The Tycoon's Make-Believe Fiancee (3 page)

She took a deep breath, clasping her hands tightly together under the table. “I’ll do it, under one condition.”

“What’s that?” he asked, bracing himself for whatever monetary demands she would come up with next. He was prepared for it though and would pay a great deal to ensure his sister’s happiness.

She looked him straight in the eye as she said, “If I think you might be hurting her in any way, I’ll stop the charade. Is that a deal?” she asked, her voice quiet and firm.

He smiled slightly, his hardened eyes surveying her calm, lovely features. “It’s a deal,” he agreed. He dropped a credit card on the bill that the waiter brought to their table. “I’ll pick you up for dinner tonight at seven. I’ll have a dress delivered to your place.”

Wow! What had she done? What had she agreed to? Miranda’s mind was spinning. What had happened to the kind, tender man who was protecting his sister’s gentle feelings? The man now sitting in front of her was the irritating, dictatorial caveman who had dragged her out of the office an hour…she glanced down at her watch and gasped.

“What’s wrong?” he demanded, his eyes sharp on her worried features.

“I’ve been sitting here for two hours!” she said, grabbing her purse and pushing the chair back. “I have to get back to my office. I have a ton of work to do.”

“Relax. I’ll call your boss and let him know that you were with me.”

She gasped again and shook her head violently. “You will not!” she commanded, then reigned in her horror when she saw his stricken features. “I mean,” she stammered, suddenly nervous again, “please don’t call my boss. I understand why you are doing this and I’ll help you out however I can, but no one in the office can know about our association.”

He heard the words, but they were so foreign to him he wasn’t sure why she’d said them. “Why wouldn’t you want anyone to know that you’re with me?” Women worked hard to have their association with him broadcast as much as possible. It was their way of raising their social status, a social coup in a way. He’d had to be very careful about the women he went out in public with because too many of them wanted him for either his money or his connections, not to mention the publicity they hoped to gain by being seen on his arm. But he was ruthless in not having his picture taken, much less photos plastered all over the news and tabloids. It didn’t always work and there were times when a photographer was more stealthy than normal, but his body guards took care of the bulk of them.

“Because everyone will think that we…” she blushed as her mind pulled away from the thought of sleeping with him. “Well, you know.”

He knew exactly what she was trying to say, but decided to tease her. “No. What do you mean?” he asked, signing the bill when the waiter delivered the check.

She bit her lip and leaned forward. “They’ll think we’re…” she blushed again, looking to the right and left as she whispered conspiratorially, “sleeping together!”

He couldn’t help it. She just looked too cute and she was so embarrassed by the thought of a sexual liaison with him that he had to laugh. “Would that be so bad?”

Her mouth fell open and her eyes widened. “Yes!”

With that, she stood up and looked around, then turned back to the table where he too was standing, prepared to walk out of the restaurant with her.

“We can’t be seen together,” she reiterated. “I’ll walk back to the office on my own.” She was just about to turn around again when she stopped, her manners rising up to force her to be considerate. “Thank you very much for lunch. I’ll be ready by seven o’clock.”

For some reason, he didn’t like the idea of her walking back to the office alone, much less her not wanting to be seen with him. “Miranda, we’re going to be seen together.” He stepped forward and took her arm, placing it firmly on his elbow once again as he led her out of the restaurant. “We’ll be leaving the office together, having lunch together, we’ll probably even be photographed having dinner or out on the town together. The reporters love trying to figure out who my next lover is.”

She tried to walk away from him by slipping her hand off of his arm and walking faster, but he was simply too tall. Even in her heels, she barely came up to his chin and his longer stride kept him right next to her. “Well, you’re just going to have to figure out how to keep my name out of the tabloids,” she told him unequivocally.

He thought she was cute as she tried to walk faster than he was. But even with her impatient stride, he was still walking slower than his normal pace. “That won’t happen. I get photographed all the time,” he lied, just wanting to see the anger in her pretty, green eyes. He liked her fire, her spunk. In fact, there wasn’t much about her that he didn’t like.

