by Emily Bishop
“You’re not seeing a penny of it. You know that, don’t you? No woman will ever use me.”
She laughs then advances in that flirtatious way again. “Are you sure about that?” She traces her finger up my arm. I don’t pull away. She would think I was weak. “What about Isabella? She’s plainly here for your money.”
Well, in a sense, she is. Of course, that’s what this fake engagement is based upon. I’m not about to tell Lilly that. But Isabella isn’t just here for the money, I can feel it. “Isabella is real. She’s not after money. She doesn’t pretend. She’s not a snake.”
“Every woman wants diamonds and gold,” Lilly says. “I can’t lie, I want it too. But at least I really love you, too. I really do. That Isabella? She looks at you and sees pound signs.” Then she fakes an American accent. “Sorry, dollar signs. I know all about the solicitor deal, you know.”
“Who told you that?”
“It doesn’t matter,” she says, a sly grin on her face. “Isabella doesn’t love you. You don’t make her happy. The money does.”
An idea flashes through my mind. “Oh, yeah? Watch this.” I sit at the table and flip open the laptop. I think back to Isabella and her Kindle. She always has her head in it, especially when she’s stressed. Hell, she’s probably on it right now. I’ll order her some books on Kindle. That will make her happy. I know what kind of woman she is. She was so touched when I remembered her favorite foods from school. If I can buy her a business book now, and maybe a fiction book, too, she’ll love it. “See how simple this is?” I tell Lilly, while I click onto Amazon. Isabella’s account is already logged in. “Just… perhaps twenty pounds on two Kindle books, maybe even less. And this will make her feel happy.”
Lilly snorts. “Good luck. Go ahead and try it. See if she doesn’t laugh at you.”
“Whatever.” I go onto Isabella’s purchase history to see what she likes. Maybe they’ll have some suggestions on there. I scroll down the fiction books she’s ordered, some business books, too. Books on business debt, expansion, things like that. She really does care about her father’s business. So much. For the first time, that fact makes me feel warm inside. Like she’s a safe person. A really safe person. “You know, Isabella is much more—” I freeze. I can’t help it. My eyes track over a title that hits me in the gut. How to Play with Men’s Minds and Have Them Wrapped around Your Little Finger. I check the date. Fuck. It’s just after we met.
I forgot Lilly existed for a second. “Gray?” she says.
I try to slam the laptop shut, but she gets there faster. “Ooh hoo hoo!” she squeals. “Look at what your perfect little Isabella is reading! I told you she’s no good, Gray!”
The world closes in on me. I don’t know what is up or down, left or right.
Lilly pushes the laptop away and perches on the table in front of me. Her voice changes to soft and sweet. “Hey, Grayson, forget about that horrible bitch. You know I’m the only woman who can understand you. You know it.”
I feel numb. I don’t even move. She puts her hands on my shoulders then comes close. She’s going to kiss me.
Chapter 16
Isabella
DAY 11
They probably think I’m so pathetic. Running out of the room without even getting my laptop. They know Lilly intimidates me. Why do I let her? Ugh, I want to go home. Back to my business. Where I feel in control. Sure, our numbers are in the red. But I know how to make them go into the black. But then, I need Gray. I mean, I need his money. I don’t even know anymore. I’m not used to needing anything. Or anyone.
In the hallway on the way to the dining room, I pretend I’m back in Seattle. On my way to a business meeting. My smart, confident self. No one can intimidate me. I know what I want, and I know how to ask for it. I plan how I’m going to walk in. Breezy. With a little laugh. “Oh, I forgot my laptop. Well, anyway, I have business to attend to, guys. Talk soon.” That’s what I’m going to say. It feels good.
Then I walk in. “Oh, I forgot—”
Gray pushes Lilly off him. Her mouth is still puckered. My mind races a billion miles an hour. Were they kissing? Did he just push her away because I came in? Was she trying to make a move on him? Did he want her to?
Gray jumps to his feet. “Isabella!”
