Gone was the mocking, grinning man who’d taken such delight in punching my buttons just a few minutes earlier. Now, he seemed grumpy, tired, and well…human. I had to admit to feeling a little petty joy to see him brought down to earth.

  Even if, unfairly, he looked just as hot when he was tired and grumpy as when he was smiling and doing his master-of-the-universe act. Actually, if I was honest, this version of him was even more compelling. There was something about seeing him unguarded that made a woman itch to massage the tension from his shoulders and kiss the worry from his forehead.

  I mean, not me obviously. But some other woman. Someone naïve enough to believe that a guy could be her prince charming just because he wore the clothes and flashed the cash.

  “The problem is that Pam has … taken a liking to me,” Theo continued, blissfully unaware of the horny turn my thoughts had taken. “And that’s making Ford jealous. Which means he’s having second thoughts about the deal. I need a way to convince Ford he has nothing to be jealous of, without insulting him or Pam. I already tried talking to Pam directly and that…did not go well.”

  I started snickering, imagining that conversation. I couldn’t help it.

  “Hey, it’s not funny,” he said.

  “It’s a little funny,” I said. “At least as funny as that Barbados joke of yours.”

  The corner of his mouth twitched. It felt like we were on the verge of laughing together or yelling at each other, and I couldn’t tell which possibility made me more nervous.

  “So that’s where the girlfriend stuff comes in,” I said, trying to get us back on track. “Got it.”

  “Exactly. And you have to join us above board and keep it up until we dock.”

  It sounded like an order.

  “Excuse me?” I sputtered at him.

  Seriously, the nerve of this guy! He was acting like I was his employee, and he was asking me to cover an extra shift. The man didn’t even say “please.”

  “I’ll make it worth your while,” he added quickly. “I’ll pay you. I’ll double your daily photography rate.”

  “That’s… you can’t just pay me to…” I shook my head. “I don’t think this is a good idea.”

  But the money he’d just offered was already setting off a chain of calculations in my head.

  I was saving up for an internship with Richard Adams, a photographer I’d been a fan of before I even got into the business. He was the primary photographer for Life & Style Magazine, which meant he’d shot everyone from Oscar winners to presidents throughout his forty-year career. Working with him would all but guarantee my future, but he didn’t pay his interns—and between the price of some extra top-of-the-line photography equipment I’d be required to purchase, and four months of living expenses over the course of the program, I needed to make sure I had nearly twenty-five thousand saved up in advance.

  “You’d be doing me a huge favor by keeping up the charade, making Pam think that I’m not available.” Theo tilted his head and grinned, trying to go for boyish and bashful.

  It looked good on him, damn it. Good in a way that got under my skin and whispered things like When was the last time you’ve been kissed?

  I crossed my arms. “I only date polite men. And there’s one word you haven’t said yet.”

  For a second, he looked confused.

  I waited him out, meeting his direct stare with my version of a withering gaze.

  Finally, comprehension dawned on Theo’s face.

  “Please, Max,” he said.

  Geez, it was no wonder a guy this obnoxious didn’t have a real girlfriend to take the fall at times like this. Sure, the guy was smoking hot. Way taller than me and thick, like he put in serious time at the gym. Plus, I’ve always had a thing for guys with beards, and his close-cropped dark brown one showed off the hard angles of his face. A hint of a black tattoo peeked out from beneath the sleeve of his white dress shirt in a way I’d normally find totally sexy.

  Too bad for him that “smug asshole” had never been my type.

  But he wasn’t actually asking me out—he was just asking me to pretend until we got back to shore. And frankly, how many options did I really have? I’d already met Pam, already gone along with the ruse that I was Theo’s girlfriend. And I was stuck on this damn boat for the next few hours no matter what I did.

  Getting double my fee just for playing nice? I could manage that.

  “Okay, I’ll do it. But we need some ground rules,” I cautioned.

  “Like what?” Theo asked. “It’s only two hours.”

  “Physical boundaries,” I said.

  I ignored the little ripple of anticipation as I scanned Theo again.

  Okay, fine, it was less of a ripple and more of a tsunami. The man was putting out pheromones.

  “You can put your arm around me since you’ve already done that,” I said. “Hand holding is okay too. I’m guessing you’re not the type for major PDA during a business meeting so there’s no need for us to kiss. Right?”

  Damn it, now I couldn’t stop thinking about what it would be like to kiss him. It would be fun to see what his beard felt like against my cheek, and what those plush lips could do. I felt my face go hot and hoped he didn’t notice.

  “I think I can restrain myself from making out with you during a business meeting,” he drawled.

  “We should probably figure out our backstory,” I offered. “Pam seems like the person who would want to know all about our meet cute.”

  “Our what?” he asked, scowling.

  “The story of how we fell in love.”

  “Who said anything about love?” Theo smirked.

  My cheeks went hot for the second time.

  Theo shook his head. “No need to worry about that. I’m good on my feet, leave it to me. Just follow my lead, got it?”

  Ugh, why did he act like he had all the answers?

  “The last time you thought on your feet, I ended up as your girlfriend,” I muttered.

  “What was that?”

