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“Why do you say my name like that?” he asked with a raised eyebrow. “Did you forget I was here?”
That wasn’t the only thing she’d forgotten. Somehow, she had forgotten how deep and husky his voice was first thing in the morning. Maybe she’d blocked that bit of information for her own sanity. Her broken heart had needed time to heal, time spent without counting all the things she missed about him.
“What happened?” she asked. “Why am I in your bed? What did you do to me?”
He stopped smiling, and the sexy dimples vanished. Another change to his appearance was the lack of facial hair. Nik was clean-shaven now, and she had to admit she liked it. His dimples were clearly visible in a way they hadn’t been before.
He sighed. “You did forget I was here. Don’t you dare try to stick the blame on me. Last night was your idea.” He lifted his left hand. “As was this.”
Nik wore a shiny platinum band around his ring finger.
She shook her head in denial even as the ring on her own finger refused to be ignored a second longer. It seemed to tighten like a noose. “No way. Do you mean to say we—”
“I do.”
I do. The words reverberated through her entire being, and it came with a flash of memory. In an instant, she saw herself standing in a chapel with Nik. When the Elvis impersonator asked if she would take this man for better or worse, richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, she had shouted, “I do! I do! I do!”
She had bounced around like a demented bunny.
Nik had chuckled. The look of triumph in his eyes last night made her want to punch him today. He might be telling the truth about her proposing to him, but alcohol was to blame for that. She assumed she had been blind drunk to make such an insane decision.
“No.” She shook her head and instantly regretted it as pain stabbed through her skull with an invisible knife. “No way would they let us get married when I was plastered. They don’t let drunk people get married.”
He chuckled. “You are in Las Vegas, sweetheart. At least half of the people that get married here are drunk.”
“Would you mind turning your back so I can get dressed?”
“You have nothing I haven’t seen... several times over.”
She rolled her eyes.
He added, “And touched.”
A soft gasp parted her lips in protest. If he started giving her a blow-by-blow account of last night, she would scream until everyone in the hotel heard her. Let him explain that to his precious shareholders.
With a wink in her direction, he headed for the door. “Being the gentleman that I am, I will leave you to put your clothes on.”
“Before you go, tell me one thing.” She wrapped the sheet around herself as she stood next to the bed on shaky legs. “What do you want from me? I know you don’t want me as a wife. Isn’t that what you told me before banishing me from your life forever? This whole thing is absurd.”
“On the contrary, I very much want you as my beloved wife... for a few days. Because of you, I lost a measure of respect. My family, friends, and colleagues don’t see me in the same light. You cheated on me, and I can’t forgive that.”
She opened her mouth to protest, but he held a finger up.
He continued. “They think I don’t know they gossip about me behind my back. Will poor old Nik ever find a woman who loves him and not his money? Of course, I will never again trust one of your kind. I will never marry... for real.”
He lifted his hand again to hold her protests at bay.
“The answer to my dilemma came to me when I saw you gambling in my casino last night,” he said. “No mere woman will salvage my pride. I need the one that disrespected me in the first place. So for the next few days, I will parade you in front of family, friends, and business associates. You will play the part of a woman in love to the point she cannot see straight.”
Chloe huffed. “Why would I do anything to help you?”
“If you don’t do exactly as I say, I will sell your business and leave you with nothing but memories.”
He dangled a signed contract in front of her face. She snatched it from his hand. Her stomach plummeted when she saw her shaky signature at the bottom. It was the last thing she’d expected to see.
“What is this?” she asked in disbelief, even as her eyes skimmed the document. “I couldn’t. I wouldn’t.”
“You were on a real losing streak last night. When I came along, you were over three hundred thousand in the hole.”
