Chapter 5

Alyssa fell back against the hotel room door with a shaky sigh. “Thank goodness that’s over.”

Mason chuckled. “You did great. I knew you’d be perfect for this.”

As he predicted, his parents’ lack of English made meeting their long-lost daughter-in-law uneventful in the extreme. Once Mason told them Alyssa was his wife, they never questioned. They couldn’t.

Mason tossed the room key onto a table by the door and peeled off his polo shirt. He stood in the open balcony door and let the wind blow in his face. He turned around and walked toward Alyssa. “I’m going to take a shower. You can relax now. We won’t see anybody until morning.”

He strolled past her and disappeared into the bathroom. She couldn’t help but study his bare chest and shoulders as he walked by. The muscle behind his forearm curved into this wrist, where the bone cut sideways into his hand. Why did he have to be so blamed attractive?

The shower buzzed behind the bathroom door. Alyssa ventured to the veranda door. The moon shone over the ocean, and the breeze cooled everything after the heat of the day. One day gone. Only thirteen left to go, and she would be free.

Maybe he was right. Maybe she should spend most if not all her time enjoying the resort’s many distractions. She made her appearance at the reunion. She didn’t have to do it again. As long as people saw her and Mason together, as long as he remained satisfied that she did her part, she could do what she wanted.

She resolved to ask him about it. If he told her to go play shuffleboard, she would do it. She would do anything to avoid another scene like the one with Tina. That woman gave her the heeby-geebies.

The shower stopped and the door opened. Mason came out with a towel wrapped around his waist. Beads steamed on his skin, and his damp hair hung over his eyes. Alyssa gulped and forced herself to turn away. She couldn’t stare at him, much as she wanted to. Damn, he was hot! And now she had to spend the night in the same hotel room with him.

She turned her back to him, but her heart thundered in her brain. Her body buzzed all over with excitement. Could he possibly be interested in her? What was she thinking? He was a troll. He was a skank. He was the male equivalent of a tramp, so that must make him a gigolo.

In her mind, she sang I’m just a gigolo, and Everybody knows. She dissolved into giggles. His voice cracked behind her. “What’s so funny?”

She turned around, but she dared not look at him. “Nothing. Nothing at all. I just thought of something funny.”

When she caught sight of him again out of the corner of her eye, he had his pants and a T-shirt on. Thank heaven for that. She could talk to him now.

She threw herself down on the couch with another heavy sigh.

He eyed her from a standing position. “I meant what I said before. You did great out there. Thanks.”

“Thank you for saying so. I’m glad you’re happy with it. I’m worried about Tina, though. I wouldn’t be surprised if she tries to blow the lid off our whole story.”

“Don’t think twice about her. Even if she tries to pull a fast one, she’ll never convince my parents, and that’s all that really matters. Let her do her worst.”

“How did you two get so hostile toward each other?”

“She never liked me. She never liked me wanting to make something of myself. She always said I didn’t care about the family, that all I cared about was money.”

“She says you ran away from home.”

“That’s right.”

“She also says she visited you in New York.”

“She’s the only one who has. She’s the only one who comes over to the States, so she’s sort of like an ambassador for my parents to make sure I’m still alive and haven’t sold my soul to the devil.”

Alyssa shook her head. “It must be hard to have your family belittle your success like that.”

He jerked his head sideways. “I don’t care. I did it for me, not for them.”

Yeah. He said that, but Alyssa could tell it stung. He wanted them to congratulate him, to praise him for his resourcefulness, for his determination to make something of his life. They never would. They would always think he sold his soul to the devil for a handful of silver.

She studied him for perhaps the millionth time since they signed the contract papers. What could make a seven-year-old boy leave his whole family behind, his country, on the outside chance he could hit the big time?

Mason never left anything to chance. He slaved his ass off, and he didn’t quit until he accomplished the dream he set out to accomplish. No one could take that away from him.

He spun around fast and took two rapid steps toward her. He caught up her hand. “Come on. We’re getting out of this dive.”

He dragged her toward the door. “Hey! What are you doing?”

“I’m taking you out for a drink.”

“A drink! I don’t drink, and neither do you.”

He threw the door open and hustled her into the hall. “We’re in the most expensive resort in Baja, and I’m taking my beloved wife out for a drink. I would take you out to dinner if you hadn’t already eaten. Stop struggling. You’re coming with me.”

