14. Wade
Wade
T he sound of the front door to the office opening and closing was enough to get my pulse pounding.
I was more nervous than I thought I’d be.
My palms were sweaty, hands fidgety, and all I could think of were the millions of ways this could go wrong.
But she’d agreed, and if today went well, I’d pay off her bills by the end of the evening.
I was more committed to this than she was.
Her brown mess of curls bobbed as she walked past the window of her office door. Don’t show her you’re nervous.
A gentle knock at my door made me lean back into my chair instead of sitting up. This would be casual. No shouting, no arguing, no teasing. Well, maybe some teasing.
“Come in,” I called.
The handle turned and the door opened slowly, a timid-looking Ray stepping into my space.
Her wide black slacks fit snugly around her waist, drawing my eyes toward her torso and up.
The thin, black button-up she had on hugged her breasts and was tucked into her pants, sleeves rolled up to let the bottom half of her forearms breathe.
She’d done her makeup, bold on the eyes and subtle on her plump lips, her hair tied up in a ponytail that swished from side to side as she stepped up to my desk.
“Hi, Wade.”
I motioned for her to sit and she followed the instruction. “Morning, Ray.”
Her lips quirked up at the edges. “My dad used to call me that. Morning-Ray.” She crossed her legs and smoothed out the fabric of her pants as I tried my best not to watch her hands. “I suppose you want to talk about the deal.”
I nodded. “I figured it would be best to go over it in person. Ideally, it won’t be an in-office thing as I’d rather keep this between us. It’ll get out eventually, I’m sure, but until then…”
“I get it.”
“Perfect,” I grinned. I sat up in my chair, resting my elbows on the desk.
“So, first things first. I think you and I need to learn a little bit more about each other. We can’t sell that we’re in a loving relationship if we don’t even know the bare minimum.
I think the best way for us to do this is to go on a few dates.
We can get a bit more comfortable around each other and learn what makes the other tick. ”
A muscle in her jaw twitched. “I don’t want to go on dates with you.”
“I understand that, but we’ll need to get our names out there,” I explained. “We can’t sell that we’ve been together a while if the media has never seen us. And we can’t pretend to be in love if we feel awkward interacting.”
“Can’t you just tell me everything I need to know here and then we can play the part at the wedding?
” she asked, her nose scrunched as if she couldn’t fathom the idea of going out anywhere with me.
To be fair, the one experience we did share wasn’t great.
“We can take a photo together somewhere and leak it ourselves.”
I shook my head. “No. I know how this will work best and I need you to trust me on that. One of my best friends has done something similar and I’d like to follow his path.
” I didn’t dare mention that Jackson and Mandy were married now and had a kid.
Didn’t want to scare her off. “I need you to be on board with this. I’ll try to make it as painless as possible for you. ”
Rolling her lips between her teeth, she seemed to mull over what I was saying. “Fine. But there's very little chance that I won’t complain.”
A chuckle bloomed in my chest. “I’d expect nothing less.”
“Is that all?”
“No. We’ll also need to get you comfortable staying the night with me since we’ll be sharing a room for the wedding.
Don’t want you hesitating outside the door and flagging up questions in front of the families.
Ideally, we’ll go on a few dates until you’re comfortable, and then you can stay at my house for a night before the wedding to make sure you’re okay with that.
We’ve still got a few weeks to prepare for that. ”
“Absolutely not,” she hissed, her eye twitching as she leaned forward in her seat. “I’m not sleeping with you. How is that helpful?”
“Don’t flatter yourself, Ray. I said staying with me, not sleeping with me.
I don’t expect you to want to fuck me,” I laughed.
I played with my lower lip as I watched her expression turn from irritation to anger, knowing damn well this was devolving into potentially dangerous territory.
“I won’t say no if it comes to that though. ”
“Such a fucking ass,” she breathed. “Is that really necessary? Can’t we just sleep in separate rooms and claim we’re waiting until marriage?”
I couldn’t stop the laugh that escaped from my gut.
I swear, for a woman so smart, she truly could overlook the obvious.
“Do you honestly think that my family or my sister’s fiancé would believe I’d ever wait until marriage?