My voice comes out small. “Am I… interrupting something?” I can’t look either of them in the eye. I feel like an ant squashed on the sidewalk.
“Yes, you are.” Lilly pulls the hem of her top down and straightens out her skirt. “It’s time we admitted what’s going on, don’t you think? You’re using Gray for his money.”
“Be quiet,” Gray growls then rushes to me. “Isabella, I care for you very deeply. Lillia was pushing herself on me.” He reaches out to me. “An unwelcome advance.”
I step back. I swallow and try to make my voice even. “Your love life is none of my business, Gray. We have a deal, that’s all.”
“Aha!” Lilly says. She hurries up to us, her face full of excited malice. “I knew it! See, Gray? She doesn’t love you at all. She’s here for the money.” She touches me on the arm, such a gentle touch. I feel a jolt of horrible electricity go through me. I jerk away. “There’s something you don’t know about Gray, Isabella,” Lilly says gently. “He’s still in love with me.”
“Get out!” Gray hollers.
She jumps. We both do. The command in his voice would put fear in the bravest warrior. She backs away slowly toward the door, but keeps talking in that eerily soft voice. “He won’t admit it now, but he does. And the truth always come out, to everyone. Especially people we try to hide it from. Like solicitors.”
Then she turns and walks away.
My head spins. I try to catch my breath, but it sticks in my throat. I have to get out. I run out of the side door that leads onto the manicured gardens.
“Isabella, wait!” Gray’s coming after me.
But I keep walking, my head held high. If I don’t, I feel I’ll collapse. I have to keep walking. Keep walking. Keep walking. To where? I don’t know. I just walk. The path juts in angular corners around sculpted bushes and fountains and the like.
“What Lilly said, it’s not true at all.”
I feel numb. “She said you’re in denial. Maybe you’re denying it to yourself, too.” I speed up.
“How could you be such an ass to believe I love her. Her?”
“There’s nothing particularly wrong with her,” I say coldly. “She doesn’t have many scruples. But neither do you.”
His voice comes out like so many razor blades. It’s a wonder they don’t cut his throat on the way up. “You think you’re so damn perfect. You think you’re above me. Well, newsflash, you need me. You need me or your father’s business will die.”
“I don’t see how that’s relevant to this conversation.” What is this conversation even about? My thoughts tie themselves in knots I could never hope to unpick.
He hurries to the front of me and walks backward, trying to get eye contact. I stare resolutely past him, like he doesn’t even exist.
“Stop running away!”
“I’m not running away, I’m preserving myself. This is all too much drama. I’m just going to keep my head down until this thirty days is over, and then you’ll never see me again.”
He stops dead. All the light drains out of his eyes. “Is that what you want?”
No. I stare at a faraway bush. “Yes.”
He shakes his head and wedges the toe of his expensive shoe in the gravel in a stabbing motion. “Then you’re a real scheming witch after all.”
“Excuse me?” I stare right at him.
He holds my eye contact without wavering. His deep brown eyes shoot daggers at me. “You heard.”
“We had our deal! Get the money and stop the pretense. Wasn’t that our deal, Grayson?”
“Yes.” He glares. “But you know as well as I do that there are two deals at play here.”
I crease my brow. I dread what he’s going to say. I hope
I’ve got him wrong, and he’s going to come out with something else. “I’m not following.”
“So when I gave you the best sex of your life, that was part of the money deal, was it? When you called me ‘darling’ in the hotel, that was part of the money deal, right?”
I stammer. “Well. Well, you did say we have to pretend to be together.”
“In front of other people. There was no one there. No one except me and you.”
I can’t even look at him. “Maybe the boundaries got blurred. Like, I had pretended so much outside that it just slipped out.”
He stares me down. “So, you’re telling me it meant nothing?”
Oh fuck. My chest is squeezing tight. Why does this have to be happening? Why is he speaking all our unspoken secrets? “I don’t know.”
“Well, I know,” he says. “It meant something. You’re not that good an actress. Drama was always your worst subject.”
