I want You Deeper

What was she doing?

This was not like Charlie. Not at all. But at some point during the day, she’d grown to like this man she’d just met. Which seemed absurd. Maybe she’d even developed a bit of a crush on him, which was even more absurd. This wasn’t high school, for heaven’s sake.

But it had been so long since she’d dated, it was no surprise she’d reverted to the way she’d behaved toward the male species in high school.

“So what’s your story?” Nicholas asked just as soon as the owner, who apparently was Nicholas’s new best friend, had set the street tacos down on the table. They’d been sipping alcohol-free margaritas and enjoying chips and guac while discussing her entire life story, pretty much. She had no idea what this particular question was about.

“I think I’ve told you everything about me.” Charlie looked down at her plate, realizing she actually hadn’t. Where she was from, her education, her hobbies-those weren’t everything about her, and she knew it. But she didn’t want him to dig any deeper.

“No, I mean your relationship story.” He took a big bite of one of the tacos and chewed. She chose to dive into her own tacos in lieu of answering right away. Once Nicholas had swallowed his first mouthful, he added, “Justin says you’re single, but that’s new?”

Suddenly, the food was hard to get past the lump in her throat. “Justin knows about that?”

“He’s dating Brooke. People talk.”

Couples talk. Yeah, she should have known that. She and Brooke had lunch together in the break room pretty much every day Brooke wasn’t traveling or away at a meeting. They’d had more than a few woman-towoman chats about Charlie’s failed relationship.

It looked like she wasn’t getting out of answering this one, so she decided to just minimize it. “I was dating someone for four years. It didn’t work out.”

“Four years, huh?” Nicholas looked off to the side thoughtfully. He was thinking about her relationship? That was how it appeared. She did not like that.

Squirming in her seat slightly, Charlie rushed to add to what she’d said. “It felt comfortable. Like an old pair of slippers you’re afraid to replace, even though they’re all worn out and dirty.”

Nicholas stared at her, eyes wide, holding the second taco he hadn’t yet bitten into. She realized what she’d just said. It was an analogy she’d come up with toward the end of her relationship, when she explained to Brooke why she stayed with him even when she wasn’t really into him anymore.

“You’re comparing your ex to an old slipper,” Nicholas commented.

Now he had a smirk on his face. It was annoying but somewhat adorable. Yeah, maybe she should stop making that kind of analogy.

“We had a routine,” Charlie said. She took a sip of her drink to think through how she was going to explain it, then continued. “During the week, we didn’t see each other, but he called me every night before bed-ninethirty on the dot. Friday nights, we had sushi at his favorite place. Saturday nights, we had dinner at one of three different restaurants, then went to the movies.”

“What about Sundays?” he asked, wiping his mouth with his napkin.

“Sundays were like weeknights. Had to get to bed early.”

“So…what? He couldn’t see you during the day? Was he nocturnal or something?”

“He was very…organized.”

That brought a slow nod from Nicholas. An assessing nod. She could almost hear the gears in his head turning. Charlie, who had established herself as a creature of habit, had dated someone who, like her, was a creature of habit for four years, staying with him only because the setup was comfortable…like an old slipper. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what Nicholas was thinking right now.

“And that’s why you ended it.”

His statement caught her off guard. For a moment, she considered lying. The messy end to her relationship with Brandon wasn’t exactly her finest moment. But she’d already said this much. May as well reveal the ugly truth.

“He ended it. Said I was too boring.”

There. It was out. She waited for Nicholas to laugh or express horror… Anything. Instead, he just stared at her.

“Sounds like he was the boring one.” Nicholas shrugged. “Relationships don’t fail because of one person.”

“I was going to break up with him after my high school reunion.” She scooped up a generous heap of guacamole with a chip, punctuating her sentence by taking a bite.

“Your high school reunion.” He said the words as though trying to process them. “Let me guess. You want to show some ex-boyfriend that you moved on without him.”

Charlie shook her head. “It’s not about a guy. It’s about Shellie

Ashworth.”

“Shellie Ashworth.”

Just hearing the name from a stranger made her realize how silly the whole thing was. She’d been out of high school for ten years. Why did she care what Shellie Ashworth thought?

“It’s not just Shellie,” Charlie rushed to amend. “It’s what Shellie stands for. She had a lot of friends. She was one of the most popular girls in school, actually. But she and another girl…well, they weren’t very nice to me. Let’s leave it at that.”

Why was she telling him all this? She was immediately embarrassed at just how much she’d opened up to this guy she’d previously had the urge to impress. So much for that. He was sure to think less of her now.

“Girls can be mean,” Charlie added with a little laugh. She tossed her napkin on top of her now-empty plate and sat back in her seat, crossing her legs in front of her. Maybe they should just call it a night.

“People can be mean.” He polished off the last taco and picked up his drink, also leaning back in his seat. “The things that happen to us in school stay with us for life. I didn’t go to my ten-year reunion, and I doubt I’ll go to fifteen, either. Mostly because I don’t ever want to see those guys again.” Charlie’s heart softened toward him. There was a lot he wasn’t saying. She could see it in his eyes. Despite all he’d achieved, he was still missing something in his life. She wasn’t sure what it was, but she sensed it in the trace of sadness she saw in his eyes.

But Nicholas was staring at her again. She could tell she wasn’t getting out of this conversation easily.

“What did your relationship with the boring guy have to do with Shellie Ashworth?” he asked.

Oh, that. Yeah, good question. She supposed she hadn’t really been clear there.

“I don’t know. It was just this silly fantasy I had of walking into my reunion with a well-known corporate attorney on my arm. It’s sort of a ‘take that’ to the way they treated me. I’m sure Shellie probably doesn’t even remember who I am.”

