Total pages in book: 56
Estimated words: 53725 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 269(@200wpm)___ 215(@250wpm)___ 179(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 53725 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 269(@200wpm)___ 215(@250wpm)___ 179(@300wpm)
His hands settle on his knees. “Tell me where it is, and I’ll pour.”
“I have a little bar nook off the kitchen.”
We stand and I follow him, claiming a seat at the bar while he retrieves the bottle and two glasses. He sets the glasses on the island and surveys the bottle label. “I’ve had this wine before.” He glances at me. “And aside from being an excellent red, it’s very expensive. Who was the client?” He opens the bottle.
“Rory Allen,” I say. “New York’s new quarterback. He actually grew up in France.”
“I had no idea. How the hell did he become a football player?”
“He moved to the States right as he started high school. I guess he was a natural.”
“I forgot how many celebrities you deal with.” He fills our glasses and hands one to me. “I’m sure you’ve had plenty of them try and get personal.”
“It happens,” I say, “but most of them are creepy player types I want nothing to do with.”
He joins me on this side of the island and claims the stool next to me. “Try the wine,” he says. “See if you like it. If not, I can get the restaurant to bring us another bottle.”
“It’s expensive. It has to be good.”
“There are wines for tasting and wines for drinking. The most expensive ones are usually for tasting. Which means they often aren’t that good, though I like this one.”
I swirl the wine in my glass, smell it, and find it to be a pleasant, fruity, floral scent. I sip and a cherry and oak taste explodes in my mouth. “It’s good,” I say. “I like it.”
“Good,” he says. “So, who have you dated, Alana? Is there anyone who’d object to an engagement and decide he was a fool for losing you?”
Of course, I think, feeling a little stab in my chest. He wants to know for his merger. “No one,” I say, and that’s all I say. There were guys. Jason was a lawyer who bought a property from me and made me crave the legal world. He loved me. He wanted to marry me, but I just didn’t love him, and he didn’t really seem happy that I wouldn’t go back to law school.
Aiden was a player for New York as well. And what a player he was. I was never going to have a guy who was only in bed with me.
And the list goes on.
A fake fiancée might be the closet to fiancée I ever get.
“Were you ever engaged?” he asks.
Again, I keep it simple. “No.”
He studies me, a puzzled look on his face. “You aren’t going to ask about me, Alana?”
“I’ve seen and heard enough about all your women, Damion, when we were younger. I don’t need the adult version.” I turn away from him and set my glass down.
He catches the arm of my stool and turns me to face him, his striking eyes meeting mine, and dragging me into the deep blue sea of his stare while I try not to drown in all the crazy emotions he stirs in me. “I’ve never been engaged, Alana, but I’m asking you to change that.”
My body betrays me, and I can feel my cheeks flush as if I believe this is real. As if this is the fantasy I had as a child come to life. This is not real, I tell myself. It’s not even close to real. And thank God, my cell phone rings. “That’ll be security,” I say. “I forgot to tell them about the delivery.” And just that easily, I’m given an out to pull myself together and remember a favor is a favor. It’s not a marriage proposal.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Alana
We decide to sit at my coffee table, on the floor to eat. It’s actually Damion’s idea, and it’s far more intimate than any other location. Of course, the fact that I’m still in his shirt and he’s still only wearing pants, adds to the mood. He turns on the radio to a country station. He’s always been a country guy, but it strikes me that while I know many things about Damion, I know nothing about the last ten years.
If I’m going to marry him, or so everyone will think, I decide I need to know more. We dig into our food, which is excellent, laughing about old times, but I discreetly guide us toward that ten-year gap. “Where were you in Europe?”
“Mostly London, but I spent about two years in Paris and another two in Italy. It’s hard to love Italian food here after being there, but this place we ordered from is owned by an Italian.”
“I had no idea your company had that many locations.”
“There’s a lot of overseas money, and London is a central point, where it all connects.”
“Why send you though? It seems like as the future of the company, you should be here.”