He stripped off his clothes in the bathroom then reached to turn on the hot water.
The door opened. Becky stepped in, wrapped in only a towel. They both froze, staring at each other. Her towel gaped at the bottom, revealing her hip and the hint of a triangle of brown hair. Isaias' gaze dropped to that triangle despite himself and Becky screamed. She jumped back and slammed the door, cutting them off from one another.
“Crap!” Isaias grabbed a robe and pulled it on. Since she moved in next to him, he’d seen how shy Becky was. This would be humiliating for her.
Why hadn't he used his own personal bathroom instead of this one? He knew it was connected to the guest room Becky was staying in. He’d just forgotten she was there. He wrapped a towel around his waist. Swallowing, he knocked on her door. When there was no answer, he opened it a crack.
"Don't come in here!"
Isaias hesitated a moment, then inched the door open a little bit more. "Becky?"
"I said don't come in."
"I'm not coming in. I just wanted to apologize…" He trailed off as a sweet scent wafted into his nostrils. His eyes widened as he recognized the scent of female arousal. His loins tightened, surprising him further. His grip tightened on the doorknob as he breathed in the heady scent. His jaw fell open slightly to pick up more of the scent.
Becky's face appeared around the edge of the door. It was beet-red and she clutched a robe tightly around her curvy frame. "Okay. You apologized. You can go now."
At that moment, he decided that he quite enjoyed how she looked all flustered and embarrassed. Her scent certainly wasn't hurting matters… He grinned, flashing the dimples that Adela had once nicknamed 'lady-killer one and two' and leaned against the door.
"Well, I would, except you're the one who walked in on me. You saw me completely naked…" Her face flushed an even deeper red. "So shouldn’t you apologize, too?"
"I'm sorry," she blurted. "There. We've both said sorry, now you can shower and I can shower—"
"What, together?" He couldn't help himself and laughed as she got even redder once again. "I'm sorry. You just look so cute when you're embarrassed like that."
Becky hid her face in her hands, peeking through her fingers. "Please go."
The meek plea had him sobering. "I'm sorry. Of course. You can lock the door on this side, that will stop anybody from walking in again… and I'll make sure to just use mine. Not that you're going to be staying for much longer. I mean, you can if you want, if you're nervous about going back to your home but… okay, I'm going now."
He quickly hurried away, heart beating a little too fast. Becky continued to fill his thoughts as he went to his master suite and showered. It was odd how having her as a neighbor had changed everything and nothing.
When she first moved in, he hadn't thought much about her. She built a small house on a large plot of land and started a garden that seemed too large for her needs. True enough, one day she had arrived at the gate with a bucket of peas that she said she didn't have a use for. She was friendly enough, but kept to herself. Since he liked his privacy as well, he had thought the arrangement was just fine.
But when Adela started to invite her over, things gradually started to shift. It was no longer good enough to smile and wave when he saw Becky outside working any longer. Now he had to find a reason to go out and talk to her for a little bit. He looked for special occasions to invite everybody he knew to come over for a party or dinner, just so she didn't know that he just wanted a reason to see her in his house.
From time to time he even considered asking her out. Those thoughts were quickly shot down, though. Becky had never been seen with a male companion and she didn't even come to half the parties that he invited her to.
And of course, he could turn into a bear. While she wrote about shifters with a great deal of sympathy, that didn't mean that she would be automatically accepting of one in real life. He couldn’t risk getting close to someone and developing feelings only for her to reject him. That had happened too many times already in his life.
***
Later that day, he returned to Becky to apologize. She was less mortified this time and graciously accepted his apology.
"It was embarrassing, though, wasn't it?" she laughed. "Well, at least the tabloids won't get ahold of it. Can you imagine the rumors?"
"Rumors…" Isaias' eyes lit up as an idea came to him. He wanted to be left alone until after the Harvest Moon? Well, he had the perfect way to accomplish that. "Can I ask a favor of you? I know it's going to sound strange but people are going to talk about you staying here, even one night. And I'm sure that there was someone in your house last night, it doesn't make sense that you'd forget to close the door. So what if you just stayed here and pretended to be my fiancé?"
Becky's eyes widened and her jaw dropped.
"I'm tired of women throwing themselves at me," he continued. "If everybody thought we were engaged, then not only would it stop those people who broke in from coming back but it would also stop me from having to deal with them."
She stared at him for a long time before a flush rose in her neck. Her hands clenched and her eyes narrowed. Without a word, she shook her head and walked away.
Chapter Three
One of her earbuds began to slowly drop out of her ear as she typed furiously. The playlist she had been listening to had been over for almost fifteen minutes now, but she had just been in the zone and hadn't bothered putting anything else on. Sometimes silence was just as motivating as her favorite artists, anyway. Her eyes glowed from having absorbed so much light from the screen. She had the time covered up, but as her fingers slowed, she became aware of her aching, numb butt and the tension behind her eyes from staring at the computer for so long.
Finishing up the chapter with a few deft strokes and one masterful cliffhanger, Becky leaned back in her chair and closed the word processor before turning her computer to hibernate. This was the second day she'd been in Isaias' mansion, waiting for a security system and a fence to be installed on her property. It seemed like a night terror and living with a sexy billionaire was all she needed to get her juices flowing.
