Saskia turned his hands over and gave them a little squeeze. She must have hit a nerve, because warmth shot through him with all the subtlety of a bolt of electricity.
“Nate, I like your family, and I’m not sure how I feel about lying to them any more. Fudging a few dates is one thing, but engaged?” She leaned into the huge bag on her shoulder and pulled out a folded piece of paper. A cheque. Rumpled at the edges as if she’d worried at it some. “If you could wait a couple of months before banking it...”
As realisation hit panic swelled inside him. He clapped his hand around hers. “No!”
“Nate,” she said, her eyes beseeching.
“Do you want more money?” Her head rose so slowly he knew he’d said the wrong thing. “I take that back.”
“I can’t believe you just said that!”
He ran a hand up the back of his hair. “Me either. I’m sorry. It’s just...this was meant to be simple.”
“And it’s not, is it?” she asked, looking him right in the eye.
Brave girl. Braver than he. He gave himself a mental shake and simply refused to go there.
“Our initial contract was fulfilled the moment you stepped over my mother’s threshold.”
“But—”
“I mean it. All I really wanted them to believe was that I was seeing someone. You made that happen. Every moment from that point on was above and beyond.”
“So the wedding...?”
A moment hovered in front of him—a moment during which he could have thanked her for her efforts and sent her on her way.
A savvy businessman, to say the least, he knew when to take such moments. Cut ties and move on. The world was a big place with a million new deals to be made. And yet in that moment, even while they were surrounded by glass walls, with people walking past, glancing in, no doubt wondering who the small brunette with her foot tucked up on a chair, looking unblinkingly into their boss’s face might be, the world felt about two metres square.
He looked into Saskia’s big nearly brown eyes and heard himself say, “Tell me about the dress.”
“Red,” she said, swallowing. “Floaty. Gonna knock your socks off.”
“I’ll be sure to wear two pairs.”
Her breath was released on a big sigh. He did much the same, only he was far better at hiding it.
“Okay,” she said, frowning a moment, before adding, “But your family—”
“It’s not a lie, Saskia. Not any more. The pre-engagement is Faith being Faith. But as for the rest...? You might not have noticed, but we’re sleeping together. And we’re exclusive. That’s about as close to a relationship as I’ve ever been.”
He actually held his damn breath as he waited for her response. Those big eyes were searching for the loophole. Poor kid. She’d been screwed over so many times by men who’d just wanted something from her she couldn’t see when someone was being honest. And he was. He wanted her as his wedding date, and he wanted her in his bed until that day. Exclusively.
When her answer came it was, “Wow! A more romantic proposal I never did hear.”
At which he laughed. Laughed till his sides hurt.
Then came a smile so sweet and unexpected it near broke his heart. Thankfully the thing was unassailable, tough as old leather, or he might have begun to worry.
“Why do I get the feeling I should have fought harder to cut you off?”
“Low blood sugar,” he said, sliding the platter of doughnuts her way.
Rolling her eyes, she lifted her backside off the chair and took one, biting into it with relish. “You’re trouble, Nate Mackenzie. I should have known it the minute I saw you walk into Mamma Rita’s. Heck, maybe I did see it and just didn’t care.”
“You’re no walk in the park either, Saskia Bloom.”
At that, she grinned. “Maybe we should shock them all and just get married. You can keep the losers from my door and I’ll keep infuriating matchmakers from yours.”
She was joking—he knew she was joking—and yet for a brief shining moment the simplicity of it made a perverse kind of sense: her contentment, her warm body, the way she made him laugh.
Until memories of skimpy underwear hanging over the shower rail began to flick through his mind. And Pride and Prejudice marathons, and drips of red nail polish on the bathroom sink, and never being able to find a piece of chocolate in the house as once it crossed the threshold it became fair game. And the tears. So very much rich, thick, swinging emotion to navigate every single day.
If you want a woman you get married. To Gabe it was that simple. While Nate’s skin began to itch as if he’d come out in hives.