I grin, and before I can stop myself, I’m reaching for the wine in his hand. “May I?”
“Hey, what’s mine is yours.”
I stick my tongue out at his smirking face as I take a sip of the absurdly expensive wine, sighing as I let the silken taste trickle down my throat.
“Remember that whole R-Tech thing a while back that was all over the news?”
Austin raises his brow as he takes the wine back from my hand. “You mean the Ponzi scheme?”
“Yeah, that.”
He frowns and I squeeze my eyes shut. I can’t believe I’m sharing this.
But for some reason, I want to. For some insane reason, I feel like I should tell my fake husband my real story of my life.
“Yeah, well, that’s my Dad.”
Austin whistles. “Well, shit.”
“Yeah.”
He lifts his hat as he brings a hand up to push his fingers through his mop of hair. “You’re seriously that Ames? As in Walter Ames?”
“Daddy dearest,” I say with a thin smile, taking the glass back from him and bringing it to my lips. “We’re not very close though - not even from before.”
Austin clears his throat. “So you’re what, broke?”
“Yes and no.” I sigh. “There’s a trust fund setup somewhere, but it’s frozen until after the civil trials are over.”
Austin nods. “Wait, didn’t your mom marry your dad’s lawyer or something?”
“Vice President,” I say with a shrug. “And then divorced.”
“And she doesn’t have money?”
I snort. “Oh, loads, but my mother is insane.”
Austin laughs. “Wait, so you’d rather get fake married to a guy you don’t know than ask your mom for money?”
I arch my brows over the glass of wine at him. “Clearly, you’ve never met my mother.”
Austin tosses his head back and laughs deeply, the muscles of his bare chest rippling as he chuckles. “Holy shit, and I thought I had a fucked up family.”
“Feel like sharing?”
“Not really.” He takes the glass of wine back from me. “So, you grew up rich and now you’re marrying a guy for cash. I grew up in a shack and now I’m paying for a fake wife.”
“Eat your heart out, Shakespeare.”
He laughs. “Well, it’s just money.”
This time I’m the one laughing. “Says the man who gets paid an obscene amount of money to play a game.”
He makes a face. “Nah, it’s more than that.”
I roll my eyes. “Oh, please. Austin, the whole world revolves around money. Are you going to say you’d just play football for the ‘love of the game’ or something like that?”
“Well, I was, until you blew up my line.”
He winks at me and I hide my blush in another sip of the Bordeaux.
“I love it because it gave me something to hope for, and it got me out of that old life.”
I pass him the glass back. “Right, because of all the money they’re paying you.”
He gives me a wry grin and wags a finger at me. “Touché, but we gotta work on that jadedness, yikes.”
I smile and shake my head. “Not jaded, just a realist.”
“So what’s the deal with this ex-fiancé?” Austin says brightly, changing the subject. “Any more surprises there? Are you in line for a throne or some shit?”
I choke out a laugh. “Who, Vince?”
Austin grins. “Vince? You were prepared to be Mrs. Vinny?”
“Capra,” I say, groaning and shaking my head. “Mrs. Vinny Capra.”
He hoots out another laugh. “What were you, marrying the mob or something?”
Austin jerks his head up when I don’t say anything, and he cocks a brow at me as I shrug. “Wait, seriously?”
“Only in that he and his douchebag friends would throw card games, smoke cigars and quote Goodfella’s all night.”
I decide to leave out the part about Vince’s father’s very real “family” ties.
Austin grins as he pushes his fingers through his hair. “So am I gonna get an angry Vinny at my front door with an offer I can’t refuse anytime soon?”
I roll my eyes. “Doubt it. Unless you try and steal his secretary away I guess.”
“She hot?”
I punch him in the arm as he laughs and holds his hands up. “Kidding, kidding.” He shrugs. “Well, Vin sounds like a world-class douchebag.”
I shake my head and take another sip of wine before passing it back his way.
“You lose track of yourself sometimes, I guess.”
“Well, how he let a pair of legs like yours walk away is beyond me.”