Page 19 of The Encore Effect

“A perfect fit,” Joseph proclaimed, delightedly clapping his hands together.

Nothing was ever a perfect fit on Kat, but this ring was.

She swallowed to bring moisture back to her mouth, her eyes darting between Beckett’s piercing stare and the large diamond on her finger. “It’s too much.”

“You like it,” he said.

Not a question. A statement. He knew she liked it.

Tears welled behind her eyes and she blinked them away. What a stupid time to cry. It wasn’t like they were really getting engaged. He’d probably had some assistant at the label make suggestions. Derek’s righthand man Luke had read all of her novels. The idea probably came from him.

Beckett caught her chin with his thumb and forefinger, tilting her face up to meet his searching eyes, his brow furrowed. “You do like it, don’t you?”

She wet her lips with her tongue and nodded, dashing away a tear with her free hand before it could fall.

“We’ll take it,” he said.

Kat shook her head, the shock melting away and leaving behind a strange jumbled-up feeling in its place. “It’s too expensive.” When all he did was press his lips together in a flat line in response, she turned to Joseph. “How much is it?”

The jeweler hesitated, looking to Beckett for some cue as to how to proceed. “Surely the price is not important. What’s important is how much you love each other.”

“How much?”

“Two hundred and twenty-five thousand,” Joseph reluctantly admitted.

“That’s insane.”

Beckett exhaled sharply through his nose, and Joseph shrank under his disapproving glare.

She made to remove the ring from her finger, but Beckett clamped his hand down on top of hers, stopping her.

“You can’t spend a quarter of a million dollars on a f—” She caught herself just before declaring the illegitimacy of their engagement, glancing warily at Joseph.

“We’ll take it,” Beckett repeated, ignoring her protests. “Charge it to my account.”

“Yes, sir,” Joseph said, hurrying from the room presumably to do just that.

No sooner had the door closed behind him than Kat jumped up from the couch. “Have you lost your mind?” she hissed. “Two hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars!”

“Everyone will expect you to have a ring. Now you have one.”

“It doesn’t need to be this ring.”

He rolled his lips between his teeth, looking away. Then he got to his feet, straightened his jacket, and stalked across the room until he was so close she was forced her to tilt her head back to meet his eyes. “My fiancée should have the best.”

She reared back, his words settling like lead in her stomach. “I’m not your fiancée.”

That muscle in his jaw ticked again. “For the next month you are.”

Chapter Eight

“Everybody decent?” Kat called as she stepped onto Midnight Storm’s tour bus, shielding her eyes.

“As decent as we get,” Zach replied.

Logan gestured to the television mounted on one wall of the bus. “You’re just in time. There’s a new episode of Love Resort.”

Nico stepped onto the bus behind Kat, greasy brown paper bags from the burger place next door to the arena clutched in both hands. “Is my girl Lacey still in the villa?”