AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Are you all right?” he says, his voice low.
Now is not the time to tell him he owes me bedtime kisses. There is no way his reaction would be subtle. And as much as I want to confront him a little—what do you mean, almost a year???—I can’t let the act drop.
I’m his fiancée.
“Of course,” I say smoothly, leaning in against him. Our shoulders brush and I use the zap of electricity that skitters down my arm to squeeze his hand back. “Better now that I’m sitting next to you.”
“Awww,” Heather says sweetly.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Andrew frown.
Our wine arrives, and it’s followed by some bread, and then our food.
The whole time, I play the part of a loving partner, and Rufus keeps touching me, and his business partner’s gaze stays narrowed. Watching. Thinking.
Whatever he’s considering, I’m going to be prepared. While my roommate painted my face and paraded the dress options past me, I played out a dozen variations of this conversation. My personal favorite is when I stand up and dramatically confront Andrew for his ruinous plans, but the problem with a big“I know what you’re doing!”moment is…I don’t know what he’s doing. I can’t figure out what his end game would be in embarrassing Rufus. My boss is unflappable, and so what if he invented a fiancée? He probably had a good reason.
Sure enough, when the plates are cleared, Andrew points at me. “We haven’t met before, have we? Because you do look familiar.”
Yeah, I’m the girl he walks past like I don’t even exist. Like I’m not important. “I used to work at a divorce attorney’s office,” I say brightly. “Were you a client?”
His neck starts to turn red. “Certainly not.”
I lean in. I have a bunch of these prepared, and now my veins are full of fire. “Do you follow my cat’s Instagram account? She likes to curl up on my feet, and a surprising number of men seem to follow for that reason.”
He chokes. “No. That’s—”
“Oh.” I pull my hand out of Rufus’s grasp and tap my finger thoughtfully against my chin. “Then it might—”
“Stop it,” he yells. “You aren’t his fiancée! Rufus isn’t engaged. He lives alone and never dates and if he were engaged, that person would surely come to his apartment from time to time!”
Beside me, my boss growls. “How do you know she doesn’t—”
I reach for him, and as soon as he has my hand in his again, the growl in his voice cuts out. I squeeze his fingers to tell him I’ve got this, and I laugh lightly. “Of course I don’t go to his apartment. I’m allergic to grass.”
Rufus stares at me.
But so does Andrew. Good, I’ve thrown him for a loop.
I roll my eyes and give Heather a look that blatantly saysmen, amirite?Of course I don’t mean Rufus, but she can think whatever she wants. “He has a living wall. And I love his commitment to the environment, but until I get my allergies under control, we have to keep all our wild fun to neutral locations.”
I look at Rufus, worrying that I’ve gone too far, but he’s gazing at me the way he does when I have a good idea about one of his passion projects.
“Ourwild funis none of Andrew’s business,” he says, his words carefully measured.
Heat flares low in my belly. That’s his bossy voice. That’s his Mister voice.
He turns to his partner. “This woman is going to be my wife,” he snaps with sharp authority. And oh, how I wish that weren’t just a fun little role-play reality. “Don’t make the mistake of disrespecting her again.”
“Jesus, Rufus,” Andrew says, laughing awkwardly. “You can’t take a joke, huh?”
“Was that a joke?” Rufus sounds cold as ice. “It sounded like you wanted to embarrass me. And in the process, you tried to hurt Cl—” He cuts himself off. “Fuck you. Fuck this. I don’t know who you’ve turned into, but it’s not the guy I started my business with.”
“Our business.”
Rufus laughs. “Sure.”
Andrew’s gaze goes cold. Ice cold. “What does that mean?”
