anyone who knows me. What you’re suggesting will be a direct hit on my character.”
“You, a man who doesn’t believe in getting serious with any one woman. Who is known around town as Mr. One-Night Stand? A bona fide womanizer? Are you saying you don’t play women?”
“That’s exactly what I am saying. I don’t play women. I date them. And when I do, I make it clear where I stand. I don’t do serious relationships nor am I looking for one. I make that understood up front. If there’s a communication problem, it’s not on my end, so there shouldn’t be a woman out there who has the right to feel cheated on by whatever I do.”
He stood and leaned over the table, wanting to make sure he had Ivy’s absolute attention. “Your plan calls for me to engage in what will appear to be a very serious relationship with you, and then you want to end things when you catch me cheating. That won’t work because if and when I ever decide to get involved in a serious relationship with a woman I would never betray her.”
“It will only be pretense, Nolan. You and I will know the truth.”
He glared at her. Did she not understand the lasting effect of what doing something like that, pretense or otherwise, could do to his character? Did she think most men wouldn’t have a problem doing something like that? He wondered what type of men she associated with.
“It doesn’t matter,” he said in a tight voice. “Come up with another unforgivable act. Infidelity is off the table.”
She crossed her arms over her chest and glared back at him. “Fine. I’ll come up with something else.”
“You do that.”
As they continued to glare at each other, he wondered if she understood what he’d told her about his great-grandmother’s expectations. Just saying they were involved wouldn’t be good enough to appease Felicia Laverne Madaris. She was a “show me” person and was used to displays of open affection, something that was in abundance in the Madaris family. There was no faking that. Could she handle it?
He sat down and leaned back in his chair, still holding her gaze. “So, if I agree to go along with your plan, assuming you come up with an acceptable reason for breaking up, how far are you willing to go to be convincing?”
She lifted a brow. “What do you mean? We won’t be sleeping together if that’s what you’re getting at,” she said in a firm tone.
A smile touched his lips. “I didn’t think we would be. But we need to give the impression we are.”
She frowned. “Why? Your family doesn’t know me. For all they know I might be someone who plans to save myself for marriage.”
“They might not know you, but they do know me, and my family wouldn’t believe I’d be serious about a woman and not sharing her bed.”
“Which means?”
“Which means to make things look real, whenever we’re out in public there needs to be hand-holding, touching, whispering sweet nothings in your ear and kissing.” Heat invaded his midsection at the mention of them kissing. At that moment her tongue swiped across her bottom lip.
“Kissing?” she asked in a low voice, like it had taken everything within her to say the word.
He looked into the eyes staring back at him and took note of their color. They had darkened. But then he was certain his had as well. “Yes, kissing.”
She lifted her chin. “I don’t kiss in public.”
“I do. So I guess that’s something you’ll need to take into consideration, Ivy Chapman. In fact, just short of making love, kissing is one of my favorite things.”
Nolan thought the scowl on her face was priceless. “Sorry if that’s not what you wanted to hear but now is the time to be honest. And since I’m in such an honest state, I might as well come clean and say that regardless of what you might think, Ivy, I think you are sexy as hell.”
IVY NEEDED TO take a drink of her wine. Not a sip, a full gulp, but she took just a sip instead. This idea of pretending to be lovers was hers, but it seemed she hadn’t thought through all the ramifications. Maybe he was just messing with her.
“I take it you don’t believe me,” Nolan said.
Of course she didn’t believe him. Sexy? Her? Please. It wasn’t that she thought poorly of herself but she knew most men didn’t see her that way. They couldn’t get beyond the fact that in most cases, she found computers more fascinating than men. If he thought she would fall for the kinds of lines he fed the women he normally dated, well, she had news for him. She wasn’t that hungry. “You don’t believe yourself, Nolan, so can we get serious and decide what we plan to do?”
He took a sip of his drink, and continued to stare at her. “I’m being honest with you, Ivy. I can only give your plan real consideration if I think it will work. Like I told you, I have my doubts.”
“Just because you don’t think we can make it look real enough.”
“Yes.” A smile touched his lips. “But only on your part.”
“My part?”
“Yes. There’s no doubt in my mind I will be able to make it look real. But the question of the hour is will you go along with me whenever I do so?”
Ivy frowned. “There will have to be limitations on any public displays of affection,” she said, negotiating. She didn’t like how he was complicating things.
* * *
“LOOK, IVY, I believe your plan has merit but it has to be our best-laid plan.”
“Our? Does that mean you’re going to do it?”
“Only if I think we can get a sure win out of it. Otherwise, we’ll be wasting our time. Are you willing to do whatever needs to be done to convince everyone we are truly serious about each other? And before you answer, I know about your limitations. To rest your mind, we won’t be sleeping together. We’ll just give the impression that we are. The only persons who will know that we aren’t are you and me.”
Why did he make it sound like they would have a little secret? And why did the thought of sharing a secret with him suddenly make her feel giddy inside? Snap out of it, her brain admonished. Remember, this is not the man for you, no matter what Nana thinks. Didn’t Damien prove that she was better off without a man? They deliver fake love before the very real heartbreak. But she would admit it was hard to remember the bad Damien while sitting across from a man who looked so darn good. Billboard model, tall, dark and handsome personified.
Nolan waved a hand in front of her face and she nearly jumped out of her skin. “Now that I have your attention,” he said, looking at her with an intense expression on his face, “will you answer my question?”
Ivy hoped the reason she had his rapt attention wasn’t because she’d been caught drooling. She swallowed deeply before asking, “What was your question?”
“When do we start?”
Suddenly she felt like she was on the edge of her seat. Was that excitement? Or was it anxiety? There was no room for either. They were on a mission to free themselves of the interference of two people who thought they had some God-given right to run their lives under the pretense of knowing what they needed and what was best for them.
“I guess now is as good a time as any,” she heard herself say. “Nana and Mama Laverne know because of their manipulations that we’re here together.” She couldn’t believe what she was about to suggest. “It might look suspicious if I go back to the city right away.” He took another sip of his wine. She watched him, thinking how perfectly his mouth fitted the rim of the glass. She’d been drawn to his mouth a lot tonight; especially when the subject