Page 17

Maeve blinks several times, looking like she wants to pinch herself to make sure she’s awake. The shape of her full breasts and the hard peaks of her nipples through her blouse, now free of her bra, are insanely distracting. She has no idea how tempting she is just sitting there, existing so casually.

“I’m sorry,” she whispers. “What did you just say?”

“You heard me talking with Hayden earlier today about a partnership that’s coming up. A potential partnership.”

She nods. “Hayden’s been tense about it. I haven’t really seen him like this before.”

It hits me that she could tell Hayden was out of sorts. Most people just think my friend is annoyed about everything all the time. They can’t pick up on the nuances and see through the veneer. It stands to reason that Maeve, of all people, can. “A lot is riding on it.”

“I can imagine.”

“It’s called Silver Start.”

“That’s the one?” Maeve rolls her eyes. “Here I was, racking my brain. I should’ve known. That double S has been popping up on your schedules a lot lately. You do realize that if I’m not supposed to know something, you shouldn’t put mysterious initials with blocked-out times on your calendars, right? I can see all of that.”

A smile wants to tug at my lips, and I have to work hard not to let it win. That’s our Spitfire. She’s damn good at her job, the best assistant we’ve ever had, and it’s for a reason. And she’s not wrong, either.

“This is the most important potential partnership we’ve had in years. It’ll unlock a whole new direction for the company. You know that we like a challenge and this will be a fun one. But first we need to secure the deal.”

“And this has to do with me because…”

“George Watterson is the CEO of the company and he’s a bit old fashioned, we’ll put it that way. He thinks that because the three of us are bachelors we might be prone to distraction and not take the company as seriously as he’d like. He’s dropped some hints that he thinks our success until now might be due to family money and luck.”

Maeve bristles. “Well then he’s an idiot. Anyone who’s actually done their research knows just how hard you and Hayden and Gabriel work.”

“Like I said, he’s old fashioned. He believes that men work harder when they have to provide for a family and be the head of a household.”

“God forbid we just marry for love, huh?”

It’s always difficult not to smile when Maeve gets like this. “He’s been dragging his feet on finalizing the deal and we just found out why this afternoon.”

“Hayden must’ve been freaking out.”

“You could say that. So, if that’s the only thing standing in the way of this deal, then we have to fix it. I’m not going to let one man’s strange opinions stop my company from achieving the success I know it deserves. That’s where you come in. I’d like you to pretend to be my fiancée.”

“A fiancée who just appears out of nowhere, with no mention of me previously? That’ll ring alarm bells.”

“That’s why it has to be you. You dated my brother. It would’ve been awkward when we first started dating. We would’ve wanted to keep it quiet, make sure it was serious before we went public. And I’m known as a very private man.”

“There is that,” Maeve agrees, although I see her cheeks go pink at the reminder of Liam. My brother is an idiot for letting her go, but then, that’s Liam for you. He takes every good thing he has for granted.

“Doesn’t change the fact that you’re crazy,” she adds, standing up. Her breasts bounce a little with the movement, and I do my damnedest to ignore it. The worst part is that she has no idea that if she walked down the street like this she’d cause several car crashes.

“You wanted something other than the assistant position,” I point out. “This is something.”

She scoffs. “Oh, don’t try that with me. I’m not going to be paid to just sit around and look pretty.”

“Ah, but you do it so well.” I gesture at the couch where she was just sitting.

“You’re impossible.” She huffs a breath.

“It would come with financial compensation,” I tell her.

Maeve opens her mouth, a witty comment clearly on the tip of her tongue, but then she stops. She folds her arms, eyes narrowing. “Compensation? How much?”

I lean back, folding my arms. “Name a price.”

She stares at me, her jaw still hanging open. It seems to really be sinking in for her that I’m serious about this. “You… you can’t just say that to people.”