AllFreeNovel
Share Us
June thinks quietly for a moment, and part of me wishes she would land on the idea herself. If it’s her suggestion, she’s less likely to deny it. “What kind of reason would be good enough for him to unfreeze your account?”
Damn. I take a breath to steady myself, because I’m about to swing for the fences like Ted Williams when he came back from the war. “I have an idea, and I’m going to need your help.”
Chapter 26
JUNE
Ugh. I hate this. I hate everything about this, and now, he wants my help to get me my money? This isn’t right. I should walk away.
But I want my fucking money.
“Fine. I’m listening.”
“So, you’ll help?”
I laugh and sip my drink. I’ve already decided he’s probably not lying. If he was, it would have been a more fanciful lie. Something far more interesting than his dad, wallet-blocking him. But I’m going to make him sweat it out a little. He more than deserves that.
“I will listen. Whether I help depends on this plan of yours.”
“My father has this thing about me settling down. He thinks that if I’ve committed to a woman, then clients will see me as commitment-worthy. It’s some old school bullshit, but he clings to it.”
“Not a bad theory, I guess. People like stability—wait.” He’s not about to suggest what I think he’s about to suggest, is he?
“That’s where you come in.”
Panic clutches at my throat, and it goes raspy. This cannot be happening. “Anderson?—"
He puts his hands up to cut me off. “I know you’re gonna say no, but hear me out.”
I laugh and realize there is not enough alcohol in the bar for what he’s about to say. “You’re insane.”
“And you were willing to fuck me for this money. Are you saying you won’t do a little role-playing for it, too?”
“I mean, fair enough, but low blow.”
“Didn’t mean it as an insult, I promise. Just that, if you’re willing to go to one extreme?—
“Yeah, yeah, I get it. But lying to your family? This is a lot, even for you.”
He nods once. “If you pretend to be my fiancée at Sunday supper with my parents, then I can all but guarantee he will unfreeze my accounts. What he needs is for me to feel stable. That’s it. And when he unfreezes them, I pay you.”
“That’s it? I show up for one family dinner, and,” I snap my fingers, “poof, the money?”
He takes a stiff breath. “Not entirely. My father is not easy to impress. I’ve been trying my whole life and only managed the feat a handful of times. This will take you, at the top of your game. He will try to trip you up, to make you say or do the wrong thing. My mom is easier—she just wants to see me happy. But Dad is a beast. He will want to know what clubs you belong to?—
“None.”
“What books you read?—"
“Do romance novels count?”
“No. He will want to know about your breeding.”
I laugh so hard, I’m convinced whisky will burn a tunnel through my sinus cavity. My eyes burn, but I don’t care, because that was funny as hell. “My breeding? Am I a cocker spaniel?”
“It just means he’ll want to know about your family, June. Who your parents are, your grandparents. He wants to know how stable you are, too. If you were pedigreed, he would have heard of you by now. This is good and bad. The thing you have over him is that you’re an unknown entity, so you can be whatever he wants.”
That sounds suspiciously like what Cesar and Camille had said about my fateful night. He can’t possibly mean it that way … but I have to ask. “Are you saying you want me to sleep with your dad?”
