My mind went blank. “I’m sorry, what?”
I couldn’t have possibly heard that right.
He smirked, knowing then he had me. “Ten thousand dollars a month.”
“Jesus,” I whispered.
Get paid an absurd amount of money to travel with the world’s most handsome bachelor? Yes, YES!
“But what would we tell people? How did we meet? Where did I grow up?”
We would have to fabricate a huge back-story. I doubted his relatives would think highly of an orphan coming from no money. I wondered if I could pull this off.
“We’ll figure out all of that stuff later. Will you do it?”
And I would visit London. I always wanted to go there. “Yes, I’ll do it.”
He slapped the desk. “Great! Well, it’s almost the end of the month, so I’ll pay you half of what we agreed. You can use it to buy clothes for the trip or whatever you want. I’ll get your plane tickets. We leave next week on Wednesday. I know it’s Thanksgiving, but it really can’t wait.”
I wouldn’t be able to plan the Thanksgiving meal for the soup kitchen. Who cares? “Don’t worry about it.”
It will probably be the best Thanksgiving I’ve ever had.
I seized the contract in front of my nose. A few months was the intended duration.
“I don’t know how long my dad has, but I’ll renew it if he hasn’t gone yet.”
The cold matter-of-fact way he spoke about his father’s impending death made me feel uncomfortable.
Who am I to judge? I fantasized daily about slipping poison in my foster parents’ food.
Luke gave me the contract to sign, and my jaw dropped as he handed me a check made out to five thousand dollars. I held it as if it was made of glass and slipped it into my purse.
All in a day’s work.
“Thank you so much. You’ve no idea how much this will help me.”
“Likewise,” Luke said as he stood up. “Well, shall we?”
I took his offered arm, and he escorted me out of the winery. A golden ball of warmth burned inside my chest at his closeness. I caught myself in the reflection of the elevator doors and couldn’t believe it.
Damn, we look hot.
His arm snaked around my waist and suddenly all the air left the room. Remembering I was supposed to act like his girlfriend, I fell against his chest, and his lips pressed against my head.
I had no memory of being held as though I was cherished. I got lost in the moment before Luke walked me all the way to the cars outside where dozens of people were getting ready to leave the winery. He gave a small wave to some of them, who waved back and did a double take. I could almost hear their thoughts: Who’s that girl with Mr. Pardini?
“My co-workers are still here. Perfect.”
His palm slid from my shoulder to grasp my hand. The path of his touch blazed such a trail, my desire for him flared up like a torch. I squeezed him, stunned by my body's response to him.
I tensed inside his hand as Luke made a beeline straight for two older men in suits standing near the curb. Oh, no.
“Mr. Blackwell, Mr. Brown. I hope you enjoyed today.”
The portly Mr. Blackwell smacked his purple lips. “Oh, it was wonderful!”
“Yes, quite,” Brown agreed. “And who is the lovely young lady?”
Luke’s admiring grin flashed toward me. “This is Jessica, my girlfriend.”
My cheeks probably looked as though they were on fire.
This is Jessica, my girlfriend.
Hopefully they would think I was cold. Their rosy, smiling faces nodded at me as I shook their hands.
“I’ssa pleasure.”
“Nice to meet you.”
“Are you ready to return to London?"
Mr. Blackwell’s face fell as he addressed me. “Am I ready to return to forecasts of endless, freezing rain? You Californians are spoiled rotten.”
“Jessica will accompany us to London. She’s never been outside the country.”
I never told him that, but he guessed right. He smiled at me and I hugged my “boyfriend’s” chest, beaming.
The two men looked shocked. “Is that so?”
“Yes, I’m very excited.” That wasn’t a lie; I couldn’t wait to go. It would be a blast and looking up things to do on TripAdvisor was the first thing I would do when I got home.
Luke glanced at the town car pulling up. “Well, Jessica’s ride is here. I will see you both next week.”
Completely out of my element, I was eager to leave the company of the two men. They acted fine, but it was nerve wracking to be around them. What if I said something wrong? “It was nice meeting you both.”