“You’d be surprised. Your ex is a well-known corporate attorney?”

She nodded. “Brandon Charlesworth.”

“Never heard of him.”

“Remember when social media sites were being sued over privacy? He was on the news every night here locally. He represented one of the biggest ones.”

Nicholas’s expression told her he knew the case, but she was pretty sure he didn’t have the image of her ex-boyfriend in his head. He’d go home and look him up, though. At least that wasn’t embarrassing. Her relationship with him may have turned stale, but he was a good-looking, wellcredentialed attorney. On paper, he impressed.

Which was why it had been so important for her to have him with her when she attended her ten-year reunion.

“So find someone else.”

Nicholas’s suggestion pulled Charlie from her thoughts. “What do you mean?” she asked.

“Your high school reunion. Your attorney isn’t the only guy with an impressive background. I’ll bet you could find a good-looking, successful guy who would be more than willing to spend an evening in your company to show Shellie what’s-her-name what’s up.”

As much as she liked that he’d already forgotten Shellie’s last name, the last thing she wanted was for Nicholas to think she was hinting around for him to step in and be her pretend boyfriend. That hadn’t even occurred to her, although her heart did speed up a little at the mere thought of showing up with a billionaire as her date.

“It’s not just one evening,” she rushed to clarify. “It’s an entire weekend of fun and festivities.”

That last part was quoted directly from the social media post that had invited everyone to the reunion. They hadn’t even tagged her in the first, second, or third round. Someone who had been on the debate team with her senior year had tagged her after the invite had been up for four months. By then, the people organizing the reunion were begging and pleading for people to invite anyone they thought had been forgotten because they hadn’t sold enough tickets to pay for the venue.

“I need to cancel my hotel room,” Charlie said, more to herself than to him. “I’ve been putting it off. I keep telling myself I’ll go alone, but it’s next weekend, so-”

Nicholas choked on the swig of margarita he’d just taken. “Next weekend?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“Nothing. I just thought this was some faraway event. And this is in your hometown?”

“Sacramento, yeah. They’re having it at the country club. Shellie’s on the planning committee, and she’s a member, so she did us some sort of huge favor by getting us the place for the night.”

That was a lot of information Nicholas probably didn’t need, but it sure felt good to get it out. She was so wound up about the whole event, and she hadn’t even realized it until now.

“Why go at all?” Nicholas said. “Sounds like you didn’t really care for high school.”

“I guess…I don’t know. FOMO, maybe?”

Nicholas laughed. “Yeah, I’m all too familiar with that feeling. I guess you think the weekend of the reunion, you’ll be sitting at home, wondering what you missed?”

“Yeah. But the idea of walking in there alone gives me the shivers. So I guess I’ll just stay home. There are enough events in life we dread without forcing ourselves to go to ones we don’t have to, right?”

She wasn’t sure if that made sense. Looking at Nicholas, it may very well not have. He was staring off to the side thoughtfully, probably trying to piece together what she’d meant about events that people dread. Maybe she was the only person who felt that way.

“I’ll make you a deal.” Nicholas swung his gaze back to her, the thoughtful look gone from his eyes. The look in his eyes told her that he was alert now, focused on what he was about to say.

She was almost afraid to ask. “What’s that?”

“I have an event I’m dreading. It’s coming up in two weeks.”

Charlie couldn’t help but notice that when Nicholas focused on something, his face took on an intensity that made him even better looking than he was otherwise. His deep brown eyes grew even darker, reaching a smoldering depth that made her one hundred percent unable to look away.

“My younger brother’s getting married,” he said. “My mom already has a wife picked out for me. She’s going to be at the wedding.” What? Surely she’d misheard.

“Did you just say your mother has picked out a wife for you? Like, an arranged marriage?”

“Not exactly. Well, sort of. She’s constantly fixing me up with various people, but this time she’s sure this one is the perfect woman for me.”

“And you think she isn’t?”

“I know she isn’t. My mother has a very specific type. You fit the type, actually, which is why this is the perfect plan.”

Charlie shook her head. Was she suffering from some sort of food poisoning or something? The kind that went straight to her brain? This conversation suddenly made no sense to her.

“I don’t understand,” she said.

“If I show up for the wedding with you, my mother will be off my back. But it won’t be enough for me to say I’m dating you. You have to show up as my soon-to-be wife.”

It felt as if all the air had been sucked out of the room. And it was a fairly big room, filled with other people. All around her, life went on as usual. Meanwhile, her own life had suddenly become something she didn’t recognize.

“Here’s what I’m offering.” Nicholas leaned forward, crossing his arms in front of him on the table and leveling his steely gaze at her. “I’ll pretend to be your boyfriend, fiance, husband-whatever-at your high school reunion next weekend. The weekend after that, you go with me to my brother’s wedding and pretend to be my fiancee.”

“How will that solve anything with your mom?” Charlie asked when she finally found her voice again. “You can’t just bring a fiancee to a wedding, then not get married at some point.”

“I’ll figure it out after that. Or maybe I’ll tell her my engagement is none of her business. Whatever the case, it will put an end to her persistent matchmaking. That’s all I want.”

Charlie was one hundred percent sure his plan was a faulty one. At some point, his mother would figure out he wasn’t actually engaged- probably the first time he showed up for a holiday gathering without her in tow. All he was doing was delaying the conversation he needed to have with her…which was that she needed to mind her own business.

But Charlie was now excited about having a date for her high school reunion. A date who was a billionaire-a very, very handsome billionaire. The kind of billionaire who would make even Shellie Ashworth’s life look ordinary.