“You fucking bitch.” I want to snap Kara’s neck for that.

“Love you too!” she says, blowing me a kiss before skipping into the dining room, enjoying the wreckage that she just created.

I feel like breaking something.

I feel like burning this place down.

I feel like throwing up.

“Shit,” I curse as I loosen my tie. My chest is so tight, and I can hardly breathe. Why the fuck did she have to do that?

Things were going so great. And Kara just had to ruin it.

I drop my head and sigh, feeling guilt seep into every cell of my body. This is your fault.

Maybe Riley is right. Maybe I am too reckless.

I didn’t even stop to think of what it would be like for her to get fired. I was only thinking of myself.

I probably deserve this.

Does anyone ever deserve to have their heart crushed and broken?

I take a deep breath and follow the girls into the dining room. Prince Kalib is snapping his fingers at the staff, getting them to bring drinks as everyone sits stone-faced at the table.

Marv is sulking with his elbows on a stack of contracts, Kara is glaring at my girl as she holds her right tit, and Riley is downing a glass of wine like she’s on stage at Spring Break in a chugging competition.

“Welcome, Dex,” Prince Kalib says, waving me over. “I was waiting for everyone to arrive before I extend your invitations for the rest of the week.”

“No!” the four of us all shout in a simultaneous panic. The thought of spending a week with any of these people-with the exception of Riley-is making my stomach feel sicker than it already is.

“That’s very nice of you,” Riley says to the prince. “But unfortunately, we have to get back home. Work obligations.”

“Right,” the prince says, lowering his head. He was born with a silver shovel in his mouth, and he probably hasn’t had to work a day in his life. That’s probably why he’s so bored that he wants us to stay.

Marv clears his throat. “I’d love to talk to you about the yachts before we leave,” he says, rifling through the papers. “I have the contracts here.”

I sneak over to Riley and duck down beside her while the prince is distracted. “Can I talk to you for a second?”

Her body is tense. If she was a lioness her claws would be digging into the armrest of the chair. “As my fake husband, my boyfriend, or the asshole who tried to get me fired?” she asks.

I lean into her ear and whisper. “As the janitor.”

She chuckles for a second before scowling again. “I’m already clean. Kara’s a dirty whore. Why don’t you go try with her?”

“Come on, Riley. Let me explain.”

“What’s to explain? I was nervous on my first day of work, and you tried to get me fired because I didn’t give you a blow job.”

“Well, when you put it like that, I sound like a total asshole.”

She shrugs. “Exactly. At least now you can see yourself through my eyes.”

“And what about the past few days? You can’t deny that we have a connection.”

“I was faking,” she says, holding her chin in the air. “As were you, apparently.”

“Fine,” I whisper as frustration burns through me. “You want to pretend like it was all fake, then fine.” I rise to my feet, straighten my shirt, walk to the other side of the table, and grab a chair.

“Here you go, Mr. Jameson,” the butler says, handing me a beer.

“Thanks,” I mumble, sitting down directly across from my fake wife.

Riley looks at Prince Kalib and smiles.

I grit my teeth together as I stare her down. My world is crumbling down around me and she’s smiling. She’s fucking smiling!

“Just sign here,” Marv says, desperately trying to shove a contract into the prince’s hands.

Prince Kalib isn’t having any of it. He just turns to Kara, ignoring Marv’s borderline frantic words.

Uh-oh. The big man is going to lose it.

He’s not the only one. I’m feeling myself start to slip as well.

“Hey,” I whisper, getting Riley’s attention. “I love you.”

She just crosses her arms and sticks her chin in the air like she didn’t hear me or she doesn’t care.

“I said I love you,” I repeat, leaning on the table. “Does that mean nothing to you?”

Riley turns to me with a glare. “Not from a lying manwhore, it doesn’t.”

I squeeze my hand into a fist as I drop back into my seat, feeling my blood boil. A manwhore? She’s calling me a manwhore?

I’ll probably have to hand in my man-card after what I turned down this weekend for her. If turning down a beautiful Hidden Pleasures model who was naked and spread eagle for me wasn’t enough, I also turned down sixty of the world’s most beautiful women who would be eager to obey my every command.

And she calls me a manwhore.

“Prince Kalib,” Marv says, waving the papers around angrily. “Sign the contracts. What are we doing here?”

The prince hisses in a long breath and turns to Marv, looking sheepish. “Unfortunately, Mr. Marvin,” he says, cringing. “I will not be buying any yachts from you.”

Marv’s head sounds like a coconut falling as he drops his forehead onto the hard table.

“Why?” Riley asks, looking panicked as she sits up. “What happened to upstaging your brother, Akmal?”

Prince Kalib waves his hand dismissively. “Everyone knows that Akmal is a goat’s anus. I don’t have to purchase sixty yachts to prove that.”

The situation is tense as everyone stares each other down.

Riley’s words are still burning in my mind. Manwhore. She really thinks that I’m still a manwhore?

“Now let’s put the business to rest and eat,” Prince Kalib says. Just as he finishes the sentence, the servers come in with large trays that rattle with expensive china.

I should be happy. Riley is not getting her commission, which means that she’s stuck with me.

But I’m not.

It breaks my heart that she’s not going to become a pilot.

Her eyes are watery as she looks at me.

“I’m sorry,” I mouth to her.

She just looks away.

I throw my napkin onto the table and stand up, ignoring all of the eyes on me.

Riley thinks I’m a manwhore; I’ll show her what I’m truly capable of. I’ll show her the real me.

I leave the room without looking back and take a left down the hall.

Time to visit the harem.