She stopped when they were right outside of the restaurant, glaring up at him. “Then we eat dinner in private,” she told him, not willing to budge on this issue.

He grabbed her arm, swinging her around so that she was facing him. The people on the sidewalk went around them, but several looked at them curiously. “You’re being ridiculous.”

“Am I?” She paused, letting him think about the issue. “What would you think about a woman who was dating the head of a company? Would you really respect her? Or would you think she’d been promoted so that it was easier for the two of them to be together?”

His scowl said enough. She looked up at him, not letting him intimidate her. At least not at the moment. This was too important. “Now that you see my point, we’ll either dine at your place or mine.” She gave him a challenging smile. “I’m a very good cook,” she told him with confidence.

He rolled his eyes. “I’ll have my housekeeper cook something,” he said and put a hand to the small of her back, leading her back to the office. But before they rounded the corner to enter the building, he dropped his hand and let her walk in separately. He wasn’t very far away, but he put enough space between them that it didn’t look like they were obviously together.

Miranda was pepped and plowing through her work load for the next couple of hours, but by the late afternoon, her lack of sleep and the stress of the past few days started to hit her. Thankfully, just the idea of seeing Royston for dinner that evening gave her a renewed blast of energy.

When she arrived back at her apartment, she found a note on her mailbox letting her know that a delivery had arrived for her and was waiting in the manager’s office. She picked up the large box warily, then headed up in the elevator. She showered and dried her hair, pulling on a pair of black slacks and a sparkly sweater she’d bought for a Christmas party last year. She looked pretty good, she thought, glaring at the large box she was fairly certain contained a dress from none other than her personal dictator.

By rights, she should be exhausted since she’d barely slept at all last night, but she actually felt very excited and refused to define why.

The buzzer went off and she pressed the button to let him come inside the lobby, not sure what she was going to tell him but adamant that she wasn’t going to let him buy her things like expensive dresses. She had her pride!

She opened the door with her coat already on and her purse in her hand. And when he didn’t arrive immediately, she became too antsy and pulled her apartment door closed, walking down the hallway to meet him instead of waiting for him. So when the elevator opened, she simply stepped in, surprising him with a bright smile as she pressed the button to go back downstairs again.

Royston glared down at the top of her shiny head, wanting to drag her into his arms and kiss her so she would behave predictably. He was inordinately irritated that she hadn’t been in her apartment, waiting for him. He’d wanted to prowl around her place while she made him wait until she finished getting ready. The fact that she wasn’t following the rules he understood made him more than a little irascible. “Don’t you let a man pick you up properly?” he growled.

She laughed softly, delighted that she’d irritated him. “Define ‘properly’,” she came right back. Perhaps it was his close presence or maybe her fatigue since she hadn’t slept the previous night while she and her team were trying to prepare the reports for this man, but whatever the cause, she was feeling very brave. Or maybe the correct term was punchy.

Either way, she reveled in her power to get under his skin.

Her smile was just too delightful so he had a hard time maintaining his irritation. Royston watched her from behind, enjoying the way her hair glimmered from the overhead lights, sparking off of her tresses. He liked her, he thought with surprise. She was cute and feisty and sexy as hell!

As he watched her step out of the elevator then turn to wait for him, he knew with absolute certainty that he would have her in his bed. Very soon, he thought with increasing relish.

“This way,” he said and led her over to the waiting limousine that was parked in front of her building.

“We’ll be dining with my sister and her new husband. His name is Prince Tamar Yarin. He’s the cousin to the Sheik of Surisia,” he explained. “Here,” he said and lifted her hand, sliding an enormous diamond ring on her finger.

Miranda bit her lower lip, nervous about the idea of dining with royalty. “You didn’t mention a prince!” She also wasn’t too enamored of the diamond ring. It didn’t look right on her finger. It was too big, too sparkly.

Royston looked down into her soft, green eyes and realized she was worried. “You’ll be fine,” he said and took her hand into his warm one, squeezing gently to reassure here.

