I take a moment to collect myself at the door.

I hate this. I have to do this, but I hate it.

It’s not like I need the money anyway. Two months’ rent, on this tiny little studio, is nothing to me. But there’s no other way.

I pull up the digital version of the lease on my phone. Piper Ford. Based on her date of birth, she’d be twenty-one.

Sorry, Piper. I know what it’s like to be broke and desperate, but I can’t help you. I have my own problems to deal with, and your late rents are making my life harder.

I raise my hand up and knock. It takes a while, but finally I hear a reply from inside the apartment and the door opens.

I can't believe it. It’s her. The girl from last week at the mall, only without her guitar and ponytail.

She still has that pretty face, though, and she's still hiding underneath baggy clothes that only show hints of her tantalizing curves.

“Piper Ford?” I ask, not quite believing my luck.

“Yes,” she says with a dazzling smile.

Holy fuck, how do I have a tenant so hot and not know? I’m firing Teresa for sure now. If she can’t do her job as a property manager, the least she could do is be my wing-woman.

“Have we met before?” I ask, playing it cool.

“I don’t think so,” she says.

She doesn’t remember me. Well, I’ll make sure she remembers after this.

“Oh, I know. Were you at the Westfield Center last week?”

“I was, actually.” She gives me another gorgeous smile.

I thought Piper looked pretty back at the mall parking lot, when she was angry. But those pink, full, plump lips look even more kissable with the corners curled up.

I mention the guitar and the almost hit-and-run to jog her memory. That should be enough to break the ice.

Then, I take a deep breath and ask her about the rent, hating every moment of it.

I don’t like to ask for money even when I have none, so this goes against every instinct in my body. Not to mention… Asking for money from a girl this beautiful really goes against every instinct in my body.

What my body really wants is to get on top of her and make her moan and sweat. Instead, I’m making her sweat for all the wrong reasons.

“Are you going to evict me?” Her eyes, big as saucers, stare at me in anticipation. The muscles in her face are tense. Obviously, she’s terrified of my answer.

To be perfectly honest, I already have the eviction notice printed out and folded neatly. I have it in my hand right this moment.

Fuck, those eyes are hypnotizing. I look away. I need to remember why I’m here and just do it.

I take a deep breath, ready to deliver the bad news.

But when I look back at that face, I don’t have the heart. I want to pull her into my arms and shield that innocence from the world. I want to stroke her shiny blonde hair and tell her she’s going to be okay because I’ll take care of her.

That would be fucking creepy, though.

So instead, I stuff the eviction notice back into the back pocket of my jeans.

Instead of kicking her out for being one whole month late on her rent, I give her three more days.

If this was a scene from porn, she’d be dragging me inside and taking her clothes off, thanking me for being such a nice landlord. She’d ask me to wipe out her debt as she gets up on the bed and spreads her legs for me…

But this is real life.

Instead of thanking me, she asks for even more time although, according to Teresa, she was supposed to pay the entire amount yesterday.

I tell her about her bad credit score, and she responds by insisting that it’s fine. She even tries to tell me I got her confused with someone else, but there’s no way in hell I’d forget someone like her.

“Not possible,” I say simply.

I fish my business card from the front pocket of my jeans. I watch with interest as her gaze travels down with my hands and lingers on the front of my jeans.

Interesting. The corners of my mouth pull up. She wants me. I can almost see her swallow down her lust and blink away her arousal when I clear my throat.

The red flush in her cheeks tells me everything I need to know.

Yes, baby, I know. And you know I know.

She turns her attention to my business card, which really doesn’t warrant that kind of focus. But okay, if she wants to move on from that moment that we both know just happened…

“Raphael,” she says with a voice dripping with honey. It makes me want to run my tongue along her lips and taste her, then make her scream the same name while she gasps and shudders under me, her face just as flushed as it is now.

Fucking hell, what is this girl doing to me? She fills my brain with filth just by saying my name.

I decide the dirty scene playing in my brain needs to happen. This may not be porn; everything may not happen instantly. But I know I want her in my bed, and I get what I want. I just have to be patient.

I put my sunglasses back on and tell her to call me any time. I want to say a joke about booty calls, but I restrain myself. She doesn’t seem to be in the mood for jokes.

It’s almost painful to tear my gaze away from Piper. I want to take a picture so I can continue to look at her as I go about my day, but again… Patience is key.

I may be walking away, but the hunt has just begun.

* * *

“Rafe!” Diana exclaims as she swings the door open. She takes one look inside the office and looks away. “Oh my god! Sorry.”

