A Hollywood Deal (Ryder & Paige 1)

“Is your ex the father?”

Now her entire face is pinched like she has a slice of lemon in her mouth, but she nods.

I straighten to ease the tension at the base of my neck. Holy shit. This must mean that the asshole refused to take responsibility for the child. I think it through. His name is…Don? Vaughn? Shaun. A stunt guy.

Then it hits me what a shitty situation Paige is stuck in. A lot of single moms have a hard time, especially when they don’t have any financial help or moral support. Elizabeth’s foundation does a lot of work overseas, but it also helps women and children within the States too. Every time my sister wants a check from me she gives me reams of statistics, including ones about the abject poverty faced by single moms and their children.

As though, without those numbers, I would laugh in her face and tell her to go away because I have another Ferrari in my sights. Maybe I come across like a jackass all the time. The media portrayal of me is bad—wild parties, women, booze.

Paige has the dubious honor of witnessing all that first-hand. Maybe she doesn’t think I’m as bad as the media say… I shake my head inwardly. No. She’s seen too much. She has to be desperate. Like, really desperate.

I ran a background check before I hired her. She’s from a small, conservative, potato farming town in Idaho, and her stepfather is a public school teacher. Pretty safe bet that pregnancy out of wedlock is not the kind of thing that is okay in her family…even if the guy did screw her over.

I lean forward. “How can I help?”

Paige swallows and blinks away some moisture in her eyes. Finally, she gathers herself. “If we do this, I’m going to give birth before the year’s up. So…I want you to claim the child.” She hurries on, words tumbling out. “You don’t have to be responsible for the kid in any way. That’s not what I’m asking for here. But I need to know that my ex isn’t going to have any claim over the child. It’s important to me.”

“Was he abusive? Beat you?” If he hurt Paige, I’m going to smack myself in the face for not noticing before and then beat the shit out of the moron. For once I wish I studied martial arts like my cousin Iain. Maybe he can give me some poin—

“No, no. Nothing like that. But he isn’t the type of person who’s going to consider what’s best for the child. You understand? He’s more interested in himself.”

“I know the type. Got a father just like that.” I’ll be damned if Paige’s child is going to get stuck with an asshole dad. “Okay. That isn’t a problem.”

“Thank you. And—”

“I’ll set up a trust for the kid.”

Her mouth parts. “Ryder…”

“If I’m going to claim it as mine, I might as well do the right thing. My uncle gave each of his children fifty million bucks when they turned eighteen. Or was it twenty-one?”

“No!” Shock widens her eyes, and she looks outright horrified. “It’s too much. I won’t accept it.”

I smile. Does she have any idea how refreshing this is? There isn’t even a bit of greed in her, and that makes me want to give her more than she asks for. “All right then. Let’s compromise at twenty-five.”

“Ryder!” Then she narrows her eyes and leans back in her seat. “You’re messing with me.”

“A little. But seriously, I do want to set up something for your child, Paige. You’re giving me an amazing gift, and I don’t want to repay it with nothing.”

“It isn’t nothing.”

I wave her objections away.

She clasps her hands together. “Also, there’s, um, one more thing.”

“Sure.”

“I want to keep our relationship…you know, the marriage…professional.”

That gives me pause. “Define ‘professional marriage.’”

She flushes. “We both know we aren’t marrying for love or anything like that. So there’s no reason for us to do the things that couples who marry for real do.”

“Like what?”

“The ceremony. Honeymoon.” She pulls her lips in, pressing them tightly together. “Sex.”

“A year without sex, hmmm…” I tap my lower lip. It’s fun to tease her and watch the flush deepen on her cheeks and neck, but it’s partly to hide my own reaction to the idea of sex with Paige. My dick is instantly stiff with the image of her lush body bare and quivering with need…even though I know intellectually that she really deserves the kind of guy who can give her a fairy tale ending, not me.