“This is r-ridiculous,” she whispered.
“Not at all.” He spoke as softly as she had. “It’s the perfect solution to both our problems. We’ll go off the radar. No one will know about your mistake, and we’ll be so boring as a cute couple they’ll soon move onto something more salacious.”
This wasn’t a perfect solution. This was an insane solution. He had his glam lifestyle to lead and she had her business to run.
And… she’d felt his hand on her.
Yeah, there was the real problem. She couldn’t possibly pretend to be engaged to him when he had her turning to molten goo with just a look. He was the last person in the world she’d want to mess with. She knew his type intimately. Her ex, Bryce, had been a Logan wannabe. From an elite family, money going back generations, spoilt with a ‘just dispose of it’ attitude to problems.
And the irony? Bryce had been the ultimate ‘catch’ her mother dreamed of. Successful, rich. Things like faithfulness or reliability didn’t rate high on the list of requirements. He was the kind of man her mom wanted to snare for herself—and had. Three times already.
Min knew the reality of toying with a man like Logan wasn’t fun and certainly wasn’t forever. She already had one broken engagement behind her to prove it.
“I’m not m-m-marrying anyone ever. C-c-certainly not s-s-someone like y-y-y-y-you.” Oh God, she choked over the sentence as distress got to her.
And it there it was. The stutter almost as bad as it got. Almost a total block.
She closed her mouth and inhaled sharply through her nose. He didn’t take his eyes off her—watching close for weakness?
No politeness, he was all predator.
And she’d just handed it to him on a platter. Her greatest vulnerability.
Min stared him out. Silent, controlled. She wasn’t going to collapse in a heap and cry. If she cried she’d never be able to speak, she’d be blocked.
She had to stay in control of her feelings. But oddly, despite that ferocious expression in his eyes, she began to feel bad. What she’d just said had been freaking rude.
“A fate worse than death, Ms Jones?” he asked quietly.
She couldn’t answer the look in his eyes. In her head she saw it, him moving over her. Him taking everything he wanted. Touching, tasting, distracting, devouring.
Appallingly, her fury died as desire blanketed over her, sweeping away the embarrassment.
Okay she had to leave. Now. She couldn’t be near him. Surely she couldn’t be feeling it for him. Not when she knew exactly what guys like him did—and didn’t. And this was a guy who in part paid her bills.
Don’t cross that line.
He didn’t blink. She didn’t breathe. Worse than death?
No.
But she knew he wasn’t joking. He wanted to expand this fiction. To cast her as his leading lady for as long as he needed to avoid anything slightly scandalous.
Why?
Confused, she thought through her options. She refused to go home to Minnesota and her mom and face the ‘I told you so’ and the ‘I’m so disappointed’ and the ‘how could you be so stupid’ recriminations. She’d had enough of those in her lifetime already. But with a few words Logan could kill her fledgling career. She’d lose her clients…
And then there was the building curiosity. Why did he want this, really? Why did he want to avoid yet more scandal when she didn’t think he’d care all that much?
There was no denying it, she was intrigued.
And this was a fiction. They’d fake it. Maybe he meant they’d just go on a few dates? That shouldn’t be tempting…
But she knew how to be discreet. She could be the quiet, shy fiancée who avoided the limelight. As long as she didn’t have to spend too much time actually in Logan’s company, then maybe she could manage it. He was thinking only for a couple of weeks, right? To get him through this ‘bad timing’—whatever that meant.
If she’d survived one engagement, she could get through this one. This one wasn’t even real.
Finally she broke that paralyzing eye contact, dropping her gaze back to the computer screen. Another sixty tweets had just appeared using the #welovelogan hashtag.
“You have many online followers?” he asked.
She took a moment to take the leap in topic. “I don’t have my own Twitter account.” She reverted to breathy Marilyn voice to be able to answer. “It’s enough to tweet for all my clients.”
“So you don’t have a personal social media presence?”
She shook her head. “Only a static website.”
“How do you get new clients?” he asked.
“Mostly word of mouth. I’m d-discreet.”
“Really?” His eyes twinkled.
That humor was too attractive. She refused to soften towards him.
Stay dignified, stay safe.
“I’ve built up my contacts list,” she explained. “You might find it hard to believe but this is the first mistake I’ve made.”
“Only the first?” His eyebrows shot up. “What a boring life you must have led ‘til now.”
She glared at him, refusing to bite on the inappropriate turn back to the personal. She wasn’t doing anything personal with this man. Even if her core was bubbling more than the molten rock at the center of the planet. Beneath her precariously thin crust, lust was cooking up a storm.
“We’ll say we met through work, which we did.” He turned back to face her.
“But you don’t want people to know I had control of your Twitter account?” Most of her other clients preferred to keep that under wraps as well. That was partly why her personal social media presence was non existent.
He nodded. “We met when you did some online management for us. It’s best to explain anything with a limited version of the truth. No one needs all the details.”
A limited version of the truth. That’s how he dealt with life’s little problems?