Creative juices, she told herself firmly, blushing as she caught the double entendre of her own thoughts.
She stood and stretched her lower back when a shout caught her attention. She froze, gaze going to the door. A deep, male voice, answered by Adela's higher voice. She gripped the back of her chair, eyes wide. It was none of her business… but what were Isaias and Adela fighting about? In all the time she had been in the neighborhood, she never heard them raise their voices, not once.
Swallowing hard, Becky grabbed her iPod and stuffed her earbuds in without turning the device on. She snuck down the hallway. If they caught her she could just pretend she was listening to music too loud to hear them fighting…
Getting closer, however, she was finally able to hear that it wasn't one man's voice shouting but two. One was clearly Isaias, the other someone Becky didn't know.
"I said get out!" Isaias shouted and Becky flinched from the sheer hostility in it.
"Isaias, go." That was Adela. "Just go!"
Becky scrambled away as footsteps headed her direction, jumping into the nearest room and closing the door. There was no more shouting, so after a few minute she stepped back into the hallway. Adela stood in the doorway leading to outside, a tall, heavily tattooed man with her.
"I told you I didn't want anything to do with you anymore," she said firmly. "Now go. I don't want to see you again."
The man narrowed his eyes but walked away. Adela ran a hand through her dark hair and turned. She froze when she saw Becky standing there, causing the other woman to wince. Just that action on its own was enough to confirm she had been coming to investigate.
"I'm sorry," Becky said. "I heard shouting and I thought… I just wanted to make sure you were okay. I know it's none of my business—"
"Thank you for your concern." Adela rubbed her hands on her face, her f
eatures pinching. "It is more of Isaias who was having a problem than me, though. He and Marcus have… issues."
From behind Becky, Isaias snorted. "Issues. That's one way of putting it. If that punk ever shows his face here again, I'm going to—"
"You are going to let me handle it." Adela put her hands on her hips. "I know that you think you have to solve everybody's problems but I don't need you to take care of me. I'm a grown woman, a mother, and I don't appreciate you treating me like a fragile baby bird. So just do an Elsa and let it go." Isaias opened his mouth but the little woman shook her head. "No. I don't want to hear anymore. There is nothing between us anymore and you have got to stop pretending there is."
They had a past? Becky twisted her hands as Adela walked away, leaving her and Isaias alone.
She had wondered at first if Adela was Isaias' girlfriend but their interactions since then had seemed more familiar, rather than romantic. But it appeared that they had once been an item, at least. It was really none of her business. She needed to stay out of it. Curiosity, though, crept up her throat like a cat and blurted out.
"What happened? I mean, why don't you like him? And why is Adela… I mean, what happened between the two of you? Is Luci your daughter?"
Isaias turned an incredulous glance on her and her face heated. Fried egg hot. She could only imagine how red her skin was turning. She mumbled out something that vaguely sounded like an apology but she was so mortified with herself that she couldn't get her voice to work properly. What was wrong with her? So what if she found him hot, it gave her no right to be asking questions like that.
To her surprise, Isaias answered. "There is and has never been anything between Adela and me. I grew up with her, she's the closest thing to a sister I have. I love her like a sister."
"I'm sorry, I—"
Isaias shook his head. "Luci being mine? What tabloid did you read that in?"
"I didn't. I… she said that there wasn't anything between the two of you and… oh." She pinched the bridge of her nose. "She was talking about that other man, wasn't she? Marcus was his name?"
Isaias was quiet for a moment. Eventually, he cleared his throat, making Becky look back up at him. He kept his shoulders thrown back as he looked at her. "So have you taken any time to think about my proposal?"
"Proposal?" Becky quickly remembered what he meant. She shoved her hands into her pockets. "You mean pretending to be engaged."
"Yes. Have you considered it?"
Becky snorted and shook her head. She had had enough of being fake asked-out and people thinking it was funny to steal her crush's phone and text her confessions of love. Another fake romance was the last thing she wanted.
"I didn't really explain myself very well," Isaias continued, as though unaware of the bubbling distaste on Becky's face. "I meant for it to be in word only. We put out a few announcements, you wear a sparkly ring that everybody can gush over. We have a few parties and then in a couple months we break up, and that's that. Your security system will be fully installed by then, and it'll give me some respite from having to rebuff female attention."
Why would he need to do that? Becky chewed her lip. More importantly, why would he want to? Clearly women were interested in him and she couldn’t blame them. But was he not interested in women? She didn't get the vibe from him that he'd hide it if he was gay. Maybe he just didn't want a girlfriend?
In any case, this was the closest to a real proposal she'd ever gotten. As much as she wanted to stay angry with him for suggesting it, it didn't feel like a joke coming from him. He was genuine, and didn't realize what painful memories it brought up. "Well…"
"It wouldn’t hurt your publicity, either."
That was the last thing she wanted. To have a publicity stunt for a romance. "Will you take me to fancy dinners and movies and stuff like that?"
"Dates?" Isaias grinned. "Of course."
