Page 51 of The Temporary Fiancée
Idling at the curb, waiting, is a sleek, elegant black SUV—polished, with tinted windows and gleaming rims. There’s a man standing silently beside it, dressed in a well-tailored tux and leather driving gloves, his hands folded.
I freeze on the sidewalk, and Riley and Sophie come to a halt to either side of me, their chatter dying instantly.
“No way, right?” I mutter to Riley, who arches an eyebrow.
The man next to the car takes a step forward, addressing me. “Are you Ms. Quinn?”
I swallow nervously. “Um… yes?”
“Mr. Eastwood requested a car be sent to you for your shopping trip this afternoon.”
“He did what?” I gape at the vehicle. I’d assumed we’d be taking the subway, not riding in a chauffeured car.
Next to me, Riley gives a little bounce, clapping her hands. “Yes! Oh my gosh—this will be so much more fun!”
“It’ll be more convenient, too,” Sophie observes. “We can put anything we buy in the trunk—we won’t have to drag it around all day.”
Both of them seem to notice my hesitation. I dither on the curb, unwilling to take the first step toward the car. It’s a nice gesture, but it seems so… extravagant.
Is this how things are going to be from now on?
I’m almost afraid to accept the gesture. What if I start to rely on this sort of luxury? When this six months is over…
“Olivia,” Riley says, tapping me on the shoulder, “we’re gonna be buying some expensive stuff. If we ride in Reed’s car, we’re definitely not going to get mugged. Right?”
She has a point. Gritting my teeth, I approach the car. Before I can reach the back door, the driver reaches out to open it for me, ushering the three of us inside.
I’m mortified at first, staring around at the car’s plush interior. There’s a partition to divide the backseat of the car from the front, but I don’t close it; I’d rather be able to see out of the windshield. There’s even a small refrigerator at my feet, stocked with champagne, ginger ale, and sparkling water.
As Sophie takes the middle seat, she reaches into the fridge and cracks open a bottle of Perrier. Catching my eye, she grins.
“It’s hard to get used to, at first,” she says with a shrug. “I get it. But once you start to embrace the perks, you’ll find yourself enjoying them.”
Fair enough.If I’m Reed’s fiancé for the next six months, I might as well make the most of the situation. I take a bottle of Perrier from the fridge for myself, sinking into the soft leather of the seats.
The driver glances into the backseat. “Where to first, ladies?”
“Well, we’re already on Fifth,” Riley says. “Why don’t we start at one end and make our way down the avenue?”
The driver nods, then turns to the road and peels away from the curb.
As we roll down Fifth Avenue, Riley turns to me eagerly. “So. How are you adjusting to life with Reed?”
“Um. There’s been a bit of an adjustment period,” I admit.
“Oh, yeah?”
I can feel my cheeks going red with embarrassment all over again. “There was a little bit of an… incident this morning.”
“What kind of incident?” Sophie asks.
I make eye contact with the driver in the rearview mirror. Amusement flickers in his eyes, and he reaches for a switch in the front seat. The partition slides up, and just like that, our conversation is private—much more private than we could have hoped for on the subway.
“Well, things have been kind of…tense,“ I begin carefully, hoping that if I’m nonspecific enough, they won’t know exactly what I’m talking about instantly. “So Reed got me a present this morning to help take the edge off.”
Riley, who has known me for way too long, starts to snicker. “What kind of present?”
“A vibrator.”
