The Engagement Project

by Brenda Harlen

  “And you’re telling me…why?”

  “Because, as you previously noted, a fiancée would be expected to know this stuff.”

  “I’m not your fiancée.”

  “I know, but I’m working on it.”

  “I’m flattered,” she said, in a tone that warned him she was anything but.

  “If you want flowers and candlelight, I can do that.”

  Megan shook her head. “It’s not the delivery of the proposal that I have a problem with but the proposal itself.”

  “Why?”

  “Because an engagement—even a fake one—would be too much of a complication at this point in my life.”

  “It doesn’t have to be complicated,” he promised.

  “You don’t understand,” she told him. “If I agreed to this, if my mother got so much as a whiff of a proposal, she’d be booking the church.”

  Despite her adamant tone, the if gave Gage hope. Until then, he’d been certain he was fighting a losing battle in trying to convince Megan to go along with his plan.

  So he considered his response carefully, all too aware of the narrow edge between persuasive and pushy as he attempted to negotiate it. He wasn’t sure why it was so important to him to play out the charade with Megan, only that it was.

  “We’ll just explain that we want a long engagement,” he told her.

  “We don’t want any engagement,” she said, but he thought she sounded more wistful than exasperated.

  “I’ll let you pick the ring. Whatever you want—the sky’s the limit.”

  She folded her arms across her chest, and he tried—really tried—not to look at her breasts. Yeah, they were modest, but when they’d been pressed against his chest, he’d known without a doubt that they were real.

  “Do you really think you can bribe me with diamonds?” she challenged.

  “No,” he admitted, forcing his attention back to their conversation and accepting the fact as further proof that Megan wasn’t like any other woman he’d ever dated. Most women would have jumped at his offer, if only to see how much of his inheritance he was willing to spend on a ring.

  “So what can I bribe you with?” he asked, still hoping he might find a way to secure her cooperation.

  She opened her mouth, then closed it again without saying a word.

  “Now is not the time to start censoring your thoughts. Just tell me.”

  “There’s nothing you have that I want.”

  But the way her cheeks flushed suggested she wasn’t being entirely honest in her response.

  “Except?” he prompted.

  The color in her cheeks deepened. “Your experience and reputation,” she finally admitted.

  “Excuse me?”

  She shrugged. “Since we’ve been working together on this trial, rumors—apparently not as unfounded as I previously believed—have been circulating that we’re…involved. And since then, well, people have been looking at me differently.”

  He frowned. “What people?”

  The color in her cheeks deepened. “Men.”

  “Looking at you differently how?” he demanded.

  “As if…maybe…they missed something before.” She dropped her gaze. “As if…maybe…they might be interested.”

  He wasn’t sure why her statement annoyed him, only that it did. “What does that have to do with my proposal?”

  “Well, it occurred to me—” she still refused to look at him “—that if I was engaged to you, and if I was the one who dumped you at the end, it might increase my appeal. Popularity by association.”

  He couldn’t believe what she was saying. But obviously she believed it, and he was seriously annoyed to realize that she could think so little of herself.

  “Meg, any guy who only wants you because someone else wanted you is an idiot.”

  Finally she looked up at him. “You only want me because you think your parents approve of me.”

  It was true, but not the whole truth. The truth was, he had a lot of reasons for wanting her to play the part of his fiancée—some of which he wasn’t yet ready to explore too deeply.

  “Actually, I could probably find someone else to go along with my plan,” he told her. “But if I have to fake an engagement for six months, I thought it should be to someone I enjoy being with, someone who can carry on an intelligent conversation, someone—” his lips curved “—who tells me when I’m being an idiot.”

  She smiled, too. “That I can do.”

  He looked at her hopefully.

  She sighed. “Okay. I’ll consider your proposition…on one condition.”

  He had expected a little more resistance, and a lot more conditions, so he didn’t hesitate. “Name it.”

  “You have to be faithful.”

  He scowled, equal parts annoyed and offended. “As if I’d be with another woman while my ring is on your finger.”

  “How long has it been since you’ve had sex?”

  The blunt question shocked him—as did the realization that she expected him to answer it. Instead, he asked a question of his own. “What does that have to do with anything?”

  “You said it’s been several months since you’ve dated anyone,” she reminded him. “I assumed, though I know it’s not necessarily true, that means it’s been several months since you’ve had sex.”

  “So?”

  “To go six more months seems like it’s asking a lot of a man like you.”

  “Now who’s making generalizations?” he grumbled.

  “You don’t think it will be a hardship?” she challenged.

  “Not one I can’t handle,” he said, and prayed it was true. Not that he wanted any woman but her—and that would be the biggest challenge, keeping his hands off of the woman who was supposedly his fiancée.

  “What if there was another option?”

  His gaze narrowed as he picked up a tray of samples. “What other option?”

  “My sexual experience is decidedly lacking,” she explained. “But if even half of the rumors I’ve heard are true, yours is not.”

