Chapter 4
CHAPTER FOUR
J ellyfish.
Piper had actually said kissing him would be like kissing a jellyfish.
And dating him would be like dating a plant.
And Declan could tell she'd meant it.
It was pretty priceless, and he was glad for it.
It would have seriously messed with him if Piper had accepted his mom's offer and she'd started making moves on him?—
Declan paused, his hand on the doorknob to the French doors. He could see his mom in the kitchen. She was on the phone, talking animatedly, and waving her hands with excitement.
He dropped his hand, watching her, his gut sinking.
Was his mom proposing her twenty-grand-dating-idea to someone else? Definitely. Now that she'd thought of it, his mother wouldn't stop until she found someone to accept the project. His mom was a savvy businesswoman who knew how to negotiate.
She'd find a way to get what she wanted.
He swore. How many women would turn it down the way Piper had?
He didn't want to deal with that. With a woman. With dating. With complications. With feeling anything for anyone ever again .
He could go in there and tell his mother to back off. She might agree, but he'd never know if she'd gone ahead with it anyway. He'd be second-guessing every woman who tried to talk to him, even Piper. How much would his mom raise the price to try to win Piper over? Everything was for sale at some price, and twenty thousand dollars was nothing to his mother.
Shit.
Declan stepped back, sinking into the shadows as he pulled out his phone. He called his brother, who answered on the first ring. "Declan," Eric said. "Everything okay? You all right?"
"I'm fine." He was tired of his family worrying about him. "Mom just offered my tenant twenty thousand dollars to date me and then dump me."
Eric let out a low whistle. "Damn, bro. She's been talking about that, but I thought I'd convinced her not to do it."
Declan paced across the grass beside the pool, flexing his stiffening knee. "Piper said no. What's your take on Mom? Is she going to keep going until she finds someone else to do it?"
Eric was quiet for a moment, then sighed. "Yeah, honestly, I believe she will. She's worried about you, Declan. We both are. You have to start living again, or you're going to start dying."
"I don't need to date anyone to be alive."
"No, but you're not okay. We see it. And honestly, I think Mom's not wrong. We've been waiting for you to pull yourself together on your own, but all you do is work on that damned house and pour drinks at your buddy's bar."
Declan swore. "I'm fine, Eric." Now was the moment to tell Eric that he had an interview to get back on the force, but he wasn't ready to say it. Besides, he was pretty certain his mom and Eric would consider a return to police work to be a bad move, not a good one.
"No. You're not fine. Stop lying to yourself, Declan. You'll never move forward unless you face the truth. And it's time."
Declan took a breath and stared up at the sky. Even if he told Eric about the interview, it wasn't worth it. Eric would tell Kitty, and that would unleash holy hell.
Eric sighed. "How about we go hit some golf balls this weekend?"
And listen to more shit about how he needed to start dating? How he needed to forget? How he should find some fulfilling job to light up his soul? "No, thanks. I'm busy. I'll talk to you later." He paused. "But thanks for caring."
"Always, bro. Always. I'm here if you need me. Whatever you need."
"I know. Thanks."
Declan hung up the phone and pressed it to his forehead, thinking. Tension radiated through him, and he knew he couldn’t go into his house. He couldn't sit there and listen to his mom's litany of worries about him.
He needed space to breathe, and his mom and Eric were giving him less, not more.
He could go for a run. Run hard. Run fast. Run until his muscles hurt so much that he couldn't remember what he'd been trying to forget. Except his knee wasn't up to that yet, even though he was pretending it was. Even though he needed it to be.
A light came on in the carriage house, drawing his attention to it. As he watched, Piper hurried out onto her patio to grab something off the table. She was still barefoot, but now she was wearing loose white pants and a black tank top that made her look sexy, adorable, and badass, all at the same time. Her hair was down, drying in loose waves around her shoulders.
He was surprised his mom had chosen to target Piper. She was nothing like the vision his mother had for who he should be with. And honestly, he was intrigued that Piper had said no. He respected that about her. A lot.
Declan narrowed his eyes as he studied her, as an idea came to his mind. A ridiculous, crazy idea that just might work.
