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CHAPTER SEVEN
On the way out of Vegas, Jamie blocked out the conversation between his friends and thought of Lucy instead. Was he insane to have suggested a fake engagement? He was shocked she’d even agreed to think about it. He’d been convinced that she would turn him down flat. He’d like to think the reason she hadn’t was because she was learning to trust him, but he knew that wasn’t the case—she was simply desperate to do right by Milly.
Before Jamie caught his flight, but after he and Lucy had called for a driver to pick them up at Melina’s house, Lucy had dropped her one and only stipulation to his proposal.
“If I agree we’re going to be engaged, then we’ll be engaged,” she had said.
“What does that mean?” he’d asked her with a half-smile.
“It means that if I’m going to wear this rock on my finger, you’re going to give it up while I do so.”
“Give what up?” he’d said, genuinely confused.
“The booty. I want what I got last night, and plenty of it.”
Delighted, he’d almost swept her into arms and kissed her right there. Instead, like a tiger afraid the wrong move would send his prey running, he teased her. “So what you’re saying is you were so blown away by my incredible sexual skill that you want more.”
She’d rolled her eyes and smiled, but considering what she was “demanding” of him, he’d happily given her that. “For as long as we’re pretending to be engaged, yes. After all, it’s not like I’d be able to go out and have my urges satisfied by someone else. Not without risking messing up our plan.”
“No, I can see what you mean. But you’re acting like this would be a sticking point for me.” He’d nudged her lightly with his shoulder, almost like a brother or best friend would.
Keep this light, Jamie, he’d told himself. Don’t blow this.
“Sorry,” he’d continued. “If you’re trying to scare me away, that’s not going to do it.”
But now as he sat on the airplane and replayed it all in his head, he wondered if he had made a grave mistake by agreeing to her terms.
Jamie couldn’t deny it. Before she’d broken things off between them, he’d been halfway in love with her. He’d only gotten closer in the time since.
He was far from ready to admit that out loud, but far too infatuated with her not admit it to himself.
He wanted her, not just for a night, or seven or fifty. He wanted her in his life permanently, but there was no way he could say that, no way he could let her see it on his face. If he did, she’d run so fast he’d never be able to catch her.
Besides, the last time he’d let himself imagine a life with her, she’d found out he was rich and suddenly thrown the brakes on everything. He’d been left hurt and confused. Months later, he still wasn’t over it. How would he feel after they pretended to be a couple and made love on a regular basis, and then suddenly, after she got custody of Milly, it would be “bye-bye, Jamie,” he asked himself.
He’d get his big, stupid, soft heart broken, that’s what. He thought about the risk he’d be taking with his own heart.
And then he thought about Lucy.
He thought about how devastated she was when she lost her sister. He thought about how alone she had been most of her life. She had a chance for a fresh start with Milly. He’d seen the light in her eyes when she talked about that baby, the terrible hope and fear she kept inside her. If he didn’t help her, she might very well lose custody.
He couldn’t risk that.
He knew what he was going to do, and it wouldn’t be walking away.
* * *
“Do you still agree with my terms?” Lucy, who was back home in northern California, asked Jamie on the phone the next day.
“Yes,” he said, leaning over his balcony and watching as Los Angeles woke up below him. On the horizon smog settled—the one thing that marred the beautiful view.
“That means lots of sex, every night if I want it?”
“You’re an insatiable little nymph, aren’t you?”
“You should have known that about me already. Besides, I have the feeling that if anyone can satiate the insatiable, it’s you.”
Jamie felt his whole body go warm. “Thank you for that, although that is highly dependent on who it is I’m trying to satiate.”