“Is he nice?” she asked, biting her lip to keep him from seeing her nervousness.

Royston was non-committal on the subject of his sister’s husband at this point. “From the information I’ve gathered on him, I haven’t decided if I like him or not.”

That sounded odd. “Don’t you need to get to know him before you form an opinion about a stranger?”

Royston looked down again, amused by her suggestion. “I prefer to know more about a person than what they are willing to reveal. I always investigate someone before I do business with them.”

Her eyes looked back at him, confused. “I thought you were just having dinner with him tonight.”

He shrugged and looked towards the front of the vehicle. “Same thing,” he dismissed. Glancing at her with a meaningful expression, he said, “Wyndi is about your age. She’s nice and sweet and I won’t let you do anything to hurt her.”

Miranda smiled gently up at him, not taking offense at his words since he was just being a protective big brother. “I promise, I won’t hurt her feelings in any way.”

The limousine pulled into an underground parking garage and stopped at the entrance. “This way,” he said and stepped out, his hand reaching down to assist her from the vehicle but he wouldn’t let her pull away from him as he led her into the elevator. They were swooped up to the top floor and the elevator doors opened up to a striking view of the Thames and the lights twinkling across the city.

“This is beautiful,” she said with breathless awe. “What a gorgeous view!”

Royston was busy pouring her a glass of wine but turned and looked over at her. He saw her face and softly rounded figure in profile and he had to agree. It was a great view. “I enjoy it,” he said and handed her a glass of red wine. He wondered what she would do if she knew he’d been imagining her standing here in front of the windows naked. She’d probably be furious, he thought with increasing relish. He’d enjoy that view very much, he thought, taking a sip of his own glass filled with scotch. He savored the smoky flavor while he watched her walk closer to the windows. Her cute, round bottom pressed against her black slacks, showing him that she had a very round, very touchable derriere.

Miranda was painfully conscious of him standing behind her. Her eyes tried to focus on the view, but they refused to relinquish the reflection of the magnificent man. And then she noticed something odd. He wasn’t looking out at the London skyline. He was looking at her butt!

She spun around, her eyes capturing his as if to admonish him. But even though he knew he’d been caught, he was unrepentant!

Unfortunately, the elevator chimed, indicating that someone was about to enter. “My sister arrives,” he said with a slight smile to his handsome face.

He turned and looked over at the doors and Miranda felt a lump in her throat when she realized that he was so eager to see his sister again. A man couldn’t be too bad if he felt this kind of affection and love for his sibling, right?

She decided to ignore the fact that she’d caught him ogling her and turned to face the guests as well. The realization that she was about to meet royalty suddenly struck her at the same time Royston’s arms wrapped around her waist. Instantly, she felt better, more confident. “Come meet my sister,” he said.

Royston introduced her to a very lovely, very kind looking blond woman with a riot of curls framing her beautiful face. The man standing next to her with his arm protectively around her, was just as tall and just as broad as Royston, but he had a look about him that screamed out “danger”. She glanced up at Royston, trying to figure out what was going on, but he had a similar expression on his face as well.

“Yarin,” Royston said, extending his hand.

The tall, dangerous looking man took Royston’s hand and it seemed as if the two men were actually having a brawl with the normally innocent handshake even while their eyes glared at one another.

“And you must be Miranda,” the blond woman said, stepping around the two men which effectively ended the power struggle. “I’m Wyndi and I’m delighted to meet you.”

Miranda took the other woman’s hand, startled but grateful by her overt friendliness. “It’s a pleasure to meet you as well.”

Wyndi’s smile widened and she stepped closer, excitement shining through her lovely blue eyes. “You’re going to have to tell me everything about my brother. It’s been way too long since we’ve seen each other,” she said, turning to wrap her arms around Royston, laying her cheek against his chest. Miranda was startled to find herself jealous of their embrace. Royston’s arms gently encircled the blond woman, his eyes closing as he bent lower to more thoroughly surround her.