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Amelia is the answer. She can fix the problems that have been hounding me.
I check my phone one more time even though there isn’t a message waiting for me. I feel like I need to remember the reason I’m doing this, because I sure as hell don’t want to do it. I don’t want to get any closer to her than I have to. But my plan, if she says yes, requires us to get very close.
“I have a proposition,” I say, shoving my hands in my pockets.
This is where a good host offers a glass of something to drink, but I’m not going to pretend I’m something I’m not. Amelia looks at me expectantly, and I pause to find a way to phrase the words without immediately making her balk.
“I stand to gain a large amount of inheritance from my family, though we had a bit of a falling out when I was younger. So, there are… specific conditions attached to it.” I glance away from her face, feeling awkward about exposing all my dirty laundry to the air. “I need to marry before gaining it. If I’m not married in two years, by the time I’m forty, the money will be given to someone else.”
Amelia raises her eyebrow. “Why are you telling me this? Sir.”
She carefully affixes my title in hopes of sounding less rude. I am not insulted in any form. It’s truly not her problem so she shouldn’t care. But I’m asking anyway, and I’m annoyed at myself for being so desperate.
“I am proposing increasing your pay, perhaps adding a bonus onto that even, if you will help me,” I offer, and I can tell she is growing impatient because I’m beating around the bush.
I know I am, but I don’t want to ask the words. I don’t want to marry someone. I don’t like people, let alone do I see myself falling in love with someone.
That’s why Amelia is perfect. Her irritation with me, her lack of desire to work with me even for increased pay, it’s all clicking into place like a puzzle piece. She won’t fall in love with me. I can tell from the way she looks at me she can barely stand my presence. From the way she reacted before when I lashed out at her, I can tell she won’t let me have a full leash to walk all over her if I make her an equal. At least I hope she won’t.
I stare at her as the silence stretches on and she narrows her eyes suspiciously. I know she is waiting for the punchline to this conversation, but I am carefully considering this decision. My eyes rove over her body. She definitely is pretty enough and young enough to be a wife for me. She is a little over ten years younger than me from what her profile said. Perfect for what most people will think is a trophy wife. But she is something more and she will be a wildcard I can play.
Amelia is smart and has a fire in her that comes out at the best of times. I feel like she can survive among my family. My family is a lot like wolves at a feeding when they come together. It’s dangerous and the smiles hide vicious lies and whispers behind your back. It’s all political, and a newcomer is like fresh meat waiting to be fought over and picked apart.
It was horrific being a boy and meeting my extended family for the first time. I think they liked pretending they were cooing over how I was going to lift up the family, then when my parents left the room, I could hear their sharp words. They denied that I would ever amount to anything.
I think that’s why part of me grew to hate myself and my family as I grew older. I think it’s also why I ended up going off the rails a bit when I was a young man. My family wasn’t very happy with me at the time, quick to release me from their umbrella of protection and hold me at arm’s length.
“Sir, Mr. Saunders,” Amelia’s voice pulls me out of my memories.
I focus back on the woman who is slowly losing her patience in front of me, and I offer an apologetic shrug of my shoulders. “Sorry, it seems I’m a bit distracted today.”
“Yeah, you are,” she says. “Perhaps I should come back another time.”
I shake my head. “No, you have my full attention now. I swear it.”
I am lying through my teeth, my brain is still drifting but I can multitask, I do it often enough. Finally I shrug and ask as if it’s no big deal.
“I was wondering if you would help me by marrying me.”
From the look on her face, I can tell I probably could have phrased it better. She nearly looks like I’ve grown a second head. I sigh, the headache from yesterday beginning to creep back into my consciousness.
“Hold on, wait,” I correct myself, “it’s not a real marriage. It would be for a short period of time. Enough to get the inheritance and throw my family off my tracks,” I stretch my jaw because I’m clenching it and it sure isn’t helping my headache situation.
Her accent slips, dropping into something French, and an expletive slips from her mouth too fast for me to catch. I know enough to get by, but I’m not quite fluent in it; I’m better with Spanish, Italian, and Mandarin. She runs her fingers through her hair when she finally looks at me again and stares at me hard.
“You’re joking, oui?” she asks, clearing her throat as she realizes her French isn’t quite under control.
I wonder why she tries to make it seem like she is American. Her accent is barely noticeable under normal circumstances, and I’ve never given it much thought. It’s not uncommon for my hotel employees to be immigrants and still carry the dialect of their homelands. But I’ve just witnessed how thick Amelia’s can be when she loses her grip on it, and it seems to distress her. Maybe she worries that people won’t understand her? I study her for a moment before I shake my head.
“I never joke about business,” I say, and this time my answer is the absolute truth.
CHAPTER 4
AMELIA
I swear Adrian has gone crazy in the last fifteen minutes. I don’t know how to answer him after he tells me he isn’t joking. He says this is business, but it isn’t. It can’t be. Marriage is love and the pure definition of pleasure. But he is dead serious as he looks at me. His eyes are flat and emotionless. This is all a business proposition to him.
I take a step back, closer to the door in case I need to run because honestly, I am not certain he hasn’t completely lost his mind. How desperate is he for this money? Is it really worth this?
