Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 72655 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72655 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
He swirls the coffee in his paper cup. Black. I knew it. Coffee preferences tend to match a person’s soul. I’m buzzing with my ability to read a person when I notice a teabag string sticking out the backside of the cup. It’s not coffee at all. It’s black tea.
Huh.
What?
“You’re quite nasty, you know that?”
“Me?” I jam a finger into my chest. “Uh, what? You’re the one who bought someone else’s company and offered more money than they could ever refuse because they didn’t want to sell, I might add. You’re the one who wants to blackmail me into being a fake fiancée, or I’m out of a job.”
“I never said that. I never even thought that.”
No, I’m not letting him get away with this. It’s absolutely not going to be a thing. He did think it. He had to have thought it. That was his whole master plan.
“I think there’s room for both of us at your bougie pudding company, Miss Not Genevieve.”
“Please don’t call me that.” Nope, that’s not me getting huffy at all. Whatever. I have a right, don’t I? Buying my place of employment was an act of war, wasn’t it?
“Alright, Evillllll-ahhhhhhh.” He has this thing about drawing out the last part of that horrible mispronunciation of my name.
“My pudding company isn’t bougie. You, of all people, shouldn’t even be using that word. It’s a word used to describe people like you. That’s like…like a cat making fun of other cats for being a cat.”
“I do humbly apologize,” he says over a sip of his tea. Earl Grey. Jesus, does this guy have to like the best tea there is?
“You don’t humbly apologize. There’s nothing humble about you.”
He shrugs. “Nevertheless, we can make this work. I have something you want, and you have something I want.”
“Blackmail never works out for anyone.”
“It isn’t blackmail if we’re helping each other. It sounds more like a mutual understanding or even a friendship to me.”
“Do I strike you as the kind of person you would ever be friends with?” I huff.
“Absolutely. I have all sorts of friends,” he responds with a smirk.
“You’re a poo pants, that’s what you are.”
He grins, and I know I’m not doing myself any favors here. I’m fighting a losing battle. Maybe I’ve been losing all this time. “Poo pants or not, I need a fake fiancée, and I happen to know there’s a position in the company I just purchased that you put your name forward for.”
“No.”
“There isn’t a single part of the company that I haven’t been very well informed about. I’m extremely thorough when I purchase something to make sure I know everything that’s going on. I’d be a very poor leader if I didn’t care, and caring means knowing even the smallest of details.”
I want to tell him to shove the small details up his ass. I want to tell him that he doesn’t care a fig past his own agenda. There’s a whole lot I want to say, but after hurling out immature insults like poo pants, maybe silence is best.
I try and give him my scariest, glaring face.
But all it does is make him smile more, damn it.
What does it say for me that I can’t even get a glare right?
“I think we could find something that works for both of us. You put in a few appearances over the next few months as the love of my life when it’s required, and I, in turn, will promote you to head of your department.”
“That’s so transparent!” I choke. “And awful! If we’re fake dating, everyone would know you promoted me just because I’m—” Cutting that off is probably best for all parties involved. “Connected with you,” I finish, the words bitter and awful in my mouth.
“You applied for the promotion before I took over the company.”
“So did other people. I’ll be chosen over them just because I’m supposedly sleeping with the company’s new owner. That’s just…no. No thanks. I don’t want to beat anyone out unfairly. I’m good at my job. I’m really good at my job. I deserve that promotion. I’ve done amazing things for the company, and everyone knows it.”
“Then everyone would also know that you got the promotion on your own merits.”
Goodness freaking help me. My face is so hot. It’s beyond nice hot rock massage hot and straight into the bowels of hell hot. If only I could have foreseen what doing a teeny, tiny favor for Gen would result in, I never would have done it. “That’s not what they would think or say.”
His smug smile should not look borderline adorable. I don’t know anyone else who can be so self-important and still have their eyes flash that honey, golden brown. It shouldn’t be allowed to be a thing. One should not be able to look like they think they’re a king and also like someone you’d want to tell your secrets to because they seem like a genuinely good and open person you can trust. This man is not a good person. He’s the kind of person who should just figure out how to solve his problems legitimately, no matter how difficult they are.