"Well, when you line the two choices up like that . . ." She sighed. "I'm probably even crazier than you for considering it but yes. I'm getting a terrible kink in my neck from sleeping in my car."
"I'll have my lawyer draw up a contract. You can move in tomorrow. Do you need me to talk to Rocky? He's not going to be happy about losing his newest dancer."
"No, I'll take care of it." Shay stood from the chair and headed to the closet for her clothes. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow, Mr. Archer."
"Tomorrow. And since we're going to be roommates for a few weeks, you can call me Nash."
11
I finished going over the contract my lawyer, Rhonda Sutter, had sent. Rhonda was always all business. She was great about not asking questions or, in this case, passing judgment. The contract was simple and to the point. The final piece of the contract included the statement that I would pay Shay Starling a million dollars if I broke the deal by touching her intimately. Smug, overly confident asshole that I was, I'd offered the amount without giving it much thought. Then Shay pulled up to the house and climbed out of her car in a skin-tight pair of jeans and clingy sweater, and my confidence blew away like dust in the wind.
I watched her for a second through the glass on the front door. She stood next to her car, hugging herself and looking way less sure about everything than she had the night before. I stopped myself from walking out to the porch to coax her inside. She needed to be sure of herself, and she didn't need my salesman pitch to cloud her judgment. The decision had to be hers.
I was shocked at the level of disappointment I felt when she turned back to her car. It seemed she had changed her mind. Then she leaned into her car and yanked out a heavy duffle bag. She stumbled back with it a few steps.
I walked outside and down the steps. A warm Santa Ana wind had ushered in a mid fall heat wave, and the temperature was close to eighty. "I can get that," I said.
Shay gladly handed the heavy bag over to me. "I managed to get most of my important possessions in this one bag. Which either makes me very efficient or pathetically poor."
I found myself smiling at almost everything she said. Her personality was something I'd never factored in when I chose her as my temptation. She was extraordinarily sexy, and my ignorance had caused my mind to go straight to the stereotypical assumption that she would be dull or conceited or shallow.
I carried her duffle bag up the steps, and she followed with a lumpy pillow tucked under her arm. "The bed already has pillows and blankets."
"I'm sure it does, but I can't sleep without my favorite pillow."
I led her into the entryway. She stared up at the iron lamp I'd had handcrafted by a local artist. "I love that. It looks sort of medieval, yet it has a beachy vibe."
"Great. Coastal medieval was exactly the look I was going for."
She followed me into the front room, where the picture window provided an amazing view of the pool and the beach below.
She clutched her pillow against her and headed straight to the window. My gaze went straight to her ass. It was sealed seductively in tight denim, and heat surged down to my cock. This plan was either going to be brilliant, or it was going to kill me.
Shay spun around. "You wake up to this view every day?"
"Sometimes it's cloudy."
She pulled the blue beanie off her silky white hair. Strands floated up from the static charge, and she smoothed them down as she surveyed the room. "You have good taste for a man. But then, I suppose an oversized, fake leather easy chair and cinderblock and plywood coffee table wouldn't really work in a Malibu beach house."
"I can't take too much credit. I had a decorator." I heaved the duffle bag onto my shoulder. "I'll show you your room and then we can go over the contract."
A hint of citrus scent sifted through the hallway as I led Shay to the guest bedroom. "I like that perfume," I said over my shoulder. "What is it?"
"Perfume? Bargain basement shampoo. The label boasted an orange blossom scent. I question the validity of that."
I pushed open the door and carried the bag to the upholstered bench at the end of the bed. Shay's gaze traveled around the room.
"Will this do?"
"Meh, it's free, so I guess I can't complain." She walked over and drew back the curtains. The midday sun streamed into the room, highlighting the teal blue and white paint the interior designer had chosen for the color scheme. The window in the guest room gave an unobstructed view of the water. "The view's not bad." She broke from her serious face. "Oh my gosh, I died. Someone forgot to tell me that I died, and for some strange reason, I landed in heaven. Probably a mix up at the pearly gates. The only thing I can't figure out is how you got past those pearly gates."