Page 19 of His Perfect Woman

“You are fucking great at it,” I assured her. “True, maybe the lines are a little blurred this time. But you’re going to handle this whole thing with the same expertise you would any other marketing plan. I know you will.”

It made my whole chest seize up to think of our relationship as nothing more than a marketing ploy, but maybe she was right. If we were going to make this work, I had to start treating it as such. If that was even possible.

“I don’t know,” she fretted, pacing my office. “First, all that weirdness between us this morning. Now this with Trent. This just doesn’t seem like it’s going as smoothly as you hoped. Maybe we should come up with a different strategy before it’s too late.”

“Too late?”

“An unexpected press conference announcement is one thing,” she explained. “But we’re talking about flaunting our fake relationship in front of everyone, putting it on some kind of pedestal. Even if this was the real thing, some people would still be trying to tear it apart. But to make matters worse, it’s all a sham. Like Trent said. I don’t know if we can pull it off.”

“Me alone? No. But you? You’ll pull it off without a hitch.”

“You’re just trying to butter me up now.”

I grinned, seeing an opportunity to have a little fun. Stepping closer, I dropped the tone of my voice. “If I wanted to do that, I’d take the strategy I did last night. Less talking, more…” I raised a brow.

“No,” she said sternly, but I noticed a glimmer of interest in her eyes. “Not here at the workplace. And really, we should put some sort of ground rules into place for sex anyways. I mean...it’s just for getting me pregnant, right? Shouldn’t we wait until after we’re actually married? Are we even going to get legally married? Oh, god...they’ll be able to track a marriage certificate or lack thereof. It’s public record.”

I put my hands on her shoulders. “Shhhh. You’re spinning out. Getting pregnant is the goal, yes. But surely...it’s not the only thing you get out of it.”

She flashed a hint of a smile. “Let’s not get too caught up in that. But...sure, yeah. Last night was...good.”

“Just good?” I raised a brow. She shrugged, blushing. “Because I thought it was fucking phenomenal. And personally, I can’t wait to do it again. Tonight, maybe?”

She darkened her eyes at me. “If we’re doing anything tonight, it’s figuring out how far we’re going to go with this thing. We need to decide before we start parading around in front of everyone like Couple of the Year. You never answered me about the marriage license.”

“You never answered me about the less than satisfactory adjective you used to describe last night,” I retorted, moving in closer. “If all I managed to accomplish was ‘good’—I’ll have to do better next time.”

She finally mustered up the willpower to push my arms away and put a safe distance between us. Which was for the best. One second longer and we might have ended up toppling over onto my desk. But wait...was avoiding that really for the best?

“God, Lucas. Stop thinking with your dick and focus. Is this thing with Trent and you really going to be okay? And how are we going to make things go more smoothly between us so this doesn’t blow up in our faces?”

I sucked in a deep breath and considered it for a moment. It suddenly occurred to me that we did have a very real thing working in our favor—for the sake of our arrangement, our image, and me feeling more secure about Trent and his stupid little crush.

“Maybe we’re not in a real romantic relationship or whatever,” I admitted, trying not to sound too resentful. “But Vic...we are best friends. And have been for a long time. That’s a very real, long-standing thing with real chemistry and everything. People will see that.” And, I reminded myself, it was something Trent couldn’t hold a candle to. “All the fleeting chemical shit people are so wrapped up in when it comes to love—it all fades after a while. At the end of the day, it’s the stuff you and I have that keeps people together. I’m sure that will translate.”

I swallowed hard as she studied my face. Shit. Had I said too much? Given too much of how I really felt away? That was the surest way to make Victoria back out for good.

“Maybe you’re right,” she said softly, looking thrown. “But...Lucas, if we were such good friends...why did you pull away? Why did you start avoiding me? And now all of this?”

I racked my brain for anything to put her at ease. “I was seeing someone,” I blurted. Great, Lucas. Throw another lie on the pile. “She was super jealous and didn’t like me having female friends. But I couldn’t stand it. I ended it right before you showed up here with Trent, and it seemed like the perfect chance to make up for lost time.”

“Oh. I’m...I’m sorry,” she stammered. “I had no idea.” She glanced down at her watch. “I need to get going, but...thanks, Lucas. This gives me a lot to think about.”

And just like that, she was gone again. What did she mean...a lot to think about? I thought we were all good. Now we were right back on the fence again. Maybe she was right. If something didn’t change, the press was going to rip us to shreds—if we didn’t do that to each other first.

11

Victoria

My stress levels were through the roof and playing themselves out through my appetite. I sat at my borrowed desk on the Heartstring workroom floor and binge-ate pastries, chocolates, and biscotti with coffee like a bottomless pit. All while scrolling through extensive searches on couples we could potentially feature in our new campaign.

I took a big bite of a cream-filled danish and chewed it resentfully as I stared down at the happy couples in the photos smiling back at me. How did they pull it off? Did they have no careers or lives distracting them from whatever paradise they were trying to construct together? How people had time for relationships was baffling to me. Though I supposed I was just as mad for thinking I could pull off being a single mother while juggling my career.

Of course, now things had changed...and I wouldn’t exactly be single. Lucas would be helping. And nothing could go wrong with that, now could it?

I hated the way Trent and Lucas were talking about me—like two rabid dogs fighting over a slab of meat—and it was all overshadowing the job I was there to do. It was my worst nightmare. But then there was another flutter of feeling inside of me. I kept trying to ignore it. Don’t feed into it, Victoria, and it will go away.

But the truth of the matter was, even if I was ashamed to admit it...Lucas’s possessiveness over me kind of turned me on.

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