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“Marry me.”
“What?” I damn near shoot from the bed.
“Not for real. I’m not going to ask you to trust a stranger, and you can make whatever contracts are needed to make you comfortable with the whole thing. Your family will think you’re marrying a rich guy, you’ll get your money, and then you can give it to whoever you need to. We’ll do the annulment thing or divorce or whatever after.”
I … don’t even know what to say. “What do you get out of it?”
He looks legitimately surprised. “Me? Why would I get something?”
“Because you’re pretending to be my fiancé so I can inherit an insane amount of money. Most people would want a cut.”
Christian shrugs, looking uncomfortable. “You helped me without wanting anything back for it. I wanted to repay the favor.”
“Pretending to be my almost husband is far larger in scale than a boyfriend for one night.”
“True, but I wanna do this for you.” His gorgeous, vulnerable eyes meet mine. “I knew you were a selfless person the second we met, but your grandpa clearly thought the same.”
I can hear the truth behind his words, and I’m blown away. How can one person be so whollygood? Sure, he doesn’t know we’re talking millions here, but this whole conversation should have given him a hint that I’m not dealing in short change.
I know he wants to repay me, but I also know what a position I’d be putting his already fragile self-confidence in.
“I’ll pay off all of your debt.”
He jerks up to sitting. “What?”
“I’ll pay—”
“I heard you, but I don’t want it. I just want to help.”
“I know you do and it’s incredibly sweet, but I don’t think you know what you’re offering. My family will look into yours. They’ll check that everything we say about your finances are correct, but I doubt they’ll do more than that. They don’t care enough, to be frank. They’ll leave the details to their lawyers to finalize. But they’re not pleasant people, and if there’s anything I learned last night, it’s that you’re incredibly hard on yourself when you mess up.”
He’s playing with his hands, still looking uncertain, and I want to make sure there’s no room for mistaking me. I sit opposite him, folding my legs beneath me and wait for him to meet my eye.
“Either you take the money, or I’ll be forced to reject your generous offer.”
Finally, a little amusement lights up his eyes. “You do know I don’t actually want to do thisortake your money, so it’d be easier for me to say no.”
“I know. And you’re welcome to it.” But if I’ve read him like I think I have, feeling like he’s in my debt isn’t something he’ll be able to easily brush off. “Think of it as compensation pay. Yourfamily may be homophobic, but mine will be outwardly horrible to you. Don’t take it personally, they’re like that with everyone, but knowing you’re the one in the way of what they view as theperfect union, you’ll certainly be on the receiving end of some nasty shit.”
Plus having all that debt he’s drowning in suddenly gone? It’s like I canseehim fighting with himself.
And after one minute, that feels more like ten, he draws a shaky breath. “Okay. We’ll do it.”
I offer my hand. “I’m holding you at your word here.”
His warm palm slides into mine, but doesn’t move. “Dude, you just offered to pay off everything. I don’t think you know how much I owe in student loans, credit cards, the money I borrowed for my car …”
Whatever it is, I can afford it.
“Shake my hand, Christian.”
I feel the weight of his relief when he does.
Chapter 10
Christian
What the hell just happened? One minute I’m offering to do a good thing, and the next … I warn myself not to get too excited. All my debt, gone like that? Unlikely. I can’t remember what life was like before the crushing pressure of overdue payments and bank phone calls. Working on this show is a godsend because it pays decent, but once I cover all my repayments, I’ll barely have enough left over for food and utilities. I’m drowning. I trashed a suit I’m going to be up hundreds for, and while I desperately want to be the bigger man and turn down Émile’s offer … I justcan’t.
