Blake steeled his jaw, hating that someone had had the nerve to put a damper on her dreams. On anyone’s dreams. As far as he was concerned, the fight was worth it until the very last.
“You need to see more specialists, research more treatment, get your body strong again,” he told her, wishing his voice didn’t sound so raspy and harsh. “You can’t take no for an answer when you’re so close to living that dream.”
Her eyes were angry, glaring when she met his gaze. “Don’t you think I’ve done everything? As much as I could?”
He held up both his hands. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to jump down your throat like that. I just...”
“I don’t need to be told what to do,” she said angrily, still holding his stare. “The only thing that will save me now is winning the lottery or a miracle. Money is the only way I can stay a part of this world, to keep searching for help, trying to keep training. Either money or a new treatment to help me get back on stage.” She slumped forward, looked defeated. “Instead I’ll be back in Hicksville, the girl who had so much potential and still ended up a nobody.”
Blake bunched his fists, wished there was something he could do. He didn’t know why her situation made him so angry, but it did.
Just then his phone buzzed and he glanced at it quickly. He read the screen, cursed his sister for wanting to be so involved in his love life.
So? Spill! Is she really a ballerina? She looked gorgeous. Keep this one!
Blake didn’t bother replying, not about to engage with his younger sister over anything personal. And then he looked up and found Saffron watching him, her full lips parted, dark eyes trained on his.
She needed a way to stay in New York. He needed a wife.
He pushed his sister from his mind and pulled his bar stool closer to Saffron’s, thinking that she was the most intriguing, beautiful woman he’d met in a long time. He didn’t want to be married to anyone, but the truth was, he needed to be. That text just before was a slap-in-the-face kind of reminder. He was at the helm of a family business that was worth tens of millions of dollars, and he needed to maintain the right image. They were negotiating for a huge contract, one worth millions over the next two years alone, not to mention the investors he was trying to bring on board to grow the business. But his biggest potential investor had made it beyond clear that he was worried about Blake’s playboy status, didn’t like the fact that he wasn’t settled down and married. They were rich men with strong family values, the kind his own father had always managed to impress. Being married could be the key to finalizing those deals, and no matter how much he’d tried to pretend otherwise, it was true, which meant he had some serious damage control to do.
He reached for his coffee and drained it. Real marriage wasn’t something he wanted, hadn’t been on his agenda since the day his first love had walked away from him as though what they’d had meant nothing. He could still feel the cool sting of betrayal as if it was yesterday. But if he could package a marriage of convenience into something that could work for both him and Saffron? Now that was something he’d be willing to do.
BLAKE CONTINUED TO sip his coffee, watching Saffron. She was beautiful. She was talented and accomplished. She was interesting. If he had to pick a wife on paper, she was it.
“So come on, spill,” she said, setting her knife and fork down, surprising him by the fact she’d actually finished her entire breakfast. “The more you tell me you don’t want to talk about yourself, the more I want to know.”
He shook his head. “No.”
Saffron’s laughter made him smile. “What do I have to do then? To make you tell me?”
Now it was Blake’s laughter filling the space between them. “Marry me.”
Her smile died faster than it had ignited, falling from her mouth. She stared back at him, eyebrows drawing slightly closer together. “I think I misheard you.”
Blake smiled, knew he had to tell her his plan carefully, to sell the idea to her instead of having her run for the door and get a restraining order against him. She was probably thinking he was a nut job, some kind of stalker who was obsessed with her after one night together.
“Look,” he said, spreading his hands wide as he watched her. “If you married someone like me, you would have access to the best medical treatments, and you could stay in New York without any worries.”
She did a slow nod. “Funnily enough, I’ve been joking about that with my friends for weeks—that I need to find a wealthy husband. But I’m used to having a successful career and standing on my own two feet.”
Blake shrugged. “What if we did it? If we got married so you could stay in New York and get back on your feet, so to speak? I could pay for any specialist treatment you need to get you dancing again.”
Her gaze was uncertain, maybe even cool. He couldn’t figure out exactly what she thought now that her smile had disappeared. “I know why it would be good for me, I just don’t get why you’d want to do it. What’s in it for you? Why would you want to help me?”
“Marriage to a beautiful ballerina?” he suggested.
“Blake, I’m serious. Why would you marry me unless there’s something in it for you? A hidden catch?”
“Look, plenty of people marry for convenience. Gay men marry women all the time to hide their sexuality if they think it’s going to help their career or please their family.”
She sighed. “Well, I know you’re not gay. Unless you put on the performance of your life last night, that is. And anyway, I know plenty of gay people, and it hasn’t hurt their careers at all, to be honest.”
“Well, you’re a dancer. Corporate America isn’t always so accepting, even if they pretend to be.”
“Back to you,” Saffron said, studying him intensely, her eyes roving over his face. “Tell me now, or I’m walking out that door.”
Blake wasn’t about to call her bluff. Just because she needed a boost in finances didn’t mean she was automatically going to say yes to marrying a stranger.
“Running my father’s company was never part of my plan,” he told her. “Now I’m CEO of a company that I’m proud of, but not a natural fit for. It’s not the role I want to be in, but there’s also no way I’m about to let that company fall into the wrong hands. I need to keep growing it, and I’m working on two of the biggest deals in the company’s history.”
“I hear you, and I’m sorry you don’t like what you do, but it doesn’t explain why you need a wife. Why you need to marry me?”
Blake didn’t want to tell her everything, didn’t like talking about his past and what he’d lost to anyone, why he didn’t want a real wife, to open himself up to someone again. Eventually he’d have to tell her, otherwise she’d end up blindsided and their marriage would be uncovered as a sham, but not right now. Not until he knew he could trust her.
“I’m sick of the whole tabloid thing, the paps following me because some stupid magazine announced that I was one of New York’s most eligible men.” They’d called him the Billion Dollar Bachelor, the headlines had screamed out that women should be fighting over the former soldier back in the city as a corporate CEO and he hated it. Hated the attention and being known for his family’s money after doing everything in his power to prove his own worth, make his own way in the world. But most