by Tia Siren
“Agreed,” Shannon said. “You have killer legs. You need to show them off. Try it on so we can see.”
She slipped into the dress and stood in front of them nervously. “I don’t know if this is a paparazzi-ready type of dress.”
“This is more for Luke than them,” Shannon said. She patted the bed before grabbing a black bag of makeup. “We don’t have much time. The driver Luke sent is a bit of a prick if you’re running behind schedule.”
Five minutes later, her face felt freshened up with makeup and her hair was newly curled. Shannon moved about her gracefully without batting an eyelash, talking amicably with Jessica about everything she could think of. That was one thing Paige noticed about Shannon—she at least tried to make everyone around her comfortable.
“Okay,” Jessica said as they walked her down to the sidewalk where Luke’s driver waited impatiently, “just stay calm as much as you can. Remember what we talked about the other day.”
Shannon looked at her curiously, but she didn’t pry for information. She gave Paige her traditional, cheerful thumbs-up.
“Go for it,” she said. “He’s going to have a hard time keeping his hands off you.”
That’s what I’m worried about. Paige slid into the passenger seat and twisted the soft fabric of her dress around nervously as the SUV pulled away. This was going to be the night that started it all for the arrangement. In thirty days, she would possibly be married to one of the most eligible and wealthy bachelors in the United States, and while it was thrilling, a cloud of nerves was suffocating her.
The SUV pulled up to the curb of a large, ritzy building where tons of cameras were lined up. People were already walking along, pausing for photographs, and then heading into the main lobby.
Luke stood on the corner, away from all the commotion, with Toby at his side, talking about something on his phone. He looked up when the SUV parked in front of them. Relief sparkled in his eyes before everything went expressionless as he opened the door.
“I thought you might have taken the clothes and makeup without any intention of showing up,” he said.
Seeing her heels, Luke held out a hand for her to use to get out. It felt warm against her cool and sweaty one.
“I’d care more about my college education than clothes and makeup,” Paige said. She looked down the sidewalk where all the cameras were lined alongside police tape. Her heart started to pound again. “Do we honestly have to walk past all those cameras?”
“We do,” Luke said. He glanced at them as well with a sigh. “It’s part of what Toby told you. Much of this is going to be publicity, so don’t take it personally if I grab ahold of you. We have to make it look real.”
The last part echoed his earlier sentiment. Paige brushed out the barely visible wrinkles in her dress as they walked toward the cameras.
“Hold on to my hand,” Luke said. “It’s going to get a bit crazy with the camera flashes. You’re going to go blind if you don’t.”
She quickly took his hand as they approached. Just as Luke had promised, the flashing lights nearly blinded her. Questions were hurled at them as well. It took all of Paige’s resolve to hold on to Luke’s hand and not dash in the other direction, away from it all.
“This is my girlfriend,” Luke said in answer to one of the questions. “We’ve been dating for three months now.”
“And these rumors of getting married to Alicia Poole?” one paparazzo threw out, clicking away on his camera.
“Rumors,” Luke said firmly. “This is my woman here. My one and only.”
If she hadn’t known it was all for show, her heart would’ve melted at those words. It did slightly before Paige reminded herself that it wasn’t real. All of it wasn’t real, but she kept a fixed smile on her face.
“What’s your name, sweetheart?” another pap asked.
Luke opened his mouth to reply, but she beat him to it.
“Paige Scott,” she said. “It’s Paige Scott. I’m a freshman at NYU.”
That seemed to fuel a fire. Alarmed by the rapid flashing, Paige tightened her hold on Luke’s hand. He tugged her away from the cameras and the questions with Toby right on their heels. It wasn’t until they were in the lobby of the building that Luke glared down at the cameras.
“Why do they have to know so much information?” he asked moodily. “It’s none of their business.”
“Just go with it,” Toby said, unfazed by his mood. “Come on, let’s get inside. They always have great food at these events.”
He left them standing motionlessly by the glass doors. Luke glared out them at the cameras for a second longer before looking back at Paige. The anger in his eyes dissipated when he did, a smile tugging at his lips.
“I know you don’t want to hear this,” he said, “but you honestly do look beautiful in this dress.”
She didn’t pick up anything in his voice besides sincerity. The compliment touched her.
“Thank you,” she said. “Your friend Shannon picked it out.”
“She’s your friend too,” Luke said. “You’ll have to forgive her eventually. She was a pawn in my scheme in all reality.”
“Maybe one day,” Paige said distantly. “We better go inside. I’m starving too.”
“All right. Let’s start this campaign of thirty days of love.”
He placed a hand on her bare back, splaying it out while he guided her through a crowded room. Even if all of it was a publicity stunt, it still felt good to have someone like Luke guiding her around the room. It felt good to have a roomful of people look at her with interest but never approach because of Luke’s steady presence behind her.
She felt protected in an odd way.
Chapter Eight
Luke
“Look at this picturesque couple on the front page of the paper,” Toby said. He held up the paper with a grin to show Luke. “I still demand a damn raise for all the leg work I’m doing for you.”
