Page 39 of Seduced by Her Billionaire Fake Fiancé

“Because he was responsible for an accident,” she said quietly. “He made mistakes, but not with any malice or intent. It’s even worse that he’s young.”

Max’s lips twisted. “You are young.”

She blinked, the comment unexpected.

“And yet you are wise beyond your years.”

She didn’t want to talk about herself, though. “What are we eating?”

He reached for her hand then, but stopped short, swapping for his wine glass instead, taking a sip and looking away.

“Fish puttanesca. A family favourite.”

“It smells good.”

“How is the business?”

She expelled a sigh of relief, pleased to move back into territory that was comfortable and easy to discuss. She ran through the week’s activities while they ate, the options she was exploring for restructuring without losing too many staff, the training options available to upskill those who needed it.

“We are going to have to make some redundancies.”

“I know,” she nodded, but there was a look of enthusiasm in her features that made her whole face seem to sparkle. Max was staring at her, and Andie didn’t know why—she barely even noticed. “But this is the beauty of being absorbed by your family’s businesses. There areso manycompanies you own that my staff could transfer to. It just hinges on you providing those pathways.”

“It would need to be selective. I don’t want Acto losing its best people because on a whim they decide to go and work in a five-star hotel.”

Her smile was quick to appear. “Obviously. But rather than just making someone redundant who’s worked in the company and been a valuable asset for a long time, we canofferjob transitions.” Her brows knit together. “Can’t we?”

He lifted one shoulder. “Let’s meet with the group head of HR to discuss it.”

Andie expelled a breath of relief. “Thank you.”

“It’s a good idea, Andie, or I wouldn’t entertain it. There’s no need to thank me.”

Chastened, she turned her attention back to dinner, but having eaten half of it, she discovered her appetite was gone. “That was delicious, thank you.” She cleared her plate to the kitchen, scraped the waste into the organics bin then loaded the dishwasher. He was a surprisingly neat cook—or perhaps that wasn’t a surprise, given the efficiency with which he ran his life. There was only one large dish to wash, and she placed it in the sink, filled it with water, intending to return for it later.

But just as she would have left the kitchen, Max appeared in the door, leaning against it, watching her.

She swallowed past a lump in her throat.

“We should talk.”

Andie’s heart dropped. “Is that what all this was about?” She asked, gesturing to the kitchen, which now bore very little evidence of his industrious efforts.

“No. Yes.” He frowned. “We said we’d be engaged for six months. Well, it’s been one month and so far, I don’t know about you, I have found it…difficult.”

Her eyes widened and her stomach felt like it had been scooped out. “Oh.”

“We need to talk about that. About how to navigate the rest of our time in this ruse. What we want from each other, what we don’t.”

She wrapped her arms around her torso. She had no idea what to say because she had no idea what she wanted. Or maybe she did, and how much she wanted those things terrified her, so she stayed silent.

“We’ve already discussed this,” she said, finally. “We’re business partners, pretending to be engaged.”

“Yes, but then we slept together,” he pointed out. “And even before that, there was obviously chemistry here.”

“So?” She lifted one shoulder carelessly. “I presume that’s normal for you.”

“You’re my first ever fake fiancé,” he said with a slightly sardonic smile. “There is no established normal.”

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