Give in to Me (6 page)

Resigned to doing as Tristan asked, I said quietly, “I’m fine, Daryl. Just tell me what you need me to do.”

“You won’t have to do anything but appear to be with him. Just a few times in public to make the press think you’re on a couple dates. He will have to live here with you, though.”

“Who? Who is this poor soul you’re going to force to pretend to be my new boyfriend?”

“Varo.”

“Varo? My bodyguard? No offense to him, but why would I fall for one of my bodyguards?”

Daryl shrugged and smiled meekly. “You know. You were thrown together after Tristan disappeared and one thing lead to another and…well, we can let the press take it from there.”

I rolled my eyes at such a ridiculous story. “Nice. So I was able to easily forget Tristan Stone and turned to the comforting arms of a man who barely speaks to me and has never once shown even the slightest interest in me. Yeah, that sounds like a real romance.”

More shrugging. “The outside world doesn’t know that. All they know is what we show them, and you two will look like true lovebirds when the cameras are flashing.”

“I’m a little confused why you think the press would care at all. I’m nobody. They only came out when I was with Tristan.”

“They’ll care because you’re all that’s left of Tristan Stone. They can’t have him, so they’ll take you. Haven’t you noticed the press milling about at the end of the driveway?”

I hadn’t noticed, but that was because I was too involved in being depressed. The few times I’d left the house recently I’d gone straight to the city, and there I was followed by West and Varo, so they had made sure nobody got close to me.

“So they’ll take our picture as we go on our dates and that will make it look like I’ve left Tristan behind? Isn’t that going to make me seem like a heartless bitch? He hasn’t even been gone for six months.”

“That’s another reason why they’ll be interested. The press loves showing the worst in people. They’ll eat it up.”

I already hated this.

“So I get to look like the world’s biggest bitch, Varo looks like some kind of gold digger since I’m living in Tristan’s house with him, and this helps keep me safe. Is that about right?”

“Yeah. Oh, one more thing. You can’t tell anyone about this being a fake. That means your giggly friend there with the fixation on penis size.”

I crossed my arms defiantly. “I’m not going to lie to my best friend, Daryl. We tell each other everything. I’ve never lied to her before, and I’m not starting now.”

Daryl stood from the table and leaned down toward me until his furry face was just inches away from mine. “Then you better figure out a way to not tell her and not lie because if you tell her and someone gets to her, all of this will have been for nothing. Remember, your safety is the reason you’re doing all of this. Tristan is going to be busy finding out what Karl is up to and he needs to know you’re not in danger.”

“Does Varo know about this yet? I can’t imagine acting like my boyfriend was in the bodyguard work description he agreed to when he was hired.”

“Don’t worry about him. I’ll take care of that. We’ll have him moved in here tonight.”

Terrific. I suddenly had a new man and somehow I had to find a way to explain to my best friend that he was none other than the one she’d tried to seduce to no avail. Fucking fabulous.

“By the way, how is the gardener search going?” Daryl asked, ripping me from my thoughts.

Confused by the change of topic, I shook my head. “You’re all over the place today, aren’t you? I hired one yesterday. West and Varo were supposed to check him out today and let me know.”

“Good. I’ll ask them about it when I talk to him. In the meantime, I’d suggest making plans for where Varo will be staying while he’s here. Perhaps the room next to yours? That way he can be close.”

“Why does he have to be close? The press can’t get onto the property, so why would we have to pretend to that extent?”

“You can never be too careful, Nina.”

What the hell did that mean? Was he implying that Jensen, West, or any of the other people who worked for Tristan couldn’t be trusted? Did he mean that Jordan couldn’t be?

Craning my neck, I turned to look at Daryl as he walked from the room. “Is there something I should know? You and Tristan seem to think that Varo is okay, but everyone else can’t be trusted?”

He stopped and seemed to think about my question for a moment. “Varo is okay, but we can’t be sure about anyone else. We’d like to think they’re safe, but for now, we can’t know.”

Before I could comment on how much I hated all of this, he was gone and I was left to think about what I had to do. Daryl acted like it would be a piece of cake to just pretend to care for someone else and act like Tristan was never coming back. Nothing was further from the truth. Just the thought of never seeing him again made me feel like curling up into a ball and never getting out of bed again.

I so just wanted all of this to be over. How wrong I’d been all those times I’d wished for a more exciting life. If I’d have known that it would involve all of this, I would have been happy with my boring life of sitting at home and watching TV alone every night.

But then I wouldn’t have Tristan. He was worth every bit of craziness our lives were now, although I couldn’t lie. A little less crazy would be even better.

Chapter Four

Nina

Unable to figure out a way of telling Jordan what I had to do, I retreated to my room and wished the world would just fix itself by the time I decided to come out. I knew it wouldn’t, but that didn’t mean I didn’t wish for it.

Even though I now knew Tristan received all my texts, I didn’t send him a message right away. What was there to say?
Hey, I got your letter and I’m all cool with pretending I’m doing someone else?
Or maybe something like
I miss you. I love you. And now I’m going to be acting like I’ve forgotten you and moved on just as you said to.

Over and over, I typed in so many words, only to backspace through them until there was nothing. Finally, I let my fingers spell out what was in my heart, no matter how much it hurt.

I hate what I have to do. I don’t want to pretend I care about someone else. I could never just move on like that.

As usual, there was no reply. At least I knew he received it, though.

Where was he? I imagined him sitting on a beach somewhere, his feet in the sand as he sipped some frothy umbrella drink in the sunshine. No, that wasn’t right. He was likely somewhere in a hotel fully dressed in a suit and tie with a glass of scotch on the table in front of him. Was he in Venice enjoying the beautiful sunset each night—the same sunset that had been the perfect backdrop to our time together there?