  He put the tray in the freezer before the implication of her statement sank in, and he scowled at her, all too aware that he was as aroused as he was infuriated. “You’ve got to be joking.”

  She flinched at the harshness of his response and turned away, but not before he saw the glitter of tears she tried to hide. He’d been shocked by her proposition and he’d reacted instinctively, but he hadn’t intended to hurt her, and he felt like dirt, knowing that he had.

  “Fine. Forget I said anything. I thought—the way you kissed me—” She shook her head. “I guess it was just another one of those games I have no experience with. Well, you could have just said you didn’t want me and saved us both the embarrassment of my proposal.”

  Could she really think that? Believe that?

  “Meg.” He put his hands on her shoulders, winced when she jerked away. “It wasn’t a game.”

  She faced him again, her eyes shining with as much fury as hurt. “Then what was it?”

  He reached up to tuck a strand of hair behind her cheek.

  She stilled, every muscle in her body tensing, but didn’t pull away.

  “Impulse,” he admitted softly. “Desire. Need.”

  Her eyes clouded with confusion.

  And the urge to take her in his arms and kiss away the hurt he’d inadvertently caused was almost more than he could resist. “Do you really think I could kiss you like that and not want a hell of a lot more?”

  “I don’t know,” she admitted.

  He heard the vulnerability in her words, saw it in her eyes, and acknowledged that she had a lot to learn. As tempted as he was to teach her about the games men and women played, he knew that would only hurt her in the end, and that was a risk he wouldn’t take. But she was hurting now and that, at least, was something he could fix.

  “Lesson number one,” he said. “Men are simple creatures. We want what we want and we can’t fake arousal.”

/>   “You’re saying that you are attracted to me?”

  He couldn’t lie to her, not about this, not when his response obviously mattered so much to her. “Yes, I’m attracted to you.”

  Her brow furrowed. “Then why are you so opposed to this?”

  “Because I like you.”

  The furrow deepened. “Excuse me?”

  He scrubbed a hand though his hair. “Okay. I realize that doesn’t make much sense.”

  “Are you saying that you usually have sex with women you don’t like?”

  “It’s not that I don’t like them. I wouldn’t go out with a woman I didn’t enjoy being with. But there was rarely anything deeper than a certain elemental attraction, no real emotional involvement.

  “Our relationship is already more complicated than that,” he told her. “Not just because we work together, but because we’re friends. Adding intimacy to the equation just makes everything more complicated.”

  She considered his explanation for a minute. “It could,” she allowed. “If I had any expectations of our relationship continuing beyond the term of our fake engagement. But I don’t want anything more from you than some basic male-female dating experience.”

  He frowned, not pleased to think that he was supposed to teach her the skills she would use to flirt with and seduce other men. Because even if that was what she believed she wanted, she had no idea how many piranhas were swimming in the dating pool, and how quickly her innocence would be devoured.

  “Why now?” he asked. “Why me?”

  “Because I’m too old to still be getting all nervous and tongue-tied every time a man shows the slightest hint of interest. And because you want me to go along with this engagement idea and it seems like a good way for us both to get something we want.”

  “I’m willing to do almost anything if you’ll go along with this, but I’m not sure you understand what you’re asking.”

  “Oh, for goodness’ sake,” she said. “I’m not offering myself as a virgin sacrifice on the altar of the almighty Gage Richmond. I’ve had sex before—just not very good sex.”

  Okay, so she did understand what she was asking—and he was beginning to understand that he was in big trouble. She might not be a virgin, but she was still innocent—far too innocent for him, and far too tempting.

  “I’m flattered that you think sex with me would be different,” he said drily.

  “Your reputation precedes you.”

  “Which is exactly what got me into this dilemma in the first place,” he reminded her.

  She frowned, as if only now understanding the irony of her suggestion. “But if you want my help to get you out of it, I should get something in return.”

  She was right, of course, and since she seemed to know what she wanted, he would be a fool not to accept her offer. And if he had to have sex with her along the way, well, it would hardly be a sacrifice. In fact, considering how his body was already responding to the idea, it wouldn’t be a sacrifice at all.

  “Okay,” he said. “Let’s go get you a ring.”

  “Now?” Megan stared at him.

  Gage shrugged. “Why not now?”

  “Because…because…” She couldn’t think why not, she could only think that she’d violated the age-old proverb that advocated “look before you leap.” Now she was free-falling with no idea how long it would take before she hit bottom but certain that it would be with a great big splat when she did.

  “Everyone already believes we’ve been dating for a while,” he reminded her. “So it won’t come as a complete surprise.”

  “Not to them,” she muttered, as he took her hand and dragged her toward the door.

  Megan followed, not certain if the flutters in her belly were caused by excitement or apprehension. Flutters that continued to intensify throughout the drive to the jewelry store while various questions raced through her mind: What had she gotten herself into? Was she really going to do this? Would anyone actually believe that Gage Richmond would ever want to marry her?

  And—would he hold up his end of the bargain?