Luke took hold of the paper to glance down at the photograph in mild interest. Despite how tense and nervous Paige had been while walking by those cameras, she appeared flawless in that halter dress that had bared her back for him to touch. Her smile was set and perfect in the photo as she leaned into him and he wordlessly guided her.
It had gone beautifully—more smoothly than he had expected.
“I imagine Peter will be calling soon,” Luke said, lowering the paper to grin at Toby. “He reads this paper every single morning too. Do you think it caught his interest a bit?”
“Very likely,” Toby said. He sat down in the chair across from Luke. “Do we still have plans to head to North Dakota this week?”
“Yes. I have to check on a few rigs,” Luke replied, sliding the paper across his desk. “I want to talk about numbers, too, with a few managers. Why?”
“I was thinking that Paige should come along with us.” Toby held up his hand when Luke opened his mouth. “Hear me when I say this. Now that you have Peter’s attention, he’s going to drill the both of you on the relationship. He’ll ask questions that I’m sure neither one of you will have answers to. Questions about each other.”
“You’re probably right,” Luke said, sighing. “What do you suggest?”
“I have a questionnaire that you two can read and answer together. It would definitely bridge that gap in case Peter gets Paige alone.”
“What type of questionnaire?”
“Just basic questions is all,” Toby said, shrugging. “It’s not that big of a deal, is it?”
“It is a big deal to me,” he said, hesitation building up in him. “I don’t need spill my entire life story to her.”
“Just suck your pride up, bro. You know for a fact that this isn’t going to go over very well if you close yourself off.” He gave Luke a critical look. “I know it’s difficult for you to express human emotion at times, but this is your father’s business and your inheritance that’s up for grabs. I think you can sacrifice and afford to lose a bit of your privacy.”
A headache pounded at Luke’s temples. Even though he didn’t want to think Toby was right, he knew Peter would eventually question everything. He picked up the phone to dial Paige’s number as he let out an aggravated sigh. All this work for just a few tantalizing kisses and touches. Nothing else.
“Hello?” Paige sounded a bit breathlessly. “Who is this?”
“Luke,” he said. Suspicion shot through him when he heard male laughter in the background. “Did I interrupt something? You know that the no sex with other people rule applies to you too.”
The jealousy burning in his chest surprised him, and he twisted around sharply in his chair to guard his expression from Toby, who was watching intently.
“I’m in class,” Paige said, anger filling her voice. “I don’t sleep around like you. What is it?”
“I have to fly to North Dakota on Wednesday,” he said. “Toby thinks it’s best if you come along with us.”
“On Wednesday? I can’t do that. I have classes to keep up with. You and Toby acknowledged that last week.”
“He brought up a good point to me about us not knowing each other,” Luke said. “Our picture is on the front page of a magazine that my father’s lawyer reads every single morning. There are going to be questions, and we have to collaborate our answers.”
Paige sighed into the phone. “I suppose you’re right. I really know nothing about you besides what you told me.”
“Exactly. And if you want that credit card to stay active, we need to figure this out.”
“Fine. I’ll figure it out somehow.” There was a loud crash in the background. “Shit. I just dropped all my stuff on the ground. Just email me the time.”
She hung up without waiting for a reply. Luke twisted back around to hang up the phone.
“She said to email her the time,” he said.
Toby raised an eyebrow at him. “Okay. I can do that. You okay, boss? You look mildly pissed.”
“I’m fine.”
Thankfully, JoAnne spared him from answering anything further. She spoke through the intercom on his phone.
“Mr. Turner,” she said, “your father’s lawyer, Peter, is on line two. He wishes to speak with you right away.”
“Just like clockwork,” Luke said as he grabbed the phone. He punched line two before bringing the phone to his ear. “What can I do for you, Peter?”
“I saw something very interesting on the front page of the paper this morning, Mr. Turner. Care to explain this interesting turn of events to me?”
“What is there to explain? A picture is worth a one-hundred thousand words.”
“You would certainly know that from personal experience,” Peter said tonelessly. “Look, I was not born yesterday. I find this a bit suspicion given the conversation we had in my office two weeks ago. You’re just pretending to be in love on the front page of the paper.”
Luke clenched his teeth. “It’s not pretending. I told you about her in your office two weeks ago. Remember?”
“No,” Peter said shortly. “I don’t remember anything besides that you were very irritated at Alicia Poole not being included in this charade of yours.”
“I have dumped Alicia Poole,” Luke snapped. “We weren’t ever together. I don’t know why you think that.”
“Because Ms. Poole politely informed me this morning that she has every intention of marrying you. That was the voice mail left on my phone this morning.”
Bitch.
There was a part of him that wasn’t surprised. Alicia had never been afraid to let others know her displeasure over something.
“She’s a liar,” he said. “I told her things were over at the beginning of this month. She didn’t take the news very well, obviously.”
“Obviously not. I’ve done some research into this Paige Scott that is on your arm in the picture.”
“She’s the same Paige Scott I told you about two weeks ago.”
“Right. What is a nineteen-year-old freshman from Wyoming doing with you of all people?”
Luke gritted his teeth as he fought to keep control of his fraying temper. He knew Peter was pushing buttons on purpose to see if he snapped.