I stare back at him, not knowing what to say.
Then a horrible look crosses over his face. “Unless…” He looks at me, horrified. “That book…”
“What? What book?”
“Oh, you know the one,” he says with venom. “The one you downloaded just after we met, about how to control men’s minds or little fingers or whatever the fuck you get off on.”
How does he know about that? “What I read is none of your business.”
He steps back, crosses his arms, and looks at me with those intense brown eyes. He’s watching my every move. “It’s not?”
“Gray, thirty seconds ago you were acting like a complete douche monkey and you’re demanding answers from me, right now? You’ve got to be kidding me. I’m not interested in having this conversation with you.”
He snorts. “You act like what I do is the worst fucking thing in the world, then go and try to manipulate me right back. Here I was thinking you were the sweet, innocent one.”
“I’m not. I’m the sour, strong one,” I reply, even though my heart’s skipping beats now.
“Sit with me,” he says. “Let’s talk about this, Isabella. Please?”
The “please” sways me. Gray should be too much of an asshole to use that word.
I follow him over to the bench, which is next to a square ornamental pond. I’m walking into the dark. Into the unknown. It’s terrifying.
He sits then nods to where I should sit. I do. Then he gives me a pointed look. “Talk. Or are you going to pretend you have no idea about this book? I’m the king of bullshitting, you know. Or I was. Anyway, don’t try me. I’ll see right through any lies.”
“Not that it matters, but I downloaded the book right after we made our deal.”
“Why?” he shoots at me. “You didn’t need to control me. We had our money deal.”
“Yeah, but you were so…” I can’t find the right word. I shouldn’t even explain this to him, he’s pissed me off so bad, but I want to. I want it out – because manipulation has pretty much always been beyond me. “I was kind of scared of you, I guess.”
“What? Like you thought I was going to hit you or something?”
“No.” I laugh at that. “No, I mean, it’s like you were playing games with my mind. Trying to get me under your control.”
He shrugs. “I was just treating you how I treat all women.”
Pff. “That figures.”
“But you’re not like all women,” he says. “You’re different. You’re special.”
“Not this again. I told you already, I know you tell all women that. And, you know what? Since when is it a compliment to be told I’m not like other women? I like being a woman. I like being like other women. Special, maybe, sure, that’s okay, but don’t insult all women just to compliment me. That makes me think you’re an asshole.”
“I – fuck.” He takes his hand and lifts my chin until I have to meet his eyes. “I really care for you, Isabella.”
I feel my heart starting to slip. I shake my head away from his grasp. “Look, I care for you, too,” I say in a businesslike tone. “But it’s never going to work between us. You like fun too much. I’m too serious for you. We should just be friends, OK? That would be fine. No sex anymore, though. It’s too confusing. We’ll do all the fake stuff, you know, the whole fake engagement thing, and then we’ll go our separate ways.” I look up at him then back down. “I don’t want it to be like this. But we have to face reality.”
“Come here.” He holds his arms out.
I want to. “No.”
“Come on.”
I scoot over, and he pulls me into a hug, my head on his chest. “We can grow to be happy together, Isabella,” he whispers. “I promise you.”
I sigh and watch the clouds float by overhead. “I wish that were true, Gray, but it’s not.”
“What if it is? How will we know if we don’t try?”
My head feels so fuzzy. “Let’s just get the rest of the time out of the way. It’s more than two weeks, still. We have to persuade Mr. Fink. That’s the main thing.”
“I’ll invite him over soon,” Gray says. “Before the final meeting. So we can gauge him. See what he makes of it all.”
That puts me a little more at ease. “Yes.”
He kisses me on the top of the head. “And I am responsible,” he whispers. “Let me tell you what I’m going to do with all that money.”
“Not now,” I say. The next thing I say feels like tearing my heart out. But I have to say it. “It’s not my business.” I wonder if he’s going to drop me out of his arms.
But he squeezes me tight. “Another time.” He sighs, a happy one. “This feels so good, doesn’t it?”
