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“Yeah. You guys are the only ones here this weekend, and since Hudson is leading the hike, I get some downtime.”
“That’s nice.”
“What do you do?” Leo takes a sip of his coffee, and I get distracted by the muscles in his arms flexing as he raises the cup to his lips.
I blink myself back to reality and try to focus on the question. “I’m a graphic designer. Not exactly the outdoorsy type.”
“I don’t know. I think you can handle yourself.”
“For a few days,” I say, taking a sip of the coffee. “Fuck, that’s good. Emily is lucky that I love her because this is not what I would have chosen for a bachelorette party. I was promised that if I came here, there would be a hot tub and wine time, and I’m determined to get that before the weekend is over.”
“I hope you get it,” he says, but there’s a heaviness to it.
I stare, trying to put my finger on precisely what it is that’s bothering me. Like an itch at the back of my skull. But I’ve never been one for subtlety. “You seem different today.”
Leo’s eyes snap to mine. “Oh? How so?”
I open my mouth and close it again. “I don’t know you just seem…heavier? I can’t explain it.”
“You’re very observant,” he says with a sigh.
“Are you all right?”
His mouth turns up into a half-smile. Which only serves to remind me of his lips and the way they felt. The scratch of his beard. His hands on my body. “You’re here on vacation. I can’t unload my problems onto a guest. Especially one who almost died on my watch.”
My movement is pure instinct. I reach out and put my hand over his on the countertop, and both of us go still. “That’s exactly why you can tell me anything. You saved my life. The least I can do is listen to you.”
He sighs again before pulling back and scrubbing his hands over his face. “It’s complicated. My friends—business partners and I—are buying the land here. There’s a big payment coming up, and while this place is doing great, it’s not bringing in that level of profit yet. My family comes from money and they agreed to front the cost of the payments. And they’ve been doing that. Until now. They want me to…settle down and have a family.” He shakes his head and drinks more coffee.
“Is that a bad thing?”
“No,” he shakes his head. “It’s not. But I want it to be on my time, and in my own way. I don’t want to be blackmailed into marrying anyone. But…”
“But?”
“When they told me I was desperate, so I said that I was dating someone. That I’d proposed. I don’t feel good about it, but it just slipped out. I wasn’t thinking and now I’m pretty much fucked because they want to meet my ‘fiancée’ before they give me the money.”
My eyebrows rise into my hairline. “I won’t lie, that’s pretty fucked up.”
Leo rolls his eyes. “Tell me about it. So, I need to find someone to pretend they’re my fiancée so I can make it work. After, I’ll find a way to get the rest of the money. I think Asher’s sister might do it if I asked. My parents have never met her, so it might work.”
He’s here in the room, but his mind is miles away as he stares into the distance. He’s just thinking out loud right now, which is a good thing because he can’t see the look on my face. The stab of jealousy in my gut when he mentioned this girl was so strong that my face must look like I’m about to commit murder.
It doesn’t make sense. He saved my life and kissed me once. There’s no reason for me to be jealous of someone he’s clearly not in a relationship with. But I still am. I make the decision in a heartbeat.
“I’ll do it.”
That snaps Leo back into the room. “What?”
“I’ll do it,” I say again. “I’ll pretend to be your fiancée.”
He’s suddenly looking at me with such hunger that it steals my breath from my chest. It’s pure wanting. “Why would you do that? I’m a complete stranger.”
He didn’t feel like much of a stranger when his hands were on my ass and his tongue was down my throat. “You saved my life,” I say simply. “I owe you one. Besides, it would be sad for a beautiful place like this to disappear just because you’re not married. I have vacation time saved up. I’ll stay and pretend for you.”
Leo stares at me so hard and for so long that I start to think that maybe I’ve petrified him. My offer has turned me into Medusa and he’s now a stone statue.
Finally, he takes a breath. “Okay. Thank you. I was trying to think of any other way, but I don’t think that there is one.”
