Finder's Keeper by Vivi Andrews

Chase’s firm grip was instantly at her elbow, steadying her—but Mia started at his touch, nearly tripping herself all over again.
    God, this was never going to work. She could say all the right words, but her body was going to be screaming the lie if she jumped every time he brushed against her.
    He was hitting all the right notes—the secret, just-between-us smile, the hand on her arm. If their deception relied only on him, it would have gone off beautifully. No. She was the problem.
    “I can’t do this.” Mia dug in her heels. “They’ll see through me immediately. I’ll never be able to fake the necessary intimacy to convince them we’re a couple.”
    “So we aren’t a couple.” He coaxed her into motion again. “Why can’t it be our first date?”
    “You’re only the second guy I’ve ever introduced to my family. My parents would never believe I chose throwing them at you as our first date.”
    “So we met yesterday, love at first sight, and—”
    “I don’t believe in love at first sight.”
    “Which makes it even more romantic.”
    “I don’t do romance.” Her definition of romance was a man who didn’t mind being ignored in favor of a stack of scientific journals.
    “Maybe you do with me.”
    She narrowed her eyes at him. “Maybe I had a lobotomy last night. It’s the only way I could have believed this was going to work.”
    “We just have to stay close to the truth. We’re less likely to get tripped up or contradict one another that way. Trust me, effective lying is all about circling around to check out the truth from a different angle.”
    “But yesterday ? That makes me sound so…”
    “Impulsive? Romantic?” He drew her to a stop next to her car and brushed a finger across her cheek, just a feather-light caress.
    Mia released a shuddering breath. He angled his head close to hers. Oh my. Oh my oh my oh my. Was he going to kiss her? Now? Like this? Why?
    “Just keep looking at me like that, sweetheart, and your family will buy everything we’re selling them.” He reached out and opened her door for her. “Your chariot, m’lady.”
    Mia glowered at the door, jolted out of the spell he’d woven around her. “You don’t need to do that. No one is here to see you.”
    “What if I’m just a gentleman? Did you consider that?”
    “I think it’s best if we keep things on as professional a footing as possible, all things considered. Kindly save your chivalry.”
    He grinned cheekily. “Maybe the chivalry makes me feel manly. After the vehicular emasculation, the least you can do is put up with a little door opening.”
    “Fine.” She slid into the driver’s seat and buckled in, then fidgeted with her clutch where she’d tucked it against her hip as Chase rounded the hood. When he opened the passenger door she pointedly ignored the intensely masculine way he folded himself into the car.
    “Telling my family as little as possible about you will make it less likely they will discover the real nature of our relationship,” she announced as she started the engine and pulled out of the lot. “We’ll be vague, implying a relationship of substantial duration.”
    “You went out speed-dating on Friday. I don’t think they’re going to buy that we’ve been secretly seeing one another for months.”
    “How did you know about that? Never mind—the call with my mom. We’ll say that we’d had a fight and broken up and that was why I went speed-dating. None of this love-at-first-sight stuff.”
    “How did I get back in your good graces?”
    “Shouldn’t we be focused on how we met?”
    “This is important. How did I win you back? I might need to know this stuff.”
    “You… I don’t know. You showed up on my doorstep with flowers.”
    “Flowers? You’re that easy?”
    “Fine. Forget the flowers. You showed up on my doorstep and talked and talked and talked until I agreed to go out with you just to shut you up.”
    Chase grinned. “That sounds like