Page 17 of Love on Deck

“You really sure you don’t want to be my girlfriend for the week?”

“That depends.”

He perked up.

I sucked in a breath and faced him. This was it. Or this could be it. Fate had given me a chance to secure my promotion. “How would you feel about moving your MediCorp conference to the Hunnam Hotel?”

CHAPTER SEVEN

LAUREN

Jack was the kind of attractive that usually reserved itself for the ultra-cocky or untouchable. When Amelia and Kevin had set up our blind date, I hadn’t needed any convincing. I’d seen pictures, and he was delicious. But I quickly learned that he was more likely to give me cavities—no, a root canal—than satisfy my metaphorical sweet tooth.

But that didn’t make it any easier to pretend I wasn’t attracted to him. The way he stood now, too close to me in this elevator, the concentration on his brow, I was almost considering how good he smelled.

It was taking major effort, but I was doing my best not to breathe too deeply.

“Are you holding your breath?”

I let it out in a whoosh. “What? No.”

He didn’t believe me.

“So, what do you say?” I asked.

The elevator doors opened, and we stepped into the hallway. Jack ran a hand over his forehead. “I think that’s a big ask.”

Shoot. So, he wasn’t sold yet. But... he also hadn’t said no either. “So is pretending to like you for a week.”

His eyes flashed. “Not just like, Lauren.”

“I didn’t realize our fake relationship had hit any other milestone.”

“If I’m bringing my career into this, the stakes are definitely changing.”

My heart pumped faster, the potential for furthering my own career giving me a shot of adrenaline or dopamine or whatever it was that made you excited and happy. Giddy? Was I giddy? That wasn’t normal for me. I supposed dangling a shiny new conference in front of me was enough to get me drooling.

He turned down the hall, and I fell in step beside him. “We would have to keep the contract essentially the same as the one we have with the Event Center for my board to roll with this.”

“Done.”

He side-eyed me. “And you would have to provide a future discount for returning.”

I hesitated only slightly. “Done.”

“And I want suites set aside for all my execs during the conference so we can stay in the hotel.”

“Done.” His requirements weren’t bad at all. If this meant bringing such an enormous conference to the Hunnam Group, I would drop grapes in his mouth poolside while fanning him with an enormous leaf. He did not realize the lengths I was willing to go.

We stopped before Jack’s door. His green eyes pierced me, and I fought the temptation to take a step back. I held my ground, waiting for him to speak. He might have been waiting for the same thing, the way he was staring at me, his eyes unmoving, slightly narrowing, honing in.

“You’ll have to pretend, for the duration of the cruise, that you actually like me, Lauren.”

The word done caught in my throat. He was right. I couldn’t be fake dating him and trying to steer clear of him at the same time. When we were together, we would be together.

“Not as easy to promise?” he asked.

“Of course not. That’s an entire week of pretending.” And I didn’t lie to my sister.

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