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There’s that glittering feeling again. Me and Mr. Newton Smith working on a private project.
Wild laughter burbles up inside me.
Rufus smiles broadly. “What is it?”
“I just…we’re so good together. But it’s still kind of hilarious how quickly a fake wife project escalated to a very real new business.”
“And a very real wife project, too,” he growls, lifting my hand to his mouth. “Need to get a ring for this hand today. That’s actually priority number one, before new office space—”
The door to his office is pushed open with enough force to sound like something cracked in the frame. “What the actual fuck do you—”
As one, Rufus and I turn to greet Andrew.
“Didn’t know you were still here,” Rufus says mildly. “Did you keep the private jet on standby for the whole weekend?”
Andrew glowers at me. “Get off him.”
“Excuse me?” I wiggle my bum against Rufus, who clamps his hands down on my hips. No, I’m not going anywhere.
“Oh come on, this is inappropriate,” Andrew blusters. “Rufus, you coerced your employee into pretending to be your fiancee, and now you’re mauling her. How far will this ruse go?”
I look at Rufus with an eyebrow raised. “Coerce?”
He smiles back at me. “Ruse?”
“Does this feel like a ruse to you?” I ask him.
He shakes his head. “Does this feel like coercion to you?”
We share a laugh. Then Rufus helps me stand, and he puts himself between me and his former business partner. “Andrew, as per the termination letter I’ve just sent you—which you should have read before you came storming in here—I am well within my rights to serve you my immediate notice. I remain an officer of this corporation until…” Rufus checks his watch. “Well, I guess until you figure out what your next step is, at which point we’ll be well over the ocean. I’ve never used the corporate jet before. Might as well get one flight in before we part ways. Have a good one.”
Andrew gapes at us as Rufus rushes me past him. I snatch my purse from my desk, then we keep our heads down and go straight to the elevator.
“What was that about the airplane?” I ask, my pulse racing with a whole new level of nerves.
Rufus draws me close and bends over to kiss me. “I need to take my wife on a honeymoon. Oh, and we’ll stop somewhere along the way to get married. The office search can wait until we return.”
Chapter10
Rufus
I giveClover the choice of where to get married. Gibraltar and Vegas are both options.
She shyly asks if we can go back to her hometown, Conception Ridge, even though it’ll be a bit more complicated, and not as immediate.
“Of course.” I sweep my arm around the small cabin of the private plane we’ve hijacked from Andrew. “Then where should we take this free ride?”
“We could go visit the coffee producer we talked to last week.” Her eyes burn bright, and I can’t deny my girl a business adventure.
For us, that’s romantic, too.
So I give the pilot instructions to take us to Costa Rica, and I call ahead, asking an agent on the ground to find us a villa.
* * *
A thunderstorm threatensin the distance, making the air heavy.
Inside the villa we have made our own over the last week, Clover whistles to herself. I’m still smiling when I hear the screen door open and close.
