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Chapter 1
The soundof the Beach Boys singing about going to Aruba and Jamaica played in the ’80s-themed restaurant I found myself sitting in. I sat there, slightly uncomfortable, playing with my hair, wondering if I’d made a mistake. I was about to get up and leave when a deep voice sounded next to me.
“Hi there, ma’am,” he said in a sultry tone, making my legs tingle. “Can I sit in the seat next to you?”
I swallowed hard and looked up. There he was, Travis Covington. His bright-blue eyes stared at me with mischief, and his dark hair looked silky and smooth. I nodded, feeling turned on and extremely nervous.
“Sure,” I said, turning away from him and using my finger to push the straw around in my Sprite. I wasn’t yet ready for alcohol. I wanted to be fully alert for the game we were about to play.
“What are you drinking?” he said as he slid into the chair next to me. His eyes gazed down at the opaque glass as it bubbled and fizzed.
“Just a…” I bit my lower lip, slightly embarrassed, and looked back over at him. “I don’t know that I can do this,” I said with asmall smile, wrinkling my nose, feeling more self-conscious than I ever had in my life.
“Do what?” he said, his brow furrowed as he stared at me. His aquiline nose stood proud on his too-handsome face, and my stomach purred as his eyes ate me up, surveying me, trying to read my mind.
“Travis, I don’t think I can pretend we’re strangers.”
“But we are strangers,” he said with a chuckle, throwing his head back slightly as his fingers met mine on the glass. Suddenly, I could barely breathe. His fingers were warm and protective and teasing.
“I mean, we’re kind of strangers. We only met last night at Foster’s, well, I guess your party?”
Travis grinned at me. “It wasn’t my party. It was a charity auction. We were just at a table I sponsored, so technically, you were my guest. My very pretty guest.”
“I know, I know. You were raising money for a literacy program in New York, right? That’s what Foster told me.” I grinned at him. Foster was the boyfriend of my friend Alice and one of Travis’s top employees at his hedge fund. “But we met last night, so pretending we’re strangers now just feels weird to me.”
“This was your idea,” he said, staring at my lips.
“I mean, it was kind of my idea.”
“No, it was your idea. I asked if you wanted to go on a date or to come home with me last night.” His blue eyes stared at me in the way they had the evening before, promising a night of pleasure I would never forget.
“I’m not that sort of girl,” I said quickly, though that wasn’t true. I’d been out with men before and had one-night stands, but I wasn’t going to tell him that. It wasn’t like you vocalized you were sometimes a ho to one of the most attractive and richest men you’ve ever met in your life. I’m not stupid. I mean, I’m not ashamed of it, either, and if we were to date, I’d tell him thetruth. But this fantasy wasn’t based on any sort of promise for a long-term commitment.
“Yeah, that’s what you said… Remember what you said next?”
“I said, ‘Thank you for the offer.’” I smiled at him sweetly.
“Yeah. And after that, you said…”
“I said, ‘I don’t know.’” I sip on my Sprite quickly, trying not to remember the stupid things I’d said the night before. I’d been drunk and totally flirtatious, even more flirtatious than I usually was.
“You said to me you would give me a date if…”
“I didn’t ask for a date,” I said quickly.
“I’m just quoting what you said,” he said with a smile. “You said, ‘I’ll give you a date if we pretend we’re strangers meeting at a bar for the first time,’ and I was picking you up for…”
“Oh, don’t remind me,” I groaned, feeling mortified.
“Why? Is that some secret fantasy you’ve never admitted to anyone before?” He started laughing then.
I turned to him and folded my arms. “It’s not funny, Travis. You don’t even know me well enough to laugh at me like that.”
“I just think it’s funny that when I asked you for a date, you came up with a date that turned out to be a secret fantasy. And you’re so ashamed of it now that your face is turning bright red.”
I bit down on my lower lip, unsure of how to answer because the truth was this had been my fantasy, but now it all felt a bit weird. I was too sober to pretend to be picking up a stranger in a bar, especially when the man was pretty much a stranger to me.
“I’m sorry, Molly Malone, but—”
