15. Maddie
15
MADDIE
“That was a good meal,” Ian said, his hand brushing lightly against mine as we left the restaurant after our dinner with Mr. Kwan and his wife, Mei.
“It really was,” I said. Good company and delicious food.
I’d ordered the buttermilk roasted chicken with mashed potatoes and green beans, and the chicken was so juicy and tender, I’d savored every bite.
“I hope you didn’t get too bored with all the tech talk.” Ian glanced back at me as he pushed open the restaurant doors and waited for me to walk through. “I know it was probably a lot.”
“Not at all.” I shook my head, smiling. “It’s actually interesting, hearing about everything that’s coming next. Makes the future feel a little closer.”
“Glad to hear it wasn’t too boring,” Ian said. “And yes, it was fun to hear what Mr. Kwan and his company are working on.”
Another couple exited the restaurant behind me, so Ian held the door open for them. Once they had gone ahead, we continued down the walkway toward the elevators.
“And sorry again about the whole ‘calling you my fiancée’ thing in front of Margot,” Ian said, an apologetic expression on his face. “I think my brain jumped ship for a minute and it would seem that having my ex-fiancée in front of me caused the word to blurt out.”
“I figured it was something like that,” I said. Had I been surprised to suddenly be referred to as my boss’s fiancée? Of course! But I could definitely think of worse things than having someone think I had caught the attention of such a handsome and powerful man.
And as long as we didn’t bump into Margot again, and she kept our meeting to herself, there really shouldn’t be an issue with one person thinking I was engaged to my billionaire boss.
“I’m guessing you must know all about my past with her, then?” Ian asked, his brown eyes studying me.
“Just a little,” I admitted, feeling my cheeks heat at being caught, once again, in my curiosity about him. “I didn’t know you two were connected until her email came through. But…” I bit my lip. “I will admit that I did a quick search after seeing her email and saw a few news articles that mentioned you two had been engaged during college.”
“You really didn’t know about it until last week?” Ian’s gaze narrowed, like he’d expected his history to have been common knowledge to everyone. “It was all over the tabloids back then.”
But I shrugged and said, “I think I was in high school when it happened. And since my dad didn’t allow me to have social media until I was eighteen, I pretty much lived in a cave.”
Though, if Ian really was that same guy I’d met on the beach back then, I guess I possibly had known about it. I just hadn’t known it was him or that he and his ex were famous enough to have their breakup all over the entertainment news media.
No wonder he’d wanted to avoid her calls.
“Well, in case you’re wondering, it was a messy breakup,” Ian said. “And in the midst of it, I basically did the girl equivalent of cutting bangs and ended up bleaching my hair before buzzing it off.”
He’d bleached and buzzed his hair after his breakup? My heart stuttered as his words hit me and the photo I’d seen earlier at his house flashed through my mind. Because there was no way that that photo being taken right after his breakup could be a coincidence, right?
That the guy on the beach, who had the same hairstyle that Ian had just described and was also going through a breakup with a girl who had cheated on him, would look so similar to Ian at that time.
“Trying to picture me with blond hair?” Ian asked, apparently assuming I was suddenly speechless at the idea of him with light hair.
“Um,” I said, my mind scrambling as I tried to decide if I should tell him that I was pretty sure I may have actually seen his bleached hair in person.
But before I could decide how to say it, we rounded the corner—and there she was.
Margot. Standing by the elevator doors.
My stomach dipped.
“Hello,” she said when she noticed us, her voice syrupy sweet. “Fancy seeing you two again.”
And before she could get too close of a look, I reached for Ian’s bicep, tucking my fingers under his arm to keep my left hand out of sight.
Because yep, apparently our little “engagement” facade was starting round two. Right now.
Fantastic. Lexi and Juliette were going to love this when I told them later.
The elevator doors opened, and the three of us stepped inside. I clung to Ian’s arm a bit tighter than necessary as he tapped his keycard on the reader and pressed the button for our floor.
Once “10” lit up, he stepped back, giving Margot room.
She tapped her card, then paused. “Oh,” she said, raising an eyebrow in surprise. “Looks like we’re on the same floor.”
Of course we were. She probably had one of the big suites, too.
Was it too much to hope we were at the opposite ends of the floor?
We were silent as the elevator began its ascent, the quiet almost amplifying the tension. But when I caught Margot peeking a glance our way, I knew I had a part to play. So trying to look as natural as possible, I leaned my head against Ian’s shoulder and just hoped she couldn’t somehow hear how fast my pulse was racing.
“Tired?” Ian mumbled into my hair, his tone warm and affectionate, perfectly in character for the moment we were trying to portray.
