by Eden Proctor
“Charlie’s company is good. It’s a smart investment, one that’s going to make me a lot of money,” he said.
“But?” she asked.
“But that’s beside the point. I know I can make money,” he said.
She chuckled. “So modest,” she said.
“Modesty is not necessary when I have the truth on my side. I know I can make money. And you know why I’m so certain of that?”
“No,” she said, scowling at him, “but I feel like you’re about to tell me.”
He put his knife and fork down, and Emily did the same, feeling some importance to this moment. She felt like she was going to get a rare insight into Daniel, something she instinctively suspected he didn’t give everyone, and suddenly her attention was fully on him.
“I don’t lose. Ever.”
He spoke with a simplicity that took Emily aback more than vehemence would have. Everything about him said that he meant what he said, that he was certain about it.
“Everybody loses sometimes,” Emily said.
Her words felt thin, frail in comparison to his utter certainty.
He shook his head. “I don’t. And I’m not going to start now,” he said.
“So you’re willing to do all this, go through with this just to win?”
“Yes. Because in the end that’s all that matters. Not the money. Not fame. And certainly not the respect of people I’ve never met. I see something I want, I go after it, and I get it. That’s the way it is. That’s the way it will always be.”
She frowned, processing his words. “That seems so…lonely,” she finally said.
She saw the first quirk in his expression, a little flare in his eyes that he quickly snuffed out.
“Lonely? What does that have to do with it?” Daniel said.
“You’re missing an opportunity,” she said.
“How so?” he replied.
Emily paused, considered, and then went ahead. “Mr. Green respects you, likes you. He could probably even be a friend. But you’re so worried about winning you’re lying to him and cutting off any chance of building a real relationship with him.”
He frowned. “I hadn’t considered that, but it’s beside the point,” he said.
She paused for a moment, considering whether she should press the issue. Daniel’s expression told her he wouldn’t understand, so she dropped it, and raised another topic.
“What about respect?” she asked.
“What about it?” he said.
“You don’t care about Mr. Green’s opinion of you?”
“No. Why would I?” he said.
She frowned, shook her head. “I forgot. It’s all about winning with you, right?” she said.
“Exactly,” he replied, nodding approvingly, like she had solved a particularly challenging problem.
“There’s more to life than winning,” she said, grumbling.
He smiled and then shook his head. “You’re so naive. I admire that about you,” he said.
“I’m not naive. I just want more than that in my life,” she said.
“Perhaps. But you made your choices, and as lovely as that little picture you just painted sounds, you’re as ambitious as I am underneath,” he said, effortlessly changing the subject.
She quirked her brow. “What do you mean by that?”
“Emily, you’ve proven that you’re quite stubborn when you want to be. Yet here you are. You see an opportunity, and I see one as well. You want to go places. I will make that happen,” he said as if that explained everything.
“You’ll make it happen if I go to that stupid dinner with you and pretend to be engaged?” Emily asked, knowing she was giving him far too much of an opening but unable to resist.
“Yes. If you go to this stupid dinner with me, I’ll make you the head of HR,” he said.
“Bullshit,” she said instantly.
There was no way he’d elevate her to that position. She searched his face for signs of deception, but instead, he smiled lightly and leaned closer to her, his masculine scent filling her senses. “Emily, I’m a man of my word. Don’t ever question that again,” he said firmly.
He held her gaze with his, watching, waiting, silently daring her to contradict him.
“So you want me to believe if I go to one dinner with you, you’ll make me the head of human resources?” she asked, not bothering to hide her disbelief.
“Yes. Because that’s exactly what I’ll do. With a couple of caveats,” he said.
She shook her head, an attempt to ward off the disbelief at this situation. It didn’t help. Emily could see that when she looked at Daniel’s implacable face. Good sense told her she should end this conversation now. But Daniel had proven he wouldn’t be so easily deterred. And she couldn’t pretend she wasn’t curious.
“I can’t believe I’m entertaining this, but it’s gotten this far…” she said, trailing off.
“I don’t know if one dinner is going to satisfy him, so you’ll play the role of my lovely fiancée until the deal papers are signed. Once that happens, I’ll make the promotion official.”
“That easy?” she said.
“Yes, that easy. We’ll both get what we want.”
She chuckled again. “I’m supposed to think you care about what others want?”
Daniel shrugged. “Depends on the circumstances, but in these, you should. We share a common interest in seeing this happen.”
“So that’s your offer?” she said.
“Yes,” he replied.
“I am insane for even considering it,” she muttered.
She went quiet then, thinking. It was ridiculous, but he presented a tantalizing choice. And, deep inside, she thought of what else this meant. Pretending to be his fiancée would not be a hardship. These encounters with Daniel had been the most exhilarating, invigorating, of her life.
What would it be like to spend more time with him, get more of these unguarded moments?
