I ignore the dig at my business acumen and choose instead to focus on his deal. I have no intention of being a whore for any amount of money, but since he’s claimed I got the wrong end of the stick, I’m now extremely curious to hear him out. Half of the casino I have given my lifeblood to for years is an unbelievable deal. It will change my life forever and I’d be crazy to not at least wait around to find out what I’d have to do to get it.
I turn around, pick up the chair I knocked over, and sit back down. “Ok, I’m listening.”
“I have a great aunt back in Russia who is very important to me, but I haven’t always done right by her. She’s old now, and I don’t know how long she has left,” he explains, his face and voice utterly expressionless.
I know instinctively he’s telling the truth. People who tell the truth don’t have to varnish their words or create drama in order to be believed.
“Anyway,” he adds, “she has this crazy notion in her head that I need a good wife to look after me. Clearly, I don’t, but she’s stuck on the idea, and I know she won’t be happy until she thinks I’ve found someone. She’s done a lot for me over the years, and I want her to die happy. I’d like to go visit her this weekend, and I want to take a fiancée with me.”
“And that’s where I would come in.”
“Yes,” Alex nods. “That’s what I meant about being my girlfriend for a few weeks, broken down into perhaps three, but most probably only two trips. You wouldn’t actually have to do anything with me. Your job is to be the best actress half a casino can buy. Babushka is a wily old fox and she will see through a wooden performance. I need you to be … and he began to tick the qualities off on his fingers.
“One, beautiful (easy – you already are),
Two, fiery (my aunt will expect the woman I chose to be a fireball),
Three, charming (I’ve seen you with difficult customers and I believe you have that in spades).
And finally, head over heels in love (that’s the bit where you’ll look deep into my eyes as if you can’t believe your luck that you’ve caught such a man).”
Once more, Alex has taken me by surprise. I wouldn’t have picked him as someone who would care so much about an elderly aunt’s feelings to go to all this trouble. The proposal, at face value, sounds like a no brainer. Charm an elderly woman and make her happy for a relatively brief period. But I have a feeling there’s more to it than that. It sounds too easy. Surely no one in their right mind will dream of giving away half a casino for something so simple.
He must have taken my silence as hesitation, because he continues on.
“I assure you I will be perfectly respectful towards you at all times. We will have separate rooms and treat it like a business arrangement. So what do you think?”
“I think flying to a foreign country with a man I’ve just met, particularly one with enough resources to buy a casino on a whim is probably a bad idea. I don’t know if I can trust you or not,” I say honestly.
“That’s a sensible reaction.” He smiles as if what I have said is not a negative, but another step towards his goal. “I can’t say I blame you for being wary. All I can do is assure you that no harm will come to you. I am a man of my word. You are welcome to check out my reputation before you agree. I just want to be able to make an old woman happy.”
I’m inclined to believe him on that score, but something is niggling at me and I don’t know what it is. It comes to me suddenly and I blurt it out.
“You’re a … er … good-looking man,” I start to say when he interrupts me.
“Are you afraid you won’t be able to keep your hands to yourself? Don’t worry, Cindy, I swear I’ll somehow fight you off.” His eyes gleam with amusement.
I roll my eyes. “That’s not what I meant and you know it. What I meant was you can’t be short of an admirer or two. So why me? Why not whisk some woman away for a couple of weeks with her dream man and save yourself a whole lot of money?”
“Let me start with the second part of your question. Do you think it would be fair of me to lead some woman on and let her think we have a real relationship when I would just be using her?”
“Hmmm.” Wow, I really didn’t expect a man like him to care about that side of the situation.