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“I won’t ruin JANE MILLIONAIRE just to get laid.”
He forgot to keep his voice down, or he simply didn’t care if the camera picked up the sound. Jill was too shocked to remind him as he ripped her heart to shreds with his next words.
“And that’s all a girl like you could ever be to a man like me.”
# # #
Jill plastered a smile onto her face as she stepped, clad only in a bikini, outside the castle a little before nine. An itsy, bitsy, teeny, weeny green bikini. Ugh. She always wore a functional one piece, but Gregory had insisted she wear the tiny scraps of shiny material. She had so much skin on display she may as well have been naked.
Oh, and don’t forget her stiletto heels. Heels with a bathing suit. She rolled her eyes toward the star-strewn sky. The beauty of the cloudless sky with its bed of twinkling diamonds failed to impress her. She was too busy concentrating on putting one foot in front of another. How ridiculous. She’d probably fall and break her neck, Jessie would have to fly overseas, and the truth would come out. Just peachy keen.
Wolf whistles greeted her.
Jill cringed on the inside, squelched the desire to fold her arms in front of her chest, and smiled like she was auditioning for the role of Miss America as she click-clacked across the patio.
Just remember, you wanted all this male attention.
Even after she stumbled, darn high heels, she forced herself to continue smiling. After all, two cameramen stuck to her like glue.
“What’ll you have, doll?” Bachelor #7 asked, placing his hand on her rear.
“Not you.” She pulled away and suppressed the urge to toss him in to the pool. Several bachelors laughed. Very self-conscious of her state of undress, she carefully swayed over to a poolside table, praying the entire way she wouldn’t fall smack dab on her face. Who ever heard of wearing three-inch heels with a swimsuit?
Two of the bachelors grabbed her chair to pull it out.
“Thank you,” she said as she winked at another. She would play the role JP had outlined for her--even if she felt ridiculous doing so. Her ego needed a boost after the beating Rob had given it in the exercise room. Not that he wasn’t right, or that he’d told her anything she hadn’t already known.
The best thing she could do was forget about the way he made her pulse race.
Too much was at stake. His hot, sweaty body had made her lose reason, but he’d doused her in cold reality. She needed to stay away from him before she forgot she was a fake in every sense of the word. Before she forgot that personal relationships with co-workers never worked anyway. She’d focus on the bachelors, hope she didn’t get caught, and make it through these next few weeks. Then she’d go back to California and do as Rob suggested--forget he existed.
And maybe buy a little oceanfront property in Arizona while she was at it.
After two hours of smiling, laughing, and, surprisingly, enjoying the bachelors’ company, Jill excused herself. She walked through the house and toward the stairs minus the two cameramen who were still filming the bachelors--probably discussing her. She froze when Rob stepped into the foyer seconds after she did.
“You did a great job tonight.” His eyes raked over her bikini-clad body even while he grimaced, as if he hated looking yet couldn’t help himself.
Her nipples hardened to beaded pebbles beneath the scraps of green. How did he do that with just a look? She shivered.
“Cold?”
Damn him for calling attention to the fact her body responded to him even after he’d been a jerk to her.
“It is a bit nippy in here.” She turned to walk away, determined to ignore how her body reacted to him, but his hand clasped around her upper arm.
“Surely, you see the problems that would ensue if we act on the attraction between us?” He whispered into her ear, and she almost shuddered at the effect his closeness wreaked upon her senses.
“Whatever.” She pursed her lips. How was she supposed to ignore how he affected her when he was touching her? “The only problem I see is your fingers on my arm. Unhand me, or I’ll unhand myself.”
His eyes glittered. “I’m not one of the bachelors who will let you make a fool of me.”
“Oh really? You think they’ve been letting me kick their butts?” She poked her finger in his chest. “Maybe you’d like to see how you measure up, stud-muffin?”
“Don’t push me.” He clenched his jaw.
Jill was too far gone to care. She’d had enough of his steamy looks, then cold shoulders when she’d bared her heart to him and told him how much she wanted him.
“Oh-h, I’m so-o scared, dude.” She tapped her finger against his