Min wasn’t buying it. “They’ll still smell a r-rat.” The guy had been caught out in a sex tape three months ago. What kind of a fool was she going to be for falling for him so quickly? “No one will believe this.”
That he would fall for her? That he was ever ready to commit? There were too many impossible elements.
“Sure they will.”
She shook her head. “They’ll think it’s staged.”
“Not after a few months. By the time we break up, I’ll be out of the spotlight and the world will have forgotten about it.”
A few months?
Min laughed, nigh on hysterical.
“What’s so funny?”
“A man like you will n-never be out of the spotlight. The campaign you were modeling for today won’t be launched for months, right? Your face is going to be everywhere for a long while yet.”
People wanted to know him. To see him. To have him. Be him. Logan Hughes was his own freaking spotlight.
“Careful Ms Jones, I’ll be extending our engagement for a year.”
Her mouth fell open. “A year? If I agree to this madness, it’ll only be for a couple weeks.” That’s all she could handle.
He shook his head. “Six months, minimum.”
“What?” She was reduced to one word speech.
“You heard. You’re the one who announced it. We’re engaged. And we’re staying that way.”
“Why?”
He glanced at the silent phone on the sofa. “Because it’s the most convenient solution.”
Convenient for whom? Solution for what? “No, it’s crazy.”
“It’s what’s happening.”
She’d really rather be in the cage with Blake, about to be pummelled.
“You’ll need to stay here,” he added idly.
“What?”
“You’ll live here for the duration of our engagement.”
“Why?” Her jaw all but smashed on the floor.
“Because we’re in love.” He looked amused and his voice dropped. “And because no one w
ill believe that I’m not sleeping with the woman I’m supposedly going to marry. All night. Every night.”
Oh. Heat sizzled, curling her toes, making her desperate to move, to shift the sudden surge of sensual energy within her.
“You’re crazy. I can’t move in.” She looked at him sideways, furiously trying to think up many, many reasons why it wouldn’t be any good. “I sleep walk.”
“That’ll make life interesting.” He chuckled.
“I snore.”
“Even better.”
“My live-in-lover might have something to say about it.” Bingo. Why hadn’t she thought up a fantasy lover before? But Logan’s edict had electrocuted her brain.
“You don’t have a live-in-lover. You live by yourself in a tiny apartment in Brooklyn. You moved from Minnesota at the start of the year.”
Now that freaked her out. “Did Tyler tell you all that?” She didn’t recall giving that amount of detail to the man she’d met at a new business start-up conference.
“My P.I. is the best in the state.”
“You had m-me investigated?”
He shrugged. “Standard procedure for any employee or contractor working on sensitive information. If you’re going to speak for me, then I need to ensure you’re reliable.” he paused. “Obviously you’re not as good in real life as you are on paper and I’ve now learned not to rely on those reports. There’s always something positive to be taken from a negative situation.” He grinned evilly.
She didn’t care about his little dig. This was her life—her future—at stake. “I have to keep working.”
“Of course.” He frowned. “As a marketing specialist, not a social media manager. New title.”
“But I’m still d-developing my business.”
“You have enough to keep going for six months, right? After we’re through I’ll ensure you get plenty of new clients.”
How was he going to do that if he wasn’t going to admit all she actually did?
“Don’t fight me.”
Min stilled. The way he’d said that? In that quiet, firm manner? It positively melted her insides and yet the urge to do exactly the opposite of what he asked bit to her bones. A fierce, burning need to defy him. Just to see what would happen.
Yeah, he had her wanting to act out. And Min never acted out. Min lived a quiet life, a happy life. Just getting on with her work and building her own total independence.
But didn’t he get it? Couldn’t he see—and hear—for himself how out of his league she was? How fully unbelievable this was? Let alone how unnecessary? “It’ll never work,” she whispered. “They’ll never b-b-believe it.”
Because it was okay for a guy like him to act out, but when it came to commitment, he’d only go for the cream. Rich, beautiful, the best.
“Why won’t they?” he asked. “I’m quite good at looking like I’m in love with the woman standing next to me. That’s what I’ve been doing at that photo shoot all day.”
No what he was good at was looking like he wanted to screw whatever woman he was standing next to. Which was the way he was looking right now. Hell, maybe he was a sex addict? That would explain it. And maybe his condition was contagious? Because her body was apparently ecstatic at the idea of being used for his next fuck fix.
“I’m n-not your normal type.” She glanced away, determined to ice up the sizzling sexual energy coursing through her veins. Jeez, since when did she have the urge to rock her hips in the middle of a conversation with a guy she didn’t even like.
“I never knew I had a type.” He looked baffled.
“You do. A model type.” That reminder killed her heat.
“Are you worried you’re not good enough?” he chuckled. “Honey, I’ve hardly been dating princesses, I got caught sleeping with two wannabe pornstars.”
Yeah but Min so wasn’t the ‘hot looking sexy model’ type. Irritated with the way he didn’t seem to be taking this seriously, yet seemed determined on this course, she lashed out. “Maybe I’m worried you’re not good enough for m-me.”
“That’s more like it,” he nodded.
Was he pleased about what she’d said, or the fact that she’d tried to take him down?
