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A smile lingered around his mouth. ‘I’d need you to ostensibly live with me—we can stay in LA if you’d prefer, so you can be close to your sister. And then after a year, we’d get a divorce. I would arrange everything, all you would have to do is pretend to be madly in love with me.’
She stared at him in shock. ‘What? Why?’
He seemed to find her response even more amusing, because his smile deepened and this time it did reach his eyes, making her feel hot, as if her skin was too tight for her body. ‘I did mention the word “pretend” did I not? I only need the appearance of love,mikri alepou. I need this to be believable. The story of an ordinary girl capturing my heart, making me change my wicked ways and become a good family man will do wonders for this project of mine.’
She swallowed. ‘I don’t know... What did you call me?’
His expression softened. ‘Little fox. It’s Greek.’
‘F-fox?’
He ignored her. ‘Think of the money, Miss Albright. This wouldn’t involve your virginity. You wouldn’t have to sleep with me. I won’t demand anything from you but your signature on the register and your presence for a couple of weeks. Nothing too onerous.’ He tilted his head, gazing at her from beneath gold-tipped lashes. ‘I have an island in Greece that would make a lovely wedding venue, so wouldn’t you like a vacation? Some time in the sun? Perhaps you’d even like to go to Europe for a honeymoon, see some monuments.’
Her head was spinning and she wasn’t sure if it was his offer or just him and the way he looked at her. Not the charming smile or the practised warmth, but the ferocity she could sense just below the surface of him. The wolf hiding in the skin of a man.
Hungry, that was what he was, though what he was hungry for, she had no idea. It wasn’t sexual, she didn’t think, but then how would she be able to tell? No one had looked at her like that before. No one ever had.
What does it matter that he wants a marriage? It’s not for ever. And you’ll get a couple of nice weeks’ vacation and Annabel will get her dream.
That was true, but he’d also mentioned how he wanted whoever these people were to think theirs was some kind of great love story. Which would involve her pretending she was in love with him, and how was she going to do that? She might be obsessed with him, sure, but that wasn’t love. Plus, she’d never been good at pretending.
Aren’t you though? Haven’t you been pretending your whole life? Pretending you didn’t mind that Annabel had to give up her dreams for you. That dropping out of school to care for her was exactly what you wanted. That working at the Jessups’ was a good, steady job. That you didn’t have dreams of your own...
Glory shut those thoughts down hard. Her dreams were of a steady job, earning enough to live on, paying off her debt and making sure Annabel was happy. That was it.
‘I don’t care about vacations,’ she said flatly, because it felt important that he know that. ‘I’m not doing this for me.’
His mouth quirked in a cynical smile. ‘Of course you’re not.’
‘It isn’t like that,’ she insisted. ‘All of this is for my sister. For IVF treatment. She wants a baby.’
‘A baby,’ he repeated, frowning, as if he didn’t know what the word meant.
‘Yes, she had breast cancer. It’s in remission now and so she wants to try for a child. She brought me up after our parents died and so I’d...I’d like to do something nice for her.’
Why are you telling him all this?
She had no idea. The words just kept coming. ‘I mean, she had to give up a lot of things for me and then she got cancer, which really wasn’t fair so I thought I could make sure that at least one of us got what we wanted.’
Castor leaned back against the couch again, his long legs stretched out under the coffee table. Again, he seemed relaxed, but she knew he wasn’t, not with those fierce wolf eyes looking at her.
‘Only one of you?’ he asked lazily. ‘And what is it that you wanted?’
You want him. That’s what you want.
‘It doesn’t matter what I want,’ she said tartly, ignoring that thought too, because she certainly wasn’t going to tell him that. ‘Annabel wanted a child as soon as she could in case her cancer came back.’
He was quiet for a long moment, studying her. Then he said, ‘I’ll pay for your sister’s IVF. As many rounds as it takes, and also for any follow-up treatment. I’ll clear your medical debt and any other debt too. You have my word.’
Her mouth went dry. All those debts, that terrible mountain of money that there was no hope of her ever paying back in her lifetime, crushing her, crushing Annabel, just...gone.
She could hardly imagine it.
‘It’s a l-lot of m-money,’ she croaked.
He smiled, practised and charming, as if it was no big deal. ‘Then isn’t it lucky I’m very rich?’
‘You can’t possibly—’
