I’ve never been inside a car like this in my life. It’s not a limo—at least, I don’t think it is—but someone else is driving it while my sister and I sit in the back with the two hotel owners, it’s sleek and black and beautiful, and it’s just about the most comfortable ride of my life. Or at least, it would have been if my stomach wasn’t still all twisted in a knot of confusion, nerves, and… and something I really have no right to be thinking at all.

Luke—I mean, Mr. Masters—is gorgeous.

“You did come in a car of your own, if I remember correctly, Paul,” he says now, his dry tone underlaid with a hint of humor that makes me think the two of them are friends, not just business partners.

“Did you actually think I’d give up a front row seat to this?” Paul—Mr. Davis—asks gleefully in response. He winks playfully at me and Jessie, adding, “I’m not going to miss out on a chance to get to know the two beautiful girls who just dropped into your life, Luke.”

It doesn’t mean anything. I knew from the moment Paul sat down in the VIP room that he was a flirt. Not the scary kind like Trey, but the harmless kind that usually means a nice tip. Still, I flush at the casual compliment, unable to help wondering if Luke agrees and not at all used to how nice these two men are being to Jessie and me.

Jessie, on the other hand, is clearly right at home. She’s grinning like her usual self—not at all the scared little mouse she was when I had to explain why we were packing our stuff up and she was going to have to go to work with me tonight. And definitely not the wide-eyed, shaking little thing she became in Kevin’s office, when Trey Romano…

I shake my head, not wanting to think about him anymore.

“Have you ever been to The Luminare, Jessie?” Luke asks, giving my sister a gentle smile that does amazing things to his handsome face.

“Not yet!” Jessie says, bouncing on the plush seat with a grin that stretches a mile wide. “But Hannah already promised me we were going to stay at a hotel tonight. Do you really own the hotel? She didn’t say the owner was her boyfriend! I didn’t even know she finally had a boyf—”

“Jessie,” I interrupt, cutting her off as I slap my hands against my suddenly burning cheeks, mortified.

Clearly, this whole miraculous, unexpected turn of events hasn’t fazed my sister at all. Me, on the other hand? I still can’t believe that someone like Luke Masters—obviously rich, distractingly gorgeous, and the first person in a long time to make me feel safe—would do everything he’s done for me. Just standing up to Trey on my behalf was incredible, but the fact that he seems to have really meant it about the job has taken a weight off me that was heavier than I realized. And to top it off, once I explained our situation, he said Jessie and I could have a room at his hotel tonight… for free.

I feel almost giddy with relief, but it’s still hard to believe. A part of me is waiting to wake up and realize it was all just a dream.

I stifle a small smile, pinching myself discreetly to make sure I really am awake—but as incredible as this turn of the events is, of course I am. I’m too much of a realist; I never would have let myself dream something as good as this. Jessie, on the other hand, seems to think that it’s all just part of my master plan. She has so much faith in me that it’s both humbling and a little frightening. What if I fail at some point? What if I do let her down?

“Boyfriend?” Paul repeats, his eyebrows shooting up as he sends Luke a look I can’t interpret.

Oh my God, I have to set Jessie straight. The last thing I want is for Luke to think I have designs on him like that. Even if I ever did let myself think it, having him as anything more than my employer is another thing I’m too realistic to ever dream about… which doesn’t stop me from needing to suddenly squeeze my thighs together as an unfamiliar heat makes me want to squirm.

Well, okay. I guess the truth is maybe I am dreaming about it, just a little.

I glance up and Luke’s staring right at me. The slight smile hovering around his lips makes that heat between my legs spread through my whole body, and I gasp, jerking my eyes away as my cheeks go red again. I can’t ruin this. He’s my new employer, and I don’t want to give him any reason to regret that generous decision.

“Mr. Masters is offering me a new job, honey,” I tell Jessie, not quite having the nerve to meet Luke’s eyes again as I try to backpedal my way out of my sister’s awkward comment. “He’s not my boyfriend.”

“Well, hold up now,” Paul says, his grin looking decidedly wicked.

“Paul…” Luke says, a clear warning in his voice.

“You were the one just saying that the Kohs would feel more conformable doing business with us if they thought we weren’t, what was it? Bachelors and playboys?”

