by Eva Luxe
“It’s not that,” Greyson said, lowering his voice a little. “Harper is the kind of woman that will make you fall for her. You know how she is—you hired her because of that magnetic quality.”
Greyson was right, it was what made me pick her over the rest. I’d had quite a few applicants for the job, people that had more experience and seemed like they’d wanted the job a lot more than Harper. But I hadn’t been able to shake the thought of her.
“But she’s not the relationship type,” Greyson carried on. “I’ve asked her. She doesn’t date, she doesn’t rely on anyone and she’s quick to point it out.”
“This isn’t about needing someone or being dependent on someone,” I said. “It’s about working together to gain something. I’m not really going to date Harper.”
“She’s going to pretend to be in love with you,” Greyson carried on. “I can’t imagine she’ll do a shitty job of it. What if you fall for her?”
I shook my head. “I don’t think I’m in danger.” I was the king of one-night stands and no emotional investment. I was the biggest dick in Seattle and I wasn’t referring to my family jewels. I fucked every woman that was willing, kept my contacts list to an absolute minimum and made sure I never saw the same girl twice if I could help it. If anyone had to worry about falling for me when I wasn’t invested in return, it was Harper.
“Just be careful.” Greyson sounded like he wasn’t so sure I could resist Harper if that was what I wanted. “She can love and leave, I’m sure of it. A woman like her, with walls as high as she’s built them, is that guarded for a reason. And guarded women are trouble because the one that cares the most is the weakest. Somehow I don’t feel like her heart will be the one to break if this goes wrong.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” I said. “I’m not going to fall for her. It’s like a glorified business transaction. We’ll be fine.”
Greyson shrugged. He had warned me, and I appreciated it, but I knew what I was doing. My eyes were on the prize and nothing else.
What Greyson said was still on my mind when I went home. He had warned me to be careful. Me, of all people. Had he said the same to Harper? Because if anyone had to be careful, it was her. I was the Seattle heartbreaker. It wasn’t my official nickname but it should have been. Harper was the one that should be guarding her heart from me, not the other way around.
I knew I would be fine. Greyson was being nice about it, but he probably had a little boy-crush on Harper. He was preaching to himself, I decided. I wasn’t the type of person that fell for anyone, definitely not someone I had worked with for a year. If I hadn’t fallen for her in the year she had worked for me, I wasn’t in danger of falling for her now.
It was Harper, for God’s sake. I knew her. And I didn’t go for anyone I knew. I didn’t go for anyone who knew me. If they knew me well enough, they would know not to fuck with me or flirt with me. So we were safe on all counts.
Still, when I went to bed, Greyson’s words echoed in my head. Somehow I don’t feel like her heart will be the one to break if this goes wrong. But what could go wrong?
The worst that could happen was that I would end up without my money. And seeing that I had lived my whole life without it, it wouldn’t kill me. I would be fucking pissed, but it wouldn’t kill me.
I would be fine, my heart was not in danger.
I got into bed and closed my eyes and imagined what it would be like for Harper to be my fiancée. It wouldn’t be hard to pull off; two good-looking people arm in arm setting out to get a fuckload of money. It had been a good idea, even if I had been hesitant at first.
Harper said she didn’t want anything in return. I wanted to reward her for what she wanted to do for me, somehow. I would treat her like a queen. I would pay for everything and take her out sightseeing and fine dining.
With my mind made up, I could relax and in no time, I fell asleep.
Chapter 8
Harper
I stood in front of the mirror, trying to decide what I was going to do with my hair. I had already applied natural looking makeup, and dressed in jeans and a blouse that was casual enough to pass for ‘I just threw this on,’ but I liked the way it traced my curves and I felt beautiful in it.
Trying to pull my hair back, I decided that it was too much how I wore it for work and let it down again. I tried half-up and I tried a bun. Nothing felt right.
“This isn’t a date,” I told myself. It didn’t matter what my hair looked like. The buzzer went off and I had officially run out of time, so I left my hair down and hoped I looked okay. I reminded myself it didn’t matter what I looked like. Caden and I were only playing a game. This wasn’t real so whether he liked what I looked like or not didn’t matter.
I did want him to think I looked good, though. I couldn’t help it.
“I’ll be right down,” I said, into the intercom system, grabbed my handbag and my phone. When I headed down, Caden was waiting for me on the street with two helmets. I froze and stared at his bike.
“We’re going on that thing?” I asked.
“I don’t own a car,” Caden said, and he grinned.
I shook my head. “We can take my car. Really, I don’t mind driving.”
Caden laughed. “Live a little, Harper Donaldson. My fiancée loves every aspect of my life and she’s a thrill seeker, like me.”
Raising my eyebrows, “For someone who doesn’t even date that’s a very specific quality.”
“Or maybe I’m just trying to get you onto my bike,” Caden said. He stepped closer to me. Our bodies were so close a sigh would press us together. “I promised you a ride.”
My breath hitched in my throat. I had to get a grip. Caden was being full of shit. I couldn’t afford to fall for it. I took a step back.
“You win this round, boss,” I said.
