Chapter 25
Dexter
Rifling through my closet, I choose slacks and a shirt, then do a quick spritz of cologne. It’s something fresh that smells like walking out of a white marble estate on a Kauai beach.
If I’m out to wow her, there’s no sense in half measures.
By the time I head back down, I’m hoping I smell imposing enough to convince her she can trust me.
She glances up at me from where she’s slumped across the sofa. The slightest frown touches her brows as she inhales slowly.
“Huh. So you can smell like a million bucks. Who knew?” she says as I join her.
Ignoring her bullshit, I pick up my phone and use the app to start the fireplace, “Was that a backhanded compliment? I’m sincerely touched, Miss Winkley.”
As I hold my hands over my heart like I’ve been shot, she laughs. It’s high and bright and too damn real.
She huddles in her worn hoodie, sticking her thumbs through holes that almost certainly weren’t part of the original design. More strands slip from her bun, and she sighs and pulls it loose, running her fingers through the knots. I get the faintest whiff of fruity shampoo.
“Do I smell good enough for you to talk to me now or what?” I need to steer this conversation back on track.
“Sure, I guess. Sorry.” The faintest flush stains her cheekbones. “That was childish of me.”
“I won’t disagree.” I lean back against the cushions and look at her, the way she’s curled up like she wants to be as small as possible. “I also won’t deny I didn’t smell fresh.”
“Or look great,” she says with a tiny smile. “Don’t push your luck, lady.”
She glances away and those walls creep up again. Fuck this.
I need to be charming, not push her away. No matter how unbelievably hard she makes it.
“You got my note,” I say. “What do you think of the offer?”
“You gave me fifty–no, a hundred thousand dollars. Are you insane?” “Yes.”
She stares at me in stunned silence. “As a deposit? You’re paying me in full when I haven’t done anything.”
I inwardly groan.
“Miss Winkley, I’ve decided to pay you double. Same terms. You’ll get the rest of it when this crap is over and done. Consider it hazard pay for putting up with my temporary madness.”
Those big green eyes cut right through me. Then she slumps back and sighs. I give her a few seconds to process everything.
“…you did all that without knowing whether I’d even agree to the fake fiancée thing at all?”
Hell, don’t remind me.
“Call it an incentive,” I bite off.
“Um, I’d call it ludicrous. Wacked. Kind of dumb,” she says, and finally there’s a bashful smile tugging at the corner of her mouth again. A genuine, honest–to–God smile that lightens her eyes. “I could’ve just cashed the first check and you’d be out fifty thousand smackers.”
My gaze narrows. “You could’ve done that, yes, but you didn’t. You came here with the check. I could’ve easily had second thoughts and clawed it right back, sending you home penniless. Now who’s being dumb?”
She snorts, glancing over at the fresh check, which is still sitting on the counter with the invisible weight of an elephant.
“I have morals, Rory. Shocking, I know,” she spits, shaking her head at me. “I didn’t want to take it before we agreed to anything. And if we couldn’t
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Love Betrayed: A Journey of Separate Paths
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Chapter 25
agree, I figured you’d want that back.”
Huh.
“I appreciate the gesture.” I fold my arms. “Get on with it then. Name your terms.”
She considers it for a minute, biting the end of her thumb. I struggle like hell to look away.
“First thing you need to know is I’m only doing this for the money,” she says, like that’s some kind of crime. I’d have to be fucking nuts to believe that after all she’s done to blow me off, she’s actually interested in anything else. “And… and if you want us to appear in public or whatever, you need to run everything by me first. Give me fair warning. Don’t ever waltz into my store again and expect me to play ball.”
I deserved that.
“Done. No problem,” I say. “And Dexter?”
I start, not expecting her to use my name.
There’s something hard in her eyes again now–the shyness has worn off, replaced by the familiar quiet anger that fueled her before. Guess talking like adults doesn’t mean she’s forgiven me for barging in on her at the store.
“You will not mess with my family,” she says crisply. “Stay the hell away from my nana unless I give you permission. Clear?”
“Crystal clear.” I nod slowly.
“I mean it. The second you approach them without my permission, the deal’s off.”
“In the unlikely event I lose my mind again, I’ll stand in front of your firing squad without a fight. Of course, that goes for you, too.”
“Trust me,” she says scornfully, “I have zero interest in your family. I’m
not the one desperate to convince everyone we’re in love.”
“I’m only trying to convince one man, really.” I run my hand through my hair. That vulnerability returns, like she’s made of brittle glass. “Look, I’m sorry for what happened before. I had to get to you and I recognized your grandmother from the research I did.”
“Research? You looked me up?” Her eyes flash with disbelief.
“Like any good negotiation, I had to know who’s on the other side,” I say. “Obviously, it went too far. I shouldn’t have targeted your grandmother, but you weren’t talking and I had to get creative. I saw my chance and I improvised.”
“Improvised! You had to force me into a shit show, you mean?” She huffs and glances away, back over the white carpets. “Just make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
“Deal.”
“And you better not back out of the Sugar Bowl orders for your properties. That’s part of the arrangement, even if you didn’t include it in your little
note.”
I chuckle before I can stop myself.
She’s fiery, all right, and I can’t say I hate it.
Truthfully, in this light with flaring tension coursing through both of us like lightning, I can’t say I hate anything about her at all.
There’s something brutally alluring about the ruddy hair and the forest- pool green of her eyes that makes me wish it wasn’t all make–believe. Just for
one night.
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Love Betrayed: A Journey of Separateati