Piper had just stepped back inside her kitchen when she heard Declan call her name.
Her heart leapt as he strode around the corner of the carriage house and onto her patio, looking much too sexy for anyone's good. "Hi." She ambled back onto the patio. "What's up?"
He strode right up. "I have a proposal."
He looked very intense and serious, which made her step back, away from that energy. "Okay," she said cautiously. "What's going on?"
"I want you to accept my mom's offer."
She blinked, staring at him. "What? Why?"
"Because she'll keep going until she finds someone who will say yes. And then I'll be stuck dealing with some woman trying to seduce me and earn her twenty thousand dollars. I don't want to manage that situation."
Piper had a sudden vision of some random, hired woman sitting in Declan's kitchen, laughing and flirting with him, and that vision didn't feel good. But… "I can't take twenty thousand dollars to date you. That makes me an escort."
He shook his head. "No, we won't really date. We'll just fake it for my mom. You'll get your money, and I won't have to deal with whatever scheme she concocts."
Piper sighed. "Look, Declan. I don't know what's going on with you and your mom, but I'm not lying to her and taking her money. It's just not right. Plus, I can't date you for money."
"Why not?"
She raised her brows. "Aside from the multitude of moral implications, what if it got out? My reputation is destroyed right now, and if people found out that I took twenty thousand dollars to fake-date you, my career would be over, even if it is with your consent. I'm not giving up on getting my career back, which means I'm not going to take a chance like that. What if your mom told someone? People talk, and I'm not having that said about me. I can't afford it."
He narrowed his eyes. "What happened to your reputation? "
Crap. She hadn't meant to let that slip out. "It's complicated," she said evasively.
"Let me guess," he said, watching her. "You were one of the top wedding planners for the rich sect. You did something that destroyed your reputation, so no one will hire you. You got fired. And can't get another job. Right?"
She bit her lip. "Basically." That made her sound like she'd embezzled funds or something, but the effect was the same.
"So, what you need is a rebuild of your reputation." He grinned. "Dating me would fix that."
Piper cocked her head. "You're a grubby landlord. Hot, but grubby. And you seem to be unemployed. No offense, but that doesn't really help me."
"A hot plant?" He looked amused. "My stock is rising."
"Not high enough to help me."
"Actually my stock is plenty high. My mom was a huge pop star in her twenties and thirties. We're rich. Celebrity rich. I'm part of that circle. I can get in at any club or any event I want."
Piper digested that little tidbit. "So, your mom really has twenty-grand to pay a woman to date you?"
He nodded. "It's pocket change for her. Look, you and I don't even need to date. Just tell her that you'll do it and take the money."
"No. I won't date you, or anyone, for money. I need my career fixed, not some extra cash in my bank account. I'm a long-term visionary, not a short-term dopamine addict, so, no thanks." She'd seen how the latter had ruined her family, and there was no chance she'd ever go there. She turned to head back into the kitchen. "I have twelve hours left to fix my reputation, and I need to focus."
Her deliciously hot and apparently insanely wealthy grump of a landlord followed her into the house, not bothering to wait for an invite. "I can help with your reputation. My mom can, as well. The Jones name is powerful around here."
Piper grabbed her coffee mug from the center island in the kitchen. "Not if I'm dating you for money! That's not going to work—" She paused suddenly, as an idea came to her.
His eyebrows shot up. "What's that look for?"
"What if—" She cut herself off. "No. Never mind."
"What if, what?" He leaned on her kitchen counter, watching her intently. "What are you thinking?"
He was too close.
She pushed back from the island to give herself space from his intensity. "Did you mean it? That your family's reputation carries weight in the elite circles?" The elite circles Piper traveled in were small, but somehow Piper hadn't paid attention to Kitty Jones. Maybe because she focused on brides and their mothers, and Kitty was outside that life phase.
"Absolutely."
Piper chewed her lip. "What if I didn't take your mom's money? What if we just made a deal between us where we fake date? No one knows but us. Your mom already thought we were sleeping together, so that wouldn't be a stretch to convince her of that."