Luke stiffens. “Hannah just left a—” he pauses briefly, glancing at Jessie before going on, “—a New York Human Rights Law subsection 296.1 violation situation.”

I blink, confused for a moment by the legal-sounding jargon. Then I realize what it actually means. Luke is talking about a sexual harassment violation. I know, because I looked it up at the library shortly after I was hired at Romano’s and memorized that particular subsection before realizing that, New York city law or not, there was really nothing I could do about Trey’s behavior. Not if I wanted to keep a roof over Jessie’s head.

Paul laughs. “I didn’t say you had to… go there,” he says, also glancing at Jessie. “But if one of us needs to pull off the charade of having a girlfriend—”

“Fiancée,” Luke interrupts, the word sounding like a correction even though I have no idea what the two of them are talking about now.

“You two are getting married?” Jessie asks, her whole body lighting up with excitement as her eyes bounce back and forth between me and Luke.

“Jessie, I don’t even know Lu—Mr. Masters,” I remind her, a part of me wishing that could be different.

“Just ‘Luke’ is fine,” he says to me, smiling in a way that makes it feel like—in my dreams at least—wishes might actually come true. Then he turns back to Paul. “But Paul, I’m hiring Hannah to work in… well, whatever part of the hotel she wants to work in. Asking her to pose as my fiancée wouldn’t be appropriate. Besides, you’re the one who’s good at relationships, not me. The Kohs would never buy it.”

“Well, she could always pretend to be my fiancée,” Paul says without missing a beat, his dimples popping out. He waggles his eyebrows at me. “What do you say, beautiful? Want to—”

“No,” Luke interrupts forcefully, glaring at Paul. His jaw clenches as he adds through gritted teeth, “Hannah is mine.”

The words shoot straight through me and my lips part on a silent gasp. I know he can’t mean them, not the way they felt to me, but that doesn’t stop my heart from trying to pound out of my chest as they replay over and over in my head.

Hannah is mine… mine… mine.

I’m his.

Completely.

“Hannah could totally be your fake fiancée!” Jessie suddenly chimes in, pushing her glasses higher on her nose as she bounces in her seat. “That’s a way better job than cleaning hotel rooms or working in the restaurant. She’s really good at playing pretend, and even though she’s never had a boyfriend—”

“Jessie,” I blurt, embarrassed to my core. It’s true, but that doesn’t mean I want Luke to know how clueless I am when it comes to men. I was always more focused on getting good grades than on boys when I was younger, and then—well, ever since our parents died—I just haven’t had time for anything other than figuring out how to keep everything together for me and Jessie.

“Perfect,” Paul crows, clapping his hands together. “Put her on the payroll, Luke! The Kohs will adore her.”

My heart starts racing all over again. I feel like the conversation is moving too fast for me to keep up with, or maybe I’m just too tangled up inside by my attraction and inexperience to grasp what’s going on. Still, it sounds an awful lot like they’re talking about me and Luke pretending to be a couple. And he did say I was his... something that would have made my skin crawl coming from a man like Trey, but that—from Luke—sounds right.

It sounds perfect, actually.

It sounds true… even though of course it’s not.

I rein myself in. After all, Luke said the same thing to Trey after he punched him—he’d told Trey I was his—and he only meant that I’m his employee.

I bite my lip, but a small sigh of disappointment escapes anyway.

A girl can still dream, right?

Luke’s staring at me with an intensity that makes my whole body feel alive, and I know I’m blushing again. I really hope he can’t read my mind. His eyes search my face, lingering on my lips and feeling almost like a caress.

I catch my breath, clenching my hands tightly in my lap to keep myself from reaching up to touch my mouth. I’ve never been kissed—never done anything with a man—but suddenly, I wonder if it feels something like this.

I’m not sure what Luke’s looking for, but when he blinks and gives a subtle shake of his head, I worry that he didn’t find it.

He turns back to Paul. “No,” he repeats, his tone leaving no room for argument. “It would never work, Paul.”

I flinch, and when Paul opens his mouth—looking like he’s going to argue anyway—and Luke snaps, “I said no,” before Paul can even get a word out, something inside me shrivels up and dies.

Luke doesn’t want me.

It shouldn’t hurt. I don’t even know him. And yet for some reason, it’s all I can do not to cry.