“Yeah,” I said softly. “I know I said I was going to take a bath earlier, but I think I’ll just head to bed.”
I was tempted to add something about him keeping me up too late the night before—just to rile Margot up—but since I probably shouldn’t say something like that to my boss, I just left it at that.
The elevator pinged when it reached our floor and the doors opened.
“Have a good night,” Ian told Margot, nodding for her to step out ahead of us.
“You, too.” She nodded curtly before exiting.
Ian and I held back, lingering just outside the elevator as we watched Margot walk down the hall. But instead of continuing to the far end of our floor like I’d hoped, she stopped at the door just across the hall from ours. And when she glanced back at us as if waiting for us to go into our rooms, I knew she was most definitely watching to see what we did next.
Had she somehow found out which room Ian would be staying in and had requested to be close by?
Because this was just way too much to be a simple coincidence.
My eyes flicked up to Ian’s, silently asking, What now?
“Don’t take this the wrong way,” he murmured, leaning close enough for me to feel the warmth of his breath on my ear, “but I think I’m going to need you to come into my room with me.”
Oh boy. This night had to be breaking all sorts of company rules.
But since Margot seemed to be taking her time at her door, digging inside her purse as if she’d lost her key, I really didn’t see another way out of this.
So, instead of stopping at my room like I had the first time we’d gone down this hall together, I followed Ian a few steps farther to his door and waited for him to unlock it.
The light on the keypad flashed green, and after taking a deep breath, I followed Ian into his hotel suite.
“Well, that was close,” Ian said, sighing heavily once his door had clicked shut.
“Close?” I looked back at him, arching a brow. “That was nearly an ambush.”
“Yeah.” Ian chuckled, his gaze meeting mine. “It does seem like that.”
“Do you think she knew where you were staying and asked for a room close by?” I voiced the question I had earlier.
“I have no idea.” He ran his fingers through his dark hair, tousling it. “We’ve literally had no contact since we broke up. So it would be strange if she did.”
“I guess so…” I bit my lip. “...unless her real motivation for coming to the conference was to meet up with you. Possibly reignite the spark you once had.”
“Well, she might want to catch up, but I have zero desire to even visit memory lane with her.” He crossed his arms and blew out a breath. “So as far as I’m concerned, she’s just another random hotel guest across the hall from us.”
He really thought he’d be able to avoid her all weekend?
Because, with the few short interactions they’d already had, and the whole fiancée charade he’d accidentally started, I doubted it would be as easy as that.
“I get that you want to ignore her,” I said, understanding his desire to keep the past in the past. “But as much as you want that, she’s clearly planning to keep an eye on you. Which means that now that she also thinks I’m supposed to be your fiancée, she’ll be watching me, too.”
“I guess you’re right.” Ian sighed, letting his shoulders droop. “I really should have just replied to her email and told her to buzz off.”
“It certainly would have been easier than what we’ve already done so far.” I chuckled.
“Sorry about that.” He shook his head, a guilty look filling his eyes. “And now she thinks we’re sharing this room.”
I nodded slowly, acutely aware that we were standing in his room together, just a short distance from his bed.
Was I going to have to stay in here tonight?
Wearing this dress as a nightgown since my stuff was locked away in the room next door?
As if reading my thoughts, Ian said, “I should probably just knock on her door and fess up to this whole thing, shouldn’t I? Tell her I wanted to have a little fun pretending I was engaged for a bit, but that we’re actually only here together because of business.”
“You really want to do that?” I asked, thinking about how uncomfortable I’d feel doing that if I was in his situation.
“Well, it’s not like I can ask you to pretend to be madly in love with me all weekend, forcing you to sleep in my bed…just so I can save face now, can I?”
My breath hitched at the idea of sleeping in his bed. And on instinct, I looked around the room, curious if it was similar to my room next door.
And that was when I noticed something on the wall just behind me. A door.
“Actually…” I said, stepping closer to the door to see if it was what I thought it might be. When I turned the lock and opened it, I found that there was another door just on the other side of it.
I glanced back to Ian. When he seemed to realize what I was looking at, a slow smile lifted his lips and he said, “Do you think these doors connect our rooms together?”
“I think so.”
“So…” He tapped his chin thoughtfully. “That means that if one of us can get into your room and unlock that door from your side, we could actually keep up the ruse that we’re both staying in here by just using this door.”
“Uh-huh.” I nodded slowly, considering it.
“Yes, this could work,” he continued, seeming to form a plan in his mind as he paced. “We could make Margot think we’re always together, while still allowing you to have your own space and that downtime I promised you.”
“And if Margot keeps watching us…” I said, feeling the tension in my shoulders ease slightly as this new plan formed, “we can just use your door anytime we need to come and go.”
“Exactly,” Ian replied. He turned back toward the door that led to the hall. After peeking through the peephole, he said, “No one is out there right now. So if you give me your keycard, I can just sneak into your room real quick and unlock the door.”
“But what if she comes out and sees you?”
He looked around the room. Seeming to have an idea, he stepped past me. After inspecting the room quickly, he walked toward the mini bar and picked up the ice bucket sitting on the small countertop.
“I’ll take this with me, and if Margot happens to open her door and sees me trying to get in the wrong room, I’ll just pretend I went to get ice and accidentally stopped at the wrong door.”
“Good idea,” I said, thinking this might actually work.
So with the ice bucket tucked under his arm, he held out his hand for my key. After retrieving it from my purse and handing it to him, I said, “Good luck.”
Then once he was at the door, he took a quick glance down the hall to ensure the coast was clear before stepping out.
I watched the door close, my heart thumping faster than it should for such a simple plan.
But then, less than a minute later, there was a soft knock sounding from the adjoining door.
Yay, he did it, I thought to myself as I stepped toward the door. I won’t have to sleep in this dress after all.
I found Ian leaning casually against the doorframe when I opened the door, looking like a Greek god with a victorious smile on his face. “Ta-da.”
And I couldn’t help but laugh at the ridiculousness of this situation. It was like I was back in high school again, sneaking around with college guys behind my dad’s back.
Only, this particular guy was way hotter than the guys I’d partied with back then.
If only my sixteen-year-old self could see us now.
Ian handed me back my key, and after returning the ice bucket to the counter above the mini bar, he asked, “So, are you really okay with pretending to be my fiancée while we’re here? Because I know it’s a huge ask and probably not at all what you envisioned when you agreed to come here with me.”
“Will you fire me if I say no?” I asked, mostly joking though a small part of me worried my job could actually be on the line.
“Of course not,” he said. Then inspecting my face better, his brow furrowed with concern, he asked, “Is that why you played along so well before? Because you thought your job would be in jeopardy if you didn’t?”
“I actually didn’t have time to think that deeply about it,” I said. “I was panicking right along with you.”
“Fair enough.” He studied my expression, his gaze searching, as if trying to read what I wasn’t saying. Then he took a step closer, his hand reaching for mine. “So, what do you say, Maddie Stevens?” His voice dropped to a low murmur. “Will you be my fake fiancée while we’re in Boston?”
When his brown eyes met mine with an intensity I hadn’t seen before, a wave of heat spread through me. And when his gaze briefly dipped to my lips, I couldn’t help but think that if he kept looking at me like that, I’d probably agree to just about anything he asked.
“Yes,” I managed, my voice barely a breath, betraying my sudden nerves. “I’ll be your fake fiancée.”
“Thank you.” He lifted my hand to his lips, his kiss soft and warm against my knuckles.
And oh, when his gaze locked on mine in that moment, I suddenly felt like I might just melt into a puddle at his feet.
This man. He was way too charming for his own good—and I could understand why he never had trouble getting women to fall for him.
But it’s just an act this time, I reminded myself. He’s just getting into the character of a doting fiancé.
He let my hand fall gently, then stepped back. “I’m sure we’ll need to go over the particulars of our little arrangement so we can make sure we’re on the same page. But since I’ve already commandeered so much of your evening, I should let you go. We can work out a game plan in the morning.”
“Okay,” I said, nodding—though part of me really didn’t want to leave him yet.
“I know the conference starts at eight o’clock, but I don’t really need to attend anything until our lunch with the people from Urban Pantry, so maybe I can order room service for breakfast and we can go over everything then?”
“Sure,” I said, my mind still needing to catch up with everything going on.
“Perfect,” Ian said. “Just look over the menu tonight and text me what you want, and I’ll call in our order when I wake up.”
“Oh, shouldn’t I be doing that?” I asked. “Since I’m your assistant.”
“You’re my fiancée this weekend,” he said with a wink. “So I’ll take care of it.”
“Okay.” Though it still felt weird having my boss being the one to take care of things like that for me.
“We’ll figure out the game plan for everything else in the morning.” He stepped forward, the signal that it was time for me to go back into my room for the night.
So I went through the doorway connecting our suites and made ready to close the door.
“Goodnight, Maddie,” he murmured, his gaze holding a warmth that made my heart skip. “Sleep well.”
“Goodnight, Ian.”
And as I closed the door connecting our suites, I couldn’t help but think that being Ian Hastings’ fake fiancée was already proving to be far more thrilling than anything I’d done in a long time.
I just hoped that when the weekend was over, my heart would remember that any feelings I may or may not catch for my handsome boss would have to remain fake.