She looked at him, saw he stared back at her patiently, certain of the outcome.
That alone should have been enough to put her off, but the war inside her still raged, common sense and reason telling her that she would be a fool to even consider it, everything else in her, her body especially, telling her she’d be a fool not to.
“I’m going to regret this,” she whispered.
He smiled. “I don’t think you will,” he said.
“I’ll do it,” she said.
He nodded curtly, didn’t even seem affected, but Emily knew the reason why. He had been certain of this outcome.
And Emily couldn’t help but wonder what she’d gotten herself into.
Chapter 7
Daniel took another bite of the delicious steak.
“Tell me about yourself,” he said, looking at her.
She frowned, momentarily taken aback by the sudden shift in conversation, the intensity of the previous topic so at odds with a getting-to-know-you question.
“What do you want to know?” she asked, recovering quickly.
A moment later she regretted the question. She needed to keep this discussion focused, keep their relationship contained to one single matter. Answering questions like this was not helping her cause, but some part of her felt compelled to answer.
She shrugged. “I work in HR. That’s about it,” she said.
“Doubtful, but I will accept it for the moment. What about your family?” he asked.
Emily frowned, her heart momentarily tugging.
“My mother died when I was ten, so it was just me and my dad. He passed away four years ago,” she said.
She remembered that time like it was yesterday. For a while she’d thought she would never be able to recover, and while the years hadn’t stopped the pain, it had given her some distance and perspective and made her even more grateful for the time she’d had with him. He had been a wonderful father, the best man she’d ever known.
“I take it you and he had a good relationship?”
&nbs
p; She looked up at Daniel, having momentarily dropped her eyes. “The best,” she said. She frowned. “But what makes you think that?”
“Your expression. It told me how much you value him,” he said.
That made Emily frown as well but for an entirely different reason. She worked very hard to keep her emotions at bay, and that worked on most people.
She looked at Daniel again.
He wasn’t most people.
“You already know this,” she said.
“I got the basic information, but that’s on paper. I wanted to hear from you directly. Get a different perspective on it,” he said.
“Don’t you think that’s kind of obnoxious?”
“What? Trying to learn all I can?”
Emily felt her frustration begin to rise. “No, asking people questions you already know the answers to and being an insensitive jerk about it.”
“I do what’s necessary. And it seems I must have uncovered something. You’re being defensive.”
“Not being defensive, I’m just taking exception to you prying into my life, asking me questions about things I’d rather not discuss,” she said.
“Fair enough. But I believe in equality, so since you took such great offense, feel free to ask me any questions of your own.”
Emily froze, her fork still tight in her fingers. She looked at Daniel, saw that his expression was serious, almost thoughtful. He was giving her permission to ask any question she wanted to, and she got the sense that he would answer honestly.
If she had any common sense, she wouldn’t ask anything. Asking questions, getting to know him, would only make this more and more real, and more and more likely that she would get hurt.
And that couldn’t happen. She wouldn’t let it. So she needed to keep her questions to herself, stick to the plan, and leave it at that. That would have been the smart thing to do. And while Emily prided herself on her intelligence, she was having a hard time passing up this opportunity.
She had spent such a short time with him, and yet he was so fascinating. To ask him questions, get to know him in a way that she suspected many didn’t… It was a tempting prize.
She met his eyes, and he began to smile.
“What’s so funny?” she asked.
“Your face is so expressive. But right now, I’m trying to figure out what you’re thinking. You want what I’m offering, but you haven’t decided if you should take it,” he said.
She tried to keep her expression even, though she was somewhat surprised that he read her so easily.
“I’m just weighing variables,” she finally said. “I think you’re setting a trap for me, Daniel.”
“A trap? Explain,” he said.
“You throw me off balance, talking about my past. But then you offer me information about yours. A gift, or at least one you want interpreted that way. A testament to your character and kindness.”
“A gift to what end?” he said, not challenging her assertion but not denying it either.
She stared at him for a moment, saw nothing in his expression that gave away what he was thinking. Still, she continued along. “That, I’m not so sure about, but if I were to guess, it’s your intent to build a connection between us. You are trying to go with the carrot and stick approach. Pushing me into this while at the same time being magnanimous, making it seem like we are equal, friends more than employer and employee, or in this case, the one who needs and the one who gives,” she said.
“Interesting,” he replied.
She narrowed her eyes at him. “That’s not really a response,” she said.
“You won’t get a better one. I learned long ago not to give people more information than they need, learned not to confirm their preconceptions. But the offer still stands. Whatever question you want,” he said.
“Okay,” Emily replied.
But then, she went quiet, considering. There was something to this chance, and dozens and dozens and dozens of questions came into her head. She had a hard time thinking, there were so many options, but one kept rising to the surface.
