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I blinked at hearing the word come from such a light voice, a jolt of heat spearing down my spine. “I don’t want to fuck you,” I said, then tilted my head. “That’s not to say I wouldn’t take you up on the offer, but for now, I just want you to be my girlfriend for half an hour.”
Jesus, it sounded as awful in my head as out of it.
“Cash first,” Jesse spoke on her behalf, and she smacked his stomach. He laughed, sipping from his drink. “What, girl, don’t turn the universe down when it’s trying to give you a giftwrapped in a hot-as-sin package. I mean, come on, he looks like the duke from the first season of Bridgerton. Be a duchess for a minute,” he teased her.
I pursed my lips, nodding my thanks to him.
“Time really is of the essence here,” I said.
“Why?” she asked, looking at me skeptically.
“I’m in the middle of a very important poker game upstairs, and my friends don’t believe I have a girlfriend and I want to prove them wrong.”
“Bybuyingone?”
I shrugged. “Desperate times.”
She laughed, and I couldn’t stop the smile that shaped my lips at the sound.
“Why me?” she asked, glancing around the packed club. “There are tons of women?—”
“Ah, but none of them have your eyes,” I said. “I’m a sucker for all those gold flecks wrapped in green,” I continued, glancing at her hair. “So is your hair,” I said, and my fingers itched to feel if the strands were as soft as they looked.
“It’s also the color of all that money he has in his hand,” Jesse said, nudging her toward me.
She furrowed her brow. “No sex? No weird stuff? All I have to do is say I’m your girlfriend?”
“I promise,” I assured her. “You may have to sit on my lap.”
“As girlfriends do,” Jesse said, and I grinned at the guy.
“Thirty minutes,” I said. “That’s it. Then you can come back down here and dance all night.”
She still looked skeptical, so I handed her the cash. “That’s yours no matter what,” I said, hoping that would earn me some trust. “And I have food upstairs.”
Her eyebrows raised at that.
“Jesse comes with me,” she said.
Relief untangled the tension in my chest, tension I didn’t even notice until it was gone.
“Absolutely,” I said, taking her free hand in mine. “This way.” They followed me into the private elevator, and she and Jesse started whisper-fighting like I wasn’t there at all, her sayingif we get killed it’s your fault, which really made me laugh.
“I’m Crossland McClaren, by the way,” I hurried to say as the doors opened and we headed back into the game room.
My friends immediately fell silent when the three of us entered, and I tried not to look too smug at the shock on each of their faces. “Everyone, this is Jesse,” I said, pointing to the girl’s friend, only then realizing I was an absoluteidiotwho didn’t ask her for her fucking name.
“Aspen,” she said, saving me the embarrassment as she waved to the room. “Food,” she said the moment she spotted the bar across the room. “Can I, babe?” she asked, falling totally into the role so quickly it took me a second to keep up. “I’m starving.”
“Of course, pumpkin,” I said, laying it on thick. She headed toward the bar, and I couldn’t keep my eyes off her luscious ass. The girl had legs for days. Even in sneakers she was tall and curvy, and I knew she would look even better splayed out beneath me.
As much as I’d like to make that happen after this whole debacle was over with, I knew better than anyone not to mix business with pleasure, and right now, she was technically an employee.
I sat back down at the table, and Asher dealt me into the next hand, which I folded just as Aspen came over to me a few minutes later, having satisfied herself with the snacks. I scooted back just enough to pull her into my lap, sighing softly when she settled herself there easily.
“How long have you two been dating?” Weston asked.
“Three weeks,” I answered before she could.
