AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Her wavy hair is coiled up into a bun. She tucks a strand of the black silk behind one ear as she greets me with a shy smile. “Hey, River. Thanks for sending a car for me.”
A smile tugs at my lips. Pearl always seems to have a teasing tone going on. I bow low, making her laugh.
“Of course. You are my fake fiancée, after all. I don’t need tongues wagging about how I treat you before we even get the chance to introduce ourselves as a couple.”
I step back, waving her inside. She sails past me, head held high and back straight. But she only makes it a few steps before she’s come to a full stop in my living room. “Did you just move in?”
She went right for the question that I was hoping we’d avoid. I wrinkle up my face and sigh. “Does two years ago count?”
She snorts, walking straight to the bay window and peering out at the beach. “Wow. Talk about a million-dollar view.”
“It’s why I bought this house. In five years, when my brothers have their baseball training camp built, I’ll sell this house for four or five times what I paid for it to some chump with too much money to spend.” I flop down on one end of the couch, watching her closely.
She studies the view, walking to the doorway of the adjoining room. It’s just an empty room with another pile of crates in the corner. There’s a set of French doors that lead outside onto the deck. From there, it’s just a short flight of stairs down and then you’re on the beach.
“I would keep this place,” Pearl says softly. I’m not even sure if her words are intended for me. “Imagine having such a view from your living room.” She turns around and pins me with a stare. “This room seems unused! You need to put your couch in this room here and face the view.”
I shrug. “I’ll think about it.”
Pearl takes my noncommittal answer as the blow off it is. She comes over to me, sitting down on the other end of the couch and putting aside her oversized purse.
“So.” Pearl crooks a brow at me. “What should we talk about?”
“We could go ahead and fuck.” I splay out over my end of the couch and smirk. “Or we could talk about how I am going to use this fake engagement to get what I want.”
She ducks her head. “And what do you want?”
“I want my stepfather to let me have access to all of my trust fund. Right now, I’m only getting a small part of it. But when I get engaged, the vault opens.” I pause, my eyes narrowing. “Or so Sam says.”
She doesn’t need to know what the trust fund will buy me. Namely, a stake in her family’s land once it’s developed into a resort.
“And you’re not going to wait around to meet Mrs. Right, I would guess.”
“Correct.” I wiggle my eyebrows. “Who has the time to meet someone? Not me.”
Pearl pops her jaw beneath her hand and leans on the couch, pursing her lips. “We’ll have to be very convincing to fool your family.”
I nod. “We’ll have to be comfortable with physical closeness. I guess it will only help matters that we’ll also be fucking regularly.”
“Oh.” Her cheeks glow pink. “I wish you wouldn’t say it like that.”
“What? That we’re fucking?” I reach out two fingers and brush them over the exposed skin at her knee. Her eyes widen and I can tell she is trying not to jerk away.
“Relax.” I smooth her dress back down over her knee. “I won’t bite. And I won’t push you to do anything you don’t want to do. If you’re not enjoying yourself, then I’m not either. I want you to want me.”
Pearl nods, not quite meeting my gaze. “It’s a little hard for me. I know that you’re just supposed to be my sperm donor, but I don’t want the story of my pregnancy to start with, yeah, so I was fucking this stranger…” She shifts and sighs. “’My fiancé got me pregnant and then we broke up’ isn’t perfect, but it’s more understandable.”
I give her a knowing smile. “I can understand that.” The last thing in the world I want is for Pearl to feel awkward around me. I pat the seat beside me. “Why don’t you come over here and sit with me while we chat? Get used to me. That’s the first part of getting comfortable with someone.”
She bites her lip for a second. Her steady gaze bores into mine. Just when I think she’s going to refuse, she moves down toward me and sits an inch away.
Looking at her stiff posture, I can see Pearl is going to need some help relaxing. I slip an arm around her waist and pull her knee up to cross over my own. She goes along with it and takes my big hand, wrapping her smaller one in it.
“There we go,” I say. “Nice and easy.”
A bark of laughter escapes her. “Feels weird.”
“It’ll get better. I promise.” I look straight ahead. If I’d had the foresight to move the couch to face the window, we could’ve stayed there for a bit. But after a minute of being in my grasp, Pearl starts to shift and wiggle.
