CHAPTER 3

“I want you to pretend we’re together in a relationship. That we’ve been involved for the last month, actually.”

          Chance watched as Melora’s face turned in a second from white to red before she finally nailed that single-word demand for clarification.

“What?”

“To pretend that we’re involved in a love story.”

“Oh, so I did hear right… You, Mr. Benson, must be out of your damn mind! You’re delusional if you think that I’ll accept.”

          Well, Chance hadn’t expected her to simply agree and climb into his lap. And, man, as much as he liked the hot flush across her skin, he definitely didn’t need to think of Melora’s lush curves and petite frame curling into the seat of his thighs. Not a good idea at all. Never had been.

“Just take it down a notch, princess. Have a sip, it will calm you down a little.”

          He offered the champagne, only to have it pushed back at him. With a shake of her head, a silky brown strand fell on her face. The first ruffled feather. She was staring at him now, those big green eyes wide with disbelief.

“So, sweetheart, can I count on you?”

“You want me to pretend we’re together…” she said looking at him while Chance was nodding. “You want the press… everybody, to catch us…? Are you insane?”

          Chance said nothing, just looked at her waiting for her entire speech before asking again. He needed her and he was going to have her.

“But you hadn’t wanted us to get caught.”

          She started at him and her expression became dark. Chance wasn’t sure he understood her last remark.

“Excuse me?”

          With a shrug, Melora turned his face from him. The man standing there with her was a very successful businessman. How in the hell was it he managed multibillion-dollar deals without batting an eye when he couldn’t spit out a simple proposal with any clarity or finesse at all?

          Melora wasn’t his first choice… she was the only choice he had to solve everything. She had to help him… she had to enter his life again and play the role he designed for her only.  

          Letting loose a frustrated growl, he pushed his fingers into his hair, giving it a good tug at the root.

“Here’s the deal, Melora. The press is on me. Digging into something I don’t want to be dug up. I need to distract them with something juicy they can sink their teeth into. Even if you might not believe me, I’m trying to do the right thing here. Only that, in this case, I can’t do it alone. I need a friend… well, someone I can trust to help me pull it off. Melora, you’re perfect. You have a certain position in society, due to your family, you’re respected, and everyone will believe that we went under the radar with this relationship because you wouldn’t want a relationship with me publicized.”

“And how come I didn’t want that?” she asked, and the way her eyebrow furrowed in genuine confusion had Chance wanting to laugh.

“Well, because you’re Melora Channing, member of a blue-blooded family. You are the image of the American sweetheart. You want a respectable husband, children… A perfect family, with the most perfect guy, a blue-blooded member, like you, ” Chance replied tipping the bottle again and downing another swallow before turning back to her.

          Melora looked at him. Well, his idea might’ve worked. Everybody knew that Chance wasn’t allergic to the entire idea of marriage only. He was allergic to the entire concept of a serious relationship.

          During those years, from time to time, Melora followed Chance’s personal life through magazines, newspapers, TV appearances. There’d been a time, back when Chance first hit the financial papers, that women started lining up front to back with ‘true love’ written all over their faces, gazes filled with admiration and lust and a prenup ready to be used in their purse.

          Chance wasn’t coming from a well-known family.  But he was the most ambitious man she had ever seen. He always told her that he is the captain of his ship, the master of his destiny. In school, Chance was the kid who couldn’t get a commitment for the prom because he didn’t have a trust fund. But he just worked hard and got extremely rich and famous.

          Even with this success, there was one constant in his life that never changed. That was his will to create his own family. Chance wasn’t a man built for everlasting love. And he didn’t get played. He loved women and their company, but he was always very straight. The women entering his life weren’t looking for anything more than he was willing to offer. A little company and a lot of sweaty sex.

          Sure, the occasional fortune hunter still got her silk panties in a twist over his refusal to tie the knot… but on the whole, there weren’t a lot of misconceptions about what Chance had to offer the women he dated. Just good time, but on his terms.

          And now he was asking her to do exactly what he never was cut to be. The green of her eyes seemed to change shade beneath his stare, her body still, her voice cool.

“If those are my priorities then why would I have an affair with you?”

“Because I’m the best kind of forbidden fun,” Chance answered with a cocky smile promising it was true. “I’m your in between, your walk on the wild side after things didn’t work out at all with Charlton. A palate cleanser before the next blue blood gets in line.”

“Walk on the wild side? My in between?” Melora asked, incredulous. “You, Mr. Benson, should stay amongst people a bit more often. This way you’ll stop thinking that people are all dumb. You are richer than God. You could wake up tomorrow morning and, during breakfast, you could buy and sell my family three times over.”

          ‘Sure, I could do it… now’, he said to himself.

“Ok, you’re right. Then, we need to go with the name thing,” Chance offered with a shrug. “Old money versus new. I’ve got the money but not the prestige of your family name.”

         Melora’s lips parted, then firmed into a tight line. A pretty pink stained her cheeks as she moved to stand.

“No one would believe something so ridiculous and insulting. Not one single person in his right mind would buy this reason.”

          Chance caught her wrist, pulling her back down. Melora’s pulse started racing again.

“If we play our cards right, everyone will buy it. After all, it shouldn’t be so hard.”

“But even if I’ll say yes, which I’m not… there’s still my brother.”

          Ah, yes… Brando Channing. The only reason she might say no and end this conversation. Melora huffed, irritated.

“Listen, I don’t particularly want to experience my brother’s wrath coming down on me over you, not without a good reason. It happened once… never again.”

“How about this... Go along with my plan because it will give the talk about you a whole new flavor. No more pity over that idiot not marrying you. They’ll be shocked… and jealous.”

          Melora’s expression lightened as she focused on some distant spot beyond the snug walls of their utility room before returning to him.

“Why me? Can’t you find someone else willing to play this stupid game with you?”

“Melora, I need you for this,” Chance said searching her eyes. “I need the press to stop looking for what I’ve been up to the last six months. I need them to think they’ve already found the big secret. That it’s you. People will read a million reasons into why we didn’t want it public.… You’re hoping that Charlton would come around. The animosity between your brother and me. The fact that women who date me aren’t doing it in search of a happily ever after. Let them guess.”

          Melora’s gaze shifted restlessly around their small space. This was supposed to be it. The last society affair. She was getting out of the papers and getting on with the life she’d been working toward. The life where she was judged on her merit rather than how successfully she wore a gown or what the press reported her priorities to be.

          But Chance would never have come to her if his secret wasn’t important. And she had to admit some brazen bit of her psyche, too long neglected, reveled in the stir the name Melora Channing paired with Chance Benson would cause. Definitely talk of a different flavor. And Brando would be livid seeing them together.

          The bad blood between them was now legendary… Whatever had transpired between Brando and Chance hadn’t been washed away by the passage of time. After ten years, the mere mention of Chance’s name would send her brother out of his mind… and she still didn’t fully understand why. As she didn’t understand why Chance had closed himself off from her so abruptly. So absolutely.

          Casting a sidelong glance at the villain next to her, Melora realized this could very well be her chance to find out what went wrong ten years ago.

“What happened between you and Brando? Why did you hurt my brother so much?”

          Chance’s jaw set, the muscle jumping once before he answered.

“Maybe Brando deserved to be hurt a little.”

          Her brother had done a lot of things over the years she couldn’t condone. Couldn’t understand. But he was her blood, so Melora went along to get along.  

“Maybe… And maybe he deserved worse.”

          His gaze became dark as the blackest night and raked over her in one slow, telling sweep before it locked back at her eyes.

“Trust me, I could have done worse.”