Sky Full of Promise. Teresa Southwick

where she kept her mouth firmly shut.

      “So what do you say?” he asked.

      “I say you’re crazy.”

      “This isn’t a psych evaluation.”

      Sky shook her head. “It will never work. There are a hundred things that could go wrong. Maybe more.” She rested a hand on her hip. “Aren’t there laws against this sort of thing? Fraud? Alienation of affections? It’s a really bad idea.”

      “I’m not asking for your opinion.”

      “Then what are you asking?”

      “Will you be the woman? My woman.” He looked heavenward for a moment, and let out a long breath. “What I mean is, will you be my fiancée?”

      Maybe she was crazy, too, but for a split second she wished he were asking for real. To marry him. How insane was that? “I won’t dignify that with a response.”

      “I’m not looking for dignity. A simple yes or yes will suffice.”

      “I can’t do this, Dom.”

      “Do I have to remind you it’s your meddling that cost me a fiancée? Think about my mother, a courageous woman who sacrificed everything for me. It’s my chance to do something nice for her. With your help. Before I have to lay the bad news on her that I’m not getting married, after all. You owe me, Sky.”

      “When you said you needed a woman, I thought you were talking about something else.”

      “Like what?” he asked, his mouth curving up to let her know he knew what she meant.

      “Sex. I thought you meant sex—as in ‘he needed a drink and he needed a woman.’ Not necessarily in that order.”

      “And you still invited me to dinner,” he reminded her, his deep voice brimming with laughter.

      She sighed. “Yeah. We should both have a psych evaluation. Maybe we can get a group rate.” Shaking her head, she met his gaze and sighed. “Sex would have been so much simpler.”