She nodded. “What’s the reaction been like for you?”
“My agent is delighted. I have never been the one the media gossips about in my family.”
“How do you feel about it?”
He lifted his shoulder. “I suppose I’m mostly worried about how it may affect you.”
Her eyes softened. “That’s kind of you.”
“It’s not kind. I owe you, as it is.”
Her lip curled up in the corner. “Please don’t offer me money again.”
“I wouldn’t, now that I know how you feel about it.” He’d had to scrape his account to put that check together, so a part of him was glad she hadn’t taken it. He still didn’t see anything wrong with compensating her and soothing his guilty conscience, but he could see how it could be misconstrued as hush money.
She traced the water ring the iced tea bottle had left. “I don’t need money.”
“Understood.”
“But there’s something else you could do for me.”
He leaned forward. “Anything.”
She looked up, and he was so captured by her pretty light eyes and the long lashes she’d artfully curled, that he almost missed her next words.
“I’d like you to date me.”
JIA WONDERED IFshe’d shocked proper Dev into silence. He’d gone still and stared at her like she’d grown two heads.
He finally adjusted his glasses, as if to see her two heads better. “You want to date me?”
“Oh no.” She didn’t want him to get some foolish idea that she was still pining for him, because she wasnot. This was a business arrangement that would benefit them both. “I want topretendto date you.”
Dev leaned back in his seat and tapped his fingers on the table. It was hard to breathe in this little trailer, and that was most definitely because he was taking up far too much space. She’d seen him only in suits before, but this one was more relaxed, the tie pulled loose and slightly askew. She was going to assume that was for the role he was playing, and not of his own volition. His hair was ruffled up, and there was a trace of eyeliner on his eyes, which told her hair and makeup had prepped him already.
They’d done a bad job of blending, though. She ripped her gaze away from the line of foundation at his collarbone. It wasn’t her problem, that foundation line.
“I do not think that sentence is as explanatory as you believe it is.”
“Okay. Here’s the deal.” She steepled her fingers in front of her face. She’d rehearsed this on the drive over. She knew exactly what to say, and she wouldn’t have her brain turned to mush because she was in front of an attractive man, damnit. “It sounds like this publicity helped you, right?” That was what she’d been banking on. The tabloid articles had been gleeful, not condemning, and she knew how much actors loved their attention.
He shrugged. “Sure.”
“So now you owe me twofold?”
“Ah...”
“Because you could help me out. By meeting my parents in a few weeks and posing as my boyfriend. Did I mention that you owe me?”
Dev blinked at her, his glasses magnifying his eyes. “Uh.”
Dev’s shock wasn’t entirely unexpected. This sounded like something out of a zany comedy. She backed up. “I may have allowed my family to believe that I was dating you.”
“Why would you do that?” he asked slowly.
“They saw the picture,” she reminded him.
“You could have explained it was a misunderstanding.”