She stopped struggling, but she hung back against his hand. “What’s the big idea?”

Once he got far enough away from the room that she couldn’t go back, he slowed down. He didn’t let go of her hand, though. “Consider this part of your contract. We’re husband and wife on a luxury vacation in Mexico. What would we be doing? We’d be going out for a drink after dinner, and that’s what we’re doing. I’m not sitting around the hotel room staring at you all evening long when we have better things to do.”

She couldn’t argue with that. He led her to a bar off the lobby. Low lights surrounded a bunch of tables, each with a tea light candle burning in the center. Mason sighed. “This is perfect.”

He selected a table in the far back corner where no one could see them. He pulled out the chair, and scooted it in when she sat down. He bent over her from behind and nuzzled into her ear. “You look incredible tonight, darling. What would you like? No, let me guess. You like Bloody Marys, don’t you?”

Before she could respond, he vanished. He ordered at the bar and came back with a Bloody Mary for her and a Pina Colada for himself. He reclined in his seat and cast a satisfied glance around the bar. He sipped his drink and smiled at Alyssa. He pretended not to notice her glaring at him.

“Why did you have to do that?”

He cocked his head. “Do what, darling?”

“Kiss me like that,” she snapped. “You didn’t have to do it, and you don’t have to keep calling me darling. I’m not your wife.”

He tsked between his teeth and shook his head. “You’re not playing the game. You’re my wife. What would I be doing to my beloved wife? Wouldn’t I be kissing her and whispering in her ear? Wouldn’t I be holding her chair for her and calling her ‘darling’?”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “You’re taking this husband and wife act a little too far.”

“Nothing is too far for my wife. Only the five-star treatment will do.”

She changed the subject. He drove her mad with all this wife stuff. “You didn’t by any chance create this whole scenario to get me to come to Cabo with you, did you?”

His eyes flew open, and he gasped in mock dismay. “Why, Alyssa! What are you accusing me of?”

“Tina says you organized this whole reunion. She says you paid for the resort and everything. Why would you do that if you knew you’d have to come up with a fake wife?”

He didn’t even try to hide his smile. “Did it ever occur to you I might want to see my family?”

“I find that hard to believe. It seems like you could save yourself a lot of money by not organizing a reunion in the first place.”

“Maybe. Not everything is about money, though.”

“Why did you invite me to do this job? You could have gotten anyone to do it.”

“Not anyone. Not just anyone would do. I had to find someone who would make a convincing wife. I had to find someone my family would believe I actually wanted to be married to.”

Alyssa fixed her eyes on him. “Are you saying you actually want to be married to me? No, wait. Don’t answer that. You don’t want to be married to anybody. You want to play the field. You want a different woman in your bed every night, just like Shaharazad. Right? Of course. This is all some elaborate game to you, just like everything else.”

He waited until she finished. “By the way, Alyssa, Shaharazad didn’t have a different woman in her bed every night. She was a woman. It was the king, or the sheik, or whatever he was, that had a different woman in his bed every night.”

Smoke billowed out of Alyssa’s ears. “Are you trying to make me mad? Are you trying to be as exasperating as you possibly can? Is this your idea of play-acting the way you would treat your beloved wife? I can just believe you would be that asinine.”

He took another sip of his drink. “Asinine. I never thought of it that way. That’s an interesting word for it.”

She turned away and sucked her straw. She wouldn’t talk to him again, no matter what he did. If he wanted to play the dick-head husband, she would play the vindictive, resentful wife. She could play that to a T.

“I didn’t organize this reunion to get you to come with me,” he told her. “I planned this reunion long before I met you, and I did it even knowing hiring a fake wife would cost me. I did it because I wanted to see my family and because I wanted to put my parents’ minds at rest seeing me with the wife I’ve never had. That’s the only reason I did it.”

Her eyes drifted back to his face, but she couldn’t bring herself to speak to him. He played her emotions like puppet strings. One minute, he provoked her most hostile rage. The next moment, he soothed it until she cared for him more than she could stand. She wanted off this roller coaster before she puked.

He studied the dewy patterns on his glass. “I talked to my parents on the phone maybe twice a week ever since I left home. I never wanted them to worry about me. I wanted them to know I was okay and that I was doing well. I could always tell they weren’t quite sure what to make of it. They asked more than once to meet my wife, but I never found a chance to come to Mexico. After this many years, I knew I couldn’t put it off anymore.”

