Page 110 of Handsome Devil
“This is a diabolical plan. You know that, right?”
“It’s a business plan,” he said evenly. “And it will work.”
“You’re really okay with lying to your family?”
“I’ll try as hard as I can to actually like you,” he said, not really answering that. “But I can’t promise anything.”
Cute.
“Anyway, it’s not really a lie,” he said. “It’s a real marriage.”
“I’m not moving to Toronto.”
“I didn’t ask you to. But you do have to live with me.”
“Here?”
“Yes.”
I held his gaze. “And I have to sleep with you?”
His eyelids lowered a fraction. “That part is up to you.”
Oh,shit.
A whole series of alarms were going off in my head, underneath the cool and collected conversation about something so absurd I couldn’t believe I was even considering it.
He wants this.
He wants to use you to look good for his family.
He wants to fuck you?
No. Worse. He wanted me to want to fuckhim.
Yet another power play.
It would amuse him, surely, to get up my skirt. As much as he knew I couldn’t stand him, it would be a victory for his ego.
Well, one thing that had been true since the first moment I met this man, no matter how much power he had—he didn’t own me and he never would.
I would not bow down to him.
I would not touch him if I didn’t want to.
But Iwaswilling to negotiate, when something I wanted badly enough was at stake. And I wanted this badly.
I wanted my agency.
Also, it occurred to me that if I was his wife…shudder… it evened the playing field. He’d no longer have all the power in our fucked-up relationship. And it was ridiculous how seduced I was by this one single thought.
We’d be on even ground.
My brother was a great lawyer. He’d make sure we were on even ground.
And if Dane made one false move, he’d know I had the power to fuck him over. All I had to do was tell his family about this twisted proposal.
If they believed some girls in a sex tape over their own heir, surely they’d believe me. I’d only be telling the truth.