His gaze narrowed with suspicion. "If you're not doing it for money, then what do you get out of it?"
"A fake fiancé who adores me." She thought of April, and hope flittered faintly through her. Would Declan be enough to convince April that her wedding planner had created a happily ever after for herself? "You come to some events with me, look rich, gorgeous, and completely smitten with me."
He stepped back, his body suddenly tense. " A fiancé? You're serious?"
"Yes. A very public fiancé." The idea of being engaged again made Piper tense, but she reminded herself it would be fake. Not real. Not trapped.
"For how long?"
She shrugged. "Hopefully not long, but you'd have to stay flexible about it. You and I can show up at a couple of events. I get my reputation stabilized, hopefully, and you get your mom off your back."
Declan drummed his fingers on the counter. His body was coiled tightly, a reflection of the tension ramping up inside her. "You want me to go to events? Like fancy dinners and shit like that?"
"Yes."
He swore. "I've avoided those for years. I hate them."
Relief rushed through her. "Okay, then. Fine. That's fine. No worries." She waved him off, and shook out her shoulders, trying to relax them. "Probably for the best. Fake engagements can get complicated, right? Good luck with your mom." She turned and hurried toward the living room before he could respond.
The minute she was out of his sight, she stopped and braced her hands on the back of the couch. What the heck had she just proposed? The idea of being engaged made her whole body go into flight mode. Her heart was racing, and she felt panic clogging her throat.
She'd find another way?—
Her phone rang, and she looked down. It was April again. Shit. She put the phone into voicemail and pressed her palms to her forehead. If April was still at the French Quarter, then she'd just tried to call Piper in front of her friends. It was great to know that April was crowd-sourcing her firing of Piper.
"Piper."
She whirled around to see Declan in the doorway, his shoulder propped against the frame. "What?"
"I'll do it."
She stared at him in surprise. "Really?"
"Yeah. I can't deal with my mom sending women after me. This deal with you gets me freedom without me having to actually date anyone."
Her heart started racing. Fear? Hope? Maybe some of both. "You're serious."
"I am. We both get something out of it. What do you think? "
She took a shaky breath. "Honestly, I have some issues when it comes to getting engaged. Dating. Anything that ties me down. People."
He grinned. "I do, too. Makes us a perfect match."
"I guess." She studied him, his strong jaw, his blue eyes, his muscled shoulders. He was such a compelling man. So attractive. He could have almost any woman he wanted, and yet, he was so unwilling to date that he wanted to get fake engaged to avoid it. "You might be more averse to dating than I am," she mused.
"Maybe," he said. "So, here's the deal. You need to rebuild your reputation, so I'll agree to playing the role of your fiancé in whatever way you need to achieve that. I need to get my mom off my back, so you agree to help me with that. Three weeks, and then we break up, in a way that's mutually beneficial to both of our goals. What do you say?"
"Why three weeks?"
He took a breath. "I'm probably going back to work at that time. I won't have time to go off and do parties."
Three weeks to rehab her reputation? She could handle being fake engaged for a few weeks, and then she'd be free again. "This is insane."
"But brilliant."
She couldn't help but grin. "It kind of is," she admitted. God, what if it worked? The first glimpse of hope she'd had in a long time glimmered in her heart. "It might work," she said softly.
"It will work," he said. "We'll make sure of it." He held out his hand. "Deal?"
Was she really doing this? She wanted to, she realized. She'd fought so hard to get where she was, and if she didn't take this deal, she'd lose everything she'd spent her life working toward, everything she'd done to make her mom's dreams come true. "Dating in name only. No actual emotional attachments. At any time, one of us can pull the plug, and it's over."
He nodded. "Deal. We both have a fast-exit option."
"And a gag order. No telling anyone. Ever. "
"Absolutely."
They stared at each other, and then suddenly she let her breath out. "Okay. Let's do it." She stuck out her hand. "Deal."
He shook it, his larger, strong hand wrapping around hers like a great warmth. "Deal."
She let out her breath, excitement dancing inside her. "So, what's the first step?"
Wickedness flickered in his eyes. "We get caught in bed by my mom."