“Can I offer you a drink before we get started?” Ben opened his laptop and set it on the top of his glass table. “Wine, beer, iced tea?” he asked, turning away from the refrigerator to where Ryan had taken a seat.

“I’ll take iced tea. Thanks.”

Ben got a glass down from the cabinet and went back to the fridge to put ice in it, but he stopped right before he pushed the button. “Do you usually take ice in your drinks?” he asked.

“Sometimes. It’s fine if they do it in restaurants or whatever, but I don’t usually put it in at home.” Because I don’t have a home. And Camille doesn’t own trays for ice.

“So would you like some now?”

“Oh. Sure,” she answered.

He returned to the table and handed her the glass before sitting down beside her with his beer. “Every time I think I know a lot about you, I realize that I haven’t even scratched the surface.” He scrubbed a hand over his forehead and eyes. “How the hell are we supposed to seem like we’re boyfriend and girlfriend if I don’t know simple things like whether you like ice in your drinks?”

“Relax. It’ll be fine. I don’t really know if I like ice in my drinks either.”

That caused Ben to chuckle, and his shoulders relaxed with a sigh as he sat back against the chair.

“Besides. Aren’t we about to work out a lot of the little details anyway? We’ll figure it out.”

“Okay. I’m sure you’re right,” he said, though something told her he wasn’t convinced.

The truth was, neither was she. Not only did she not know Ben well, she had no fucking clue how to be a good escort. And no amount of googling would change that. It was one of the reasons she’d never been the academic type: No book could teach her like the real world could. “Okay, what’s first on the agenda?” she asked.

Ben opened a document on his computer. “We need to give you a job.”

The irony of his statement made Ryan almost laugh out loud. “So we’re not telling your family I go out with men for money? What happened to honesty being the best policy?” She’d meant it as a joke, but as soon as she said the words, she realized the truthfulness in them. And it made her feel a little guilty.

Ben’s eyes widened at her.

“Kidding.” She thought for a moment. “Okay, this could be fun. Can I pick anything?”

“Probably not anything. It has to be something that my parents would respect and something you know enough about to discuss. At least in general terms.”

“Did you have anything in mind?” she asked. She had no idea what his parents would consider a respectable career. But something told her whatever it was was far from any job she’d ever held.

“Not really. What do you like?”

Her lifestyle didn’t leave the time or money for many hobbies, so she thought back to when she was a kid. “I like to sing.”

“Really? Can I hear something?”

“I guess.” She took a sip of iced tea and cleared her throat before singing the first few verses of “I Will Always Love You.”

Ben hadn’t said anything yet, so when she stopped, she couldn’t help but ask, “So? What do you think?”

“I think we should pick a different career.”

That earned him a smack on his arm, but since it felt like it was made of stone, he didn’t flinch. It made her want to feel other places on him: his chest and abs, his perfectly round ass. Everything on the man was probably hard. That thought brought up another image, and it was one that she was sure had her blushing. She quickly tried to clear her mind of all things Ben and go back to the task at hand. “I’m not that bad.”

“No. You’re not.” She felt some of her pride return until he added, “You’re just not that good either.” He laughed after he said it, and the sight of his smile had her smiling too.

“Okay, fine. Let me think.” She pressed her lips together pensively. “I loved to read when I was a kid. I still do.” Though she thought about how her current status meant that she never had money for books and couldn’t get a library card because she wasn’t able to prove she was a resident. Maybe now that she had the escort gig, she could hit up a Barnes and Noble. “What about a librarian?”

Ben initially looked shocked. But whether it was because it was a horrible idea or because she didn’t look the part, she wasn’t sure. Once he seemed to get over his surprise, his eyes narrowed in thought. She waited patiently, hoping it was a good sign that he hadn’t dismissed the profession immediately. “I think I like it,” he finally said.

“Really?”

“Yeah. Why do you seem surprised?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. I wasn’t sure if a librarian would impress them.”

“Nothing impresses them,” he said simply. “But we can say you work at a college or something to take it up a notch.”

“Okay, I’m excited. I’ve always wanted to go to college.”

Ben laughed. “Perfect, because I’ve always wanted to date a hot librarian.”

* * *

The two of them spent the next half hour firming up the specifics of Ryan’s backstory and their relationship. Ultimately, they’d decided it was best to keep things as truthful as possible so neither of them would get mixed up. So aside from being a university librarian, which couldn’t have been further from the truth, all the details were relatively accurate.

The two met while out at a club with friends and they hit it off immediately. The fact that it had been a strip club—and that he’d literally hit her—was obviously something better left unsaid. They hadn’t been together that long—just long enough to feel an undeniable connection between them. Ben knew if his parents found out he’d been dating someone for an extended period of time—which in their eyes was probably only a few months—without telling them, they’d accuse him of keeping things from them. If they only knew.

As far as Ryan’s family history and childhood were concerned, Ben had told her it was her call. He’d completely understand if she wanted to keep such personal information to herself. But Ryan said she’d figure out that part once she was up there and got a feel for what his parents wanted to know.

“Everything,” Ben said. “They’re going to want to know everything.”

Ryan laughed, but her expression sobered almost immediately once she realized he was serious. “Okay, so I’ll tell them I grew up in Delaware, which is true. My mother still lives down there, and my dad’s not in the picture, so I’ll just say he passed away when I was young.”

Ben nodded as he typed the details into the document. “What are you going to say your mom does for a living?”

“She’s in sales,” she answered quickly.

“What does she sell?”

“Drugs.”

Ben stopped typing and turned to look at her. He had no idea how Ryan could speak so lightly about such serious topics, and the realization scared him a bit. When they’d first met, she’d talked about her father as if she were speaking about a movie she’d seen and not something she’d experienced herself. He wondered if that detachment carried over into other parts of her life.

“Oh. You meant, what are we going to tell your parents she sells.”

He nodded slowly.

“Pharmaceuticals,” she said. “Let’s go with that.”

Ben hesitated for a second before typing in her answer. “Okay, looks like that’s it.”

Ryan moved a little closer to him and peered over his shoulder at the screen. Her proximity to him combined with the citrus scent of her hair was a lethal combination.

“Wow,” Ryan said. “It’s like looking at some weird parallel life I’ve never lived.”

Ben wondered if he was putting too much pressure on her. This was probably going to be one of the most demanding—if not the most demanding—job she’d ever agreed to. Though she was a professional, he assumed she had little to no experience with what he was asking her to do. “I’ll print two copies so we both have one to study from. Unless you’d rather have me email it.”

“A hard copy’s good. I don’t use a computer much. For work, I mean.”

Ben nodded. “Paper it is,” he said, moving the mouse and clicking a few times until he heard the wireless printer in the spare bedroom. He got up to get the documents, and Ryan thanked him when he came back to hand it to her.

“What does ‘Rules’ mean?” she asked, pointing to the computer screen where she’d obviously been looking while he was out of the room.

Shit.