Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 100277 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 501(@200wpm)___ 401(@250wpm)___ 334(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100277 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 501(@200wpm)___ 401(@250wpm)___ 334(@300wpm)
“Oh.” That ache dissipated at his sincerity. “Okay.”
He shifted as if he was uncomfortable, and an awkward silence fell between us. Deciding we were better off sniping at each other than enduring this discomfiting weirdness, I announced, “Good. Now, in private, I don’t expect you to be Mr. Warm and Fuzzy, but I also don’t expect to be verbally abused.”
“What on earth . . .” he grumbled in exasperation as he sank back into his chair. “When have I verbally abused you?”
“You called my Scottish brogue awful. That I butchered the accent.”
“That wasn’t verbal abuse, that was honesty.”
I narrowed my eyes.
Rafe rolled his eyes. “Fine. I will keep my opinion on your Scottish brogue to myself.” Then he muttered something under his breath about the ridiculousness of our conversation.
I wanted so badly to unwind him. Mess up his perfect hair, rip off a couple of buttons on his shirt and say something that would make him laugh, big and loud.
Those kinds of thoughts should have made me run for the exit.
Instead I summarized, “Six months, ten grand a month, fake dating, fake falling in love, fake breaking up, no sex, PG kissing and touching, and polite courteousness between us?”
“Yes.”
“And how can you trust me?” I shrugged. “How do you know I’m not some horrible person who will infiltrate your life and try to con millions out of you? I know your father is kind of a big deal in the business world. Aren’t millionaires usually paranoid about protecting themselves from con artists and strangers?”
He stared at me stonily for a second and then reached across the desk to where a tablet computer lay. He tapped on it and the screen lit up. After a few more taps on the screen, he turned it and pushed it across the desk toward me.
“Star Shine Meadows, twenty-eight years old, social security number, date of birth, born in Sacramento, California, parents Arlo and Dawn Meadows moved you around a lot, until you moved to New York City when you were twenty-one. You’ve had a plethora of jobs, mostly bartending and waitressing, until you got into line sitting and character costume acting a few years ago. You live on Staten Island.”
I gaped at the email that detailed everything down to the high school I’d attended and the fact that I was in the drama club and graduated with a 3.8 GPA. Despite my grades, my parents had never encouraged me to attend college, and I hadn’t liked the idea that college meant deciding my career path when I was only eighteen years old. The thought made me feel claustrophobic, so I’d gone the way of my parents and just taken jobs that fed and clothed me and kept a roof over my head.
“You had me investigated?”
“Of course.” He shrugged. “Like you said, I can’t invite someone into my life who might be shady. While your career is nonexistent, no one can say you don’t work hard, and you have no record or nefarious history that my PI could dig up. Your credit check and demeanor reveal someone who is generally unmaterialistic. My gut tells me you’re not really interested in my money beyond the ten thousand. The ten thousand a month is required for a specific purpose, am I right?”
“I want to travel.”
He smirked. “See. For some odd reason, I believe you. So we’re good to go.”
Irked beyond measure that he’d investigated me, I demanded, “I want one of those.”
He frowned. “One of what?”
“A file. A private investigation file into you.”
“Easy.” He scowled. “It’s called Google.”
“Will Google tell me what your high school GPA was?”
“4.0.”
Of course it was.
“Anything else?”
“I can’t believe you had me investigated.”
“You just said yourself I’d be a fool to invite a stranger into my life without some background information. It’s not like I did a deep dive. I just looked into the basics.”
“Fine.”
“Fine.” He glowered. “Don’t say ‘fine.’ ”
“I will say ‘fine’ if I want.” I stood up. “That’s another thing to put in the contract. No bossing me around.”
“I doubt anyone could truly boss you around.”
I beamed at the compliment. “Thank you.”
Rafe shook his head, standing from his chair. “You are very odd.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment too.” I pulled open his office door before he could. “At least odd isn’t boring.”
“No one could ever accuse you of being boring, Ms. Meadows.” I felt the heat of his stare at my back and glanced over my shoulder. My breath caught as the scent of his cologne tickled my senses. Those serious blue eyes of his held me captive.
“You should really call me Star,” I replied, my voice softer, a little huskier than intended. “If you want your family to believe we’re dating.”
His eyes flickered to my lips and then back to hold mine. “Fine. Star it is.”
“And I can call you Rafe?”