like a forbidden caress. “It wasn’t all bad. You didn’t answer my question.”
    “My experience at Granger may have influenced me, but it wasn’t the deciding factor.”
    “Your mission was the deciding factor,” she said, reminding herself as much as him.
    Feeling his hand close around her ankle, she opened her eyes in surprise.
    “Do I have your attention?” he asked.
    “Yes, and my foot.”
    “Good,” he said, not releasing her ankle. “If we’re going to live together, we need to come to an understanding about a few things.”
    The slow motion of his thumb on the inside of her ankle distracted her. “What things?”
    “Your annoying description of why I proposed toyou,” he said, holding firm when she wiggled her foot.
    “Mission,” she said. “What’s wrong with that?”
    “I said it was part of my purpose,” he corrected through gritted teeth.
    “Semantics. Would you let go of my foot?”
    “When we reach our understanding,” he said. His thumb and middle finger formed a human ankle cuff. The sight of his hand on her bare skin disrupted her.
    “You want me to call it your purpose,” she said.
    “That would be better.”
    “We understand each other,” she said, noticing that his finger began its mesmerizing motion again. “You can let go of my foot.”
    “Not quite,” he said. “We don’t understand each other yet. We don’t know each other.”
    Amy gave a little test jerk of her foot to no avail. “Your point?”
    “We don’t have to make this situation a living hell for each other.”
    She met his gaze, wondering how one of his fingers could make her insides turn to warm liquid. “And how do we accomplish that?”
    “We get to know each other,” he said in a voice that brought to mind hot nights and tangled sheets.
    She wanted to say she didn’t have time to get to know him, but he chose that moment to skim a fingertip up the sole of her foot. Her stomach dipped.
    “For the sake of peace of mind,” he said.
    She searched her mind for a reason to disagree, but her brain had turned to sludge. “Okay.”
    “We start tonight. I ask you a question and then you ask me one.”
    “Truth or dare,” Amy said, not at all sure this was a good idea.
    “Just truth,” Justin said.
    “Okay, ladies first,” she said, shifting into a more upright position, ready to ask the question that had been burning a hole in her mind all day. “How did you end up at Granger?”
    His jaw tightened. “My mother was unable to care for me.”
    “Why?” she asked.
    He shook his head. “That’s two,” he said. “My turn. The first time I met you I asked you to dinner. If you hadn’t been caring for your sister’s children, what would your answer have been?”
    Amy squirmed slightly. It was much more fun asking questions than answering them. “Gosh, that was a long time ago, almost two months ago. And I got pretty distracted when you had the ulcer attack,” she said, trying to lead him away from his original question.
    “What would your answer have been?”
    Amy made a face. “Maybe.”
    “Your answer would have been maybe,” he said.
    Amy frowned at his disbelieving voice. How hadhe known she’d been intrigued by him from the beginning? “Okay,” she admitted. “Maybe yes.”
    “I’m not familiar with what ‘maybe yes’ means. I’m sure it’s my Y chromosome. Could you translate?” he asked, massaging her ankle.
    Amy glowered at him. “It means yes. You were interested in my after-school program. How could I resist?” she rhetorically asked. She told herself she’d been completely unaffected by his watchful, intelligent green eyes, chiseled facial features and those broad shoulders that looked like they could carry any problem a woman might face. Amy wondered why she felt