Two light knocks on my door shook me from my daydreaming, and I opened it to see Varo standing there looking distinctly uncomfortable. In fact, I didn’t think I’d ever seen him look like that. Instead of looking me directly in the eyes, as he always did, his gaze was fixed on the floor and his hands were hidden behind his back.

“Hi, Varo. What’s up?” I wanted to be cool, but my words came out stupid sounding, like I didn’t know what was happening.

His gaze met mine, and I saw just how uncomfortable he was. Those dark blue eyes that had reminded me of a snake’s more than once seemed bigger, like they were filled with uncertainty and searching for an answer in mine.

“I thought we should talk before we begin doing whatever we’re supposed to be doing.”

“Okay. Give me a minute and I’ll meet you in the living room.”

As soon as I walked into that room I knew I couldn’t sit there with another man like I had with Tristan. There were just too many memories. It would be wrong. Daryl was one thing, but Varo? No. I couldn’t sit there and talk about us being a couple, even if it was all an act. Stopping dead two feet in, I shook my head. “Let’s go somewhere else. I could use a drink or something to eat. How about the kitchen?”

Varo had no idea what the problem was and merely nodded as he rose from the couch. I wasn’t lying about needing a drink. Even though it wasn’t yet dinnertime, I had the strongest urge for anything that would dull my senses and make all this easier to deal with.

He followed me into the kitchen and stood silently near the doorway, as if he was preparing for a quick getaway. I knew how he felt. This whole facade we had to put on made me want to run away too.

As I considered what to say, I truly looked at Gage Varo, possibly for the first time. I’d seen him before, of course, but I had never really looked at him. He was the bodyguard or the guy Jordan liked, but now that he was standing there in my kitchen waiting to talk about how we were going to pretend to be a couple, I felt like I was seeing him in a brand new way.

His dark blue eyes still scared me a little, but I had no fear that he wanted to hurt me. They were just so unlike Tristan’s with their warm chocolate color. Varo’s were cold in comparison, and they gave me no real sense of what he was feeling.

“So I guess we should talk,” I said awkwardly as I stood with my back pressed against the counter, unable to put any more space between us. “Maybe if we got to know each other this might not seem so bizarre.”

“This isn’t the first time I’ve done this.”

His statement was like an unexploded bomb dropped into the middle of the room. It just sort of sat there for a moment while my brain processed what he’d said. Did he mean he’d been a bodyguard before or that he’d had to pretend to be someone’s boyfriend before?

“What?”

“I’ve done this before. You know, the whole fake boyfriend thing. It’s not as hard as you’d think. It’s just a matter of acting like you’re happy. Once you get that down, it’s a breeze.”

“Oh, okay,” I muttered, still surprised that Varo had committed this same fraud before. “Do you mind me asking who you did this with the last time?”

Shaking his head, he said, “Angela Macaran. She’s an actress.”

I’d never heard of her, but the fact that he’d been her fake boyfriend made me want to know more about her. “Why did she need you to pretend to be her boyfriend?”

“I have no idea. They never told me, like all I know is what Daryl told me about this. You need me to act like we’re together, so that’s what I’ll do.”

This wasn’t making it any less weird.

“Did you sleep with her because you won’t be doing that with me. We don’t have to do that. In fact, I don’t think Jordan would ever forgive me if we did, not to mention the fact that I’m in love with Tristan and when he comes back we plan to get married. So there will definitely be no sleeping together.” I stopped talking as I realized I was rambling and took a deep breath before I began again. “I’m sorry. I must sound crazy. It’s just that this isn’t something I have any experience with.”

Varo gave me the first smile I may have ever seen from him. It was genuine and lit up his face, making him look so much friendlier than he’d ever been toward me. “It’s okay. I know my part. I assume Tristan knew my background when he hired me.”

“Oh. Is there anything I should be doing that I’m not?” I asked, feeling supremely stupid at that moment. “I mean, how did that Angela person act?”

Varo’s smile grew wider. “She acted like we were sleeping together because we were. I guess that doesn’t help, does it?”

“No, not at all. But thanks.”

He took a step into the room and then another until he stood next to the huge island in the center of the kitchen. “I think all we have to do is look like we like each other. Hopefully, by the time Daryl parades us out in front of the world, we can pull that off.”

“It’s not that I don’t like you, Varo,” I said apologetically.

“Gage. It might be more convincing if you called me by my first name instead of what my Chief Petty Officer used to call me.”

“Okay. It’s not that I don’t like you, Gage. It’s just that you’ve never really been very friendly toward me.”

Nodding, he seemed to consider what I’d said. “I’ll give you that. It wasn’t part of my job, as far as I was concerned. Now that it is, I promise to be friendlier.”

I liked this Varo a lot more than the one I was used to. For the first time, I could see what Jordan saw in him. Since I had the chance, I decided I could do some girlfriend recon for her.

“So are you single, Gage?”

“I am. There’s not much opportunity to settle down with this job since I have to live in the carriage house with West.”

I moved toward the island to grab a handful of grapes from the fruit bowl. Popping one in my mouth, I said, “Well, that’s true, but you might have a girlfriend. It’s not like you have to work twenty-four-seven.”

“Nope. No girlfriend.”

“That’s good. I mean, you having a girlfriend might make what we have to do a little harder.”

In truth, it was good because that meant Jordan had a chance. I was happy to hear that he was single and couldn’t wait to tell her all the details about him.

“Are you from around here?”

“No. I grew up in Wyoming, the Cowboy State. That’s the nickname for Wyoming.”

“You don’t look like a cowboy,” I said with a smile, hoping he recognized that I wasn’t trying to be insulting.