“We met through a mutual friend,” he said. “Two months ago to be exact. I didn’t mention her until now because I didn’t want Ms. Poole involving herself the way she always does.”
He glanced over at Toby, who was watching him wordlessly. They needed to prepare Paige for that too. He didn’t want Alicia figuring out their plan either. She’d spread it around out of revenge.
“I can see that,” Peter said slowly. “How long have you two been seeing each other then?”
“It’ll be three months this month,” Luke said.
“And the relationship is going well, I presume, if you brought her as a date to the event on Friday night?”
“Everything is going well.” Despite the no sex condition. He ran a hand over his face with a sigh. “She’s special to me, so I didn’t want to bring her into anything too quickly. Everything is complicated with my father’s death, and she was there for me, too, when that happened.”
“Your father never mentioned her before,” Peter said, suspicion lacing his voice again. “He seemed adamant that you were with Alicia Poole.”
“I let him think that,” Luke replied, thinking quickly. “I didn’t want my father meeting Paige. You know the condition he was in during the past few months. Would you want a love interest seeing that?”
Even if it was a lie, if his father were still alive, there would be no chance in hell that Luke would ever let his father meet Paige. The last few months of Roderick’s life had not been graceful or easy. His liver had started to shut down. Bones had begun popping out everywhere from beneath his yellow-tinged skin. His eyes had been the worst though. Even Luke couldn’t shake the image of them: sunken in, bloodshot, and parchment yellow.
Death had chipped away at his father for months until his heart and liver had both finally caved in. He had told the doctors to let him go. There was no point in saving a man who had literally drank himself to the bottom of every bottle of alcohol he had tastes. His mother had tried to help him for many years, but once she had passed away, there was nothing left to stop him.
“You’re right,” Peter said, and Luke could hear his grimace. “I wouldn’t agree to that either. Your father was in horrible condition when I visited him in the hospital before he passed.”
“He drank himself to death,” Luke said flatly. “What else did you honestly expect to see?”
“Nothing. I expected nothing. Speaking of alcohol, I want to ask how your drinking has slowed down.”
“Is that another term of my father’s?” Luke asked defensively.
“No. It wasn’t brought up. Your father wasn’t going to tell you how to control your drinking when he couldn’t control his.”
“Right, so it’s none of your business,” Luke said coldly. “All we are talking about here is Paige, and believe it or not, I have purchased a ring.”
The second he said those words, Luke smacked his head in exasperation. The other line was silent. He had to find a ring fast now to back those words up.
Toby sighed as he wrote that down on his pad of things to do.
“You bought a ring for her?” Peter finally asked, surprise filling his voice. “Two months into dating and you bought a ring for her?”
“Yes,” Luke said stiffly. “I did. Is there a problem with that?”
“Here’s what I think,” Peter said. “I’m tired of you running games around me, trying to figure out how to get through a loophole that doesn’t even exist. If this relationship is real—”
“It is real!” Luke said angrily.
“Then you better have a strong connection with this Ms. Scott, because I will be asking questions that only couples in love would know. Got it?”
“Whatever you say.”
“Lose the attitude, Luke,” Peter said. “You aren’t going to get anywhere with me. I’ll sched
ule a meeting with you both in two weeks. I expect a wedding announcement in the paper along with a date, too. Have a good day.”
He hung up before Luke could even think of a reply. Dropping the phone down onto the desk, Luke looked over at Toby with a scowl.
“We’re in over our heads,” he said. “In two weeks I have to bring Paige to meet him. I also have to buy a ring, announce this shit, and set a date.”
Toby scribbled that down on the paper as well. “We can manage these things, Luke. It’s not going to be a big deal.”
“What if I have to go through with this entire thing?” Luke demanded, rubbing his aching head in distress. “I’ll have a divorce on my record then.”
“It won’t matter,” Toby pointed out. “You’d have everything by then. Just settle with Paige on the amount if you have to go through with it. That’s all you really have to do.”
“I want a fucking drink,” Luke growled, standing from his chair. “This is too much work for me when I’m not getting anything in return.”
“What? Sex?”
“Yes, damn it. She won’t give in no matter what I say or do.”
“Play it to your advantage,” Toby said sagely. “Someone like Paige is going to work when it comes to Peter. She’s not like the other women you’ve been with. I’m telling you to have some faith in what I’m advising you to do. Have I ever steered you wrong?”
“No,” Luke replied, deflating. “You’re right. I just don’t know how much longer I can take this shit.”
“Well, work that out with Paige. In the meantime, we need to find a ring.”
****
The lodge felt pleasantly warm when they arrived in Bismarck the following week. A weight eased off Luke’s shoulders when he stood on the back patio, inhaling the crisp, fresh air. Nothing could ever replace the serenity he always felt in Bismarck when he came to check on the oil rigs. Compared to the pollution and the bustle of the city, it felt as though they were in a different universe.
He sipped from a cup of hot tea while he waited for Paige to change her outfit. They had done a quick press appearance at Toby’s bidding to add even more publicity. Paige had played the part perfectly by sticking by Luke’s side without straying. He was relieved that there were only two cameras around this time rather than a swarm of them like the previous weekend.