Page 42 of Charming Deception

“Because she’s not afraid to get dirty, or to stand up to you. You think any of the discardable bimbos you screw is going to make a good wife?”

“You don’t know who I screw,” I say calmly. Which is mostly true. I don’t alert him when I get laid; the internet does that, apparently, and the internet is an unreliable source. “But at least I didn’t let Mommy pick a wife for me.”

The constipated look returns in full force.

“Anyway,” I deflect, “she’s Cole Hudson’s sister. And she works for me. Remember that whole lecture you just gave me about our fraternization policy?”

“She just quit.”

“She didn’t quit. That won’t hold.” It can’t, unless I want Cole to be very pissed at me.

“So, fire her.”

“Because that’ll make her want to marry me. You really missed your calling as a matchmaker, Gray.”

“You don’t have to love each other, you know. Look at Granddad and Grandma.”

“Ah, yes. The blueprint for wedded bliss.”

“I didn’t say it was bliss. But it worked.”

“Did it?”

“Getting engaged will keep women away from you while you finish your challenge,” he grinds out, “and it will drown all this playboy crap in the media. Which means it should be your top priority as of right now.”

“So you really want me to conjure a fake fiancée just for appearances? I’m not you, Graysen.”

He scrapes a hand through his hair. I rarely see Graysen lose his cool, but this whole conversation is getting under his skin.

He abhors public exposure of any kind. He probably hates having to get engaged at all, just because it’s what’s expected of him, though he’d never admit it.

Asking me to create positive press to bury the bad is like a worst-case scenario for him.

Desperate times.

“Fake or real,” he growls, like a man who has way more important shit to deal with than standing here arguing with me about my sex life, “I give less than zero fucks, Jamie, okay? Just make sure it’s convincing. You’re Prince Charming and she’s your Cinderella.”

With that, he stalks out of my office, probably wishing he were an only child.

The feeling is mutual.

I watch his black SUV roll down my driveway through the window, the vein still throbbing in my head.

At least Cole left for the airport already. Call that a win. I’ll just have to smooth things over with his sister before he hears anything.

Hopefully she didn’t already call him to complain about me.

I don’t see her in the garden from my office windows, so I go looking for her. I’m not about to go near her room, and I don’t see her out by the pool or anywhere else, so I go to Clara’s office. “Where’s Miss Hudson?”

“She left.”

“What?”

“I believe… she’s gone.” Clara rises to her feet when she realizes I don’t like that answer. “I sent you a text.”

I pat my pockets, realizing I left my phone on the desk in my office. “What text?”

“I thought you’d want to know. While you were in your meeting with Mr. Vance, she left with her little suitcase.”

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