Caden’s face was suddenly serious. “Don’t call me that. Not when we’re away from the restaurant and doing this thing. Out here, with you doing this for me, you’re my equal.”
I nodded. Caden was being more charming than usual. And it seemed genuine, which was unsettling. I could handle him when he was flirting with me for kicks, but this was different.
Caden passed me a leather jacket that had been folded on the seat of his bike. I hadn’t noticed it until now. When I put it on, it fit perfectly.
“Why do you own women’s riding gear?” I asked.
“To charm the ladies,” he said and winked. This was much better. I could deal with his jokes.
Caden handed me a helmet that surprisingly also fit and he climbed onto his bike. I climbed on behind him and to my shame, looked like an idiot doing it. I had never been on a bike before and I was sure Caden thought I was a laugh.
“You’ll have to get right up against me and hold on,” Caden said, when I tried to sit with a bit of distance between us.
“Is this how you break that initial touch barrier?” I asked, in a loud voice so he could hear me.
“You see right through me, Princess.”
My stomach flipped when he called me Princess. He was really messing with me and I was sure he was enjoying every moment of it.
When Caden pulled off, I realized why he’d wanted me pushed right up against him. I forgot about what was right and proper and wrapped my arms around his body, holding on for dear life. It only took two turns to realize that it was better for me to move with him than try to stay upright when he leaned from side to side, and suddenly we were in sync.
Caden took me to a small diner on the outskirts of Seattle. It was a cozy little place, not very classy but it was clean and neat, and I liked it the moment we set foot inside.
“This is a nice change from the restaurant we’re in every day,” I said. I looked at Caden. “Not that there’s anything wrong with the restaurant. It’s just different.”
Caden chuckled. “I get it. I feel the same, that’s why I come here.”
A waitress came up and handed us menus. She wore a button-up red and white dress and
a red apron the way I imagined they used to in the seventies when diners were all the rage. Caden and I were transported in time, caught in a bubble.
We both ordered coffee and waffles.
This isn’t a date, I reminded myself.
As if Caden had heard my thoughts and wanted to counter them, he leaned forward with his elbows on the table and said, “We should talk about how long we’ve been together and how we met.”
I nodded. We were here to talk logistics.
“I was thinking something like you’re a supplier for restaurants in the area—flowers or something—and we met when the place opened.”
I shook my head. “It’s fun to think of stories, but we should stick to what’s real. I work for you, we’ve been together a year. We can add love at first sight and all that but to add more lies to the pile will just confuse things.”
“Do you think it’s believable?” Caden asked.
Looking at him now, sitting across from me at a quaint little diner after we were practically glued together on the motorbike coming here, I could believe it very much.
“They’re not going to audit our story,” I said, instead of saying what I was thinking.
Caden nodded and leaned back in his seat, rubbing his palms on his jeans under the table. He was nervous. I had never seen him nervous about anything, not even the launch of his restaurant. I was getting to know another side of him and I had to admit that I liked it.
The waffles and coffee were better than anything I’d had in a long time. When we were done, Caden paid for the food.
“You don’t have to do that,” I said.
“What?”
“Pay for the food. We’re not really dating, I don’t mind covering my side.”
He was making me feel more special than was good for me when he treated me like this. He made me wonder what it would be like to really date him. I stopped thinking about it.
“You’re helping me with a billion dollars. The least I can do is pay for your breakfast,” Caden said, and put a few bills onto the table. “Come on, we have to go ring shopping.”
My stomach did another flip. It was becoming a trend, today.
We climbed back onto the bike and this time I was more comfortable with the whole thing. I held onto Caden like I had before. When I breathed in I smelled his cologne and I would have been lying if I said I didn’t like it.
Caden drove to a pawn shop and parked in a parking bay. When we walked into the shop, I laughed.
“Imagine, my first engagement ring, fresh out of a pawn shop.”
“I don’t have my billions yet,” Caden said. “But believe me, I wouldn’t do this for real. Contrary to popular belief, I have taste and style.
I wasn’t sure what I felt when Caden said that he wouldn’t do this if he was serious. I tried to imagine him going ring shopping for some woman. I stopped myself right away. I was looking for trouble going this route.
Caden and I walked to the jewelry counter and picked out a ring. “What do you think?” he asked, holding it up to the light.
“It’s not my style, but I like it,” I said.
“What is your style?” Caden asked.
I shrugged. “Something simpler. This one is too flashy.” It had a few diamonds set in a gold band. I was sure the diamonds weren’t real and the gold wasn’t very pure, either. Not for the price tag that had been stuck onto it. But it looked legit and that was all that mattered.
We stood in the line to pay once we had decided it was the ring that would carry us though. There were a lot of people waiting to pay at the jewelry counter.
“I didn’t realize pawn shops had so much traffic. You should have opened something like this, instead.”
Caden shook his head. “The trade of second hand goods feels a little dirty,” he said. “I like new and shiny. I’m happy in the restaurant business and I’m good at it.”
“Modest, too,” I teased, but I had to agree with him. Caden was very good at what he did.
