Page 20 of Accidental Mile High Daddy

A huff came down the line as I could only imagine he stood up, his hand adjusting his grip on the phone now. “You’re going to look better than her.”

My brows twitched. “Have you even met her?”

“No. But I don’t need to.”

Click.

————

I took my first real breath of the morning sitting across from Jules at our favorite coffee spot. It was less of a café and more of a shed on wheels with fairy lights and eclectic, mismatched chairs out front, and a barista who spelled my name'Ciena'every time, but it was consistent.

Jules stirred her oat latte absentmindedly. “So let me get this straight,” she said, blinking at me like it was a chore. “You met him on your flight to Italy that Ryan had booked. Ryan, who has a rich brother named Matthew who owns an airline. You met a rich-as-fuck man namedMattwho was overly looked after by the staff and happened to know what certain buttons did, and somehow didn’t put any pieces together before he talked you into sleeping with him?—”

“In my defense, it wasn’t the first thing on my mind?—”

“And then he appeared at my birthday, offered you a hundred grand to go as his date to Ryan’s wedding, and now you’re doing it?”

“Don’t say it like that,” I muttered, taking a sip of my cold brew like it was emotional support in a plastic cup. “It sounds worse when you summarize it like a plot twist from a Hallmark movie.”

She grinned at me. “Itisa plot twist. It’s kind of hot.”

“It’s unethical and probably a horrible decision.”

“That doesn’t make it less hot.”

I groaned and let my head fall into my hands. “What the fuck am I doing?”

“Being unhinged in a way I approve of for once.”

“I’m beingbought, Jules.”

“Nah,” she laughed. “You would have agreed to do it without the money if you had enough time to stew on it. You’re just being funded.”

I lifted my head just enough to shoot her a glare, watching as she turned the business card over in her hand.

“Matthew Strathmore,” she read aloud, her voice dripping with faux poshness. “Sounds like a man with a yacht and the attitude to match.”

“Hedoeshave a yacht,” I mumbled into my palms.

“God, I hate how much I want you to sleep with him again.”

“No.”

“Oh, comeon,” she laughed. “Tall, grey hair,hot? And he wants to ruin his brother with you? That’s not a red flag, babe, that’s foreplay.”

I groaned in frustration. She just patted my hair in answer. “I’m not sleeping with him,” I said, but the irritation in my voice had turned into exhaustion instead.

“But you already did once. It wouldn’thurt?—”

“That was before I knew who he was.”

“Him being Ryan’s brother doesn’t make him any less hot,” Jules said, sitting back in her chair with a shit-eating grin sowide I wanted to slap it off her. “If anything, it makes him more tempting. Forbidden fruit and all that.”

I pushed my hair back from my face, huffing when it fell right back in front of my eyes. “You’re a terrible influence.”

My phone buzzed on the table beside my drink, and I reached over, flipping it face up.Shit.

Matt: