Cameron Drake is here.

There are so many things I want to scream at him. Why didn’t you call me that night? Why did you never try to find me? And most importantly, why, after all these years, are you here now?

He looks grown-up. His dark hair is cut shorter now. He’s traded the torn jeans and faded t-shirts for a suit. He looks like the successful billionaire he is.

His eyes haven’t changed. They’re as blue as the lake on a clear summer afternoon, and when they meet mine, the years between us fall away.

He broke my heart nine years ago; I can’t let it happen again.

We walk downstairs without a word. I feel his gaze burning a hole in my back. The silence lengthens and I have to break it. “The hotel is on Lakeshore,” I say, babbling with nerves. “I’ll drive there. You can follow me, okay?”

“Sure thing, Maddie.”

I pass the funeral home office. Phil Earlscourt, the guy in charge, was upstairs earlier saying something about my credit card being declined. I’d handed him a different card, but I don’t know what’s going on. There should have been enough room on my credit for the cremation. It should have gone through. First thing tomorrow morning, I have to sort that out.

God, I’m tired. The thirty-six hour drive from Calgary, seeing my mother’s wasted body--I’m completely drained. I’m not ready to deal with Cameron. My defenses are down.  

Things used to be so good between us.

There’s a bright red Porsche in the parking lot. Even in the dusk, I can see the gleam of the paint on the classic car. “Yours, I assume? I’m surprised you left it unattended in this neighborhood.”

“I was preoccupied with other things,” he replies blandly. He walks me to my car and opens the driver’s side door for me, his eyes resting on the empty coffee cups in the back seat. “Long drive?”

“I live in Calgary now,” I reply shortly, answering the unasked question.

“You drove from Calgary?” he demands. “In this piece of shit? When did you get in?”

“Earlier this afternoon,” I say through my teeth, bristling at his cutting dismissal of my car. “What’s with the questions, Cam?”

“You must be exhausted.” His gaze is sharp. “You shouldn’t be driving.”

“It doesn’t matter,” I snap. Who died and made him my keeper?

“Yes, it does,” he says grimly. “I’m not letting you get behind the wheel.”

Warmth that he cares about me wars with my ire about being told what to do. Misti watches from the passenger seat, avidly curious. I groan inwardly. The last thing I want is an audience, even if it’s just my sister. “Fine,” I sigh. “Let’s do it your way.”

Cam’s on his phone. “Drake here,” he says. “I need a car and a spare driver.” He rattles off the address and hangs up. “I’d drive the two of you myself, but the car’s a two-seater.”

“Of course,” I say snidely. “Gorgeous and impractical. Just like its owner.”

His lips curl into a slow grin. “You think I’m gorgeous, Maddie?” His voice lowers an octave. “I’m flattered, babe.”

That voice. Sexy as sin, tempting me, teasing me. It shouldn’t affect me, not after all these years, but it does. It’s not fair that my blood hums with need and longing for what used to be, and he’s standing in front of me, calm and collected.

While we wait for the car service to show up, Cam and Misti make small talk. It doesn’t take long before a black Bentley pulls into the parking lot. Two men jump out and greet Cameron deferentially. “Sorry about the delay, Mr. Drake,” one of them apologizes. “Traffic was murder.”

“No worries, Paul,” Cameron says easily. “Can one of you drive this car home,” he gestures to my clunker, which looks even shabbier than usual next to the beautiful Porsche and the swanky Bentley, “and the other take Ms. Morland and her sister to their hotel? I’ll follow you.”

I sink into the sumptuous leather of the backseat. Misti slides in next to me. Once we’re off, she turns to me with a serious look on her face. “Are you okay, Maddie?” she asks me softly. “Seeing Cameron again has got to be a shock.”

The driver has closed the partition between the front and the back so we can have some privacy. “I’ll live,” I reply shortly. I don’t want to talk about my former boyfriend. The memories are too painful.

“I never asked you why you guys broke up. You were so crazy about him. Did he cheat on you?”

“What?” I give Misti a shocked look. “Why would you think that?”

“You ended things so abruptly. I couldn’t think of any other reason you’d do that.”

I close my eyes. Nine years ago, I’d been intensely aware about the gulf between Cameron Drake’s world and mine. His family was among Canada’s wealthiest; my mother was a junkie and my father was about to be released from prison. It felt like a chasm that couldn’t be crossed.

It’s easier to let Misti believe that Cameron cheated than to explain the truth. Easier than telling her while it had been too late for me, I’d taken her away from our chaotic lives in Toronto so that she could have a fresh start, away from our parents.

Except I can’t do it.

“He didn’t cheat.” In the year we’d been together, I never doubted that he loved me, not even for an instant. Until I left and he never called. “He wouldn’t cheat. That’s not who Cameron is.”

She doesn’t press me about why we broke up. Perhaps she hears the quiver in my voice. She leans back in her seat, and stares into the distance. “I need to tell you something,” she whispers. “All the way here, I’ve been waiting for the right moment…” She swallows. “I lost my swimming scholarship.”

“What?”

Her face is etched with misery. “I’m so sorry, Maddie. I know how much you wanted me to go to college. But the truth is, I’m not that good a swimmer, not like you. I’m struggling to qualify at meets. The coach told me last week that they’re not going to be renewing my stipend.” There’s a tremble in her voice. “I’m sorry I’ve disappointed you.”

