“I guess that was an easy negotiation.” He winked. “But again, that would be to keep it a business deal. If there’s some sort of petty squabble or any sort of strife, that could potentially ruin everything we’re fighting for. We have to do this without any sort of attachment, outside of this agreement.”
“Yeah, I get that. I know a lot of friends who, if they’ve been dating and work together, that’s been pretty hard on them. So…like no messing around…at all?”
“At all.”
Seemed unfair to have a boyfriend that I couldn’t even have sex with, especially one who was as gorgeous as this guy, and who, based on our encounter at the bar, wanted to have sex with me as much as I wanted to have sex with him.
I sighed.
“So what do you say?” Owen asked. “Will you be my fake boyfriend?”
I laughed. “Hold up, I just have to get through the absurdity of it all.”
“I can give you time to think on it.”
“No, I don’t have to think about it. I can see it’s a good cause. I definitely want to help. And I’ll be honest, the money wouldn’t hurt so much right now. I am a starving college kid.”
“Well, I’m happy to feed you.”
My gaze shifted right to his crotch, and he seemed to notice.
“Disregard that last statement,” he blurted out.
“Stricken from the record,” I teased, but in the back of my mind, all I was thinking was,What in the flying fuck have I gotten myself into?
8
Owen
Iperused Keeg’s Facebook profile.
My new American tourist partner in crime had to return to his friends back at his two-star hotel in town, leaving me to finish working on details surrounding our new scheme, which fortunately for me, Keegan had agreed to.
The knock at my door didn’t faze me. “Come in!”
I heard it open and shut before Frederick said, “You sure have found the perfect way to piss your brother off, haven’t you?”
I’d texted Frederick to meet me in my room so we could finish sorting through the clusterfuck I’d gotten myself into.
“Won’t be the first time I brought shame to the Crown, nor the last,” I added.
He laughed as he slouched down in the chair beside me at my desk, one I had ready and waiting for him.
He sighed as he looked at the picture of Keegan with his friends. “So this is your new boyfriend,” he said, running his hands over his face and taking a deep breath.
“Yeah, I hope you’re able to digest that pretty quickly, considering we have a lot of work to do. I went ahead and sent Keeg a copy of the royal NDA to get his buddies to sign so he can tell them what’s going on.”
“He’s telling his friends?” Frederick asked. “Surely, you didn’t agree to that.”
“And his family already knows.”
“Tell me some good news.”
“They all knew before he came on the trip that he didn’t even know what the hell Parlaisa was, so it wasn’t like it would have been a great con to try to pull the wool over their eyes too.”
He eyed me skeptically. “Those guys seemed awfully chatty at the bar. Wouldn’t surprise me if one of them slipped up.”
“Well, it’s a risk we’re going to have to take, it seems. Now, we’ll need to leak the news to the press that we’re officially an item, then come up with an assortment of questions to prep for interviews. I’m planning on a trip to Fever Falls as soon as I can manage. The quicker I’m out there with Keegan, the easier it will be to evade the press here, and then when we’re both here, we can navigate this together. I suggest we contact Bryan. I don’t want to deal with royal PR. Aside from that—”
