Page 17 of Power Play

Aghast, I stare at him. “But—married?”

“On paper only,” Cari adds with a laugh. “It looks better if he’s banging the new wife than banging the nanny.”

“We aren’t sleeping together,” I insist.

“Right. Definitely not,” he says, as equally resolute.

As much as I don’t want to sleep with him, his clear rejection stings. Am I that unattractive? Do I exude man repellent from my pores?

“There’s too much at stake here,” Al continues. “I would never jeopardize Emmy’s security for a fling.”

Okay, that makes me feel moderately less insecure.

Back to the question at hand… “I can’t believe you want to get married.”

“I don’t want to,” he says, blowing out a breath. “But my agent thinks maybe we should.”

“This is insane.” Pacing through the small living room, I wave my hands in the air. “It’s a terrible idea.”

“It’s only until we get paternity established and Emmy can be mine, officially,” he says. “Please. For Emmy?”

I hesitate, latching on to the sincerity in his pleading tone.

“As soon as everything is finalized, you can get divorced,” Cari says. “Outside of us and the social workers, nobody has to know you’re not Emmy’s mother. To the rest of the world, he’s just… marrying the mother of his child.”

I don’t want to be the mother of his child. I’m her aunt. Carter is her mother. My heart squeezes, and my grief threatens to overtake me once again. I don’t want to erase her when she’s already been taken so ruthlessly from our lives.

But I understand not wanting to get into the whole baby-mama drama with his career in the public eye.

“It gives you more protection than being her nanny. It gives you security.” He winces. “There would be a prenup, of course. A few years. Maybe two? Just so it looks legit and not like…”

“I don’t want your money.” I wave the concern away. “I don’t want to be separated from Emmy.”

“You don’t have to be.” Al rises from the couch and approaches me. He takes my hands in his. “Marry me, Riley, and you’ll never have to be separated from Emmy again.”