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“Adam, I need to talk to you about something.”
Stinging words lingered on Adam’s lips. Oh, really? Something about how you’re glad things didn’t go any further last night? How we need to remain professional? “I’m listening.” He thumbed through an email on his phone.
“I was thinking that women seem to be your problem, but they could also be your salvation.”
“In light of what happened last night, I’d love to know where this is going.”
“I thought we agreed we weren’t going to talk about last night.”
“I didn’t agree to anything.”
Melanie shook her head as if she couldn’t possibly be more frustrated. “One thing I’ve learned in public relations is that if people have been inundated with a bad image, you can replace it with a more positive image, until eventually they forget the bad.”
He looked up from his phone and narrowed his focus. “Like what? Pictures of me volunteering in a soup kitchen? Loading sandbags in a hurricane?”
“No. I was thinking something extremely believable. You. With a woman. Right now, the world thinks you’re only capable of meaningless flings, which is the image your parents and the board of directors have such a hard time with.”
Adam coughed. If he’d wanted to, he could’ve gone for the jugular and reminded her that their acquaintance had started out as a one-night stand. As much as the events of last night had scarred his ego, he couldn’t do it. He’d never thought of her as a meaningless fling, not even when they’d had only a few hours together. “You want me to start dating classier women.”
“Woman. Singular. Basically, you need a girlfriend. A serious one. You need to find a woman and be seen around town together. Ideally, for the next few weeks leading up to the LangTel gala. Then you take her to the party that night, your father makes his announcement about the succession plan, you’ll have been in magazines and on talk shows by then. It’ll be the unveiling of a brand-new Adam Langford.”
He grumbled under his breath. “Great. My debutante ball.”
“You know what I mean.”
“You’re going to find me a new girlfriend?”
“You’re going to have to do that part. I do have some criteria for you, though.”
Adam slid his phone onto the table next to him and took a sip of club soda, but it felt more like bourbon o’clock. “Can’t wait to hear this.”
Melanie cleared her throat. “She should be beautiful, of course. You’re Adam Langford. No one will believe you’re with anyone who isn’t stunning.”
Jack looked up into her eyes, shot a glance at Adam, and went back to being as close to a lapdog as he could, draping his head across her legs.
“She should be someone who is well-known,” Melanie continued. “But she should have a pristine reputation. No more party girls. It should probably be someone who’s accustomed to the media microscope. You know as well as anyone how tough that can be to deal with.”
“And what do I do with this person?”
“Go out to dinner. Go out for coffee. Take Jack for a walk. You’ll just need to let me know ahead of time, so I can leak information to the press.”
“I really don’t think this is going to work. I’m not good at faking anything. The photographers will see right through it if it isn’t real.”
Melanie considered him with those blue eyes of hers, the ones he wished he could see looking up at him while she was pinned beneath his body weight, at his mercy. “You might have to get good at faking it.”
That was never going to happen. It was already too much work to sit here and talk about another woman. “What happens if I fall in love? After all, I’m hopelessly single and, despite what you might think of me, I don’t plan to be that way forever.” Shut up already.
“Whatever the emotional entanglements are, that’s for you to decide.”
“Of course.” Was this her way of getting rid of him? Pushing him into another woman’s arms? If so, she might live to regret it, although he couldn’t fathom anyone capturing his imagination the way she had. Perhaps if she were a tinge jealous, it might be enough to make her rethink the wisdom of turning him down.
“Do you have anyone in mind?” Her voice squeaked at the end, as if she’d forced disinterest in the answer.
“I do, actually. I think I know the perfect woman.”
* * *
The perfect woman. Great. I can’t wait for the perfect woman.
On paper, Adam finding a fake girlfriend was a beautiful idea, crafted in the middle of the night amid crying jags and brainstorms. It accomplished two very important things—it rounded out Melanie’s PR plan, and it created distance between her and Adam. They would be working together a lot. At least if he had to keep his hands to himself, she could do her job and ignore how badly she longed to put her hands all over him.
