It's a Good Plan

Kristo

I slipped my arm around her waist and guided her up the steps of the company jet, glancing around to make sure no one was watching or following us. If some of the tabloids caught wind of what was going on, they would get to break the news to my family before I did, and that would defeat the point of this whole scheme. She smiled at me gratefully as I opened the door for her, and the two of us stepped inside the jet together.

“I’ve never been in a private plane before,” she confessed as she looked around, eyes wide while she took everything in.

“Well, get used to it.” I cocked an eyebrow at her. “You’re going to be seeing a lot of it these the next few months.”

“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” she murmured, mostly to herself. She looked down at the ring on her finger once more, the one that matched mine, and then back at me, a playful smile on her face.

“You know, you’ll need to get me something a little more impressive if you really want to sell this,” she remarked. I grinned.

“You don’t think you’ve gotten enough money out of me already?” I shot back, and she held her hands up.

“I thought you said I should name my price,” she reminded me, as she settled down into one of the luxurious leather seats next to the window.

“I have my limits,” I replied, sitting down opposite her, and I found myself eyeing her as we began to head down the runway to get back to Connecticut. I couldn’t believe she lived so close to me. What were the chances? It would make all this a heck of a lot easier to organize, that was for sure.

She closed her eyes as we angled up and into the air, leaving me alone with my thoughts once more. This was reckless, even for me, a stupid idea by any measure of that statement. I would set up a contract when I got home, as discreetly as I could, something quick and easy that lasted around a year, after which, the two of us could part company, and my nonna would just have to deal with me being a divorced man. I was pretty sure she was going to be mad she hadn’t been invited to the wedding, but if I could lean into the romance angle, she would accept it. I would just have to avoid the detail that the reason she hadn’t been there was that neither of us could remember actually marrying each other. When I’d checked at the nearest casino, I’d found a wedding certificate between the two of us confirming we had, indeed, decided to wed that night. I still couldn’t imagine what in the fuck had been going through my damn mind, but I was making the best of it now.

That amount of money, though. She had been so specific when I’d asked her, so dead-certain on the price she wanted me to pay to keep her around for the next year. I knew there would be a story behind that amount, but I had no idea what it was. I watched her as she slept and tried to figure her out. Maybe she was a gambler? Maybe she wanted to buy a home or something? Maybe she was paying off debt? I had no idea, but I would have plenty of time to figure out precisely what she had going on in her life. She was going to be my wife, for fuck’s sake. Well, she already was, but soon she’d be stepping up to actually play the part, and that meant spending a lot of time together. I was interested in finding out her backstory, what led her to accepting an offer as batshit crazy as the one I’d posed to her.

When I looked back at her, her eyes were open again, but she hadn’t said a word. I hoped to Christ she wasn’t having second thoughts about this idea. We hadn’t signed any contracts yet, and even if we had, if she didn’t want to play along, there wasn’t much I could do about that except whip the money out from underneath her. I was already committed to the idea, to the knowledge that it would please my grandmother and satisfy my father and probably give the stockholders a little more faith in me too. If I could convince her to stick this out, it would pay off in ways I was already mentally reaping the rewards to. I couldn’t handle it if she decided to back out now.

“You all right?” I asked, and she glanced up at me as though I’d dragged her back from somewhere else entirely. She managed a tight smile, but I could see the tension written all over her face.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she replied. “Just tired. And a little hungover still.”

“I can get them to bring us something to eat.” I looked around for one of the stewards, but she shook her head.

“No, I’m fine.” She waved her hand. “I just need a little time, that’s all. This has been … this has all been a lot.”

“You’re not having second thoughts?”

“No,” she replied, but she didn’t sound certain. “I just want to get home and see my sister, that’s all.”

“Oh, you live with your sister?” I tried to make conversation, grabbing on what I could. She nodded.

“I have for years,” she replied, turning her gaze out the window. I couldn’t read the expression on her face, didn’t know her well enough yet. It was unnerving. Usually, I was good at getting a read on people no matter how long I’d known them, but there was something impenetrable about her that threw me off no matter how hard I tried.

“And you’ve lived in Connecticut the whole time?” I pressed. I felt as though I was interviewing someone for a job, which in a way, I supposed I was.

“Yeah, that’s right,” she replied. It was more than tiredness plaguing her at that moment. It looked like something else entirely, like she was literally struggling to keep her body upright. A deep-seated exhaustion came off her in waves. I paused for a moment, waiting for her to ask me something, but she stayed quiet, returning her gaze to the window as we broke cloud cover and the sunlight beamed through the glass. Well, that would just give me some time to think. My mind was already thrumming at the thought of everything this marriage could do for me.