Both men smiled as we walked away from them. Luke ducked his head close to mine.
“They’re old friends of my father.”
Ah, so that’s why he dragged me over to them. Would they report my presence to Mr. Pardini?
We stopped in front of the town car and the driver got out to open the passenger door.
“I’ll see you next week.”
I felt a jolt of anxiety as I turned in his arm to tell him goodbye.
If I’m really his girlfriend, I should probably kiss him.
Blackwell and Brown peered at us. Luke’s gentle hands pulled me closer until I could see the golden flecks circling his pupils. My heart beat so furiously against my ribcage I knew Luke could feel it pounding against his chest. Then his lips crashed against mine and I felt myself soaring.
Holy shit. I felt nothing like it. So much heat, everywhere. I kissed him back eagerly, lost in the feeling of his lips and his hands wrapped around my waist. When he pulled away, I was surprised to see a smoldering look on his face.
Overwhelmed, I stepped back as he tried to give me that loving smile men always reserved for their girlfriends. The lack of warmth behind his effort punched my gut.
“Bye,” I croaked.
I ducked into the vehicle and the driver closed the door. As the car rolled away, his expression dropped into a look of bored indifference.
My heart wrenched.
He almost made me believe that it was real.
5
“I still can’t believe you’re going to London before I am.”
Natalie watched me pack for my trip to Europe with a look of mingled jealousy and disbelief.
“Me too.”
When I got home from the winery, I couldn’t take holding it all back, and wound up telling Natalie everything. I made her swear a hundred oaths not to divulge anything to anyone ever on pain of death. She would find out soon because Luke made it clear the tabloids would print pictures of us together.
Sure enough, I found a blurry photo of Luke and I leaving Opus One hand in hand, with the caption underneath: Luke Pardini leaving Opus One with blonde bombshell. I laughed at that.
Blonde bombshell? Me? Yeah, right.
“So long as you keep your feelings in check, you’ll be fine.” It was clear from Natalie’s tone that she didn’t expect me to. “I really wish you weren’t leaving before Thanksgiving. Won’t your friends miss you?”
My cheeks flushed at the mention of the lie I told Natalie about finding a group of people I celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas with. I crammed a few socks into my suitcase.
“I lied about the friends. I spend every year at the soup kitchen and then I go home alone. This will probably be the best Thanksgiving I’ve ever had. Don’t worry about me.”
A hollow silence followed my words. When I finally gathered enough courage to look at her, Natalie’s stricken face gave me a stab of guilt.
“Why did you lie to me? I asked you a hundred times, and you always said no.”
“I didn’t want to go because I thought you and Ben wanted time alone. It's weird being the third wheel.”
Natalie opened her mouth, but I changed tack with lightning speed. “I’ll be able to wire you rent money from abroad, so you don’t have to worry about that.”
“I hope everything w
ill be okay.”
I wished that she would give it a rest with the whole prostitution thing. “I’ve told you a thousand times, I’m not going to trade sexual favors for money.”
“I’m not talking about that. What if you legitimately fall in love with this guy? He’ll break your heart. You’re already smitten.”
Who cares? I’m making ten thousand dollars a month.
“We have chemistry,” I shrugged. “I’m not going to avoid this amazing experience just because something bad might happen. I’ll probably never have this opportunity again.”
Natalie relented. “Well, I hope it’s worth it.”
The doorbell rang. “Who’s that?”
Flustered, she ran to answer the door. “Ben. We wanted to have dinner—” she opened the door. “Hi, honey!”
Ben’s voice boomed through the apartment, and I abandoned my packing with a sigh. A plastic smile on my face, I went to greet Natalie’s boyfriend.
“Hey, Ben. How’s life?”
“Good!”
Tall with Norwegian features like fair skin and blonde hair, Ben’s blue eyes sparked as he swept me into a hug.
“So, I heard that you’re dating a billionaire?”
He cackled as I glared at Natalie. “How’s the law firm?”