When we finally paid, we headed back to the bike. It was time for us to go to the restaurant for the lunch rush. Our morning was over and we had accomplished everything we’d set out to do.
“One more thing before we go back to reality,” Caden said. He took my left hand and looked me in the eyes. My heart suddenly beat in my throat.
“Harper Donaldson, will you be my fake fiancée?”
I couldn’t breathe but I forced myself to be normal and I nodded.
“I thought you’d never ask,” I said, and my voice didn’t sound as shaky as I felt. I laughed when Caden slid the ring onto my finger. He leaned forward and kissed me on the cheek.
“We’re leaving on Monday. I booked plane tickets because I knew you wouldn’t want to take the bike all the way down to Cali.”
“What a hero,” I said. “Cheap, but thoughtful.”
Caden laughed. “Only cheap until I get my billions. Come on, Princess. The restaurant awaits.”
He had called me Princess again. I knew Caden was a joker, and he liked to banter and tease. He had done this for a year. It shouldn’t have felt any different than before. But it did. Something about the way he flirted with me was more serious than before. It felt genuine.
Or maybe I was being silly. Maybe the whole fake fiancée thing was going to my head. Get a grip, Harper, I scolded myself. This was nothing more than a game. We were pretending in order to gain something, nothing more. Whatever I was feeling, I had to remember that none of this was real.
We drove to the restaurant and parked in the parking lot. Greyson waited for us at the back door and Caden unlocked it. He waggled his eyebrows at me and I laughed, shaking my head.
“Did you two have a wonderful morning?” he asked.
“Successful,” I said. It was the safest word I could think of to describe my morning with Caden.
“That doesn’t sound very romantic.”
“It wasn’t supposed to be,” I said. And I meant it. The plan hadn’t been to have a romantic date. That it had felt like one was beside the point.
“Right,” Greyson said. “Did you know that couples in Hollywood never last very long because they’re so busy pretending they love someone they end up believing it? And once they stop pretending they realize it was never true.”
I shook my head. “This isn’t like that,” I said. “I’m not pretending to be in love with him and neither is he.”
“Not yet,” Greyson said. “But you’re leaving for California with him soon. A fake fiancée, a fake honeymoon, real love?”
“Stop it, Greyson,” I said, and I tried to sound like I was still joking but he was starting to get on my nerves. None of what he was saying would happen. It wasn’t true.
Greyson shrugged and turned to his oven, but the damage was done. I was suddenly nervous that he could be right.
Chapter 9
Caden
We were on the flight to California—first class because Harper deserved the best for what she was doing for me. It was the second time Harper and I were together outside of the restaurant, and I liked it. I had realized on Saturday how different she was when she wasn’t at work, when the two of us were equals and there was none of this owner-employee shit to stunt our relationship.
Harper was funny and interesting, quirky even. At the restaurant, she was often subdued and professional. I liked this side of her.
I liked it a lot.
Not to mention she was fucking hot and every man turned his head and did a double take when they saw me with her. I loved it. I loved that she was with me and they couldn’t have her. Harper wasn’t officially mine, but the other men didn’t know that and I was selfish and enough of a dick to relish the thought that they didn’t know she was actually available.
Having a woman like Harper on my arm, even when it was only another business relationship of sorts, was spectacular.
I had taken a cab to her place and picked her up to go to the airport together. She looked stunning, as always. Her hair wa
s down again and it was almost waist-long. I loved the stuff. I wanted to run my hands through it. It was a deep red and natural; rare and beautiful.
When we were in the plane, we ran through everything we needed to know. It was all business, but we were still spending time together. I was nervous about the meeting with the lawyer. To be honest, I was shitting myself. I had ordered a vodka tonic the moment we were in the air.
“I think the first meeting will just be to introduce you as my fiancée,” I said to Harper. “There won’t be anything to sign yet. It’s where we sell that we’re all in love so Danbury is convinced and he can draw up the paper work.”
“Seems simple enough,” Harper said.
“Do you think so?”
“Don’t be so skeptical,” Harper said. “How hard can it be?”
I was skeptical, she was right. It was hard to pretend something when we weren’t feeling it. But when I looked at Harper I thought it might not be so hard to pretend I was in love with her. I had been drawn to her from the start. I only had to guard my heart, but I had been doing that from day one with any woman I met.
“How often do you put on a face?” I asked.
“What?”
I hesitated. “It sounds bad, but don’t you put on faces for the people around you?”
“Every day,” Harper said.
I couldn’t hide my shock. I put on a face every time I charmed a woman to get into her pants, even when I didn’t give a shit about her personality. I did it every other weekend, maybe more often than that if I was lucky. I thought I was bad, but every day?
“How do you think I make everyone feel welcome at the restaurant, even when I’m in a bad mood or I don’t like them?”
“Oh,” I said. I understood what she was saying.
“How much different can it be to pretend I’m in love with you?”
The words shouldn’t have stung, Harper was just being practical, but they hit me like physical punches, anyway. Why the fuck did I feel like this? Why was what she was saying bothering me at all?