He paused for a split second, before passionately concluding.
“And Abby, if you don’t think that you’re ten times more beautiful than any of the women on the lists you gave me...then you’re fucking crazy.”
By now, the people around us were starting to stare. I didn’t blame them. Nick had a way of speaking as though he was on a stage, rather than a sidewalk. But as for myself, I was frozen in place. A little bit shell-shocked. A little bit stunned.
“You can control every moment,” he murmured, reaching down tentatively to take my hands, “orchestrate every headline, spin things whatever way you want. I’ll do anything you say—I promise. Whatever you think is best. Events, dinners, fundraisers...anything you like.”
His thumbs rubbed gently across my knuckles, soothing and convincing at the same time.
“It’s just for three months,” he bowed his head—bringing us inadvertently closer together, “three months, and then everything can go back to the way it was. The merger will be finished, the board will be thrilled, the company—all those jobs—will be safe.”
He was using my own logic now. Turning my own argument against me.
But the question still remained...
“Why me?”
He came up suddenly short, staring down with a million unspoken things dancing behind his sparkling eyes. No doubt, a dozen or so arguments and rationales came to his mind. But in the end, he didn’t go with any of them. In the end, he decided to simply tell the truth.
“Because I trust you,” he said softly.
It was perhaps the only thing he could have said to change my mind. The only thing that would make me pause. That would make me forget the airport lights twinkling just beyond.
“I don’t want to do this with someone I don’t care about,” he continued, sounding almost shy. “With someone I don’t know, someone who doesn’t know me.” His eyes flickered up to meet mine, before he blushed and lowered them again. “I want it to be you.”
Blushing and shy? I didn’t know what to make of it. Neither one was even remotely Nick, but somehow, he had never seemed more sincere to me. More vulnerable.
“Please, Abby.” His voice was almost a whisper. “For me?”
Our eyes locked, and my breath caught in my chest.
This was impossible—what he was asking. Absolutely, utterly impossible. No way in hell could it actually work. But here we were, standing drunk on the streets of Barcelona, staring at each other in the glowing moonlight. And that age-old question floated to the front of my mind.
When have I ever refused him?
“Let’s...talk about it inside.”
Chapter 2
THE TWO OF US DUCKED into an all-night café, squeezing into a tiny booth and ordering hot espressos to escape the cold. Nick was clearly thrilled beyond all belief, but he didn’t gloat. In fact, he didn’t say a single word. He simply watched as I took my first warming sip and perched on the edge of the bench with patient, eager eyes.
“There would have to be some ground rules,” I began cautiously. “If this thing has even a shot in the dark at getting off the ground, we need to get a few things straight.”
He set down his cup deliberately and folded his hand
s upon the table.
“Fire away.”
I bit my lip, considering for a moment, before blurting out the first thing that came to mind. “You don’t cheat on me.”
His eyebrows lifted in surprise, and I blushed to high heaven. Whatever he had been expecting me to say, it certainly wasn’t that.
“Of course I wouldn’t—”
“I’m serious, Nick,” I interrupted, suddenly quite relieved that I’d picked that particular thing to start with. “I don’t care whether this is a fake relationship or not, I don’t want to be made a fool of in front of the entire Western Hemisphere.”
He looked a little shocked.