“Oh sweetie.” I fold her into a hug. “You’ve never disappointed me in your life. Don’t worry about the scholarship. We’ll figure out how to pay for tuition. Everything’s going to be okay.”

My words are reassuring, but my heart is filled with despair. I’m barely surviving as it is. I have no idea where I’m going to find the extra thousands of dollars I need to pay for Misti’s university education.

The car pulls into the motel parking lot we’re staying at. I survey the low-slung building with doubt. It looked good enough on the Internet, but now that we’re here, I’m having second thoughts. There’s a half-dozen young men hanging out in the immediate vicinity, smoking weed, and their gazes rest a little too long on Misti’s long legs as she heads to the office to get our room key.

Cameron’s Porsche roars to a stop next to me. He unfolds himself from his car and gives the place a once-over. “You’re not staying here,” he says flatly.

“Give it a rest, Cam,” I tell him wearily. The bed probably has bedbugs, and I don’t care. I just want to fall into oblivion and be done with this day. “Not all of us are billionaires, okay? This is what I can afford.”

He runs his hand through his hair. “Maddie, this place isn’t safe. I’ll never forgive myself if something were to happen to you here. Stay at my place tonight. Please?”

It’s the please that undoes me. Cameron doesn’t usually ask. He demands.

“Okay.” I give in for the second time. “Thank you.”

An hour later, Misti and I have been shown to two luxurious bedrooms in Cameron’s Forest Hill mansion, I’ve taken a hot shower and washed the road grime off my body, and I feel much more human. Pulling on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, I leave my room and go in search of our host.

He’s in the kitchen, opening a bottle of wine. “It’s a lovely night,” he says, his eyes lingering over my legs. “Let’s drink this in the garden?”

I shrug. “You’ve been bossing me around all night,” I mutter sarcastically. “Why stop now?”  

He tips his head to one side and surveys me. “If my memory serves me correctly, you enjoyed being bossed around,” he says silkily. “Have your tastes in bed changed in the last nine years?”

I inhale sharply. He would go there. “My tastes in bed are none of your business.” I keep my tone even with difficulty. I thought I was over the hurt and the anger, but seeing Cameron has brought it all back. He was so upset that I left his family cottage early that he threw away our relationship. Nine years later, I’m still haunted by the way we ended.

He grabs two wine glasses from a cabinet and the bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon, and I follow him outside through the large glass patio doors that separate his kitchen from his backyard. A massive pool takes up half the space. Cameron still swims, obviously. “Your house suits you,” I tell him, looking back at the sleek, modern wood and glass structure.

“I’m not sure if I’m getting complimented or insulted.” He fills a glass and hands it to me, and I sink into a comfortable wicker chair. “I’m sorry about your mother. Did you see her often?”

“I haven’t seen her in nine years.”

He gives me a sharp look. “Why not?”

“I called her a terrible role-model and took Misti away to Calgary. She didn’t like facing the truth.”

He’s surveying me in a way that’s making me nervous. “Nine years ago? When did you move to Calgary?”

Less than twenty-hours after your father told me I was a liability and if I cared for you at all, I should get out of your life.   

I don’t answer his question. “Why are we here, Cam?” I ask abruptly. “Why did you want to have a drink? Nine years ago, you made your choice and I made mine. There’s no point rehashing the past.”

“I have a proposition for you.”

Wariness prickles through me. “What kind of proposition?”

He contemplates his glass. “You remember my aunt Emily?”

I nod. She’d been the only member of Cameron’s family who’d been kind to me. Everyone else had made me feel like an outsider, but Emily had been warm, engaging me in conversation about swimming and track, asking me what kind of books I liked to read and sharing her favorites with me. “Yes.”

“Aunt Emily loves our family cottage, but my grandfather has decided to sell it to a cousin.” He sounds annoyed. “My grandfather has a soft spot for family, and Ryder’s wife is pregnant.”

“That sucks.” I’m not sure what he wants me to do about the situation.

“I could convince my grandfather to sell the place to me,” he says. “If my grandfather thinks I’m in a serious relationship, he’ll change his mind about letting Ryder buy the cottage.”

A shiver of unease passes through me. I don’t like where this is going. “You can’t mean…” My voice trails off. This is insane.

“I want you to pretend to be my fiancée for a month.” He takes a sip of his wine, calm despite upending my world. “I’ll pay you, of course. Does five hundred thousand seem reasonable?”

My head snaps up in shock. “Are you crazy?” Five hundred thousand dollars. My thoughts race. I won’t have to worry about Misti’s college education. I could buy a more reliable car. Pay for my mother’s funeral without splitting the balance between five credit cards.  

“I’m never crazy.” He leans forward, his blue eyes meeting mine. “One month, Maddie. What about it?”

I look at him helplessly, desperate for an alternative to Cameron’s proposal. One month with Cameron, pretending to be madly in love with him. I can’t do it. This man crushed my heart nine years ago, and the scars still haven’t faded.

“Say yes, Maddie.” His voice lowers, deepens.

Think about Misti. You promised yourself that you’d give her a good life. She can’t drop out of college.

“Yes.” The words come out in a whisper.

“Good.” His voice is brisk, efficient. “We leave for the cottage on Saturday morning. We’ll go shopping tomorrow to get you what you need.”

The cottage. The universe has a sick sense of humor. Of course we’ll be going back to the place where things ended between Cameron and I.

I screw my eyes shut. You’re a survivor, I tell myself, willing myself to believe it. You’ll be fine.