Chapter 18
CLEO
Oh, he was absolutely out of his mind.
I stood in that beautiful suite bedroom with its beautiful wardrobe team and its beautiful racks of clothing and realized Cash had lost his mind.
He was too handsome to be locked in a padded room. But that was where he belonged.
“Fiancée.” The word felt silly on my lips. Me. A fiancée. Not a real one.
I looked at Cash Bancroft and something ignited in my chest that had nothing to do with attraction and everything to do with rage. I was insulted. Furious.
Arm candy. That was what he wanted. He wanted me to smile and schmooze.
He talked about me being talented and underutilized and capable of building my own empire.
Told me I could create something amazing that benefited me.
Then he’d flown me to Rome to stand next to him in a nice dress and smile at old European money.
Please.
“You’re joking,” I said.
“I’m not.”
“What the hell is wrong with you?”
He looked confused. “I’m not asking you to actually marry me. I just need you for a night or two.”
He honestly couldn’t understand why I found his offer so insulting.
I looked him straight in the eyes. “Cash, you sat on a balcony in the Hamptons and told me I’d be more successful if I invested in myself. You called me talented. You said I was wasting my potential being someone else’s assistant.”
“I remember what I said.”
“And your solution is to make me someone’s prop?
” My voice was climbing. I was aware of it and I didn’t particularly care.
I could feel our audience trying to pretend they couldn’t hear us.
“All that talk about prioritizing my dreams and here you are reducing me to arm candy? Do you have any idea how insulting that is?”
I noticed one of the women inching her way toward the door. She wanted to make an escape. I didn’t blame her.
“I’m not arm candy,” I continued, planting my fists on my hips.
“I have a business degree. I built a massive following for Melody. I have almost a million followers on your brother’s joke account.
I have skills that actual companies pay actual money for, and you want me to show up to a party and gaze adoringly at you all evening because you need to impress someone’s grandfather? ”
I was on a roll now. Cash was just standing there watching me with that completely unreadable expression.
I couldn’t tell if he was angry. Surprised.
Or what he was thinking. His expression gave away absolutely nothing.
It made me feel simultaneously like I was talking to a wall and like I was being studied by someone paying very close attention.
I was certain he was amused. And that pissed me off.
“Find someone else,” I told him. “There are a thousand doe-eyed, sweet-smiled women in this city who would lose their minds at the chance to go to a gala on your arm. Call one of them. Pay for her dress. Flash her that Bancroft smile. I’m sure there are no less than a hundred women that would love to be on your arm. It’s not me.”
He smiled. Not a polite smile. Not a professional smile. A genuine, amused smile that had me seeing red. My blood pressure spiked immediately. I was certain there was smoke curling out of my ears.
“Are you actually smiling right now?”
“I believe I am.”
“Asshole.”
“I’m not going to insult your intelligence by pretending I don’t find this entertaining,” he said.
“I don’t care if you try and insult me. I don’t care about any opinions you have.”
“Out.” He turned and waved a hand at the team trying to hide. “All of you. Give us a minute.”
“That’s so rude,” I hissed.
“Do you think it’s appropriate to have this conversation in front of them?”
They moved faster than I expected, like scared bunnies making a break for it. The door clicked shut behind them.
Then it was just Cash, me, and approximately four thousand dollars’ worth of cheese and charcuterie on a side table that I was already eyeing. It looked like he was planning a party.
The cheese was a distraction. I forced myself to look at him again.
Cash clasped his hands behind his back and looked at me with the patience of someone who had decided to wait me out.
“Go ahead,” he said. “Say whatever you’ve been holding in.”
“I think I did. I’m leaving. I’m going back to the airport. This was a wasted trip. You really should have told me what your little game was.”
“I brought you here for a reason,” he said. “And it wasn’t to insult you.”
“Could’ve fooled me.”
“I don’t take kindly to the assumption that you understand my intentions at first glance.” His voice was calm. “You’re angry because you heard ‘fiancée’ and assumed I was asking you to be decorative. I’m asking you to be the opposite.”
“It’s a gala. I stand next to you. I smile. I make you look stable and charming to a man who’s unimpressed by bachelor billionaires. You’ll remember I’ve seen this one. My best friend already did this. I know the requirements of Bancroft eye candy. It’s all decorative.”
“It’s not decorative. You’re not going to just be standing next to me.
You’re going to be working.” He took a step closer.
“Walking into that room as my fiancée gives you proximity, credibility, and cover to do what you do better than anyone I’ve ever watched work a room.
It’s exposure to the highest degree. As an influencer, shouldn’t you appreciate what I’m trying to offer? ”
I opened my mouth. Closed it. That cheese looked a lot better than the crow I was being served.
