“To sleep with you?”
“Yes. Young Ben learned that lesson the hard way a long time ago.”
“Wow, sign here to go to bed,” she says. “That must kill the mood.”
“No, I make sure it doesn’t.” I wink at her.
“Ew, don’t wink.”
My eyebrows shoot up, “Don’t wink? I’m not allowed to wink now?”
“Absolutely not. To look like you do and be British? No winking.”
“See? You can’t stop banging on about how handsome I am. I halfway believe this already.”
She lowers her chin and glares from under her lashes. “I saidew.”
“Come on, darling. It’s all lined up. I’ve been sad and lonely and celibate. I see you and can’t look away, you see me, and, dashing as I am, you fall head over heels. We take a few selfies, send a few texts. We get hitched at some horrid chapel. Do all the holiday things to convince Skye and my father and a few friends. Then,” I lean in, “you’re a millionaire.”
“You’re insane,” she says again but this time there’s no fire behind it. I hold off my smile. I am suddenly desperate to seal this deal. I watch her mind work, various guarded emotions barely showing on her face.
I decide to pile on, “I bet Theo will hate it, too, seeing you looking absolutely stunning and thriving and married to a famous billionaire.”
That does it. I see her decide. And for some odd reason it irks me that mentioning this Theo character is what it took to convince her.
But I’m a man on a deadline.
“Deal?” I extend my hand.
“Deal,” she says, but before she slips her hand in mind she pauses. “But I want a contract.”
I laugh, “Of course we’ll have a contract, darling. I’ll have to do a background check. We’ll both sign NDAs.” I try to be suggestive on the last bit but she ignores me.
“What I mean is we have to have some rules, some boundaries. I want clear lines, clear expectations.” She smooths her napkins and I notice it, how her silverware is at an exact ninety degrees to the edge of the table. The end of her knife points straight to the center of her glass.
“You like order,” I think out loud.
“Yes, order, structure…peace. I don’t have diagnosed OCD, but I did have a childhood filled with chaos. It’s pretty textbook, really. So, I need to make sure everything is lined out and simple.” She explains herself plainly. She just owns her issues.No shame, no qualms, just who she is and what she wants. Again, she is alarmingly, inconveniently hot.
“Understood. Do you have your own lawyer?”
She nods but glances away. So…probably a cousin who bailed on law school. I don’t press, though. I plan to honor whatever she wants and the contract will show that clearly.
“Okay. Deal.” She slips her hand in mine. Her skin is like butter. So much so, I have to force myself to release her hand. She inhales. “Let’s get this over with, my sweatpants are missing me.”
I smile, “All right, selfie and text messages, yeah?”
“Yeah,” she stands and moves over to my side of the booth. She sits…near me?
“Janie,” I scold her.
“What?”
“C’mon, love, people need to believe us,” I say before wrapping my arm around her middle and yanking her flush to me. I hear her gasp but she plays it off as a cough before I lift my phone and pose. I capture a couple shots of us smiling, then some poses of her rolling her eyes and pointing at me like she’s disgusted, which makes me laugh. I keep taking bursts so I get them all. She takes out her phone to capture some as well.
“Now that last one,” she says as she scoots away, “They’ll believe.”
I airdrop all the photos to her and say, “Good, now, let’s text.”