  “Fine, I’ll leave our meet-cute to you,” I replied louder, trying to focus on the money I was about to make and not the man who was giving it to me. I actually was his employee in a sense, since he was paying me for a service. Giving someone the girlfriend experience wasn’t usually part of my package, but hey, I had bills to pay.

  “You’re the boss,” I said, fluttering my eyelashes mockingly. “Do you have any rules I should know about?”

  He considered the question. “Be friendly. Happy.”

  I bristled. Ten bucks said he was the kind of guy who expected every woman he dated to be cheerful and easy, and dumped them the instant they dared to show him a messier, more complicated side of themselves. “Are you going to tell me to smile more too?”

  He shrugged. “Wouldn’t hurt.”

  I let out an exasperated sigh but swallowed back the rant that wanted to come streaming out. Just a few hours, I reminded myself. You can bite your tongue for just a few hours. “Any other rules?”

  He paused. “Let’s keep this as simple as possible. What you see is what you get.”

  “Fine with me. Anything else, sir?”

  He was either ignoring my frustration or it didn’t matter enough to even register to him. Neither one made me think any better of him.

  “Just make them believe that we’re the real deal so Pam will back off and Ford will stop feeling threatened.”

  “That only works if you can play the part of the devoted boyfriend. Are you going to do your part, to really sell it?” I asked. I was having a hard time seeing it. Seemed like the only person he could care about was Theo Barnes.

  “Of course. I’m a phenomenal actor.”

  Holy crap, the man really liked himself.

  “Well, alrighty then. Let’s get this over with.” I headed toward the door.

  Theo stopped me with a hand on my shoulder and paused to scan me from head to toe, wearing a frown.

  “What? Am I underdressed for the cruise I didn’t know I was going on?” I asked with acid sweetness.

  “A little,” Theo said, completely missing my sarcasm. “For this to work you need to look like you were planning to join me today. Do you have anything that’s a little less… utilitarian?”

  He was a total micromanager, but unfortunately he had a point.

  Then I had an idea. “Give me one second.”

  I unzipped my backpack and found the crushed silk white blouse a model had left at a shoot a few weeks back. I turned my back and pulled off my tank top—ignoring the way Theo was studying me—then unfurled the shirt. Thankfully, it was made from a fabric that was wrinkled on purpose, so no one would know it had been wadded up in my bag. I slipped it on and tied it at my waist, then unzipped the side pocket of my backpack to find the fake diamond studs I’d taken off when they got in the way of my headphones.

  “Almost there,” I said, studying my reflection in the mirror on the wall.

  I dug through my bag to find my brush and quickly styled a sleek ponytail, then remembered I had an ancient tube of lipstick in the inner pocket. I slicked it on then turned to Theo and gave him a giant, fake-girlfriend smile.

  “Better?”

  He bit back a smile. “Superman in a phonebooth ain’t got nothing on you. Just one thing…” He reached out and stole my hair-tie, undoing my carefully crafted ponytail so that my hair fell loose and messy all around my shoulders again.

  I opened my mouth to object, when I noticed the way his eyes had darkened.

  “I like it better down,” he said, his voice gruff.

  My stomach flipped. I did my best to ignore it. “Luckily, I don’t care what you think about my fashion choices.” But I made no move to get my hair tie back.

  “Are you ready to make Pam believe we’re a couple?” Theo held his hand out to me, and his expression looked different. The cocky attitude was gone, replaced by a look that was half determination, and half adventurous. It was a look that said he was all in.

  In spite of myself, I kind of liked it.

  “I sure am, sweetheart!” I said in an overly cheerful voice. I skipped over to him and took his hand.

  “For the love of God, please tone it down a few notches,” he sighed.

  I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing. “Thanks for the note, point taken.” I intended to do my part, but if I could do it while messing with Theo every now and then, that would be a bonus.

  Sure, the man looked like God’s gift to straight women, but he had an ego the size of the Gulf of Mexico. He deserved a little teasing.

  As Theo led me down the narrow hallway, I realized there was no reason for us to be holding hands already. Pam and Ford were way outside on the deck, and no one could see us padding through the yacht’s interior. But it was his circus, his show, so I’d follow his lead. And it wasn’t like it felt bad to have his big hand wrapped around mine. Plus, it helped me get into character as his devoted girlfriend.

  Lights, camera… I thought to myself as we headed outside, and…showtime!

  3

  THEO

  “You two are a lovely couple,” Ford said, smiling at Max across the table on the deck. Now that he had proof I was off the market and uninterested in Pam, he’d relaxed considerably. “You remind me of me and Pam, when we first met.”

  I had to stifle a snort. I didn’t know much about Max, but I could tell that she was nothing like Pam. For one, her small talk was focused on getting to know the people around her, not on telling old, boring stories about her high-flying modeling days to make herself look good.

  The other difference between Max and Pam was how real she seemed. Sure, there was the surface differences. Max had minimal make-up, short nails, and natural beauty that made it hard to look away from her, while Pam was attractive in a way that made me think she paid a lot of people a lot of money to maintain it. But there was a deeper difference too. Max and I might have been lying about our relationship, but when she smiled at me, it felt real.