"Well." She straightened. Some real dates, even if they were fake, would be nice. That didn't even make any sense. Whatever. "Then I accept. When do you want to go pick out a ring?"
He shrugged. "Sometime soon, I should think. I'll go tell Adela what we're up to…"
"Right. Of course."
Becky watched him go, feeling slightly unsteady. What had she just agreed to? All the reasons why she shouldn’t and she still said yes? What was with that? There was clearly something wrong in her head… but maybe Isaias only asked to be a fake fiancé because he wanted things to go deeper but didn't want to—
"No." She shook her head and rushed towards her room, even running up the stairs.
She wasn't going to go down that path. She wasn't going to start fantasizing about how he might be secretly in love with her. There was going to be no dreaming of stolen kisses turning into realizations of love and desire. There was going to be none of that. She wasn't going to let herself ruin this budding friendship and break her heart over something that was clearly never going to happen.
It was just a fact of life. Guys like Isaias didn't fall in love with girls like her. She was pretty enough, if average. Even though she might be a bit curvy, she was well proportioned. Her facial features were very symmetrical, and she had the big cartoon eyes that lots of men liked.
Her personality was something else entirely.
Isaias threw a lot of parties. It seemed like every week he had a bunch of people at his house. So many people came. It was draining for Becky to try to keep up with such intensive social interactions. She liked to have her space and was not only an introvert, but a very shy one at that. Spending time with a lot of people was akin to torture. There was no way that someone as social as Isaias and someone like her could exist together like that.
She got to her room and closed the door. A sigh burst from her as she sat on the bed. Not for the first time she wondered if she would be less shy if she spent more time with people. Going from isolation to a huge party, though, only made it worse. Maybe during their fake engagement, Becky could encourage Isaias to have smaller groups come over. Four, five at most, doing an activity so that there wasn't as much pressure. It would be fun to go paintballing or play laser tag.
Anyway. She had a book to write. Becky jumped up and ran to her computer, pulling up her chapter plan. It was all wrong. She understood that now. She kept running into writer's block and the reason for that was obvious. The two main characters were obviously meant to end up together but she had resisted writing it that way. She hated writing romance but that was only because she felt like she was no good at it.
Because she had no experience.
She pulled up a new document, checked where she was in the novel and then began to write. It was a fumbling, vague sex scene but it still started getting her stomach twisting. The air grew warm around her and at one point she paused, closing her eyes to imagine what it would be like to have a man on top of her. To have his hands parting her thighs, his mouth on her breasts, his name on her lips.
Then the man became Isaias and Becky opened her eyes. She deleted what she had written and turned off her computer.
"Not happening," she told herself firmly. "I hate writing romance."
Energy burned through her and she grabbed a sweater. She'd go for a walk through the forest… or maybe along the road, considering that there was still a bear in there that had attacked her. A nice walk would calm her nerves.
Chapter Four
A few days after they became fake engaged, Isaias and Becky sat across from each other as they each chowed down on breakfast burritos. They'd been eating almost every meal together for a while now, taking the time to exchange details about their lives so that they had proper answers to people's questions.
"And since the tooth fairy wouldn’t trade me a diamond ring for that shark fossil, I decided she didn't exist," Becky said matter-of-factly.
Isaias laughed, slapping his knees as he did so. "Oh, my. And how old were you?"
"Five or six, I think."
"And you never had a diamond ring?"
<
br /> Becky shook her head. "Nope. Once I got the money for one, it just seemed like a waste. I don't even wear jewelry that much. My fingers don't like rings."
"Speaking of which." Isaias dug into his pocket. "I know we said that we were going to go ring shopping, but I thought we'd sell it better if you had my grandmother's ring. She had tiny hands, though. You can wear it as a necklace." He set the ring on the table casually, ignoring the wide-eyed look Becky gave him. "And I'm finishing up the arrangements for our engagement party. Is Friday still good for you?"
"Um… yeah." Becky picked up the ring. A large emerald surrounded by smaller diamonds flashed at her. "Wow."
"I can have it resized if you want, but the band is very old, I don't think anybody would be able to match the pattern perfectly."
Becky shook her head. "No, I don’t think that will be necessary. It's so pretty… are you sure about this? What if I lose it? I'd feel more comfortable with a ring that doesn't have as much personal value to it… we can probably find one pretty cheap at a pawn shop, right? I just don't want to lose your grandmother's ring."
She set it down again, her face twisted in worry. Isaias flashed those sinful dimples at her.
"You won't lose it."
"I might lose it. Come on. It's a beautiful ring, but let's just buy one. I can pay for it. I've always said I was going to buy myself a diamond ring, anyway."
Isaias studied her for a moment. It surprised him that she would feel so strongly about this, when it wasn't that big of a deal for him. He finished off his burrito and leaned forward, taking the ring back. The band itself was so small that it hardly fit onto the top of his pinky. The gold was tarnished but a cleaning would solve that just fine."
"It really doesn't matter to me," he said slowly. "I never cared that much for this piece of jewelry. I have my grandmother's journals, which I wouldn't want to lose, but this is just a ring. She didn't design it and I can't remember her actually ever wearing it. It tells me nothing about her."
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