18. Mila
Mila
Dear Diary,
Nonno made me promise today that I would marry for love and not for money.
I told him that, of course, I wouldn’t marry for money.
I think he was worried because Lara and I were talking about the cars we wanted to drive when we were older.
I’d love a black Range Rover Sport. Nonno said to me that he hopes I plan to work hard for it.
I nodded, of course, but I think he heard me giggling to Lara and telling her that Ryker might buy me one when we start dating.
I don’t know if Nonno was upset that I wanted to date Ryker or that I wanted Ryker to buy me a car.
Which I really don’t want him to buy. I was just joking.
I can buy my own car. One day. If I ever make enough money.
Mila
XOXO
“Did you talk to Ryker about the contract?” Lara mouthed to me in the back seat.
“No,” I mouthed back, my eyes on the front seat to make sure Ryker and Barbie weren’t paying attention to us.
“I can’t believe that he expects you to sign that,” she whispered, and I nodded. “Who does he think he is?” She shook her head. “He thinks he’s some sort of god.”
“Lara.” I widened my eyes at her and put my finger to my lips. “Shh.”
“What’s going on back there?” Ryker looked directly at me.
“Nothing,” I said innocently, staring back into his mesmerizing eyes, wondering what he was thinking.
“I see,” he said and turned back to the front to concentrate on his driving.
“I’m surprised you didn’t drive back with Parker,” Lara said, looking at Barbie.
“Why would I do that?” Barbie looked back with a smirk.
“Because you slept with him.” Lara gave her a venomous look.
“So?” Barbie said, and she put her hand on Ryker’s thigh. “I like men.”
“Cut it out, Barbie,” Ryker snapped and removed her hand from his thigh. “Mila knows we aren’t dating. Though I’m pretty sure you didn’t care what she thought when you hooked up with my best friend.”
“You never cared who I hooked up with before,” she purred and looked back at me, her eyes narrowed. “Not even when we talked about me becoming a Walker.”
“What?” Lara’s voice was loud.
“Oops.” Barbie smiled and then shot a look at Ryker. “We weren’t talking seriously.” She looked back at me. “I would never marry or think about marrying Ryker. Way too many skeletons in his closet.”
“And what’s stuck in yours? Dicks that fell off from touching you?” Lara snapped back, and I giggled.
“I’ll have to check when I get home and see if Parker’s dick is in there,” Barbie said as she fluffed her blond hair and gave us both a narrow smile. “I wouldn’t be surprised, seeing as it was in everything else of mine this weekend.”
“Enough.” Ryker’s voice was cutting. “Let’s all just listen to some music and go home.”
“Yes, boss,” Barbie said in a sweet tone.
“Whatever you say, big boy.” She ran her fingers all the way up his thigh, and I saw her grab his package, giggle, and then sit back.
I felt the blood going straight to my face.
I was going to slap her. If I ever saw her again, I would beat her down. She was such a bitch.
“Bye,” I said as I jumped out of the car.
I didn’t even bother looking at Ryker. I was still so pissed that he’d let Barbie touch his junk without saying a thing.
Even though it had only been for a second, I still felt he should have said something.
I walked to the back of the car and waited for Ryker to open the trunk so that I could get my bag.
“Bye? That’s it?” Ryker said as he got out of the car, walked to the trunk, and stood next to me.
“Well, if you’d dropped Barbie off before me, that wouldn’t be it.” I looked away from him. “But no, you dropped off Lara, and then decided to drop me off next.”
“I’m not sleeping with Barbie, Mila.”
“Let me get my bag.” I glared at the back of his car.
“Mila, look at me.” He grabbed my face and pointed it toward him. “I dropped you off before Barbie because I need to talk to Barbie. I want to make sure she’s not trying to play Parker.”
“Oh?” I looked up at him, my heart softening.
“Really.” He nodded. “I couldn’t really do it at the house with Parker there, and I couldn’t do it in the car with you and Lara, and I don’t really want to see her again after today.”
“I guess I can understand why.” I grinned at him now.
“Good.” He leaned down and kissed me. “I’m going to call you tonight.”
“Okay.” I nodded.
“Have you made your decision yet?” His eyes searched mine.
“No.” I shook my head. “I need to think about the contract.”
“What about it?”
“It gives you a lot of power over me and my every decision,” I said, with a frown.
“I like to be in control,” he said, his eyes not leaving mine.
“It’s only four weeks. What does it matter?”
“Is it going to be a problem?”
“There are some parts I have problems with.” I nodded.
“Mark them up and we’ll discuss them.” He kissed me again. “I’ll call you tonight, dorky.”
“Don’t call me dorky.” I glared at him, but I couldn’t stop myself from smiling as I watched him drive away.
I walked to my apartment, dumped my bags on the ground, and then opened my purse to retrieve the contract.
I grabbed a pen from my table and sat down on the couch to read through it and mark it up.
I looked at the first page, and my heart thudded for a few seconds when I read that the contract was between “Mr. Walker, also known as Ryker Walker, and Mila Brookstone.” I bit down on the pen and thought about what Lara had said, wondering why Ryker had just happened to be carrying a contract with both our names on it.
That meant that he’d been planning this for a while.
And I’d had no clue. Absolutely no clue.
I wasn’t sure if I should be happy about that or not.
My eyes scanned the contract until I got to the nitty-gritty.
“The contract between Ryker Walker and Mila Brookstone will last for the maximum duration of a year, not to exceed three hundred and sixty-five days. The minimum length of time for the contract is forty-five days,” I said out loud, wondering why it didn’t say four weeks like Ryker had said, not that that was a huge deal to me.
It was the next part that I was more concerned about.
“Ryker Walker shall have full knowledge and access to all of Mila Brookstone’s legal documents, bank accounts, social media accounts, and phone records for the duration of the arrangement.
” I repeated that twice and then grabbed my phone.
I needed to speak to Lara again. I called her number and waited for her to answer.
“You’re home?” she said, answering right away. “Alone?”
“He dropped me off first. He said he wanted to talk to Barbie.”
“Ugh, don’t talk to me about that bitch,” Lara started, and I knew I had to cut her off before we got into a long bitch session about Parker and Barbie. I felt bad for her, but I didn’t want to keep talking about my brother.
“Ryker said he’s going to call me later to go over the contract. He wants me to mark up the stuff I have issues with.”
“So the whole contract, then?” Lara sounded indignant. “He sounds like a control freak and just a freak.”
“Lara!” I admonished. “We don’t know that.”
“Mila. He wants to control your life in and out of the bedroom. I mean, he wants you to start doing yoga with him, and he wants you to designate a day to tantric sex techniques—like, what the fuck?”
“That’s better than whips and dungeons, though.” I laughed, though I was also puzzled about the whole tantric sex day thing as well.
“He’s building up to that,” Lara said. “Look, I know you’ve loved him forever, but I feel like this guy is trying to get you caught up in something crazy.”
“What do you mean, crazy?”
“I mean crazy, twisted, Fifty Shades type of shit.”
“That wasn’t that twisted.” I laughed. “Don’t blow things out of proportion.”
“Mila, you know his contract is crazy. Isn’t that why you called me? I thought this contract was for him to convince the board of directors that he’s not a playboy and that he wants to settle down? Why does he need all this extra shit?”
“That is the point of the arrangement. But I guess he wants to experiment as well.”
“Is this really what you want, Mila?” Lara’s voice softened. “I know you’ve wanted him forever, but is this really what you want?”
“Things can change. Maybe he’ll want to make the engagement real,” I said hopefully.
“Are you sure you would want that?”
“I don’t know.” I sighed and then started pacing my apartment. “Look, Lara, I want to go and have a bath. I’ll call you later.”
“Call me after you talk to Ryker,” she said. “I want to know exactly what he says and what gets stricken off the contract.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I said and hung up. I looked down at the contract again and flipped the pages until I stared at the paragraph that had given me the most pause.
The part of the contract that had stood out the most was that I had to trust him, even if I felt my life was in danger.
Why would I think my life was in danger?
That scared me more than it thrilled me.
Trusting him with my life was something I did implicitly, but having it in a contract made me wonder whether there was something about him I couldn’t trust.
I didn’t care if he was into a little role-play or something—that could be hot—but what if he wanted to choke me or something? I wasn’t sure that I was down for that. Why would a contract state that I was to trust him in all endeavors?