She looked at him again, saw how he waited patiently with his expression still unreadable.
That question popped into her mind again and she went with her current.
“What happened with your fiancée?”
There was a shift in his face, one that was almost imperceptible, but in that instant, Emily regretted her question. But, as much as she saw the change, she saw how he just as quickly hid it again.
Still, though his demeanor had returned to the way it had been before, she regretted the question.
She had done her own research, and had been fascinated with an old story about a brief two-week engagement. It had been over a decade ago, a four-sentence article in the paper, Emily had seen nothing else of it.
That brief engagement had held her fascination. She didn’t take Daniel as the kind to be married, tried to imagine a younger him engaged.
Had it been a business thing? Had Daniel been in love?
Whose idea had it been to end things?
That and all manner of questions had run through her head as she had read and reread that article. She thought maybe it was a waste of a question, but this was the only opportunity she’d get.
“So you do your research too, I see,” Daniel said.
She nodded, though she didn’t think he was looking for a response.
Instead, he kept his eyes on her and then gave a nonchalant shrug. She would have believed it too, were it not for that second of pain that crossed his face.
“She was more interested in money than me. Fortunately I found out before I made the grave mistake of going through with the marriage,” he said.
Then he continued to eat his food, still outwardly the same, but Emily couldn’t help but think of that change in his expression.
She nodded, noting that there wasn’t really an answer in what he had said, but unwilling to push the issue. Something about that felt safer, and she regretted having brought it up in the first place.
They were quiet after that, passed a few words here and there about office pleasantries, little things, but the raw connection of those earlier moments was gone. And Daniel didn’t even mention the fake engagement again.
It was insane to Emily, but she found that she missed that.
She hadn’t changed her mind. Wouldn’t change her mind. But she missed those moments of openness, of connection that they had shared.
For half a second, more than, she was tempted to blurt out that she would do it, if only to have that feeling again.
But she held her tongue.
They finished the meal and Daniel stood, again putting a hand on her elbow.
And again she melted into his touch. She still wasn’t used to it, but she doubted she’d ever get used to anything with him.
“We’re not going out through the front?” she asked.
He shook his head and guided her through the back of the restaurant to where his car was waiting.
“No need. I got what I wanted out of coming through,” he said.
She sat in the car and watched him as he walked around and got in next to her. The sound of the door closing was loud, almost earsplitting. And also a necessary reminder.
Daniel was calculating. He had already told her he would stop at nothing to get what he wanted. Yet she’d spent the last half hour feeling sorry for him, thinking about what she shouldn’t have done, how she missed the connection they shared.
But those few moments in the car reminded her that whatever she might have thought they had shared, it was nothing. If anything, it was his attempt to influence her.
By the time Daniel drove off, Emily was wavering between kicking herself and wanting a way out.
How dare he?
As the ride passed, she got increasingly angry. Both at herself for her stupidity, and at him for forcing the issue. He was behaving in the way people said he always did, in the way he had confessed to.
He did
n’t care anything about her.
She didn’t expect him to, not really, and in truth she couldn’t be too upset because he had been very honest about what he wanted.
And yet…
She felt angry, somewhat confused. Betrayed. Which was beyond stupid.
He had been very clear, had told her in fact that he wouldn’t rest until he got her agreement, and even with that information, so direct and straightforward, she had let herself lose track of what was happening.
Which was why Daniel was so dangerous and why she couldn’t even consider going through with this.
It had taken the space of one conversation during one meal for her to completely reevaluate everything she thought of him, even when he had been completely honest with her.
If he pretended he cared, treated her like he loved her, she would be lost.
“We’re here,” Daniel said.
Emily started and then looked at her building, for a moment disoriented.
Had she really been so lost in thought that the entire ride had passed?
Apparently.
She was still somewhat stunned when Daniel parked and then returned to the passenger side of the car to retrieve her. She got out and stood, feeling somewhat in a haze as she walked to the door.
She watched as Daniel unlocked her apartment with the key. She still didn’t know how he’d gotten it. She watched as he walked in and then followed, staring at him as he stood in her apartment.
For some reason, the way he looked at her place made her laugh.
“Can I have my key now?” she asked.
She had crossed one arm under her breasts and extended her other hand, waiting expectantly.
Instead of answering, he crossed back to the door and closed it. Then he came back to her and stood directly in front of her.
Then, his gaze not leaving hers, he took the key he still held and slid it into the front pocket of his jacket.
“I guess that’s a no,” she said, frowning.
Daniel nodded. “I hope I won’t need it again, but just in case, I think I’ll hold onto it,” he said.
“You know that you can’t do that, right?”
“Of course I can’t,” he said, smiling.
But he made no move to give her the key, and instead stood in front of her, his eyes dark, patient, and watching her. They had been this close in the car, and had been this way earlier, but now it felt different, more intense.
