Page 34 of Something Like Shelter

“Gracie!” I hissed.

“Heya, Gracie,” Owen said, brows pinching at her enthusiasm, since he’d already greeted her.

“Willa here has a bit of a problem.”

“I don’t. I can take…” I racked my brain for literally anyone in my family who I could convincingly act like was my spouse. But I came up blank.

“What kind of problem?” Owen asked.

“Willa is being forced to attend this awful formal work event and she needs someone to pretend to be her significant other. I’m sure you can see what I’m getting at here.”

“Are you asking me to escort her?” he asked, glancing over to where I was standing, arms crossed, face on fire.

“Well, we have a lot of family. But that’s, you know, family. I don’t think anyone would buy any chemistry there.”

“Yeah, can’t imagine that would work,” Owen said, that lazy, charming smile of his spreading across his face.

My belly tightened.

Heat and need pooled.

“So, would you be free?”

Oh, God.

This was excruciating.

I wanted the floor to open up and swallow me whole.

“You don’t have to—”

“Sure. Is this a tux-type event?”

My brain stopped functioning for a second.

Owen. In a tuxedo.

Owen standing beside me in a room full of people who knew me as the polished, successful financial advisor who had her life together.

Owen meeting my coworkers.

Owen putting a hand on my waist while I introduced him as my partner.

Owen possibly pulling me close and moving me around the dance floor.

That last one made me choke a bit.

Because I knew it would just be pretend. A performance. A favor. Nothing more. And yet my body apparently hadn’t received that memo.

I could already imagine the feel of his strong hand at my back. His mouth close to my ear while he murmured something only I could hear.

The inevitable questions about how we’d met and how long we’d been together. The need to stand close enough that no one questioned the relationship.

It was going to be torture.

And, if I were being completely honest with myself, there was a tiny, shamefully excited part of me that was already looking forward to it.

Which was exactly why this was a terrible idea.