I clear my throat and try to calm the capillaries in my face. “No sleeping with anyone for a year?”
“Not worth the risk of getting caught, I’m afraid,” I don’t look up, I just nod. But I know he’s grinning when he adds, “Think you can manage?”
Okay, well, I can certainly look up now! “Uh, excuse me, can you? Didn’t you say you almost died going a month?”
“No, that is not what I said.”
“Be serious, Benedict.”
“I am, Janelle.” I open my mouth to correct him but stop. For the first time he looks a little uncomfortable, like he didn’t quite think this through. He starts to ramble, “I mean…that part will be fine, yeah? Unpleasant, but fine. It’s only a year. I’ll just…I’ll…take up…aggressive cardio. Maybe boxing. Kickboxing.” I laugh at that, and he seems to relax a little.
“I guess I’ll get some classes for myself,” I mutter, acknowledging that he’s not the only one with needs. After I say it, from the corner of my eye, I catch how his lips part. I ignore that and go on, “It says itneeds to appearas if we live together.So, we aren’t going to actually live together?” I ask, my heart pounding. I hadn’t even thought about living arrangements.
His smirk is back as he says, “Well, we can add that if you’d—”
“No!” Whoops, that was loud. I calm myself. “No, I don’t want to live together, I just wonder how we pull that off?”
He stares off into space before answering, “I suppose I travel for work, yeah? I’ll need to purchase a house there but we don’t have to actually use it. I can stay in the city. There will be events at hotels, family things, we’ll have to share a room but we can just get the penthouse.”
“Right, the penthouse,” I snort.
He chuckles, “Or any large suite of your liking, unless you want to end up in a tiny room like this? I’m a gentleman, so you’ll get the bed, but I’d prefer at least a couch to the floor, if you please.”
“Fine. Appears like we live together. Got it.” I scan some more and ask, “We really can’t tell anyone at all?”
“Afraid not.”
“Could I just tell one person? And you tell one person? Won’t it give you heartburn to not be able to talk about this? To lie to everyone?” I rub at my chest, where I feel acid already bubbling under the surface.
He considers my request.
“It can’t be Skye or Samantha or any of—,” he says eventually.
“No, I agree,” I say quickly. My former best friend and all her family are too close to his family and to me. It’s not as if I’m talking to her much these days. Even if I was, she wouldn’t be my pick. She can keep a secret, but I wouldn’t want to put her in a position to have to lie to her own family. “I have one childhood friend in Juniper Falls. Harper.”
He winces, “You sure you can trust her? Leaking a story like ours could be…very lucrative.”
“Positive.”
He inhales and then nods. “All right.”
“What about you? Won’t you need to tellsomeone?”
I watch him consider my question, as if he’s flipping through his friends in his mind. Then his face pulls downward. “Can’t really trust any of the blokes I call friends.”
“Wait, seriously?”
He lifts a shoulder, “Well, as you know Dennis is married to Kat, Skye’s cousin. So he’s out. Byron will get his twin spidey sense and text me randomly but he’s across the pond and way too close to our father. Aiden maybe I could trust but I don’t see him much. The rest…it’s not that they’d turn on me, it’s that they’ll get pissed at the pub and it’ll slip out, then the wrong person will probably overhear and so on.”
I nod.
We sit in the quiet for a second, but a second might be too long for the peppy billionaire.
“Actually,” his tone is bright, “Nigel will pick up on it anyway. If I need to bang on about the ol’ ball and chain, I’ll complain to him.”
I dip my chin, “You’re joking now, but I can be a real bitch.”
He dips his chin right back, “You don’t say.”
