“And what are the rules of this game?” I ask and Callum grins. I think he likes that I can keep up. Or he likes torturing me with those lips. He’s tortured me with them before. His lips…his tongue…other parts of his anatomy that I have to force myself not to look at, even though that fitted Armani of his is making that very hard to do. It’s even fancier than the one he was wearing at the auction. If I had to guess, the man is wearing about a thousand bucks right now. I don’t even have a thousand dollars in my checking account, hence the reason I haven’t run out of the building screaming.
That and the Martin on the wall.
“As medieval as it sounds, whoever gets married first.”
I stare at him.
I’m sure I’m catching flies right now.
Then I back up towards the door a little.
“Wait. When did you find out about this…stipulation?”
Callum looks at me funny before he realizes where I’m going with this.
“Calm down, Amanda. It wasn’t before Vegas.”
“Are you sure?” I half laugh, “Because all of this is starting to look very, very conspicuous.”
“What exactly are you accusing me of?” he asks, his arms crossing over his broad chest. And suddenly it’s not his muscular pecs I am focusing on, it’s his now showcased forearms.
“Oh, I don’t know. It just seems a little suspicious, doesn’t it? Hiram Hardin is on his way out the door, his twin sons have tofight for the position of top dog and whoever puts a ring on it gets the throne. You run into me in the city known for knee-jerk matrimony. A couple cocktails and a stroll to the chapel around the corner and you have all the requirements for taking that seat.”
With that, Callum marches towards me. “First of all, what did I say about putting words in my mouth? And second, even if that were my plan, I’d pay someone to do it. But it wasn’t my plan. Christ, Amanda. I’m forty-five years old. If I were interested in a ball and chain, I would’ve locked one on years ago. But I wasn’t interested and I’m still not. However, Dad sprung this on us minutes before you walked through that door and I’m an opportunist. The whole thing feels like…like…”
He’s fishing for the word, and I can’t help my snarky smirk when I cross my arms and pop my hip sassily to the side and offer it to him. “Luck?”
Callum scowls and I have to admit, being able to fluster him gets me a little hot. “It’s advantageous.”
“Sure. And even if all of that were true, what’s in it for me? This isn’t just about you and staying married to you is my choice. So is working for you and everything else linked to this monkey bus that has become my life as of two days–”
“I’ll double the salary.”
I stop. Not just talking. I stop breathing, moving, blinking…hell I don’t even know if I have a pulse.
“Double?” I ask.
“With a sign on bonus.”
“That’s…” I stutter.
“More money than you’ve ever dreamed of making if I had to guess. So, you better be worth your salt. Your recordings are good, and you look decent on paper.”
I snap back to reality, even though I’m still stumbling on numbers.
“Decent? Decent enough that you let me stand in a room with a Neve 80’s series console? That mixer is from the mid-sixties and if I had to guess, it’s been here as long as Hiram has.”
Callum’s lips twitch in the tease of a smile. “And that is why you are the perfect person for this job. The whole job.”
I pace the floor slowly, nodding my head. “So how does this go down? I stay married to you and we somehow convince everyone it wasn’t just a marriage of convenience. You get the keys to the castle, and then what?”
“And then we quietly divorce, and you go on with your life and I go on with mine.”
“So, I lose the job?”
“I didn’t say that. Prove yourself in the studio, write some chart toppers and you will stay employed. Your job and my proposition have nothing to do with each other. It’s merely fine print.”
I bite my lips in thought. I like the numbers. I’ve never even dared to daydream of such numbers.