“So naturally I’m so happy a woman like you has said yes,” he added. “I won’t be doing a thing to jeopardise it.”
She glared at him.
“You’ll stay here from tonight.”
“What?” He didn’t think she’d agreed to this?
He smiled. “Surely you don’t need to ask ‘why’?”
“Of course I do,” she snapped. “It’s totally unnecessary. This whole idea is totally unnecessary” He was doing it to punish her. The guy was a master of personal torture. “Am I not going to need any clothes?” She asked, loading the question with sarcasm.
His lashes lowered. She knew what he was thinking. What he was going to say. It was a wonder her clothes didn’t just melt off, given how hot her skin got in a nanosecond.
“We can buy you some new ones tomorrow,” he said lazily.
Oh that wasn’t happening. She wasn’t having him attempt some Cinderella make-over thing. If he wanted her as his fiancée then he was taking her berry-stains and all. “I come as I am.”
“So to speak.” His eyes danced. His smile lanced through her.
He was enjoying this far too much. And now he had his head on that angle again, like he was waiting for her to bite back.
She did bite back—on the snappy retort that had sprung to mind. Because she’d realized that’s what he wanted. He had no intention of buying her a new set of clothes. He’d just said it to antagonize her. And it had worked. Already he knew how to push her buttons and it seemed he delighted in it.
Jerk wasn’t the word.
She inhaled, exhaled, determined once again not to let him get the better of her, determined to think and not let his proximity fry her brain any more. What if she played meek for a while? She’d agree to his stupid scheme and then figure a way to exact some payback of her own. “Along with my clothes,” she whispered. “I need my computer.”
“I’ll send someone to get everything you need from your apartment.”
“No. I’ll go get it.” Already she simmered again. As if she’d let some random enforcer go through her stuff? “And I need it now. I have a client depending on me.” She only just remembered Blake and Sabrina. They’d be having a fit. Blake had probably left her a message on the phone cancelling her contract already.
“I’m your client too,” he said. “And I’m depending on you.”
No he wasn’t. He was acting on a whim. He was known as reckless and this was the definitive example of exactly that. Total spoilt child.
“If I agree to this, it’s only to save my b-b-business.” That was what mattered. She was going to have to work hard to retrieve the situation with Blake too. “I need my computer.”
“All right,” he said equably. “I’ll take you there now.”
No way. She didn’t want him anywhere near her personal space. “That’s not necessary. I can—”
“Of course it’s necessary. I’ll take you now. You’re not escaping my sight. You might run away.” He was smiling, but he looked a little too serious around the eyes for comfort.
“Oh there’s a scandal,” she said drolly. “A runaway fiancée on the day you get engaged.”
He chuckled. “I knew it wouldn’t be long until you saw the light side.”
“Gallows humor.”
“Is it so bad?” He leaned against the back wall and surveyed her with that devilishly angelic look. “Am I so awful?”
When he smiled? When he laughed? No wonder he was so spoilt.
“You’re d-d-dreadful,” she confirmed. “And you know it.”
“Are you going to try to redeem me?” He sent her an impish grin.
“I won’t have anything to do with you,” she said coldly. “I’ll stay in my own room in your apartment and work.”
“No, that’s not ho
w it’ll be. I have places to go, people to see and they’re all going to want to see my fiancée.”
“Then you’ll have to explain to them that I’m shy,” she whispered.
“Shy?” He looked amused. “You’re not shy around me. Not afraid to speak your mind. Definitely not afraid to let me know what you think.”
As crazy as it was, he was right. Min hadn’t been so eloquent in all her life. It was because he irritated the heck out of her.
“You’re really g-going to ask me, a virtual stranger, to stay in your house?” she asked. “Give me access to your personal world? Me, someone who posts things all over the internet?”
“I like risk.”
Clearly.
He really thought she was going to do all this? Just agree to anything he said? He might have her business in his hands, but she didn’t have to make everything in his life easy for him. Had no one taken him in hand and given him the discipline he deserved?
For a split-second she indulged in the fantasy of besting him. Being the one to top Logan Hughes. Being the one to bring him to his knees.
Yeah, like that was ever going to happen.
What she needed was to keep herself under control. She might be sexually attracted to him but that didn’t mean she was going to do anything about it. Because she understood his expression all too well.
He wanted to toy with her.
This whole thing was for his private amusement. He was a bored, spoilt playboy. Well he wasn’t getting everything he wanted. Not her.
At the very least she could be the one to teach Logan Hughes that little lesson. He wanted a fiancée? Fine, he could have one for a very few days.
But he was getting a ‘no’ on everything else.
Chapter Five
#SnapHappy
“You’re sure we’re clear?”
Min watched as Logan spoke in lowered tones with Ed, his security guy.
“Car is right outside, engine running.”
Min peeked round the corner of the ground floor lobby out the glass doors and sure enough, almost half on the sidewalk, a car was idling, another suited security dude guarded the driver door.
“Then let’s do it.”
Suddenly Logan had a hold of her hand. “Walk quick, head down.”
Beg for Me Page 5
