Page 8 of Curvy Fake Wife for the Player

“You don’t need to do the math, Alex. Her name is right here on the birth certificate.”

“Duh,” I acknowledged. “But unless you can read through permanent marker, we still don’t have an answer.” I shook my head. “There’s just one name visible and I don’t recall any woman named Julie. “It’s always Tatiana or Veronica, Selena or Veronika. Something exotic, not normal.”

Jack stared at me with his mouth wide open. “You sound like an asshole, you know that right?”

I shrugged. “I’m being honest. There hasn’t been a Julie or a Marie.”

My agent leaned forward, gaze narrowed on mine. “No Julia or Maria,” he asked with different accents.

“No.” I spent much of the ride to Jack’s downtown offices trying to piece together who I’d been with fifteen months ago. “That was a long time ago and there have been a lot of women since.” Not my best argument, but it was all I had. The truth.

“I’ll get an investigator on it, don’t worry. What I need you to worry about Alex, is keeping the existence of the child under wraps at least until we have the paternity results.” He noticed my reaction and held up his hands in a defensive gesture. “We need to be certain she’s yours before we figure out our next move, unless you don’t mind walking away from millions of dollars?”

“You know damn well I don’t.”

“Then listen to me for once in your life.”

“You haven’t steered me wrong yet. Except for that underwear ad.” I smiled and Jack barked out a laugh.

“That ad made you a household name and it’s why we’re both so wealthy today.”

Yeah, I couldn’t deny that, but it wasn’t exactly discreet, being on twenty foot tall billboards in nothing but my underwear. “All right, then. I need to get back to the penthouse.”

“Go,” he said and shooed me out of his office. “And keep your dick away from the nanny.”

I laughed off his words, but as the elevator took me down to the underground parking, I thought about the nanny. Sasha. She was a beautiful woman with her thick black hair that hung down her back in soft waves and big blue eyes that always appeared to be laughing. Don’t even get me started on those killer curves. She was more than a foot shorter than my six-foot-six-inch frame, and she wore those curves like a fucking badge of honor, not hiding behind loose fitting clothes like too many curvy women did.

She’s off-limits,I reminded myself as I entered the penthouse, noting immediately that it was too quiet. Dixie was a baby chatterbox, unless she was eating or sleeping, she cooed and babbled nonstop, but now there was nothing. With a frown, I went through the penthouse.

“Sasha? Dixie?” I couldn’t find them anywhere and panic settled in, where in the hell were they?

The door that led to the roof hung open just a few inches and I yanked it all the way open and took the stairs two at a time. A soft, melodic sound met my ears before I made it to the roof and I stopped at the top at the sight of Sasha with Dixie in her arms, head resting on her shoulders as she walked around the rooftop singing softly to her.

Sasha spotted me and flashed a sweet smile. “Everything okay, Alex?”

“I’m not sure,” I admitted easily, maybe too easily, as I drew closer to woman and child. “Everything is in the works, which I guess means it’s on its way to being okay.”

“Every solution starts with a plan so you’re on your way.” Her blue eyes studied me for a minute and I wondered what she saw. She didn’t know who I was, so what she thought of me was anybody’s guess. “I picked out rooms for me and Dixie. The adjoining suites at the other end of the hall so I can get to her easily at night without disturbing you, or when you’re around. I assume hockey has away games?”

I laughed at her question. “Yeah, about half the season is away, which is something else I need to think about. For now, we have baby supplies to worry about. You said something about a changing table?”

She nodded and reached into her back pocket for her phone, pressing her cheek to the top of Dixie’s head in an unconscious gesture of affection. “I made you a list.” She swiped the screen and handed me the phone. “I know it’s going to cost a lot and we can do some comparison shopping for much of it, but it is all necessary. I promise.”

I smiled again. She mistook my shocked silence as an objection to the potential price tag. “It’s not the cost. It just seems like a lot of stuff for such a little thing.”

Unlike her sweet voice, her laugh was throaty and low, and perfectly matched her curves. “Babies need a lot of stuff.”

This list was as large as the one the decorator had given me to furnish this whole damn penthouse, but what did I know about babies? “We can get a lot of this online, can’t we?”

“We can,” she agreed. “But even if it all arrives tomorrow morning, there are necessities like diapers and formula that we’ll run out of before then.”

Indecision weighed heavily on my chest and I knew I would have to be straight with Sasha about my situation.

“Look, I can pop out and grab a few things to get us through the night.” Her lips pulled into a phoney smile at my obvious relief at her offer. “But you should probably give me cash.”

I froze at her words, wondering if I could trust this woman.

Sasha let out a sigh of frustration as she rested one hand on Dixie’s back. “I Googled you while you were gone and I’m guessing that a strange woman buying baby items with your credit card might end up splashed on the headlines tomorrow.”

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