Page 66 of Nothing to Deny

Her cousin frowned. “How do you know he can build a chair?”

Oh, yeah, another thing she wasn’t supposed to know.

“I told her,” Baer said with unexpected tension.

Not a lie, he had confirmed he’d built the chair she’d seen in his bedroom. Smoothing her hand down his torso, she hoped to soothe but didn’t know what aggravated him.

“So we’re good,” she said. “Your turn, Hol.”

“Lil’,” Baer said, stroking her again. “I can be whatever you want me to be. If you need me to talk stocks and shares and—”

“Hound, there are important things we can fight about later. This is not important.”

He didn’t say anything else but must have put some sense of anticipation on the other couple because Holly suddenly straightened. “Oh, I… I already told my family about my boyfriend.”

“Paul,” Baer said. “Right.”

Conrad held up the tablets. “That’s why I have these.” He handed one to Holly and the other to her. “There is a list of suggestions for things you’ll want to consider, everything from family to daily habits to likes and dislikes, political views, fill in as much as you can. It will give our guys a quick reference guide to what they need to be.”

Reading over the list at the top of the tablet, she was surprised by how much they could dictate. Then again, they were paying a ridiculous amount of money. It became clear right then that they weren’t just paying for sex or companionship, these men had to be actors twenty-four seven.

Turning a grin on Baer, she curled her legs under her. “Will you get me a drink, please, baby? This might take a while.”

“Geez,” he said, leaning in to kiss her forehead. “I’m already scared to read it.”

Lyon and Conrad joined Baer at the bar.

Taking the stylus from the top of the tablet, she got to work. Holly scribbled kind of furiously; her stress level didn’t match. This should be fun, not a slog. Though, admittedly, she didn’t have as much at stake.

When Baer brought her drink, she hugged the tablet to her chest so he couldn’t see it. He laughed and kissed her. Nothing wrong with hamming it up.

Almost forty-five minutes went by before Conrad came back over. “How are you ladies doing? Can we start talking now?”

“I… uh… sure,” Holly said, still writing.

They couldn’t spend the whole night on their tablets, Conrad probably had better things to do. Baer came over with a fresh drink for her.

“If you’re ready,” the boss said, “hand the tablets to your dates and let them read your requirements. This is the time to clarify any points they don’t understand.”

She and Holly made eye contact, then handed over their tablets in unison. Lyon’s eyes bugged. He blew out a breath and straightened to concentrate. While she… didn’t want to look at Baer. Oh, but she had to. First thing he did was frown.

He looked over the top of the tablet at her. “Really?” he asked. “Are you shitting me?”

She shrugged and hooked an arm over the backrest.

“We can talk about anything, any points of disagreement,” Conrad said. “If there’s something outside our guy’s purview, we’ll find a compromise.”

“She wrote two damn words,” Baer said, reaching beyond her to hand the tablet to Conrad. Sweeping her hair from her shoulder, he cupped her face. “Lil’ Skit—”

“Be yourself,” Conrad read from her tablet. “Huh… That’s a new one.”

Baer was kind of staring her down.

Diverting herself, she pointed the stylus at the tablet. “Do you like my flowers?” She’d covered the bottom of the screen with a field of purple daisies. “They’re my favorites.”

“Freya, I’m not sure that…” Conrad looked past her at Baer. “Are you okay with this?”

“Okay with not pretending I only drink Cristal or am a proud Republican?” Baer asked and shrugged. “It’s easy to remember.”

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