“What about a little mystery? That way, you can judge me yourself.”
“I like that. Okay. No internet searches or anything. I can live with being in the dark, providing you’re honest with me.”
“I can be honest.” He hoped so. Tonight he was going to have to talk to his father, maybe even his mother. She was in a bad mood lately, thanks to Landon being an ass in school. All their mother ever asked for was that they kept their heads down, got good grades, and graduated without a problem. Landon was proving to be difficult. What his little brother didn’t know was that if he kept on being difficult, his place within the Denton line wouldn’t be all that comfortable. If their father couldn’t trust him, he wouldn’t be working for Denton, or he’d be on bar duty.
Maddox Denton was a fair man.
You earned your place in the family line. There were no double standards to him. Each one of his sons had to earn the respect of their employees, and to be fair to all.
“I like that. It’s nice to know that you can be.” She smiled at him. “This is a really nice place.”
“You do like Italian, right?”
“Of course. I love it. Who doesn’t love Italian food?”
“Can I marry you?” he asked. This woman was just proving to him that she was exactly right for him.
“Yeah, marriage proposals are a bit weird right now. We’ve known each other a day. Don’t you think you’re rushing it?” She winked at him, clearly thinking he was joking. He wasn’t.
“That’s the fun part, you see.” He leaned forward. “If we get married right now, it means we can learn about each other, and it would be fun.” Abel also wouldn’t have to worry about her running from him when she found out exactly what a Denton was.
“That is crazy.”
“Is it?”
“Yeah. You can’t expect people to get married when they don’t know if they’re compatible. What if they don’t like each other? Or they like different things in bed?”
“Arranged marriages still go ahead.”
“Doesn’t mean they’re happy,” Harper said. “When I find the right man, I want it to be because we love, care, and respect each other. Oh, and no lies either. I can’t stand lies.”
Abel sat back. “You won’t marry me, not even for an experiment.”
He’d read in her file that she was struggling about what her future could be. The careers advisor who was monitoring her was at the end of his patience. Harper didn’t know what she wanted to do, and was panicking. He saw it, understood it, and wondered how he could best use this side of her to make her fall in love with him. Damn, this was the hardest he’d ever had to work for a woman, and yet she didn’t even feel the same way.
“An experiment?”
“Yeah, how about you marry me, and we see how it goes?”
“I don’t know if you’re serious or not.”
“I am being serious.”
She sat back. “You’re asking me to marry you?”
“I’m asking you to conduct an experiment.” He was really going to do this. Abel was going to try to get her to marry him so that he had her bound to him in some way.
“This is serious.”
“Deadly serious. You’re a college student.”
“How do you know that?”
“My brother found out from Betty.”
“My friends need to learn to stop talking about me when I’m not there.” She smiled.
“It’s no secret you’re in college. My dad wasn’t best impressed to learn you’d gotten into the casino and were underage.”