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My eyebrows rise. “Oh?”
He pauses for so long I wonder whether he’s forgotten what he’s going to say. Then, finally, he says, “I’d like you to marry me and pretend to be my wife.”
I stare at him. “What?”
“It would be in name only,” he says, “although for the court’s sake we would tell everyone we fell in love and didn’t want to wait. You’d have to live here with me. But of course we’d have separate rooms.”
My brain is refusing to work. “What?” I say again.
“I’d make it worth your while,” he says, leaning forward. “You’d get your own car, a new wardrobe, anything you wanted. And I’d pay you.” His eyes gleam. “One million dollars.”
I blink. My face burns so hot, I know I’ve turned scarlet. “You want to pay me to marry you?”
He shrugs. “Yeah.”
“One million dollars?”
“Yeah. Is that enough?” He’s teasing me.
I’m so insulted, I’m speechless.
He leans back and waits. He looks almost amused at my bewilderment, and that finally brings the words rushing to the surface.
“Absolutely not!” I say indignantly.
He stares at me. I can see he’s stunned. “You’re turning me down?”
“Of course I’m turning you down. It’s a stupid, offensive idea.”
He looks puzzled. “Why is it offensive? You need the money, right? I wouldn’t ask you to do it for nothing.”
And I realize then. Of course, he thinks of me as an employee, and he knows my father’s out of work, and I’m broke. To him, it’s the perfect solution. I can continue to look after Leia, and I’m sure a million dollars is a drop in the ocean to him. It hasn’t occurred to him that I might like him, and I might see his offer as degrading or hurtful, because he has no interest in marrying me for real.
What am I saying? Of course he has no interest in marrying me for real. I know he finds me attractive, but that’s irrelevant in this situation. He’s thinking about his niece. He wants to keep her out of Blue’s hands, and this is the only way he can think of to do it.
A million dollars. The terrible thing is that I’m tempted. It would make a huge difference to my family. I could pay my parents’ rent for years. I could even buy them a house. I’d be able to pay for a carer for Rua to give my mum some time off.
“You could keep the car and clothes and whatever else you buy afterward,” he says helpfully.
My face burns even more. He obviously has no idea how cheap that makes me feel.
But I’m being ridiculous. This is a hell of an opportunity. I’d get to live here, in this gorgeous house, use the pool and the gym, buy whatever I wanted, drive a fantastic car, and make sure my family are settled and happy. Am I really thinking of saying no?
But of course, we’re not addressing the bigger issue. “I’m not sure what to say,” I begin carefully. “Marriage isn’t something two people should enter into lightly. The vows say it’s a solemn and binding relationship, a union of two people to the exclusion of all others, for life.”
His lips twitch. “Well, yeah, that’s what they say…”
“James, you’re asking me to stand up in front of witnesses and swear to love you for the rest of my life.”
“They’re just words,” he says.
“Not to me.”
“Not even for a million dollars?”
I give a short laugh and look away. My eyes sting with tears. He has no idea that for me, marriage is sacred. He means this as a business proposition. Can I treat it the same way?
I swallow down my emotion and look back at him. “So what would the arrangement involve?”
