Page 32 of A Christmas Bargain

“Of course, but she’s curious about you, Claire. She’s an inquisitive girl.”

She nodded. “Oh, I could tell.” She quickly put her hand on mine but seemed to think twice and removed it. “She’s truly sweet.”

“Sweet and curious.”

“That’s a good combination.”

“What do you think?” I asked, trying my best not to sound overly eager. “You pretend to be my girlfriend for the holiday season. It’ll give me some peace once and for all.”

“And you’ll sell me your land,” she finished for me.

“Not all of it,” I rushed to say, laughing a couple of times in what I hoped would be a mask for my panic. “Not all of my land. Part of it.”

Very, very small parts of it…

“I haven’t even seen the property. Just the details listed online.”

“I’ll show you.” I just keep digging myself deeper and deeper. “I’ll give you a tour of the land.”

She lowered her gaze for a pensive moment. “Well, I looked online. I saw the satellite images of the area.”

“It’s more beautiful than what any map or picture could show.”

She scrunched her nose, studying me quizzically. “Getting women to leave you alone is really worth selling me some land?”

“Trust me, this is no way to ‘live’, cornered by women who don’t understand how to respect my boundaries.” Who didn’t agree thatnowas a complete sentence. “Are you in?” I stared her in the eye, not giving her an easy out to glance away. I was captured, bewitched by her proximity.

Now that I’d put it out there, this out-of-the-blue idea to be faking a relationship, she had to address it. She had to give me an answer. Because I couldn’t let that proposal be forgotten or dismissed.

And I really, really hoped she’d be game for this tricky ploy I’d schemed because it would guarantee more time to spend with her.

With her being a realtor I wanted to be vague with or as a fake girlfriend, I’d decided that I wanted Claire to be the first woman I’d keep in my life for at least a couple of months.

11

CLAIRE

Was I in?

I looked at him and tried to find the right answer.

Pretend to be Derek Scott’s girlfriend.

Fake dates with this sexy man seated across from me.

He watched me with the hint of a smile on his rugged face. His beard wasn’t so thick that I couldn’t see his expressions, but it seemed like a layer he could hide behind.

Obviously, he was hiding to an extent if he was overly eager not to have women hitting on him. I saw how he’d turned them down, both in shooing away that blonde who’d walked up here and tried not to acknowledge my presence and in ignoring those other women trying to engage him in a conversation.

If he wasn’t gay, what was his hang-up with finding a woman to be with?

He was hot. He seemed well off. He didn’t have a problem setting boundaries to tell them to back off.

What gives?

“I’m confused,” I admitted, rubbing my brow. I kept a smile on my face so he wouldn’t think I was upset. “I don’t understandwhyyou’d want to go to such extremes.”

“Because I’m tired of being bothered. Stacy, my sister, seems to think the holidays are the ideal time of the year for people to hook up. She’s been on my ass to find someone. And with all the holiday kinds of things going on, I’m forced to be out and about more than I’d usually want to be.”

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