Lucky for me, he happily seized on the topic and talked about it for a while. Still filled with anxiety over the trip, I tried my best enjoy the rest of the night. Tomorrow, Luke’s driver would bring me to SFO. He also paid for my passport’s rush processing, and it arrived on Monday. Until a courier dropped off the one-way ticket from San Francisco International to Heathrow.
I’ve never been on a plane. It was going to be awesome.
After Ben left, I finished packing and double triple checked everything. Unsure about the length of the trip, I filled two suitcases and a backpack. I was ready to leave hours before the driver came the next morning, and Natalie worked from home. She didn’t help matters by constantly fussing over me.
“Where’s your ticket? Did you pack your passport?”
I quadruple-checked my backpack. “They’re both here.” It was ten o’clock, the time Luke said he would pick me up. What if he changed his mind?
“Chapstick?”
My stomach lurched. Crap. “I don’t know.” I sprinted to the bathroom and skidded to a halt as the doorbell rang.
Natalie bolted to the door and wrenched it open.
A pleasant, deep voice filled the room. “Hello, you must be Natalie. It’s a pleasure.”
Luke’s voice echoed down the hallway, and I jumped. I rummaged through my drawer and seized a tiny tube, and then I walked toward them both, my heart hammering my ribs.
Natalie was taken aback. She replied back a few seconds later than she should have. “Nice to meet you.”
He was looking hot as usual. I had never seen him wear jeans, but he wore a fitted pair that showed off his long, muscled legs and a shirt that made me want to run my hands all over his body. He smiled at me over Natalie’s shoulder. “Ready to go?”
Mute, Natalie turned around with her face frozen in impolite shock.
He’s a dreamboat. I nodded at him.
He looked bemused by our muteness. “Um, I’ll just get your bags.” He stepped in and grabbed one of the suitcases. He turned around to reveal a perfectly carved ass.
“God,” I moaned as I watched him load the suitcase in the car.
“You weren’t kidding,” she commented in a breathless, dreamy sigh.
The driver took my luggage from my hands and hurried down the steps to help Luke.
“I guess this is it,” I said as Natalie’s eyes misted over, and a lump formed in my throat in response. “If you cry, I’ll cry.”
She seized my neck painfully and pulled me into a fierce hug. “I’m not crying,” she said in a thick voice. “Call me when you get there and be safe for God’s sake.”
Luke climbed up the steps with the same grin. “Don't worry. It was nice meeting you, Natalie.”
I gently disengaged myself from Natalie’s death grip and shouldered my backpack. “I hope you have a good holiday. I’ll be back soon.”
I took Luke’s outstretched hand and descended the steps, turning to smile and wave at Natalie’s panicked face. Once inside, I moved over the smooth leather interior for Luke.
Instead of the town car, Luke had arrived in a limousine. It looked wildly out of place in this shitty neighborhood. Across the street, a woman smoking in her plastic lawn chair stared, the cigarette burning in her fingertips. I shook my head and gazed at the interior. A dark glass partition separated the driver from us. There was a champagne bottle on ice in the limo, TV screens, and blinking yellow lights on the ceiling.
This is so cool.
The ugly streets of Concord rolled by the long window. Was I really leaving it all behind? I looked around at Luke, whose arm was stretched over the leather. He was studying me quietly, perhaps regretting the whole thing.
“We should come up with a back-story for ourselves. People are bound to ask.”
“Before we do that, I want to make something clear.” Any hint of humor dropped from his face. “This will never be anything more than a business relationship.”
“I know that.” I raised my eyebrow. Where was this coming from? Was my attraction to him that obvious? “What makes you think I want to be with you?”
Now he looked like he had been punched in the gut.
Yeah, serves you right, you pompous jerk.
He quickly recovered and a smug grin flashed on his face. “Don’t you?”
Electricity shot up my spine; I was in dangerous territory. “Maybe I wouldn’t want to be talked down to all the time by your old boy network, boarding school buddies. Or your family.”
He looked stung. I was joking, but perhaps there was a little too much truth to what I said.
“No one would do that while you were with me.”
“Of course not.”