She looked down at her drink. She shouldn’t have dragged that confession out of him. She shouldn’t question his motives. He wasn’t such a bad guy. He cared about his family. He wouldn’t manipulate them or her if he didn’t have to. She shouldn’t keep calling him names like this.

“What about you?”

Her head shot up. “What about me?”

“Where are your parents?”

“They live in Madison, Wisconsin.”

“Do you see them much?”

“Not since I moved to New York. That was five years ago. We skype a lot, though.”

“Do they worry about you?”

Alyssa snorted. “Not because they think I’m married. They’re worried I don’t have a boyfriend. They think I’ll turn into a lesbian if I spend too much time in New York. I don’t tell them anymore that I go out to bars. They would get the wrong idea.”

He smiled while he listened. “Why don’t you have a boyfriend?”

“I don’t want one.”

His eyes popped. “Don’t tell me you’re a lesbian. There goes the marriage.”

She couldn’t help but laugh. “No, I’m not.”

He passed his knuckles across his forehead. “Thank God! I was going to have to slit my wrists if you were.”

She blushed. “Cut it out.”

“It’s true. If you were a lesbian, there would be no more reason for a guy like me to keep living. Dreaming about a woman like you is the only thing that gives my life meaning.”

“Now why do you have to go and spoil a perfectly pleasant evening saying something like that? Can’t we have a quiet drink in a bar, just husband and wife, without you hitting on me?”

“Are we having a perfectly pleasant evening? I thought you said I was asinine, and no, we can’t have a quiet drink in a bar, or do anything else, without me hitting on you. You’re a fox, Alyssa. How am I supposed to go through the motions of sharing a romantic getaway with you if I can’t at least admire you from afar?”

“As long as it’s from afar, you can admire me as much as you like.”

He turned his eyes up to heaven. “Oh, the torture! You really know how to drive the knife into a guy’s chest and twist it. There really is no way you would ever give me the time of day, is there? Isn’t there any hope for me at all?”

“No. I only came here to earn fifty thousand dollars, not to be hit on by you. When are you going to get that through your head?”

“Never, Alyssa. Never. You are so damn hot. You have the most perfect body of any woman I’ve ever met. You’ve got the brains to match, and you’re beautiful, feisty, resourceful, talented—feel free to stop me anytime.”

She beamed. “Keep going.”

He didn’t say anything. He fell into a brooding silence.

Alyssa waited, but when didn’t speak, she had no choice but to say something. “I’m really sorry you feel that way. I never meant to shut you down like that. I just don’t feel that way about you.  Can you blame me? How could I respect you when you’re such a womanizing player? I’ve hated you ever since I first met you on the bar scene.”

He lifted his eyes to her face. “Is that the only reason you hated me and disrespected me—because you thought I was a player?”

“You are a player, and yes, that’s the only reason. That’s reason enough. You have everything else that could make someone respect you. You’re successful. You’re magnetic. You’ve got nerves of steel. I don’t know why you want to spoil it chasing every woman on the block.”

“So...if I wasn’t a player, or if you didn’t think I was a player, you would like me and respect me? Is that what you’re saying?”

“I would definitely respect you. You’re so far out of my league I would probably live in awe of you rather than like you.”

“I don’t want you to live in awe of me, Alyssa. I don’t want anybody to live in awe of me. I’m just a man like any other. I’ve encountered challenges, and I’ve overcome them. That’s all.”

“I realize that now, but I can’t get over what I already know about you. I’ve seen you with women in bars.”

“What have you seen?”

“I’ve seen you pick up girls and take them back to your cave.” He laughed, but she kept on. “I’ve seen girls in floods of tears after you dumped them and hooked up with somebody else right in front of them.”

“What do you say I should have done differently? Do you say I should pretend to love someone I don’t, just to spare her feelings?”

“Of course not, but you could be a little kinder about it. You don’t have to shove her nose in it by making out with somebody else?”

“What if she understood from the word go that I never intended to do anything else? What if we agreed beforehand to have a one night stand and kiss each other goodbye in the morning? Would that make it okay?”

“Then why is she crying into her shot glass about how you did her wrong?”

“How should I know? Maybe she agreed to something she didn’t really want, but that’s not my problem. As long as I was honest with her upfront, I don’t see how you can blame me for that.”

Alyssa shook her head. She couldn’t understand this man, and she never would.