  Pam, meanwhile, hadn’t even seemed to like me when she was flirting with me. She was a bored, frustrated woman willing to use the people around her to entertain herself, no matter the damage it caused for everyone else.

  Ford was still smiling expectantly, waiting for a response.

  “It’s quite a compliment to be compared to you two,” I lied.

  “How did you and Pam meet?” Max asked Ford. “I love hearing origin stories.”

  Pam finally refocused on the conversation. “I did a modeling campaign for a local car dealership. I was very successful, basically Miami’s only supermodel. Ford saw my picture on a billboard and was so struck by the sight of me that he tracked me down.”

  Ford interrupted her, his smile smug. “She was dating someone else. Some loser friend of hers. But I wouldn’t take no for an answer. She was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen.” Ford brought her hand to his lips and kissed it. It should have been sweet, but it also felt uncomfortably possessive. A mark of ownership.

  For the first time, I found myself feeling a little sorry for Pam. I wasn’t a relationship guy, but I imagined it was hard to have a healthy marriage with a man who still saw you partly as a trophy he won.

  “Aww,” Max said. “I love that.”

  I couldn’t tell if she was lying, or if she was enough of a romantic that she could see the best in everyone, even these two.

  “And how did you two meet?” Ford asked, his gaze jumping between us.

  Max glanced at me expectantly, an eyebrow raised, as if she was saying I told you they would ask.

  My phone rang, interrupting whatever sappy fake story I was about to spin.

  “My lawyer,” I said as I picked it up. “Probably wants to know when I’ll be sending over the signed contracts. Excuse me for a minute.”

  It was not my lawyer, it was my assistant, but I couldn’t resist using the call as an excuse to remind them what we were supposed to be doing. I stepped away to take the call, and by the time I finished going over the schedule changes with Connie and rejoined the others, Max was already well into telling “our story.”

  I grimaced, wondering what bullshit she was going to come up with. Sharing an umbrella in an unexpected rainstorm? Her dropping an armload of books and me swooping to collect them?

  I sat down, grabbed my glass of whiskey and took a huge gulp. So much was hanging in the balance. Could I trust her to make our origin story believable?

  “So this was a shoot with a new clients, on a yacht for a bathing suit company, and I was running late.”

  “You’re always late,” I teased, hoping to add some realism and take control of the conversation. “Actually, I’ve got to tell you about this hilarious story about one time when she was running so late that—”

  Max shoved my shoulder, a little harder than necessary. “Oh, you. Stop interrupting. Anyway, I’m running down the dock and I realize that I can’t remember the boat name or slip number. It was super early and there was no one around, it was like six in the morning, but I finally spot this handsome guy standing next to what I assumed was the right one. I start babbling to him about needing to set up and I board. Meanwhile, he’s just watching me from the dock, staring at me like I was speaking another language. But I was too frazzled to deal with that, so I just pushed ahead.”

  … Well okay. She came up with a decent story.

  She looked up at me expectantly. I realized that was my cue.

  “I had no idea what she was talking about,” I jumped in, “but I was so captivated by her that I just let her keep going. I probably would’ve let her take the wheel if she’d tried.”

  Ford laughed. Pam glowered.

  Max smiled at me, confirming that we were now on a roll. Her smile spread through my chest like sunshine on a cold day.

  Max continued, “So I’m walking around the … what was the name of that boat again? I can’t keep track of all of them.”

  “The Abundance,” I said, naming one of my fleet that worked for her scenario.

  “Right. I’m walking all over the place, scouting locations, and I start unloading my bag where I assume the models are going to set up. He finally comes up to me and tells me I’m on the wrong boat. And I’m so frustrated and behind schedule that I actually argue with him!” Max gave me a wry grin. “But he was so sweet, he just listened patiently until I took a breath. Then he led me to the rail and pointed down the dock to where everyone else was arriving. I was mortified!”

  Pam snorted but didn’t say anything.

  “Max had to run off, but I managed to get her number first,” I added.

  “I assumed that he’d be more interested in the models I was about to shoot,” Max added sheepishly.

  “Yeah, that makes more sense for him,” Pam said with a condescending sniff as she eyed Max from head to toe.

  “Why, Max could be a model,” Ford exclaimed, making Pam’s frown shift two shades darker.

  For some reason, I didn’t like the idea of Max being dragged any further into Ford and Pam’s weird feud. Even if I was the person who’d dragged her into this mess to begin with.

  “That’s exactly what I think,” I said, grabbing her hand again. I looked down at Max, making sure she knew I meant it. “My girl is absolutely gorgeous.”

  Max’s eyes widened slightly, and her lips parted.

  Without meaning to, my gaze dropped to her mouth.

  “Oh please,” Pam made an exasperated noise. “Nobody wants a model with tattoos.”

  “Then it’s a good thing I have no aspirations to be one, right? I’m happier behind the camera,” Max said, trying to regain control of the story. She refocused her attention on Ford and Pam. “Anyway, I never thought he’d call but he did, before the end of the day, and he invited me to have dinner on the Abundance with him that night.” She snuck a glance at me. “Normally I’d play hard to get. Wait for a man who showed more manners. But for some reason I couldn’t wait to see him again.”