Page 12 of Convenient Mafia Vows

Caleb releases me, and it’s all I can do to remain standing.

“What about us, Caleb?” she whines.

“Olivia, there is no us.” He slides an arm around my waist, and yep, his chest is every bit as solid as I thought it was.

“But I thought… We’ve always been so good together.”

Somehow, even with the whining voice, Caleb remains calm. “We dated for six months, Olivia, and that was ten years ago.”

“Okay.” The silver fox stands up and raises both hands in a gesture of mock surrender. “I can see that we’re done here. Thank you for your time, Caleb. It is unfortunate that we were unable to settle our business proposal as I’d hoped.” He takes my left hand in his and raises it to his lips, his eyes noting the absence of a wedding ring. “A pleasure to meet you, Victoria.”

The sound of my name on his tongue makes me shiver. I don’t know why, but I’m left with the overwhelming sensation that I’d be happier if he didn’t know who I was, but it’s already too late for that.

He guides a tearful Olivia out the door, and I’m left standing in Caleb Murray’s office with his hand around my waist.

When the door closes behind them, he pulls away and watches me with a curious expression on his face. He has green eyes I realize now with a stab of loss that makes my breath catch in my throat.

Stupid, I remind myself.Stupid!It was one night, nothing more was ever going to come of it. One amazing, passion-filled, night of the kind of sex most people only ever read about in books. It wasn’t real life.

So, why do my eyes fill with tears when Caleb Murray says, “Thank you, Victoria. I should’ve warned you, but I didn’t think you’d go through with it if you knew what I was going to do.”

Damn fucking right I wouldn’t have gone through with it!

“I’ll return the dress,” I find myself saying.

“Keep it.”

His eyes roam the dress and then he grabs a glass from the coffee table and fills it with amber liquid from an expensive-looking bottle. Of course it’s expensive like everything else in Caleb Murray’s life.

“It suits you.”

“What about the money?” Because, you know, this isn’t my reality. I’m not married to Caleb Murray, and he fired me earlier over a dumb gesture that anyone else would’ve accepted with a smile of appreciation.

“I’ll see that you get paid.” He’s still watching me as if he’s only just realizing that he used me—a real live human being—to get a goddamned supermodel off his case. “I’ll need you to sign an NDA with Lauren.”

And that’s what tips me over the edge. He’ll send me on my way with a month’s wages and a declaration of silence, and I’ll still have no job, and rent to pay, while he sits here knocking back cognac with his tight-assed assistant playing havoc with people’s lives.

“He knows we’re not married.”

That gets his attention. His gaze flickers from my face to the dress and back again. “Why do you say that?”

I raise my left hand and flash my naked ring finger. “No ring.” I don’t know who that guy was, and I don’t care to know either, but he sure as hell means something to Caleb Murray.

It is unfortunate that we were unable to settle our business proposal as I’d hoped.

Caleb refills his glass without offering me a drink. “I’ll buy you a ring.”

“Why? We’re not married.”

“I need him to believe that we are.”

“Why don’t you just tell him that you don’t want to marry his daughter?”

He looks at me then and shakes his head as if I’m a child who has been listening in on an adult conversation. “It isn’t that simple.”

“He can’t force you to marry someone you don’t love.”

Now, I know I’ve said the wrong thing when he pinches the skin between his eyebrows and closes his eyes briefly. When he opens them again and speaks, his voice has become clipped, professional, back in control.

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