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Without breaking eye contact, he picks up the receiver and sets it back down, hanging up on whoever was calling.

“You’re busy. I’ll go.” I turn to leave.

“We’re not finished here, Quinn,” he says in that low, sexy voice of his.

The heat that whooshes through my body like brush catching fire when he says my name is insane.

I take a breath and turn to face him again.

Right. He called me into his office.

Probably to fire me.

I kinda hoped we’d forgotten about that.

“Am I being fired?” I ask him.“I’m, um, just wondering if I should be contacting my lawyer.” I choke out that last bit on Dani’s advice. She was very up my butt about my legal rights this morning.

I don’t even know why I bother. I don’t have a lawyer, nor can I afford one.

I’m sure the Vance family’s legal team would make dog meat of any lawyer I could scrounge up anyway.

“No, you are not being fired,” he says. “Quite the opposite. You’re going to do a job for me.”

Chapter 4

Harlan

An actual half-minute passes before my words seem to fully sink in, and Quinn Monroe’s brain rearranges itself around the concept that she’s being given a new job to do.

“Oh,” she says, looking stunned. “What?”

I suppose the last thing she expected walking in here with her “apology cake” was another job.

“You will meet my family,” I inform her. “And you’ll pretend that you’re my lover, Darla.”

I hear the words, but I still can’t believe I’m saying them out loud.

If she hadn’t signed an iron-clad NDA when she was hired by Vance Hospitality, I wouldn’t be.

“But… my name isn’t Darla,” she says slowly, struggling to make sense of this. “And I’m not… your lover.” Her voice cracks a little on that last bit.

I try to ignore the way her cheeks flame.

“That is what ‘pretend’ means,” I tell her, deadpan.

“Wow. Can I sit down?”

“Go ahead.”

She seats herself on one of the stiff chairs in the sitting area off to the side of my desk that no one ever uses.

My whole office smells like her now. Like a spring meadow and something faintly edible. Like cupcakes.

I’ve always hated cupcakes. Too sweet.

Her turquoise hair is twisted up in back, her eyes are clear and blue, and her lips are like succulent berries without a drop of makeup. She looks precious and pathetic, like something you instinctively want to protect.

Kind of like a scared baby bunny.