Chapter 22
Twenty-Two
NICO
The stakes have risen after my father’s visit. Failure is not an option now, and I must plan accordingly.
Regina Stone is now the most important person in my world, and I must invest in her to protect my own interests.
The more she depends on me, hell, falls in love with me, the more convinced my father will be that she is right—for me.
I have a few hours to make it happen, and becoming her everything will set me free.
One hour later, she wanders into the living area, and for some reason when she smiles at me, I like it. I’m still processing my luck that I found her at all, and fate was definitely smiling down on me last night.
“All set?”
“Yes, I’ve placed them outside the door.” She falters and appears anxious. “Are you sure it’s okay to ask them to post the boxes? I mean, I could nip down to the post office. I’m sure it’s not far.”
“It’s done. We have more urgent tasks at hand.”
I head toward her and smile. “Follow me. I’ll give you a hand.”
She scurries after me through the vast space I call home, and as we reach my private wing of the apartment, I stop outside the door leading to my suite of rooms.
“Come, your closet should be full of packages by now. If it’s too much, I can arrange for someone to sort it for you.”
“Okay.”
She hesitates, and I gesture her inside.
“Your closet is adjoined to mine. His and hers.”
“Why?”
“Why, what?”
“Um, why here? Surely I could have used the guest room. I don’t want to impose.”
I turn and my eyes flash as they pin her to the spot as I say huskily, “You are now my fiancée, Regina. I must impress upon you the urgency of that.”
“Urgency?”
I gesture to the couch in the living area and as she sits, I fix her with a hard expression.
“I wasn’t entirely honest with you.”
“You weren’t?”
She’s nervous, which is obvious from the way her hands tighten in her lap and she bites her lower lip to prevent it from shaking.
“I asked you to accompany me home for Christmas as my fiancée for a very good reason.”
She says nothing and stares at me with an expression of fear.
I’m used to that. It’s a daily occurrence for me, and yet something inside me wants her to look at me in a completely different way.
I like it when she smiles; her eyes soften, and her cheeks flush with pleasure.
It makes me feel valuable and, dare I say it—human.
Something tells me the softer approach is best for both of us, and I move to join her, grasping her hand in mine as I soften my tone.
“My father wants me to marry his friend’s daughter. I do not.”
“As in an arranged marriage?”
“Yes, something like that. In our case, it’s a fusion of power. Two families merging make a stronger one.”
“But you don’t want to um, merge with her?”
“No, I do not.”
I sigh, giving the impression I’m the victim here, and her soft smile of concern tells me she’s buying my act.
“I want to marry for love, baby girl. Not money. You see, all of my life is spent doing business. It’s ruthless, cold and unemotional. The last thing I want is to come home to it at night, so I devised this plan to buy me some time.”
“Can’t you just say no?”
“Ask me that question again when you’ve met my father.”
I squeeze her hand and rest my forehead against hers, creating intimacy, a shared problem if you like.
“I want to make my own choices, Regina. To be free to marry the woman I choose and not a business deal. Can you understand that?”
“Of course.”
She surprises me by resting her hand on my face and smiling into my eyes. “So, you want them to believe we are in love. That you have found the woman you love and will not settle for anything or anyone else.”
“I knew you’d understand.”
I falter, throwing a little humanity into my smile. “So you’ll help me?”
She nods, a soft blush stealing across her pretty face.
“It’s the least I can do, Nico. You have been so kind to me, and I would be honored to give something back in return.”
“It will be hard.”
“In what way?”
“We must act as if we are deeply in love. It’s the only way.”
“I can do that.”
She rubs her thumb on my cheek and stares at me as if I’m her one true love.
“Just tell me what to do and I’ll be the perfect girlfriend. People like me. I’m quite sociable really, and I’m sure your father will be no exception.”
Her confident speech is meaningless in our world because the only thing my father likes is winning the game.
“There is a problem.”
“What problem?”
“The woman my father wants me to marry will be there too with her family.”
She blinks—several times—and takes a deep breath. “Okaaaay.”
A little of the light dims in her eyes, and then she shakes her head and smiles.
“It’s fine. I can be a good actress if I put my mind to it.
You know, I was quite the entertainer at school, and many times I played the lead role, well, the ones nobody else wanted, anyway.
I did my best then and I’ll do my best now, so honey, you’ve got yourself a woman who is madly, deeply and crazily in love with you and won’t care who knows it. ”
As she smiles happily, I wonder if that smile will falter when she realizes exactly what loving me will involve. That will have to wait until we get there because nothing is going to stop her accompanying me home because the stakes are too high and failure is not an option—for either of us.