AllFreeNovel
Share Us
As it is, there are already old dinosaurs on the board who are waiting for me to trip up so they can prove I’m not up to task. They’ll try to devour me whole, given a fleeting chance.
“My boss will freak out if he thinks I’ve been...well, you know.” Ava cringes. “It’s against policy to even talk with the clients. Ican’tafford to lose this job.”
“And I can’t have people thinking I’m screwing every woman in Australia.” I let out a growl and move my head from side to side, trying to work out the tension. “Who led them here?”
It’s a rhetorical question. My mother had been charging across the observatory like a storm barrelling along the coast. No doubt the press we invited—under duress from my head of communications—were right on her heels. They’re supposed to be covering the launch of the Cielo, not adding fuel to the fire about my love life.
What a joke. I’ve been working so hard I haven’t brought a woman into my bed for over a year, and yet I’m fighting off a playboy reputation at every turn.
“Can’t we tell them the truth?” Ava asks, keeping her voice low. She wrings her hands, twisting and turning them as if trying to strangle her worry.
“And you think they’ll believe it?” I shake my head. “Don’t be naive.”
“Then what? It’s not like they could really think we’re together.” She laughs, and the sound has a slightly maniacal edge. But then her eyes light up. “Hey, you’re rich, right? Can’t you pay the press to leave you alone?”
“That’s not how it works. They make more from advertisers, and me paying them off would simply make for an even better story.” This is getting out whether I want it to or not. That’s if it hasn’talready. “We need to control the narrative another way.”
“And how, exactly, do we do that?”
If this story is going to get out, then maybe I can use it to my advantage. After all, I need Marc to believe that I’m not sleeping with Lily. That’s going to take some deflectionanda more compelling explanation than a simple ‘I didn’t do it.’
But maybe the perfect solution has landed in my lap.
I look Ava up and down—she’s gorgeous. Maybe not the kind of woman people would expect, because we don’t appear to run in the same circles. But we can get around that. More important, there’s a spark to her.Anda spark between us. I felt it the second I walked in here, like our energy was charging the air with a sexual current. With a ring on her finger and a fabricated backstory... Well, why wouldn’t people believe it?
“How much do you make a year, Ava?” I ask, still leaning back against the door. I keep my voice low, ignoring the buzzing and pounding on the other side. Ignoring the flick of the handle and the sound of my name being called.
“None of your business,” she replies, tilting her chin up. The pride tells me everything I need to know. Maybe I can make this beneficial for usboth.
“You’re right, and I don’t actually care.” I fold my arms across my chest. “Name your price.”
She blinks. “Why?”
“Because you’re going to lose your job the second I open this door.”
She swallows, panic swirling in those warm, fiery eyes. “But I haven’t done anything wrong.”
“It never matters what you’ve done,” I say darkly. “Only what people think you’ve done.”
“What are you going to tell them?”
“That we’re getting engaged.” This is the only route that makes sense. It gives this whole situation a more romantic edge. Two people in love unable to keep away from one another, as opposed to a quick-and-dirty screw in a cupboard. The noise outside increases and the door rattles again. “We wanted to keep it a secret because neither of our families knew about the relationshipandbecause of all the current media attention.”
“What?” Ava squeaks. “Have you lost your mind?”
“I wanted to spare you the circus, but now we’ve been caught,” I continue, the plan starting to unfold in my mind. “You’ll pretend to be my fiancée for a few weeks. We’ll be seen together, perhaps have a vacation somewhere beautiful. It will be a whirlwind romance and then we’ll ‘break up’ and go our separate ways, reputations intact.”
For some reason, the thought of having Ava on my arm, acting like she’s mine and I’m hers, strikes something primal inside me. We’ll have to pretend to be lovers, to beinlove. Well, obviouslythat’sgoing to be an act, because I vowed long ago to never let myself feel something as destructive as love.
But being attracted to Avawon’t take much effort at all.
“Then what...? We act like it never happened?” Ava looks at me as though I’ve started talking gibberish.
“Exactly. I’ll help you find a job. I know plenty of people looking for good workers and I’ll compensate you for your time, of course.” I shoot her a confident smile. “Plus, you’ll be living it up while we’re together. Money is no object.”
For a moment she’s utterly silent. Her eyes flick back and forth as if she’s weighing the pros and cons. “You’re serious? You’d be happy to have a fake relationship to appease the press?”
“If it serves my needs, yes.”
