His gorgeous eyes bore into mine, and I cannot look away. My heart thuds, and the thought behind the offer touches me in ways I never thought possible.
“Don’t let Samantha’s attitude make you feel bad.” He leans in and brushes my cheek with the back of his fingers. “All I’m giving you here is money. You’re helping me get something far more valuable. This is the least I can do for you.”
My throat closes around a tight ball of unease and perverse annoyance. I don’t like the way things are turning into some cold, monetary transaction. I don’t even know why it bothers me because it isn’t like we’re getting married for love.
Maybe it’s because I don’t like the unknown expectations that come with the overly generous sum. I learned a long time ago that people don’t offer you something without wanting something else back.
And I don’t know what Ryder wants in return for the money. I don’t even know why he’s offering so much. He can be generous, but he’s not frivolous with his finances. Nor is he one of those celebrities who doesn’t know what to do with his fortune or thinks that the money will keep pouring in forever and ever.
He knows more about investing and diversifying his income stream than most people. He’s into stocks, bonds, commodities, precious metals, real estate and backing other businesses as he sees fit. I’ve shuffled a lot of his paperwork for him, and I know for a fact that he makes more money off his investments than his movies.
Then the other stuff Samantha said finally sinks into me. She said if I cheat, there’ll be no alimony.
“Is this about sex?” I ask.
He looks at me like I just said I came from Mars. “What?”
“Samantha said no cheating, so I presume the money’s for paying me to go without for a year.”
“Well, yeah. There are certain expectations.” He drops his gaze to my lips, then back to my face. “But if you want sex, just ask. It won’t be cheating if you do it with me.”
My cheeks and chest heat as an image of that glorious male body dedicated to making me feel good suddenly is front and center in my mind’s eye. If even a tenth of the stories out there are true, Ryder’s got to be divine in bed.
“So if I don’t, um, ask, you’ll go without for a year, too?” God I sound breathless. Why don’t I just moan out loud, make it really obvious? He said he’d forgo sex, but he was angry at the time. Was he really serious?
The thing is, I thought I’d be okay with him sleeping with other women. But now that I have his ring on my finger, it’s starting not to feel okay. He won’t only be my boss anymore. He’ll be my husband, even if it’s just for a year. And a part of me doesn’t want to share him with anybody during that time.
Perverse, right?
Maybe I’m just a lot more traditional than I thought.
His face sets. “I’m not having sex with other women while we’re married. I told you I wouldn’t do anything to humiliate you.”
“But you’re really willing to forego sex altogether for that long?”
His eyebrows hit his spectacularly great hairline. “Hey, whoa. I just said other women. What’s this altogether stuff?”
His tone is entirely too light, and amusement gleams in his eyes. I have no doubt he’s enjoying himself.
“Ryder…”
“Paige.” He angles my face and presses a kiss on my forehead. The deliberate motion is an exact repeat of last night. The way our heads and torsos are set is the same. He doesn’t linger any longer than he did before.
And—again—it leaves nothing but a knot of dissatisfaction in my chest. Last night, even as I lay in darkness and told myself how smart and strong I was, the baser part of me called me a hundred kinds of name, most of which were synonyms for stupid. If I had half the sense god gave a hummingbird, I would’ve ripped his clothes off and had my way with him. After all, we were in private, I had his ring on my finger, and he looked positively divine.
“You’ll get the lawyer Samantha recommended, and I’ll provide you with everything you need”—his fingertips stroke my cheek, making my thoughts scatter—“while we’re married.”
“It’s so unprofessional,” I breathe out the shaky words.
“Marriage isn’t supposed to be professional. We’re going to put on a show, remember? That means it’s got to look real.”
His warm breath fans at the corner of my mouth. I feel like I’m sinking into a pool of thick honey. I lick my lower lip, recalling our kiss after he put the ring on my finger. It set every nerve in my body on edge, like he put a live wire on my bare skin. I’ve never felt anything like it, not even during the best sex with my previous boyfriends.