“It is crazy. It’s so unlike him.” She grinned. “There’s hope for him after all.”
7
Ryan
It was one thing to plan out a crazy scheme like fake marrying my assistant, but carrying it out was a whole new experience I was having trouble dealing with. It wasn’t the whirlwind activity to fast track getting her a passport, or handing over some work to my brothers while trying to keep my grandmother out of the loop, or figuring out what suit I’d wear to take my fake vows. No, the difficulty was in sitting in a first class seat next to my assistant as we got ready to fly to Italy for a fake wedding.
I’d never traveled with her before, and even if I had, it would have remained professional. Not that this situation was going to become personal, but as my fake fiancé, I couldn’t treat her like my assistant either. Did I hold her hand or put my arm around her? Was I expected to kiss her? It was driving me fucking mad not knowing how I should behave to pull off the farce without making her uncomfortable or setting me up for a lawsuit.
“Oh my God,” she gasped as the wheels of the plane lifted off on her first leg of the journey. We’d fly to New York, and then from there to Rome, and then to Florence. The flight time alone would be fifteen hours, not including layover time in New York and Rome. A part of me thought maybe I should have sprung to charter a plane, but it was too late now.
“I’ve never flown before.” Her voice was breathless as she peered out the window watching the ground fall away. Again, I was struck by how different our backgrounds were. I knew I was privileged, but there were nuances about life with and without money that I was oblivious too.
She turned her head and grinned at me. “Tell me when I’m too embarrassing for you and I’ll tone it down.”
My brows knitted in confusion. “What do you mean?”
She leaned in closer, and her scent that made me think of wild flowers and sunshine, enveloped me.
“This is all so new, and I’m a bit silly over it all. I know this is no big deal to you, but for me…” She looked out the window. “It’s all so amazing.”
I watched her, enjoying seeing something for the first time through her eyes.
“I like your excitement and enthusiasm.”
She turned to me again. “Really?” Her tone suggested she was surprised by my statement.
“Yes. Does that surprise you?”
She shrugged. “You strike me as a guy who likes things to be subtle, toned down.”
I frowned. “Are you saying I’m boring?” She wouldn’t have been the first, but I always thought Noah and my brothers were just razzing me when they called me boring or vanilla.
Her eyes rounded and she bit her lip. It was surprisingly adorable. “I’m sorry…I forgot myself.”
I realized she was worried that she’d offended me.
My hand pressed over hers before I realized it. I quickly pulled it away. Yes, we were in a fake relationship, but we didn’t have to look real here on the plane. “It’s okay. I’m teasing. But, as you have surmised, I don’t do it a lot, so I’m not very good at it.”
Her lips twitched upward slightly, but I wanted to see the radiant smile she’d had seconds ago as we
lifted off.
“When we’re cruising altitude, we’ll have champagne,” I said. “We’ll add to your list of exciting events.
“I’ve had champagne before.”
Fuck. Now I was offending her.
But then her smile turned flirty. “But not in first class.”
Whew.
“I’m not sure if you know this, but when people get engaged, other people usually ask how the couple met and how he proposed. I’m thinking we need a backstory on how we got together,” she said.
Good God, more details to hash out? “Have you thought through that already?” I asked hoping she had. She was very good with things like that. She often anticipated my needs before I did. “I suppose it could be the cliché story that we were working late and it just happened.”
She shrugged. “We could, but why be cliché? Maybe it could be that we fell in love through the emails we sent.”