AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Oh, thank goodness. Because, of course, Vicky had a plan.
What she hadn’t been certain of was if she’d be able to get Ryder to listen to it.
She’d been poised and determined on her way over, though she’d known from the outset Ryder wasn’t the easiest person to convince to do anything.
But what had really thrown her was him opening the door as if he had just stumbled out of bed. Or a GQ photoshoot. Or, most accurately, a GQ photoshoot featuring him stumbling out of bed.
For goodness’ sake—guys like Ryder should not be allowed to just answer their doors shirtless like that. And women like her definitely didn’t need to see that when they were already dealing with a media fiasco.
And the tattoo!
She’d forgotten all about the tattoo.
She’d seen it before, obviously. Everybody had seen it before, in countless photos of Ryder at the beach shirtless, Ryder on a yacht shirtless, Ryder greasy and smudged and tinkering with one of his cars or motorcycles or what have you—shirtless. Because why not? The paparazzi seemingly loved nothing better than a good shot of Ryder’s chest.
But now that she thought about it, Vicky hadn’t seen it up close and personal like this. The tattoo, not Ryder’s chest. Well, either.
From here, you could see the fine detail on the huge winged dragon that spanned his torso and curled down his right arm, the tail coming to a delicate point around his wrist. Face to, er, pecs like that, she could see every delicate line.
It was a gorgeous design. One, she now registered, that had to be Ryder’s own work. Up close, the style was unmistakable, at least for the privileged few who had seen his art before—which she had.
Though never, never quite like this.
Scales blending with the sprinkling of dark hair, sinews of mythical beast swirling into the lines of muscle on the man.
The entire thing was, let’s just say, distracting.
But now he was (more or less) dressed and (more or less) listening. So she laid it out for him.
“We will have a short, civilized relationship, and then in a few weeks, we’ll cite incompatibilities and go our separate ways. It’s not ideal, and I’m not sure how much the public will like the idea of you and me dating, but under the circumstances, it’s our best option for damage control. At the very least, it will simply look like an ill-advised romance rather than some sort of sordid fling.”
Ryder blinked at her. Then he burst out laughing. “Oh, I see, so you want to have some kind of fake relationship, you and me?”
She nodded. “Exactly.”
“Yeah, I don’t think so.”
“You don’t think so?”
He folded his arms. “Does this ‘short, civilized relationship’ involve making civilized appearances all along the social circuit with you?”
Well, obviously.
“Yes,” she said as patiently as she could. “Since the whole idea will be to show off our non-scandalous relationship, we’ll need to be seen and photographed doing non-scandalous things.”
“I like you, Vic, but I’m not going to go around eating tea and crumpets for a month just to make a nothing story go away. I wasn’t even planning on staying in New York past the weekend.”
“Well, maybe you should have thought of that before you put your mouth on mine.”
“Oh, you loved that,” he said with his usual smug cockiness.
Trouble was, he wasn’t wrong. But she wasn’t about to let him know that. And it was entirely beside the point anyway.
Attracted or otherwise, they certainly didn’t belong together. Not for the obvious surface reasons, which were at the root of the current PR problem. But because they were too mismatched. Ryder would be bored to tears with someone like her. And she would do best with someone staid and traditional, like Davis.
Random, biochemical attraction, or whatever was going on with her, was irrelevant.
But that PR problem? That needed to be addressed.