Silence stretched between us as I cringed, waiting for him to reprimand me or do whatever it was billionaires did to their inferiors.
You shouldn’t talk to him like this. He’s not your buddy.
“You’re very blunt.”
An apology was already falling from my lips, but Luke silenced me with a reassuring nod.
“I like it, even though it might be a little hurtful. I’m usually surrounded by sycophants. I expected you to be one of them.”
“Do you want me to be a sycophant in front of other people?”
He shook his head and laughed. “Just be yourself.”
Be myself? Was he crazy? “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”
“Jessica, I picked you because I like the way you are. They’ll understand that. The only thing is we need to come up with a background.”
I tried to bury the glow in my chest. “Well, I could use Natalie’s. It would be easy to remember. Her parents are both dentists. Their names are Rita and Tom.”
Luke nodded as he typed something in his smart phone. “My father’s name is Giacomo.”
Giacomo Pardini. I committed it to memory. “What about your mom?”
“Mary,” he said stiffly.
A shadow crossed over his face and I was afraid to ask more.
Looks like I’m not the only one who doesn’t like talking about myself, I thought as Luke’s frown became even more pronounced.
I glanced outside and was startled to discover that we were already driving over the new Bay Bridge.
Soon, I’ll be sitting on a jet with nothing between me and the ground but thousands of feet.
“What airline are we taking? It didn’t say on the ticket.”
He looked at me as though I had made a poor joke. “It’s my private plane.”
Oh, right. I felt a stab of nerves as the limo rolled into SFO. “I suppose this would be a bad time to mention that I’ve never flown before?”
“You have got to be kidding.” He scowled when he realized I wa
s serious. “Shit.” He ironed his face with his hands and then suddenly his head perked up. “Please excuse my language.”
I didn’t know whether I wanted to laugh or yell.
“Hey, I’m not terrified of planes or anything, I’m just saying that I’ve never flown before. Whoa—”
A wall of people holding cameras blocked our exit from the car, madly clicking away. Holy shit.
“Paparazzi?”
“Yeah. Look alive,” said Luke in a neutral voice.
Clearly, he was used to this sort of thing.
It was daylight, so at least we didn’t have to walk into blinding camera flashes. The driver opened the door and their screams blasted into the car, which had been silent only a moment ago. He slid out first.
“Mr. Pardini!”
“Luke, what do you have to say about the merger with Hilton Hotels?”
I took Luke’s hand as I got out. The horde of paparazzi closed in and shouted his name, demanding to know where we were going and what was his opinion and who was the girl standing next to him? I clung to Luke instinctively and shrank from the men closing around us. He tugged my arm, but I was afraid to squeeze between the clustered people.
I met his puzzled, blue eyes and his expression became one of concern. He pulled me against his chest and I loved his protective heat, and as Luke walked they parted from him. He said nothing to the screaming voices but beamed at them as if posing for a photograph. A light flickered inside my head and I grabbed Luke’s shirt, forcing him to stop. Before he uttered a word, I hooked my hand around his neck and crushed my lips against his.
They want a picture? I’ll give them some juicy gossip. I imagined the headlines: Luke Pardini Seen Kissing Blonde Trollop at SFO!
Okay, they probably wouldn’t use that word.
Heat simmered in my chest and I heard them still clicking away, shoving their cameras in our faces, but I didn’t care. I just wanted to cling onto him and savor the moment for as long as possible. My hand rested over his chest and I felt his lean muscles under my fingers. I raked them through his thick hair and when we finally broke, it was to breathe.
I didn’t know why I did it, but my hand slid down his body and around his abdomen. He was so fucking hot, that I wasn’t really thinking straight, and I lightly stroked the curve of his ass. His nostrils flared and his eyes smoldered. He laughed a bit into my lips and pinched my waist with his fingers. I snapped out of it. I was so caught in the moment that I didn’t realize I had taken a flying leap over our professional arrangement and had crossed into the territory of sexual harassment. I couldn’t tell if he was turned on or pissed off.
The Cinderella Arrangement Page 5