Too good. “Yes,” I admit. “But I think I’d better go back in and finish my work.”
He lets me go then smiles at me.
I smile back.
Chapter 17
Grayson
DAY 11
Eddie’s coming back today, thank god. He got tired of his Seattle bad-girl babe. It turned out she was trying to fix her life up and wanted to settle down. She had her hopes set on pinning him down. Eddie’s not a settling-down kind of guy, just like me. Sure, I like Isabella. That doesn’t mean I’d want to be stuck in a house with her all the time, with a dog, 1.8 kids, and a Volvo. That’s not how Grayson Fairfax II will be remembered. He’ll be remembered as a man who partied hard, had all the fun in the world, and yes, maybe loved hard, too. Maybe.
I decide on the perfect prank. Eddie gave me a call when he set off from the airport, so I know just how to time it. By the time he gets here after the torturously long drive, it’ll be dark and he’ll be tired. I know how to get under his skin.
About ten minutes before I calculate he’s due to arrive, I go down to the front gate. I draw it closed and change the code. Then I climb up a tree and get my phone out. This is going to be gold. I’m dirtying my Armani suit, but it’s worth it.
Before long I see car headlights make the swerve into the corner before the gate. Haha. He nearly slams into the gate—it’s usually open—then slams the brakes on and screeches to a halt.
“What the fuck?” he says as he gets out of the car. I’ve already pressed record. The streetlight illuminates his angry face. He goes over to the keypad and punches in the regular number. I can see him do it. 4-3-1-8. Nothing. “What?” he says, then types it again. Punch-punch- punch-punch. He stabs at the buttons. He’s getting madder and madder by the second. This is brilliant. “For fuck’s sake!” He tries again, punching the buttons ever more violently.
I laugh quietly to myself.
Then he gets his phone out. I hurry to put mine on silent, my heart racing. He’s going to hear my ringtone from the top of this tree, no doubt. I scramble about with the settings, then flip it back onto video. Ha.
“That bloody Gray,” he says, then tries the code again. “Fucking hell!”
Then, just as he’s about to get back in his car, I call out, “Twit twoooo. Twit twoooo.”
He jumps out of his skin and swerves h
is head everywhere, looking for me.
“I’m an owl,” I say, desperately trying not to laugh. “Try 1-2-3-4.”
“You fucker, Gray!” He peers around. “Where in the hell are you?”
I turn my phone around to flash at him. “Up here, jackass.”
“Get the hell down here so I can beat your ass.”
I grin. “All caught on camera, my bro. Too bad.” I climb down the tree, then go through the walking gate by the side of the car entrance. I slap him on the back. “Welcome back, jackass.”
He punches me in the side, but not hard. “You’re ridiculous.”
I take a flourishing bow. “I got you good. Now I’m taking you for a drink, as payback for that wonderful footage you just afforded me.”
“All right. But I’m going to get you so drunk that I can push you into the river afterward. Then when the police come knocking on the door, I’ll just tell them you were drunk.”
I laugh and start walking toward the pub. “Don’t you think I should die with a little more glamor? Maybe a plane crash on the way to my private island? Wait til I get my money, bro.”
“How’s that going, by the way? How’s Isabella taking it?”
I shrug. I don’t want to think about that right now. Being with Eddie feels like old times. Before everything got confusing. “Fine. It’s all good. You’ll back me up when old Finky comes around, won’t you? Make him believe it’s all legit, of course.” I stride along, feeling so sure about the world. Everyone else are fuddy-duddies. Me and Eddie run this town. Run the whole world. We’re the kings of fun and partying.
“Yeah. But in that situation, it would be fair to pay me too.”
“Of course!” I say. “I’m going to buy you a Rolls Royce, remember? In purple, with red-leather interior. People say those colors clash, but what the fuck do they know? They haven’t seen the way we roll yet.”
He laughs, but it’s short. Mirthless. “No. I want forty percent. Look how much I’ve spent on you already. It’s only fair.”