  Her cheeks burned as she thought back to their conversation. She’d actually said that she wanted him to tutor her in the art of seduction and, even more surprising, he’d agreed. Not without reservations, but still he had agreed.

  According to Paige, who knew a lot more about male-female dynamics than Megan, the current term was friends with benefits. And Megan trusted that so long as she remembered to focus on the friends part, she would get through the next six months with her heart intact.

  “Most women are flushed with excitement when they walk into a jewelry store,” Gage said, as they made their way down the sidewalk toward The Diamond Jubilee. “You look as if you’re facing an execution.”

  “I feel like I’m going to throw up,” she admitted.

  He took an instinctive step back and she laughed.

  “I’m not really going to do it,” she promised. “It’s just that when I get really nervous, my stomach tightens up.”

  “If anyone should be nervous, it should be me,” Gage said. “This is definitely not a day I ever imagined would come.”

  “Ever?”

  He shook his head decisively.

  “Because then you would tumble from the national ranking of the country’s most desirable bachelors?” she couldn’t resist teasing.

  “Actually, that might be a nice benefit of this engagement.”

  “Except that you’re still a bachelor until marriage, and this engagement will be over long before next year’s list.”

  “I can’t believe you read that list.”

  “I don’t. My sister does.” She paused at the door, the knots in her stomach twisting.

  “Take a deep breath, relax and remember it’s not real,” Gage advised. “That’s what’s getting me through.”

  He spoke nothing more than the truth, and yet she couldn’t deny the pang of regret that echoed in her heart, the yearning for something more than a charade, for someone to truly love her.

  But she knew that wasn’t going to happen now, and it certainly wasn’t going to happen with Gage, so she nodded and repeated the mantra inside her head as she stepped through the door he held open for her.

  There were several other people in the store, mostly couples, she noted, which allowed them to browse the display cases uninterrupted while the sales staff assisted other customers.

  Megan was overwhelmed by the selection. She’d never been one to stroll through jewelry stores, had never let herself dream. Now she wasn’t just dreaming—she was actually going to walk out of the store as Gage Richmond’s fiancée.

  It’s not real, she told herself again, willing the words to settle the flutters in her tummy and ignoring the disappointment that weighed heavily in her heart.

  “Do you see anything you like?” Gage asked her.

  She nodded and pointed to a pretty round-cut diamond solitaire set on a simple gold band.

  Gage frowned. “You’re kidding.”

  “You don’t like it?”

  “I don’t think anyone would even see it on your finger.”

  The diamond was smaller than a lot of the others, but she didn’t want something that would constantly draw attention to her. But even as the thought formed in her mind, she realized that was exactly what Gage did want.

  “What about this one?” He gestured toward the center of the case and to a ring that was set apart from all the others not just by the set-up of the display but by its uniqueness and size.

  Megan stared at the ring, at the cluster of diamonds so big and brilliant it was absolutely stunning, and shook her head. “I couldn’t wear something like that.”

  “Sure you could.”

  She shook her head again.

  “At least try it on, see how it looks.”

  “I like the small solitaire.”

  “The whole point in putting a ring on your finger is to show that I’ve made a commitment, which I would want to show in a
big way.”

  “I like the solitaire,” she insisted, all too aware that she sounded like a spoiled child. “And you said that I could pick the ring.”

  Gage sighed. “But if we want people to believe our engagement is real, the ring needs to be believable.”

  “I just think it’s ridiculous to spend a fortune on something that is nothing more than a prop.”

  “I’m not worried about the money.”

  “You should be. You could probably buy a house for what that cluster of rocks will cost.”

  “Not a whole house,” he denied. “But you might be able to make a good down payment.”

  “Then maybe I’ll hock it when the engagement is over and pay off my mortgage.”

  “You can do whatever you want with it when our engagement is over,” he agreed. “So long as you keep it on your finger until then.”

  In her head, Megan knew their engagement was only for the short-term. But in her heart, there was a tiny little piece that hoped she wouldn’t ever have to take the showy ring off of her finger once Gage put it there.

  Chapter Ten

  Gage had considered making reservations at a fancy restaurant and having the waiter deliver the ring in Megan’s dessert, but that seemed a little too staged. Besides which, he wasn’t sure either of them was prepared for such immediate and public scrutiny of their engagement. Instead, he opted for a quiet, romantic dinner at home, setting the scene with flowers and wine, candlelight and music.

  It wasn’t until they were riding in the elevator up to his condo that he realized she had never been there before. And when he took her hand, he felt the tremble of her nerves.

  Did she think he was taking her to his place so that he could jump her? Not that the thought hadn’t crossed his mind more than once since she’d put sex on the bargaining table.

  She’d called it “basic male-female dating experience” but they both knew she was talking about sex. And being a man, he couldn’t seem to get the thought out of his mind. As he opened the door of his condo, he was wishing that he’d gone with the restaurant idea after all.

  He hung her coat in the front closet and invited her to take a look around while he checked on dinner.

  He was lighting the candles in the dining room when she made her way there.