you lied to Mr Burton?’
‘As I said, a panic reaction. But it gets worse.’ Again he raked his fingers through his hair. ‘Burton said he was flying in to Sydney in two weeks’ time to meet with both me and the other guy. He wants to be introduced to my fiancée.’
Andie paused, stunned at what Dominic had done, appalled that he had lied. ‘What will you do?’
Again he leaned towards her over the table. ‘I want you to be my fiancée, Andie.’
DOMINIC WATCHED ANDIE’S reactions flit across her face—shock and indignation followed by disappointment. In him? He braced himself—certain she was going to say no.
‘Are you serious?’ she finally said, her hands flat down on the table in front of her.
‘Very,’ he said, gritting his teeth. He’d been an idiot to get himself into a mess like this. Panic. He shouldn’t have given in to panic in that phone call with Walter Burton. He hadn’t let panic or fear rule him for a long time.
Andie tilted her head to one side and frowned. ‘You want me to marry you? We hardly know each other.’
Marriage? Who was talking about marriage? ‘No. Just to pretend—’ Whatever he said wasn’t going to sound good. ‘Pretend to be my fiancée. Until after the Christmas party.’
Andie shook her head in disbelief. ‘To pretend to be engaged to you? To lie? No! I can’t believe you asked me to...to even think of such a thing. I’m a party planner, not a...a...the type of person who would agree to that.’
She looked at him as though she’d never seen him before. And that maybe she didn’t like what she saw. Dominic swallowed hard—he didn’t like the feeling her expression gave him. She pushed herself up from the chair and walked away from the table, her body rigid with disapproval. He was very aware she wanted to distance herself from him. He didn’t like that either. It had seemed so intimate, drinking coffee and eating breakfast at her table. And he had liked that.
He swivelled in his chair to face her. ‘It was a stupid thing to do, I know that,’ he said. He had spent the entire flight back from Perth regretting his impulsive action. ‘But it’s done.’
She turned around, glared at him. ‘Then I suggest you undo it.’
‘By admitting I lied?’
She shrugged. ‘Tell Mr Burton your fiancée dumped you.’
‘As if that would fly.’
‘You think it’s beyond belief that a woman would ever dump you?’
‘I didn’t say that.’ Though it was true. Since it had ended with Melody, he had always been the one to end a relationship. ‘It would seem too...sudden.’
‘Just like the sudden engagement?’
‘It wouldn’t denote...stability.’
‘You’re right about that.’ She crossed her arms in front of her chest—totally unaware that the action pushed up her breasts into an enticing cleavage in the V-necked top she wore. ‘It’s a crazy idea.’
‘I’m not denying that,’ he growled. He didn’t need to have his mistake pointed out to him. ‘But I’m asking you to help me out.’
‘Why me? Find someone else. I’m sure there would be no shortage of candidates.’
‘But it makes sense for my fiancée to be you.’ He could be doggedly persistent when he wanted to be.
He unfolded himself from the too-small chair at the kitchen table. Most chairs were too small for him. He took a step towards her, only for her to take a step back from him. ‘Andie. Please.’
Her hair had fallen across her face and she tossed it back. ‘Why? We’re just client and contractor.’
‘Is that all it is between us?’
‘Of course it is.’ But she wouldn’t meet his gaze and he felt triumphant. So she felt it too. That attraction that had flashed between them from the get-go.
‘When I opened the door to the beautiful woman with the misbehaving skirt—’ that got a grudging smile from her ‘—I thought it could be more than just a business arrangement. But you know now why I don’t date anyone hired by the company.’
‘And Party Queens has a policy of not mixing business with...with pleasure.’ Her voice got huskier on the last words.
He looked her direct in the face, pinning her with his gaze. ‘If it ever happened, it would be pleasure all the way, Andie, I think we both know that.’ She hadn’t quite cleared her face of a wisp of flyaway hair. He reached down and gently smoothed it back behind her ear.
She trembled under his touch. A blush travelled up her throat to stain her cheeks. ‘I’ve never even thought about it, the...the pleasure, I mean,’ she said.
She wouldn’t blush like that if she hadn’t. Or flutter her hands to the leather laces of her neckline. Now who was lying?
She took a deep breath and he tried to keep his gaze from the resulting further exposure of her cleavage. ‘I don’t want to be involved in this mad scheme in any way,’ she said. ‘Except to add your pretend fiancée—when you find one—to the Christmas party guest list.’
‘I’m afraid you’re already involved.’
She frowned. ‘What do you mean?’
Dominic took the few steps necessary back to his chair and took out his smartphone from the inside pocket of his leather jacket. He scrolled through, then handed it to Andie.
She stared at the screen. ‘But this is me. Us.’
The photo she was staring at was of him and her at a restaurant table. They were leaning towards each other, looking into each other’s faces, Andie’s hand on his arm.
‘At the restaurant in Circular Quay, the day of the Friday meeting,’ she said.
‘Yes,’ he said. The business lunch that had felt like a date. In this photo, it looked like a date.
She shook her head, bewildered. ‘Who took it?’
‘Some opportunistic person with a smartphone, I expect. Maybe a trouble-making friend of Tara’s. Who knows?’
She looked back down at the screen, did some scrolling of her own. He waited for her to notice the words that accompanied the image on the gossip site.
Her eyes widened in horror. ‘Did you see this?’ She read out the heading. ‘“Is This the Bed-Hopping Billionaire’s New Conquest?”’ She swore under her breath—the first time he had heard her do so.
‘I’m sorry. Of course I had no idea this was happening.
