Total pages in book: 128
Estimated words: 126850 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 634(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126850 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 634(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
“We can figure it out,” I replied. “As long as we keep our meeting simple and stick to a believable time frame, nobody will suspect a thing.”
“Like what?”
“Well, what’s believable for you? It’s not my family I’m lying to. How long can you realistically have a relationship without any of your family finding out?”
He tapped his fingers against his thigh.
He had nice hands.
Really nice hands.
Jesus.
First his lower lip, now his hands.
I had to stop thinking about how nice various parts of his body were.
“Three months? Four at a push?” he answered after a moment of thinking.
“Okay, so we met four months ago and have been seeing each other for about three,” I said, shrugging.
“But how did we meet?”
“At an engagement party for two university friends,” I suggested. “We can be vague on the friend, it doesn’t need to be anyone your family knows, and we can completely make them up.”
“And you think that will work?”
“I don’t know. We can brush off most questions by reminding people it’s your sister’s wedding and we don’t want to take any attention away from her. You just decided to kill several birds with one stone by bringing me here.”
He rubbed his hand down his face. “This feels like it’s a bad idea.”
“All right, fine. Let’s not pretend. You go down there, tell your grandparents we’re actually just friends and I need my own room, and I will enjoy myself at the wedding while you’re being forced into conversations with women you have no interest in dating.”
Will paused. “Well, when you put it like that, it’s not such a bad idea.”
“I don’t want to brag, but I don’t have bad ideas.” Usually.
“Let’s hope those aren’t famous last words.” He looked at me pointedly. “This could end very badly if we’re found out.”
“Then you should have thought about that before you let your grandparents believe we’re in a relationship.” I got up and fetched my bag from the end table where I’d left it, then pulled out my phone. “Now, I need a shower to get the plane germs off me, then we’re going to cram three months of a relationship into one hour.”
William grinned. “I’m not sure I can fuck you that many times in an hour.”
I glared at him, but there was absolutely no way he missed the way my cheeks flamed red hot as I blushed. “That isn’t what I meant, and you know it!”
“I know.” He laughed. “But it was worth it to see you be so embarrassed.”
I grabbed a cushion from the sofa and hit him on the head with it. “Arsehole.”
“Look at that, we’re acting like boyfriend and girlfriend already.” He took the cushion and kept that stupid grin fixed on his face, while his eyes glittered with an amusement that even his laugh couldn’t accurately portray. “Think of it as a trial run.”
“A trial run? For what?” I laughed and wheeled my suitcase towards the bedroom.
“For when we leave here, and I seduce you into falling in love with me.”
“Ha!” I barked out, parking my case right next to the bed. I leant against the doorframe and fixed Will with a pointed look, complete with raised eyebrow and a smirk curving my lips. “When this is all over and I’m back at home, I am never, ever speaking to you again.”
He collapsed back on the sofa, laughing. A stupid, deep, rumbling belly laugh that made me want to hit him with a cushion again.
William had a very nice laugh.
No, no.
A Very Nice Laugh.
Capital letters were necessary.
I stomped my way back through the main living area to get my carry-on case and wheeled it back to the bedroom while making sure he caught my glare.
It didn’t stop him laughing.
I closed the door, shaking my head, and grabbed my phone to text Amber.
ME: I’m here. At his grandparents’ place.
ME: Guess where they live
ME: THE CASTLE. THEY LIVE IN THE FUCKING CASTLE!
ME: HIS GRANDPARENTS ARE THE DUKE AND DUCHESS OF GLENROCH
ME: FUCK MY FUCKING LIFE HOW DID I END UP HEREEEEEEEE?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
Then I put my phone down, opened my suitcases, grabbed my stuff, and went to wash away my misery in the shower.
In theory.
As it happened, I couldn’t get out of my own head.
I couldn’t believe I’d ended up here. Really, I should have put two and two together, but why would I have? William didn’t have so much as a hint of a Scottish accent, so why would I assume he was related to the Glenrochs? Much less a direct heir to the dukedom.
He’d never mentioned it, and I got that, too. I imagined people did get pretty weird when they discovered you were going to one day inherit a castle.
Not me.
I mean, I knew a few of those people.
But William didn’t know that. He couldn’t know that.
I’d spent the last ten years of my life distancing myself from the upper-class world I was raised in. The one thing I was most sure of was that it wasn’t a life I wanted to marry into, either, which meant it was a dating pool I had no intention of dipping my feet into.