My stomach flipped…for no other reason than because I was clearly drunk. Except I hadn’t had so much as a drop of alcohol tonight. Which meant it was the casual way he’d saidwe’re togetherthat had caused this chaos inside me.
I cleared my throat, shoving those feelings aside. “Why would they be doing that?”
He flattened his mouth into a hard line, his brows bunched, jaw ticking. As if he didn’t want to tell me. Finally, he said, “I wason a time crunch. The fastest way I could get people to talk was to tell a few…white lies.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “What kinds of white lies?”
He stared at me for a long moment, that impenetrable gaze locked on me. I had no doubt he’d made far tougher people than me cower with that look alone. Too bad I seemed to be immune to it.
When it was clear I wasn’t going to take his scowl as an answer, he heaved a sigh. “That Pillow Humper stalked you across state lines, and I needed to find out where the hell he was because I didn’t want my—” he cleared his throat before rubbing a hand over his mouth “—girlfriend being harassed.”
There was that goddamn stomach flip again.
“Yourwhat?”
“I just rolled with what I already said at the bar,” he snapped. “And it worked. I found out he left town. But details still got back to my mom. And my shit-stirrer of a brother confirmed it.”
“Okayyy…” I said, drawing out the word.
“She’s expecting us at dinner this week. She’s already asking about your food preferences.”
Mouth agape, I could only stare at him in a stunned stupor. I had no idea why I hadn’t anticipated this becoming so much larger than just Atlas and me. Sure, our night in Portland had stayed between us. But that possibility had been removed the second Atlas had stepped up behind me at One Night Stan’s.
“I know this is…inconvenient.” He blew out a heavy sigh. “But I’m willing to offer an incentive.”
“It better be one hell of an incentive.” I wasn’t so sure he could offer anything that would get me to agree to this. Not when this would end up being the exact opposite of what I needed—namely, to stay far, far away from the man who turned my brain to mush and zapped every one of my instincts into silence.
The less time I spent around Atlas Steele, the better.
He studied me for long moments, as if hoping to get a read on what could lure me to his side. Then he blew all my best intentions out of the water with a few choice words. “I’ll waive your rent for the rest of your lease.”
Holy fucking fucknuggets. Six months of free rent? Mygod. That was probably a tiny drop in a very large bucket to a former pro football player. But on my end? That amount of money would be life-changing, offering me a hell of a cushion.
A cushion I could use to send my daughter to Europe.
While I’d always been able to provide the necessities for Laurel, there’d been so many things in her life she’dwantedthat I hadn’t been able to give her. It had been hard as hell getting a GED and putting myself through nursing school, all while scrounging to make ends meet.
We’d been given a bit more breathing room as I racked up years of experience, but I still had an ungodly amount of student loans that didn’t exactly allow for a ton of discretionary spending.
That could all change with this agreement.
I tried to get a read on him, see if he was as conflicted as I was, but he’d shut down his emotions tighter than Fort Knox. “I’m not lying to my daughter.”
He studied me for a moment, then lifted one massive shoulder. “Laurel can be in on it.”
Her timing was as impeccable as ever, because she chose that moment to come strolling out of her bedroom. “What am I in on?”
He raised a brow, clearly deferring to me on what, if anything, I wanted to tell her. So I did. I gave a brief rundown of the situation we found ourselves in and Atlas’s proposed solution.
It was a testament to how many romances she read because she didn’t even blink. She just split a gaze between us before settling it on me. “What’s in it for you?”
“He’s cutting us a deal on rent.”
She lifted a single brow, then turned her attention to Atlas. “Okay, what’s in it forme?”
I nearly huffed out a laugh but somehow managed to tamp it down. I should have expected that was coming from her.
If Atlas was thrown by her question, he didn’t show it. Instead, he asked, “What do you want, kid?”
