Page 6 of Wolf Promise

"Then why wouldn't you date me?" If anything, the glare in his eyes turned even more hostile.

"Regina has advanced degrees in science and business," her grandfather sputtered out. "She dates men who are intellectually her equal."

Regie worried about him getting riled up. He hadn’t looked well lately, but when she asked, he told her to stop nagging him and that he was fine. Because, of course, Lansfords didn’t talk about illness or physical ailment. She squeezed grandfather's arm to get him to shut up. Surprisingly, he did. "What he means is that in the past, I've only been seen with dates who have advanced degrees or are business leaders."

Bolt quirked an eyebrow. "And you two don't think I am at your level?" He shot her grandfather a look. "Intellectually?"

She took a deep breath to try to steady herself. And then regretted the pause when her grandfather responded, “Exactly.”

Regina shook her head. It had been too much to hope her grandfather would keep his mouth shut and let her do the talking. "I think people will be surprised that my new romantic partner is so...physically different from who I have dated in the past."

He leaned forward, his eyes hard. "Because I am dark-skinned."

For fuck's sake. She’d walked straight into that one because his skin tone was the least thing on her mind. She’d been distracted by all the muscles and his hostile glare. His skin was a rich golden brown. Combined with his square jaw and wide nose, his heritage could be anything from African to Hispanic, but that's not what she meant.

And it wasn't what grandfather meant either.

He hadn’t had a problem with her non-Caucasian boyfriends in the past.

"No." She sighed. "Because most of the men I've dated don’t look like they spend hours in the gym every day."

Bolt blinked a few times. "You think I'm too fit. You don't like muscles?" He sounded baffled. As if any woman who turned down the wonders of his beefcake body would have to be bonkers. He exchanged a look with Mr. Varg, who now looked equally puzzled. “But you run a fitness company. Wouldn’t people expect you to date someone who works out?”

She threw out her hands. "I have no opinion about what you look like. And I don't know you, so I have no opinion about your intellect either." Regina turned to Arek. "That's my whole point. How am I going to pass off this complete stranger as my new fiancé? Wouldn’t people who know me wonder why I never mentioned him? Or become suspicious when they figure out that I know absolutely nothing about him?" How had her life become this farce? And how had she so completely lost control of this conversation?

"Don't worry," Arek said. "We have prepared for that. My team has built an extensive background story of how you met, plus we have prepared a solid fake identity for Bolt."

"Oh. We have prepared for that, have we?" Bolt growled out, with extra emphasis on the last word. “The team has been working on this for a while, then?” He glared at his boss with even more venom than he’d previously aimed at Regina.

The other man just smiled back.

The CEO of Heimdall Shield didn’t seem bothered by his employee’s disrespectful tone. If anything, he seemed amused by it. Mr. Varg smiled broadly. "While you finished up your last case, I had the team prepare everything."

Bolt growled something under his breath that Regie couldn’t make out.

"That still doesn't explain why Regie wouldn't have mentioned this man before." Grandfather shook his head. "I won’t have people believe my granddaughter would tie herself to someone she just met. It's simply not acceptable." He waved a hand in the air. “She has a reputation to think of, and jumping into bed with someone she doesn’t know is not ladylike.”

Regie rolled her eyes so hard she thought they’d get stuck in the back of her head. Before she’d come up with a suitable response to her grandfather’s antiquated views, Mr. Varg spoke again in a no-nonsense voice. “Mr. Lansford, if you want your granddaughter protected twenty-four-seven while not tipping off your board of directors, the public, or the media, this is your only choice. I understand that there might be some awkward questions about the new man in her life. But it will also create publicity. And we can control the narrative of that.”

He made valid points, but the idea of having a stranger with her constantly chilled Regina to the core. That was too invasive. He would see too much. Know too much. "Couldn't I have a woman bodyguard post as my new best friend instead?"

Mr. Varg nodded. "You'll have female protectors posing as your friends as well. But unless you've dated women in the past, all kinds of rumors would start flying if she stayed overnight often."

"She hasn't," Grandfather said. Regie resented him being so certain he knew her dating history. It’s not like she discussed her bed partners with him. But before she could say anything, he continued, "And if she starts dating women now, that will cause the same kind of media circus that we're trying to avoid by keeping the threats quiet." Apparently, dating women was still ladylike as long as she took the time to get to know them properly.

Regina took a deep breath, but the air felt too thick. She couldn’t help being straight. It wasn’t like sexuality was a choice. You fell on the spectrum in one spot or another or preferred neither. Her mind searched frantically for a way out of this bonkers situation. "But once the board members are all vetted, we can break up?" She looked at Bolt and echoed the words he’d thrown at her before. "No offense."

He shot her a sly smile. "None taken. We just have to agree on who will dump who. Or is that who will dump whom? My intellectually inferior mind doesn't always get the grammar correct." He winked.

He’d gone from grumpy and growly to playful too quickly for her to adjust to the mood switch. That must be why she felt flush after that sexy wink. Regie didn't care about the grammar, but obviously, she would be the one breaking up with him. Duh.

"That won't work," Mr. Varg said. No matter how much you trust your board members, someone is bound to leak that your relationship is fake. Even if they don’t intend to reveal that detail, someone will tell a trusted friend, who will tell someone else, and so on."

"And then we're back to a media circus again," Grandfather said. “And Regina dates so seldom that seeing her with anyone will be reported in the tabloids. Especially when they have already written about the IPO.” He turned to Regina. “And we have to protect the company’s reputation at all cost.”

As if she didn’t know that her life was second to the company’s well-being. She’d long ago stopped resenting that Grandfather saw her only as an extension of the company, not a person. She did, however, resent that he was so certain he knew her love life. But the conversation they needed to have about that should be done in private, so Regie addressed Mr. Varg instead. "There has to be another way. What if we delay the public offering until we figure out who’s behind the threats?" Her nerves were frazzled, and she felt on the verge of a breakdown. She needed to get out of there quickly and do some deep breathing in order to stave off the anxiety building up inside her.

"That would start up other rumors," Grandfather said. "People will wonder if there's a financial problem that we don't want to disclose. It would hurt us even more in the long run than vicious rumors about you personally."

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