She looked up at me with her mouth wide open. I had shocked her, all right.

“You want me to pose as your fiancée?” she repeated. “For money?”

I laughed, trying to take the intensity out of the words. “Yes. We would draw up a business contract – it would be all signed and sealed, done legitimately. For an agreed amount, you pose as my fiancée for a set time. And when that time is done, you can walk away. With your money, of course.”

She still looked at me with that puzzled expression. “This is a joke, right?”

“I have never been more serious.” I walked over to her. “I know this has come out of the blue, Amber. I’ve shocked you, I can see that. Just think it over. But I would need your decision by the end of this week.”

“The end of this week?” She gasped. Then she looked at me, her eyes flicking over me. “This really isn’t a joke?”

“This really isn’t a joke.” I ran my hands through my hair, a bit desperately. “I have my parents-in-law breathing down my neck. They want to take Lilah, have her move to the States to live with them, permanently. I can’t let that happen. She’s my daughter.”

“Yes, I understand that,” Amber replied. “But what I don’t understand is how me posing as your fiancée would change that.”

“Jennifer and Michael think that I am not providing a stable home environment for Lilah,” I answered. “Because I work so much. If I could show them that I am settling down with a new woman, who will be like a mother to Lilah, then I think that they will change their minds.”

Amber frowned. It was like a little pucker on her forehead, slightly creasing her skin. I was conscious, for the second time that day, of how attractive she was. Suddenly, I could smell her perfume. What was it? That’s right. White Diamonds. Erin had worn it, as well.

My eyes slid over her, taking in her denim skirt beneath black tights. Stop it, I told myself. Get a grip. But I kept staring at her.

“Even if I agreed,” she was saying now, “I don’t think it would work. Or, it might work for a while, until the contract finished. Then what? Your parents-in-law will still be around, and know that the ‘engagement’ has ended. Then you’re back to square one.”

“By that stage, they will have moved on,” I answered. “Things will have settled down on both ends. They will see that my first commitment is to Lilah, and hopefully back off.”

Did I really believe that? Well, I had no other choice, for now. This was the best I could come up with on such short notice. And it was a win-win. Lilah would get a surrogate mother, and Amber would get a fat pay check to boost her tuition fees.

And what would I get? Looking at her, I wasn’t sure. A fake fiancée, granted. But instinct told me it could be more.

Did I want it? Was I ready for it? Erin had been dead six months. I hardly knew whether I had moved on, or not. I had buried myself in my work so relentlessly, I had no idea how I was thinking and feeling any more.

I hadn’t been with anyone else. Sure, I had some opportunities. There were always women who I could have called, or who made a play for me at bars when I was entertaining clients. I was well known around Melbourne, making the social pages in the papers.

Which is one of the reasons I hadn’t done anything. I didn’t want rumours to get back to the Morgan’s. They would be affronted, and I probably wouldn’t blame them. Erin had been their beloved daughter, after all.

But it had been six months, and they would understand now that I had moved on. Wouldn’t they?

“I don’t know.” Amber interrupted my reverie. “You’ve really caught me out, here! I wasn’t expecting you to say this when you walked through the door.” She shook her head. “I’m a bit shocked, I must admit.”

“I know it’s an unexpected scenario,” I said. How could I persuade her? “But think of the sum that I said. It would really boost your savings, enough that you could get back to your studies sooner. That’s your aim, isn’t it? And you already know me, and Lilah. It’s not as if it would be much different to how it is now, really.”

She still looked unconvinced.

“I’ll think about it,” she said, eventually. “I can’t say yes or no now. It’s too huge.”

“Okay.” I sat down, thinking. “That’s fair enough. But would you be able to give me an answer by the end of this week? That’s when I said I would call Jennifer back.” I stood back up, my energy returned. “I’ll have the contract drawn up in the meantime.” I grabbed my coat, ready to hightail it back to work.

She raised her eyebrows. “That’s a bit presumptuous, isn’t it?”

“Not at all.” I picked up my phone and keys. “Merely good business sense. This way, it’s ready and waiting if you say yes. If you decline, we just rip it up, no hard feelings. You are still welcome to stay here as the nanny, that goes without saying.”

I walked toward the door. “Think hard, Amber. This could be the ticket to your future.” I glanced back at her. “By the end of this week, I will need your answer.”

I walked out the door, jumping into my Lamborghini. I automatically glanced around the place, seeing what needed to be done, before I went.

Swimming pool needed maintenance. Gardens needed pruning back. I had to get onto David, the gardener. Then I looked up at the house, seeing if anything needed doing there. She was at the window, looking down at me. I could see her through the curtains.

Like a princess in a tower, I thought. Waiting for me. I smiled at her. She looked shocked, then smiled back. Twenty-three years old, with long, shining chestnut hair. Beautiful.

I took myself in hand, again. This had to be purely a business arrangement didn’t it? She was going back to the States to study. I hardly knew where my life was taking me for now. It would make things way, way more complicated than they had to be.

She hadn’t even said yes, yet. But the vision of her in the window and my strange thought when I had seen her stayed with me long after I opened the gates and sped off through the Melbourne traffic.