Page 52 of The Arrangement

“Tell me the truth,” he says, as if he’s almost afraid to finish his thought. “Do you want to go through with the marriage part of this?”

The words are careful—loaded. And the anxiety I’ve felt about this when I was away from him is hard to remember.

“I think it might be fun,” I say, my tone playful as I give his words back to him. “I don’t think it’s wrong for two friends to have a good time as they work together to achieve their goals.”

His smile could light up a dark room, and that makes my legs wobbly.

“I’ll fly us to Vegas tomorrow afternoon,” he says. “You’ll be my wife by bedtime, which is convenient.”

My body clenches at the proximity ofwifeandbedtime. The weight in my belly and the ache between my legs is nearly unbearable.

“How do you want to tell Mimi?” he asks.

“Let’s tell her we’ve been seeing each other secretly for a while,” I say. “And that you proposed today, and we didn’t want to wait.”

“We were planning on telling her, but then this thing happened with the building, and we felt like it was kismet.”

“That works.”

He lifts a hand and brushes the back of his knuckles down the side of my face. I gasp at the contact. My breath comes out in a pant.

The corner of his mouth twitches. “If we’ve been seeing each other a while, you can’t jump when I touch you. No one will believe I’ve never touched you before.”

My face flames.

“And you can’t turn red every time I say something.” He chuckles.

“This is a lot for me.”

His smirk settles against his lips as his eyes crinkle in the corners. “If you think this is a lot, just wait.”

Oh God.

“Mr. Brewer! Where do you want these things?” a man shouts from the truck.

Jason holds up a finger, his attention still on me. “Are you ready to do this?”

I nod.

“Then let’s go.”

He moves gracefully around the car with me a few steps behind. He opens Mimi’s door, whispering something to make her laugh, and then helps her to her feet. Her eyes are wide and bright as she takes in her surroundings.

“Meems, we have something to tell you,” I say.

She laces her arm through Jason’s, patting his bicep. “Is this your house, Jason?”

“It is. And the men over there need to know if you’d like to stay in my house with Chloe and me, or if you’d like to stay in the guesthouse over there.” He points at a quaint, one-story home on the other side of a glittering pool. “The choice is absolutely yours.”

She looks at me, narrowing her eyes with a sly smile. “And you’re staying with Jason?”

“I haven’t told you this,” I say, glancing at Jason, “because there’s been so much going on. And we wanted to wait until we could really celebrate the occasion. But?—”

“Oh my God, you’re pregnant, aren’t you?” she asks, gasping.

“What? No!” I shriek.

Jason laughs, completely unbothered by Mimi’s reaction.