I hated this. I hated that he was articulating something that made sense. He was right. It really sucked that he was right. My little meltdown sounded ridiculous now.
“Think about it,” he said. “Come with me. Not as my prop. As yourself, using my platform to build yours. You’ll be at an event with some of the oldest money in Europe, photographed as Cash Bancroft’s fiancée. What does that do for the brand you’re trying to build?”
I thought about it. I tried not to, but it was the proverbial carrot being dangled in front of me.
The pictures and content I could get in Rome at a black-tie gala on the arm of a Bancroft, as his fiancée.
My eyes drifted to the racks of designer dresses.
I wouldn’t just get basic pictures. I’d be wearing a dress selected by a professional styling team.
And I knew those cases held makeup. The good stuff. They were a legit glam squad.
The content would be unreal. The reach would be more than anything I could have imagined. I turned away from him and walked to the side table. The cheese spread was impressive.
“Is this why you asked if I liked cheese?” I mused.
He chuckled. “I was going to have to make a call and get something else in here if you didn’t.”
“Who doesn’t like cheese?”
“Lactose intolerant people.”
I snatched a chunk of cheddar and chewed. “They like cheese, their bodies don’t.”
“Same thing.”
I needed something to do with my hands while I processed the deeply irritating realization that Cash Bancroft had outmaneuvered me with logic. He was presenting my future on a silver platter. I may have jumped to conclusions and overreacted a touch.
I picked up a cracker. Added brie. Added a grape because the grape was there and it seemed like a really good combination. I ate the whole thing in two bites while staring at a point on the wall above the armoire.
“Well?” he said from behind me.
“I’m thinking.”
“Take your time.”
I reached for another cracker. “You could have led with that, you know. The part about the skills. Instead of just saying ‘my fiancée’ and letting me stand there like an idiot. I thought it was another Summer Situation.”
He groaned. “That mistake is why I’m here. Trust me, I’ve learned my lesson.”
“Have you?”
“Yes, and for the record, you weren’t standing there like an idiot. You were making valid points.”
“And you let me go for a full five-minute crash-out in front of an audience before telling me what you actually meant.”
“I wanted to hear what you had say.”
I turned to look at him. He was leaning against the armoire with his arms folded, watching me with an expression that was somewhere between patient and entertained.
I thought very briefly about throwing a grape at him.
He looked just a little too smug for my liking. But I supposed he had good reason to.
“I have conditions,” I said.
His mouth twitched. I could tell he was trying not to smile and that irritated me. Made me feel ridiculous. “Name them.”
“Shopping spree. All expenses paid. Before I go home, I want at least a half day in this city spending your money on things that have nothing to do with the event. I want clothes. Real honest-to-god Italian leather shoes.”
“Done.”
“And I want to see the Colosseum. I did not get my ass up in the middle of the night and fly ten hours to not get to see the most amazing piece of architecture.”
“Also done.”
“I’m serious about the Colosseum. Private tour. Not a group thing where I have to stand behind someone’s grandfather with a selfie stick. No big groups with cameras hanging from their neck. Just me and history.”
“I’ll arrange it.”
I studied him for a moment, looking for the catch. There wasn’t one that I could see, which was either reassuring or more suspicious than any catch would have been.
“Fine,” I said. “I’m in.”
I stuck out my hand.
He looked at it for half a second before shaking it. “Took you long enough.”
“I don’t come cheap, Bancroft.”
He smirked. “Clearly.”
I snatched a slice of gouda. “So, what’s with all the clothes and glam squad?”
He crossed to the door and opened it. I heard him say something brief and professional to the team waiting in the hallway, and then they were back.
They strolled in eyeing me, but not like I was crazy.
They were sizing me up. I knew that look.
When I was trying to help Melody pick an outfit, I did the same thing.
Another rack was wheeled in from what I assumed was a service elevator. Shoes in clear boxes stacked on a rolling cart. A jewelry case that opened to reveal things that probably had their own insurance policies.
I stood in the middle of it and felt something light up in my chest that I was absolutely not going to let Cash see.
I was used to being on the other side of this.
The one with the camera, capturing someone else in their moment.
I was the one pulling clothes from racks and handing them to Melody to try on.
I was the one rejecting dresses before Melody ever saw them.
I’d built a career out of being the invisible hand that made other people visible.
But right now there were four professionals moving around me with measuring tape and expert eyes. The racks were full of things meant for my body. The jewelry was for my hands and neck and ears, and Cash was somewhere behind me letting this unfold.
The star of the show.
I pressed my lips together to contain the smile and reached for the first dress.