I’m trying to clean up my reputation, Ray, not give everyone I know a heart attack. ”
“I don’t want to do that with you,” she said, enunciating every word, as if to make it more believable. I’d seen the way she looked at me. Maybe she didn’t want to spend an evening alone with me , but I knew damn well if it was anyone else in my body she’d leap at the chance.
I couldn’t help but see the statement as a challenge. “Shall we see how we get on and then make that call later?” I suggested, unable to keep the grin on my lips at bay.
She sighed, relinquishing control, and nodded. “Fine. But you have to pay for a twenty-four-seven caregiver for Mom on those days.”
“That’s not a problem, as I said before. If you’d rather, I can get her into a facility?—”
“No. She’s happier at home.”
“Understood.”
Slowly, easily, a silence fell over us. I almost didn’t want to break it, seeing it as good practice for us becoming comfortable with each other, but in reality, it was more her that needed to adjust. I knew I would be fine with all of this, as long as I knew enough about her.
Being around women was second nature to me.
“Shall we have the first date tonight, then?” I asked.
“Tonight?” Her eyes blew wide as if I was springing this on her without warning, as if we hadn’t just agreed to spend time together up until the wedding. “I’ll need to call the caregiver and see if she can stay late.”
“That’s fine. Pay her extra. I’ll get payroll to send you another advance.”
Unblinking, she stared at me as if in awe. As if she didn’t believe me. “You sure?”
“Yes,” I grinned. “Now go call her then get to work, Ray. You’ve got a lot of scheduling to do.”
————
“How are you not hungry? It’s six o’clock.”
“I don’t normally eat until late,” she quipped, her jacket tucked in close around her neck as she leaned against her car.
She still hadn’t gotten the window fixed.
“I’m not exactly dressed for a fancy restaurant, anyway.
And I’d rather not have the same issue I did last time with my car since it’s snowing. ”
“Then ride with me,” I insisted. I patted on the back of my car for emphasis.
She looked between my car and her beat-up old Toyota, temptation glinting in her eyes. “I don’t like to ride with people. If something were to happen with Mom…”
I chewed on my lip, mulling it over, and nodded. “If something happens with your mom, I’ll get you where you need to go. Riding around in that thing is just asking to break down.”
She snorted. “This thing is better than nothing. Unless you want to add getting me a new car to your growing list of money you’ll be spending to keep me in this deal, this thing will have to do.”
“I’ll get you a new car if that’s what you want.” It wasn’t even a question. If she needed it, if she had to be somewhere in an emergency and she broke down in the freezing cold, she’d be fucked. I would happily dish out an extra thirty thousand.
Her laugh caught me off guard. “Very funny, Wade, but I don’t need you to buy me a new car. I’m sure I can afford to get this one fixed soon enough.”
“Then ride with me, at least.”
She leveled a gaze at me and leaned into the trunk of her car, rummaging through boxes and bags of items, pulling out a black, unbranded sports bag. “Can we go to the recreation center?”
I stared at her bag, begging it to grant me x-ray vision to see what was inside. Convince her. “We can go to the rec center for our date if you ride with me.”
Her grin widened. “Deal.”
————
The car ride had been short and awkward. Ray had spent half of it staring at the monitor she kept on her at all times, and the other half fiddling with the buttons on the main dashboard, trying to get her seat heater working and refusing my help.
This was going to be so much fun.
As it turned out, Ray’s idea of a date where we got to get to know each other was her skating laps around me on the ice rink.
In truth, however, I wasn’t complaining—the look of her in those fucking leggings was enough to make my head swim, and every time she passed me, she unintentionally gave me a view I’d drop to my knees for if my right one wasn’t so screwed.
“Ray,” I called, grabbing her attention from the other side of the rink. Her caramel eyes collided with mine across the empty space as she skidded precisely to a stop. “Come here.”
Her blank stare morphed into something more daring, her lips slanting up at the edges. “You come here.”
For fuck’s sake. I hadn’t been able to peel myself from the wall yet—one of the many reasons why she’d lapped me so many times—and she knew damn well that I had little to no confidence skating across to her.
Of all the extreme and winter sports, ice skating had never appealed to me.
I’d only done it a handful of times, not finding a thrill in the activity.
“Ray,” I growled. I dug my nails into the wall, the rented skates on my feet barely doing anything to keep me upright in comparison to her sharpened, owned ones.