Total pages in book: 63
Estimated words: 59395 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 297(@200wpm)___ 238(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59395 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 297(@200wpm)___ 238(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
The driver greets us, and I hand off Bella’s smaller bag. Once he has it in hand, I open the rear door for her, and she slides inside. I join her, but she is on the other side of the car, far from my reach.
Once I’ve shut the door, my cellphone buzzes with a text from Gavin: We need to talk. Call me.
I reply with: I’m not alone. On my way to the airport
Good, he replies. I hope she’s pretty enough to live with. You need a fake fiancée right now. The clock is ticking on your inheritance. One you’re willing to marry for at least three months. Before you object, I’m already working on a prenup that will protect you. This is a little more than one year of your life. You have to do it. Call me when you can talk.
What about a legal challenge? Is my reply.
He has ammunition against you, Tyler. Your license and your reputation are the least of your worries. Withholding evidence is a crime. If that comes out, it will snowball. Your cases and your father’s would be overturned. Suck it up and pick a bride.
My involvement in criminal law was short-lived, but my father’s was not. In fact, we didn’t sell off the criminal law division until two years ago, and it was long past due. It no longer fit our business model. But the selloff is irrelevant when it comes to the liability that could be created. Gavin is right. This is a problem, and I’d happily just suck it up as he demanded, but what if my father planned to use this case against me anyway? He was evil. I have to find a real answer, and marriage isn’t that answer.
“Everything okay?”
At the sound of Bella’s voice, I realize that the SUV is moving. I rotate to face her and she’s already facing me, studying me, her blue eyes bright with worry. She could be the perfect fake fiancée. I’d come here today with that in mind. How could I not think of Bella for this role? She is gorgeous. She is intelligent. I enjoy her company. She wouldn’t try to screw me in the end of all of this. But as I sit here now, facing her, I think of her job, her brother, and years of knowing each other, and l realize this could change her life, and affect her reputation and her career. This could become emotionally messy, even if it would be physically satisfying. We wouldn’t save me from the grief I do not feel for my father or from a father with a plan to torment me right up until I inherit. All this match would do is create complications Bella doesn’t need and I can’t afford.
She is both the right and wrong woman for me. And yet, I speak as if she is the only woman for me, “That depends on you, Bella.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Tyler
Bella’s eyes flash with a mix of emotions I cannot read, but then she doesn’t force me to try, either. “Are you saying that if this film deal falls apart, I’ve irreparably damaged you and Hawk Legal?” she challenges. “Because that is unfair. I called you in—”
“No, Bella,” I state, clearly having opened a can of worms I do not want open at all, let alone with an audience created by our driver. It was a flippant response, an almost angry reply to her concern for me after my call. A response driven by my frustration over the fake fiancée requirement and the fact that the only woman I seem to be able to think about is her.
And that is more than a small problem.
“No, Bella?” she asks. “What does that mean?”
“I wasn’t talking about Dash’s deal.” I motion to the driver. “And is this a conversation you really want to have right here and now? Because I do not.”
“Then what did that mean?” she counters quickly, evidently unconcerned by being overheard.
“You asked if everything was okay. I said—”
“It depends on me. The only thing that I know of that depends on me is this deal we’re negotiating for Dash.”
“I could have been talking about the comfort of our travels,” I state rather dryly. “For instance, if you talk when I’m trying to sleep or scream with every bump on the plane.”
“But you weren’t saying either of those things or anything to that effect and we both know it,” she counters. “Just say what you want to say to me, Tyler. I’ve never known you to hold back.”
She has no idea how much I don’t want to hold back, how much I wouldn’t hold back if I ever had her alone, and willing, in the ways, I want her willing. But once again we have crossed a line that impacts our professional relationship and that is on me. I used her innocent question as a sounding board for too many things going on in my head. My need for a fake fiancée. My need to fuck her the hell out of my system. My concern is that will never be possible for many reasons.