Page 20 of Love Beyond the Illusion
“Wow, you do have this planned out, don’t you?”
“No, actually, it just came to me.”
Piper clasps her hands together on top of the table. “How can you casually ask me to do something like this? You have to know how it sounds?”
I think for a second before responding, but it seems pretty clear-cut to me. “It’s transactional. That’s all.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to annul this marriage and then find someone you already know well?” she presses, still unsure.
I’m confident that she’s considering it, but I can see the expression on her face as she filters through all the ways this plan won’t work. “It’s convenient that we’re already married. We’re stuck together for the foreseeable future and have already done something completely rash together. We both felt comfortable enough to do that, so why not this?” I arch a brow. “And honestly, it sort of feels like this just fell into my lap.”
Piper glances around the room before breathing out a heavy sigh. “I barely know you, Jack Bradley. What if you’re some psycho?”
“I’m not. You married me, didn’t you—Mrs. Bradley? That wasn’t your concern last night,” I reply.
Piper tosses a mini muffin at me from the other side of the table. “Funny.”
“I am funny. See, you already know that about me,” I say, after catching the muffin.
She blushes and rolls her eyes.
“Besides, I went to college with Harry and Mason. I’ve known them for years, and I’m sure they’d vouch for my lack of serial killer tendencies.”
“Are you going to expect me to perform girlfriend duties?” she taunts.
Of course, she’d think that. But doing those things would only make things complicated. “Absolutely not.”
Her shoulders relax. “Okay. That’s good to know.”
“Unless you wanted to.” I wink.
Piper tosses a crumpled-up napkin at me from across the table. “Stop it.”
I catch it with one hand and chuckle.
She threads her fingers through her hair, then leans in. “If I agree to this, it’s going to cost you.”
“You want me to pay you to be my fake girlfriend even though you’re already my real wife?” I admire how her hazel eyes have hints of green under the dim light in this booth.
“Obviously. I need to get something out of this because, under the current terms, you’re the only one I see benefiting from it,” she retorts.
I guess I didn’t think of how she’d be compensated. “Fair enough.”
“I want a lifetime supply of plants. I love plants.”
I draw my head back in disbelief that she asked for plants instead of money, as anyone else would. “You don’t want me to pay you?”
She shrugs her shoulders. “Sure. That works, too.”
“How much do you want?”
Piper clicks her tongue. “How much is the winery worth?”
“You cannot be serious.”
“I’m .” She pulls her lips to one side and sits back against the black rubber booth. “Make me an offer.”
Now that she’s married to me, she could take a hell of a lot more than I’d ever willingly offer. I need to be fair so she doesn’t get any ideas about other ways of benefiting from our twenty-four hours of mistaken judgment. I have no idea what to offer her. What’s too much? What’s too little?
