Rina uttered a surprised sound at the back of her throat and exchanged a glance between me and him. “Yes. How did you know that?”
“It’s kinda a hidden talent of mine. I pound hard on women’s desires…in coffee.”
The room burst into giggles, and I was choking on a cough.
“What about you, Ms.?” he asked the agent. “Haven’t had the pleasure of knowing your name.”
“Stacey,” she said through the undying laughter. “Oar. My drink will be much more difficult to guess, though.”
“Oh a challenge. Ilovechallenges.” He stole a glance at me but quickly switched his focus back to Stacey. “Ms. Oar, I think…you don’t drink coffee at all. Chai? Herbal tea? I know! Anise tea.”
“Oh my goodness. You’re absolutely correct.”
“Yes!” He made a triumphant fist. “Perfetto. I’ll go get your drinks real quick. Zoey, could you please come help me a little? It’s my first day and all. We’ll be back in a minute.”
I nodded at quizzical Zoey quickly. Anything he wanted.
She went with him reluctantly, the other two ladies checking out his ass. My skin flashed hot as I followed the same path their eyes did. That pair of jeans seemed to hug his butt in the sexiest way ever. All his pants—and thongs—hugged his butt and his junk in the sexiest way ever.
When the door was shut behind my secretary andfiancé, Rina dragged her gaze back to me. “Where can I find one of those?”
At Poles. “No clue. I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that I havehimfor a fiancé and a PA.”
“You’re so lucky,” Stacey mumbled.
“Lucky? Yes.” I forged a laugh, sobbing on the inside. “Yes. The luckiest woman on earth.”
CHAPTER30
Fabio
I wanted to hate her, to say fuck it, to say,fuck you, Lady Brighton, with all your lying, manipulating, conniving highbrow, holier than thou shit.
Fuck that stupid feeling she infested me with. Fuck the heart racing and the eternal, annoying, uncontrollable boners. Fuck that perfectly squeezable ass. Fuck those eyes that were forged in Fairyland.
Fuck me for not just leaving without ever looking back.
There, I just wrote a Fuck You poem. Inspired by Lady Brighton of Grimaceland.
I didn’t need her. She wouldn’t have thought about ever coming to find me if she hadn’t needed to use me again. To think that I once believed she looked at me differently…
But I couldn’t leave this time. I wouldn’t make the same mistake twice. Because when I no longer knew which air I was breathing, hers or mine, and she moaned against my lips while her warm smell intoxicated me, and her cheeks blushed for me, I realized I needed her. Even if she didn’t need me. Not the same way I did anyway.
By staying and participating in her charade, she’d think I was using her for the job like she was using me for the fake fiancé show. It was a fair trade, but it wasn’t why I was doing it. I was taking the PA and fiancé jobs to be with her. To show her I was good enough. To prove to her I was a human being, a person with feelings she should have respected. To teach her how to see me for what I was.
And most importantly, to help her. Even before I’d smelled Fletcher’s piss all over this lunacy, I couldn’t know there was something I could do to help her and walk away.
She didn’t have to know how vulnerable I was when it came to her, though. I wouldn’t let her take any more advantage of me. I’d keep her in the dark and let her think I was blackmailing her.
However, I needed to know the truth myself. Why did she tell people we were engaged?
As Zoey led me to the pantry, I shut the door. Her eyes bulged. “What are you doing?”
“Sing.”
“What?! Fabio, don’t be ridiculous. Open the door.”