“It’s okay. I’m done.” I laugh while I zip up my fly. I take a seat on my leather swivel chair and put on my suit jacket.

“What the hell, Rafe?” Diana says. “This is not a changing room. I don’t understand why you can’t just wear your suit from home.”

“It’s not very comfortable.” I shrug. “You try wearing business suits every day and see how long you last. You have it good, with your light tops and cardigans.”

“Why don’t you wear light tops and cardigans every day?” Diana raises one eyebrow as she takes a seat across the desk from me.

“I would, but you know how our dads would react. I don’t want to be constrained by socio-normative gender ideals, but those old geezers wouldn’t get it.”

Diana grins. Neither one of us has siblings, so we’re less like cousins and more like brother and sister. We’ve always shared the same dumb sense of humor.

“So? Have you done it?” She leans over the desk and looks at me with big, expectant eyes.

“What?” I run through the list of Diana-related things in my head. I don’t remember promising her updates on any of the ongoing projects.

“Don’t pretend like you don’t know what I’m talking about.” She narrows her eyes at me, then sighs in defeat. “The proposal, of course!”

“Oh, that.”

Since Piper opened her front door this morning, I haven’t been able to think about anything other than her.

I’m lucky I didn’t cause an accident on the drive to the office. Instead of thinking about the colors of the traffic lights, I was thinking about Piper’s pink lips, strawberry-blonde hair, and bright blue eyes.

“What do you mean, ‘oh, that’? How did it go?” Diana insists.

“I decided not to do it.” I shrug.

“Stop pulling my legs. Come on. Everyone wants to know.”

“Everyone?”

“Yeah. I’m an emissary sent by our parents,” Diana says with a big grin. “They’re very interested. They’re already talking about how we’re going to divide up the work between my kids and yours.”

Wow.

After sleeping on it for a whole week, I woke up this morning certain that the fake engagement thing is dumb. But maybe it’s genius.

I don’t know. The jury’s still out. I can’t decide if it’s a good idea right now, but this is definitely not the time to fold. I put on my poker face.

“Yeah, actually…” I take a deep breath and run my fingers through my hair. “I’m really nervous about it. I don’t think I can do it.”

“What are you talking about? You’re Raphael Holt. Girls love you. A lot of hearts will be broken when your engagement is announced. This girl would be crazy to say no.”

“I don’t know, Di,” I say. “She’s pretty great herself.”

“Oh?” Diana puts her elbows on the desk and rests her chin on her hands. “Tell me more about how great she is.”

Shit. I haven’t really thought this through.

“Oh, you don’t want to hear it.” I know that look; she’s like a shark who has smelled blood now. I need to come up with a good story.

“I do. I promise you, there’s nothing I want to hear more than how great your fiancée is.”

“Well, she’s not my fiancée yet…” I try to buy some time.

“Go on…” Diana smiles. “I like the ‘yet’ in that sentence. Come on. Let’s start with… What does she do for a living? Does she work in finance as well? Ooh, do I know her?”

“No, you don’t know her,” I say quickly. “She’s, uh, a student.”

Yeah. That’s a good answer, right? Generic. There are thousands of students in this city alone. I can probably convince one of them to be my pretend-girlfriend.

Or, even if I end up choosing someone who’s not actually a student, almost everyone has been a student at some point and can probably play the role convincingly.

“Oh, so she’s younger? How old is she?”

“Twenty-one,” I blurt out. I don’t know why I said that. Must be because of Piper’s age that I saw on the lease this morning.

“Twenty-one.” Diana looks pensive as she does the mental calculations in her head. “She’s almost whole decade younger than you.”

“Eight years is not quite a decade, Di.”

“Yeah, it’s still a pretty big gap.”

“She’s really mature for her age.” I can feel myself losing grip of the lie. It’s taking on a life of its own now, as I say random things I don’t actually mean or understand.

“What does she study?”

“Music.” Again, my mind flies back to Piper and her guitar.

“She sounds interesting,” Diana says. “Twenty-one seems young for you, but if you’re happy, I can’t argue with that.”

“Good. Because I don’t care what you think about her. I like her.” I give her a grin, hoping I look like a man who’s deeply in love.

“Aww…” Diana’s face breaks out into the kind of weird smile that she gets when she’s watching some chick flick.

That’s what a successful lie looks like, ladies and gentlemen.

