Page 10 of The Billionaire's Last-Minute Marriage
‘Of course not.’
‘We’ve already signed a prenup, so it’s best you haven’t. I’ve just announced our engagement to the entire upper floor. Word had already got out about the whole runaway bride situation. They all think that now my convenient bride jilted me, I’m finally free to marry the woman I really love. Between you and me, the board are also happy that the scandal can be spun to our advantage.’
‘I had a lot of things on my schedule for this week.’ She heard the words leave her mouth almost as though she weren’t speaking them.
‘I have already arranged for your workload to be redistributed to a replacement temp.’
Her replacement. The word felt like a whip against her already flayed pride and she had to turn away. She had never set out to work behind a desk, but since she’d arrived in Manhattan, she’d fallen into an easy rhythm in the quiet top-floor office. The thought that she could be so easily replaced made her feel strange. As if perhaps she had inflated her own sense of importance.
She wondered if this was how Priya would feel upon finding out about Xander’s lightning-fast acquisition of a new fiancée. She tried to push away the rapid-fire assault of her own thoughts, inhaling a deep calming breath before turning back to face him.
‘This is all becoming very real.’
‘I thought that I made it extremely clear to you; I need a marriage on paper. The moment you accepted my proposal, you became my fiancée, Pandora. Tonight, you will become my wife.’
‘Tonight?’ She felt her breathing falter slightly, her heart giving an odd little thump in her chest at the fact he’d just used her first name. She fought the urge to demand he take it back. That he call her Quinn as he always did, and she be allowed to continue to translate his meetings and sort his calendar and hide the fact that she’d agreed to act as his wife for the next year... But of course that was impossible. She felt the blood drain from her face as a tiny sound escaped her lips that was equal parts panic and disbelief. ‘We’re getting married tonight?’
‘I believe I explained that this was a time-sensitive arrangement.’
She felt her stomach flip, knowing she had been on the verge of complete mental exhaustion as they’d finalised their agreement. He could have suggested they get married on the moon and she would have nodded along.
‘This all seems very fast...’ She turned away from him, frantically trying to gather her bearings in the small space, but of course Xander was everywhere. He was all broad shoulders and perfectly styled hair in his perfectly fitting suit and delicious cologne. This entire situation was utterly impossible.
New York law only needed twenty-four hours’ notice for marriages, but she’d hardly thought he would try to pull together something so soon. It couldn’t be that easy for him, could it?
Of course it was that easy. He was a Mytikas. He was the reigning monarch of an empire—if he wanted something done it would be done. She had known him long enough, for heaven’s sake. Why had she thought that this would be any different?
She allowed herself to look at him then, to meet his eyes and stare. He stared right back. The sensation of being pinned by his gaze reminded her of the time she had spent locked in the safe with him the afternoon before. The time spent in the darkness trying to escape a situation she knew she had absolutely no way of avoiding.
She was going to become his wife.
‘You’re trembling,’ he said, slowly reaching out for her left hand and holding it between his own. ‘Already regretting your decision?’
There was a darkness in his tone, but what she saw on his face wasn’t anger. He looked...vulnerable.
‘I’m not going to jilt you like Priya did... If that’s what you’re asking.’
‘Good, because my terms still stand,’ he said silkily, letting her hand go, having clearly taken a moment to compose himself. Whatever that flash of emotion had been, he had easily brushed past it and was dusting off the sleeves of his jacket with that arrogant air she was much more comfortable seeing.
This was the Xander she knew how to deal with. This was the Xander that she had spent the last four months infuriated by. She was already painfully attracted to that cold and ruthless version of him; if he were to start actually showing his humanity she would be a lost cause completely.
‘What do you need me to do?’ she asked, feeling too overwhelmed and too poorly dressed to be standing in Xander’s office as his fiancée. Her plain black skirt and loose white blouse had been just fine when she’d simply been his executive assistant, but now her outfit felt like rags next to his perfectly tailored three-piece suit.
‘You could start by looking a little less terrified of me,’ he said dryly. ‘I want people to believe that we’re madly in love, not worry that I’m holding you hostage.’
‘I’m not good with...intimacy.’ Pandora forced the words from her lips, needing him to know the extent of her difficulties. ‘I’ve only ever been in one adult relationship and let’s just say...he had some criticisms.’
A dark look crossed Xander’s features and for a moment she worried what he might say next, but he schooled the strange reaction quickly. ‘I don’t exactly have experience with fake relationships either, but I’m sure we can both figure out the basics.’
‘Can you be more specific? Do you mean like giving each other compliments, holding hands, that kind oflovey-doveystuff? Or do you mean...more than that?’
‘I don’t thinklovey-doveyis quite my style.’ He raised one brow, his Greek accent making the silly phrase sound needlessly erotic. ‘I’m not planning to debauch you in public, Pandora, but it would be expected for us to at least touch one another on occasion.’
She glanced up to find herself pinned by eyes that seemed darker that their usual cerulean. As her pulse sped up, she swore she could feel his gaze travelling down below her chin in one long, slow sweep. Self-consciously, she raised a hand to her chest, feeling her skin heat from her toes right up to her cheeks.
‘Okay.’ She nodded, tapping her fingers on the door behind her in a sharp rhythm. ‘I’ll do my best to make it believable.’
‘I think,’ he said quietly, the deep baritone of his voice a low rumble, ‘that the public will believe whatever we want them to...so long as we keep to the facts.’
