The Favor

“Has it occurred to you that I could be dating someone?”

“No, because you don’t complain when I call you on weekends, no matter the hour. You don’t tell me you have plans when I ask you to stay late or spring a late meeting or last-minute business event on you.”

“Yeah, well, being your PA kind of eats up my time,” I said, feeling a little defensive. “Why ask me to play the part of your wife?”

“I’ve never made any secret of my aversion to relationships. I rarely date the same woman twice, and I don’t take the time to get to know them. People would never buy that I’m suddenly head over damn heels for a relative stranger. It would look especially suspicious to anyone who’s aware of the strings that are attached to my trust fund, yes?”

I nodded. “Yes.”

“You’ve been my PA for four years now. We see each other pretty much every day. It wouldn’t be hard to sell a story that we grew close, fought our feelings for a while, finally acted on them, but kept it secret. It’s not like it’s something that hasn’t happened to other couples.”

Well that was true enough.

“You’d have been my first choice in any case, because I know I can trust you. Several of my business competitors have tried hiring you as a spy or luring you away from my company, but you remained loyal to me and to o-Verve. Plus, you have one of the best poker-faces I’ve ever seen, which we’ll need if we’re going to fool people.”

I slumped in my seat. “This was so not how I expected my evening to go.” I’d earlier decided that I needed to shake things up a bit, but this was not what I’d had in mind.

I took a sip of my coffee, but I barely tasted it. “You have a whole year before you need to be married. You could meet someone within that timeframe who makes you reconsider your views on marriage.”

“I won’t, nor would I want to.” He leaned forward, resting his forearms on the table. “This isn’t a spur of the moment thing, Vienna. I’ve thought it through. All the way through. You and I could pull this off.”

I poked my tongue into the inside of my cheek. “If we did go through with it, how long would we need to stay married?”

“Twelve months, at the very least. Purely because I have to be married for an entire year before I’m allowed to touch my trust fund.”

I felt my eyes widen. “Jesus, your uncle really covered his bases.”

“He did,” Dane agreed, a muscle in his cheek flexing. “I suppose he knew he couldn’t be sure that neither me nor my brothers would marry solely to access our trust funds; he probably thought that if he could force us to stay married for a year, we might find some joy in the marriage and decide to make it real.”

“I can see it pisses you off that he did this, but he meant it as a gift, Dane. He didn’t want you to be alone.”

“Yes, but he didn’t consider that not everyone is the same as him. If I do, by some miracle, later in life decide I want to marry for real, I’ll try it. But I don’t foresee that happening. For now, it’s definitely not what I want.”

I inwardly sighed. I wanted to help him. I did. I also wanted to return the favor I owed him, just as I’d promised. But marry him? That wouldn’t be a small thing.

Then again, taking care of the whole sextortion situation hadn’t been a small thing either, had it?

I scratched at my head. “You said the marriage would be for show. So … no emotions, no expectations, no sex, no being anything other than a fake couple?”

He nodded. “Exactly.”

“Honestly, I don’t see how it would work. You’re a highly sexual person, Dane. There’s no way you’d stay celibate for the duration of a fake marriage—and trust me, you’d be expected to be celibate if I was playing wifey, because I won’t be known as the poor woman being cheated on left, right, and center by a husband she ‘loves.’”

His brows snapped together. “I’m not a slave to my impulses, Vienna. I can go without sex if need be. And I would need to go without it, because Travis will have me watched. You’ll need to take a temporary vow of celibacy just the same.”

Oh, wonderful. Not that I had a sex life. Unless the nights I spent with my vibrator counted. “I’m not sure if people will buy that we’re a couple.”

“Countless people already think we’re sleeping together.”

“They do? Why?”

“Because you’ve stuck around this long, and because I’ve never threatened to fire you.” His eyes bore into mine, burning with intensity. “Say yes, Vienna.”