She exhales loudly and gives me a smile. “God, I’d love to stay and hear more about her. But I have this meeting in, like, ten minutes.” She grimaces, then adds, “And Miranda will be there.”

“Is this the one with the supplier from China?” I ask.

“Yeah.”

“I’ll come with you.”

“Oh, Rafe. You know Uncle Bill is not going to like that.”

She’s right; my father doesn’t want me around for important decisions, afraid I’m going to do something crazy, like show up high as a kite, even though I’ve never indulged during work hours.

“Oh, I know,” Diana says as she gets up. “Talk to him at your parents’ wedding anniversary party. He’ll be in a good mood and he’ll be more inclined to listen, especially if you bring your fiancée along. I know he’s really excited about meeting her.”

“That’s…actually not a bad idea,” I admit.

“I’m a genius when it comes to this stuff. Trust me, timing is everything.” Diana saunters away but stops mid-way. She turns toward me and says, “Oh, and the proposal? I think you should do it after Seth’s wedding. She’ll be in the mood for some romance. And don’t forget. I still want those pictures from the wedding!”

Diana flashes me a grin before she walks out of my office and closes the door behind her.

My big mouth has gotten me into trouble many, many times in my life. More times than I can count. But it has also gotten me out of trouble a bunch of times.

This time, I don’t know if I’m digging a hole for myself or paving a path toward everything I’ve ever wanted.

I check my calendar. Seth’s wedding is in three days. I should call him and give him a heads up.

“Hello,” he says with his usual gruff tone when he picks up.

“Hey, Seth. Tell Alice I’ll bring a plus-one to the wedding, okay?” I ask, getting to the point.

There’s nobody in my life who knows all there is to know about me, but Seth comes pretty close. He doesn’t pry and he knows when to leave me alone—which, strangely, only makes me want to tell him stuff.

“Alice won’t be happy,” he warns.

Seth’s fiancée has asked about whether I’m taking anyone to the wedding, and I said no. Now, three days before the actual wedding, I call to change my mind. Yeah, she’s probably not going to be thrilled, but I know she’ll prepare me an extra spot anyway.

“Yeah, well, can’t please everyone all the time, right?” I say.

“Okay, I’ll let her know. Just don’t do anything weird at my wedding,” Seth says in a threatening tone. That voice may work for everyone else, but I’m immune to it.

“Come on, I don’t go around doing weird stuff at weddings.” I frown. “Wait, what is it that you think I’ll do?”

“I don’t know, take her to an empty room and fuck?”

“I told you, it was that one time. And it wasn’t during your wedding. And it wasn’t in some random empty room; it was specifically in her room.” I may have slept with a member of Seth’s house staff, but that’s all in the past. He never fails to bring it up, though. “I promise you, I won’t do anything weird.”

“Okay,” Seth says.

“Cool. How’s everything going so far? Cold feet?”

“Nope.”

“Good. See you at the wedding. Thank Alice for me.”

See? No questions asked. I like that guy.

I don’t know what I would’ve done in prison if I got stuck with someone else. All things considered, I was lucky to have ended up having Seth as my cellmate, instead of some hardened, violent gang member.

We come from similar backgrounds, and we survived prison together. Now, we share an unbreakable, inimitable bond. We stick together.

I used to help him out with his life’s work, fighting against human trafficking. But he needs less help now, and I’m more serious about getting back into the family business.

I still visit him from time to time, even though he lives a long way away from the city. I’m surprised he could find a wife, considering how isolated his life is.

It shouldn’t be too hard for me to find a girl who’s willing to pretend to be my girlfriend…

I do have quite a few numbers on my phone I can call, but I’ve only ever called those numbers for one reason. Yeah, you’ve guessed it. Booty calls.

The problem is finding someone who’s not crazy, annoying, or scarily obsessed with me. I keep a distance from those girls for a reason. I can’t imagine putting an engagement ring on any one of them without giving them the wrong idea.

Twenty-one. Student. Musician. Not crazy.

There’s only one girl who fits those criteria. Well, I’ve only talked to her for a few minutes so I don’t really know if she’s crazy, but she doesn’t look crazy.

Piper’s my best chance right now. And frankly, I get excited at the thought of spending more time with her.

We can have some fun together, going to a wedding and to my parents’ anniversary, maybe share a few nights in bed. Then, we’ll part ways and she’ll just be my tenant again.

I don’t want any complications. I’ve let my feelings get me into trouble in the past.

I’m older and wiser now. I know exactly how to handle this so I’ll get what I want out of Piper without exposing myself to too much danger.