Page 20 of Blitzing Emily

“I’m not usually such a baby.” She started to rise from the couch; he caught her hand and pulled her back down.

“Wait.” He studied her for a few moments. It was time to man up, although she was probably going to slap his face off. “I have an idea.”

“Okay.” Her expression was cautious. Brandon hadn’t let go of Emily’s hand. He gave it an experimental squeeze.

“Here’s the thing. Let’s stay engaged for a little while.”

“We’re not really engaged in the first place.” Emily shook her head. “We can’t do that, can we?”

“Of course, we can. It’s between you and me. This works for both of us. It’s positive publicity for everyone. The team’s happy with me, my ex-girlfriend will finally get the hint, and your ex-boyfriend will be jealous as hell. There’s no downside to this.” Okay, so far so good. She looked more shocked than angry. He hadn’t gotten away scot-free, though: Emily’s eyes were narrowing. Uh-oh.

“The team would be happy about this? Why would they even care?”

This ought to be fun,he told himself. He folded his lips and examined the ceiling for a moment. “It’s a public relations thing. I’m a bit of a hell raiser. Well, Iwas.” He resisted the impulse to squirm. “There’s no downside,” he repeated.

“Just tell me the truth. You’re quite fond of that, aren’t you?” Evidently her mama hadn’t raised any stupid children, either. He took a deep breath.

“I’m in the middle of contract negotiations—my agent is—and there was a little problem. This will fix it. Well, it’ll take the heat off.” He tried to look reassuring. “Again, there’s no downside for either of us.”

“There is, too.” It seemed that Miss Emily had a redhead’s temper. “We don’t know each other.”

“We can pull this off,” he insisted. “We’ll get to know each other. Let’s give it a month.”

“What are we going to tell our families?”

He shrugged one magnificent shoulder. “Tell them we’re engaged. They’ll be fine with it.”

“It’s not going to work,” Emily insisted. “Won’t your family flip out? Mine will. They’ll never believe this. You think it’s okay to lie to everyone in both our lives?”

Brandon pinned her with his eyes. “Maybe you should tell me what else David had to say when he called.”

Emily shrugged her shoulders, and rubbed her face a little. “What do you mean? Oh. He said he’d had five booking calls already today, which is amazing, and I’m now singing a lead role at Santa Fe Opera as a result.”

“You lied to him,” he pointed out. It wasn’t gentlemanly, but one had to take the opportunity when it presented itself.

Her mouth dropped open, and her eyes flew wide. “I did not.” She was the picture of injured outrage, and it was all he could do not to laugh. At the same time, it was high time he established who was in charge here:Him.

Brandon narrowed his eyes in response. “Hey, sugar, I saw your face light up when he called. You didn’t exactly set him straight about us.”

“I—I—” she sputtered. He leaned toward her.

“This works for both of us. You get what you want, I get what I want. No harm, no foul.” He stuck out his hand. “Will you agree to be engaged to me for thirty days?”

He had a point. Emily knew he had a point. At the same time, there was one last little problem.

“What happens if someone finds out this isn’t real?”

“Hey. It’s not going to happen. Don’t be so negative.” She let out a snort, and he continued. “Plus, you get to hang around me for another month. Remember, there are lots of women who’d love to spend more time with me.”

“Is your ego always this big, or only on days ending in ‘y’?” she teased.

“I know you didn’t mean that,” he chided. He extended his hand once more. “Are you in?”

All she had to do was pretend to be his fiancée for a month. Piece of cake. She put her hand inside of his.

“Yes.”

“Thirty days.”

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