Bad Engagement (Billionaire's Club #10) - Elise Faber Page 0,4

his leg she’d gotten held true. There was stubble on his jaw, lines of fatigue surrounding his eyes.

He’d had a long day but still came to check on her.

A stranger.

A good guy.

“Were the complications serious?” she asked, heart twisting. Because she was worried about the animal, not the fact that she might fall for the good guy.

“Not great,” he said. “Turns out, the little man has an underlying heart condition. It will take some further steps to determine the cause and follow-up treatment.”

“Poor guy,” she murmured.

“He’s a tough one.” Jaime smiled. “But he was soaking up all the extra attention like a champ. When I left, he was trying to crawl into my tech’s pocket.”

She pushed the bread in his direction, placed her own roll on her plate, pretending she had manners for at least a few moments. Then she asked, “Was the little attention mooch a dog or a cat?”

Must be a small one if he was trying to crawl into pockets.

Maybe a teacup poodle?

Or it could be a non-furry critter, another bearded dragon.

Jaime’s lips curved further. “Oh, Hank is a guinea pig. We call him Hank the Tank because he eats like crazy but is really small for his variety.” He picked up his roll. “His favorite snacks are kale stems and cantaloupe.”

A guinea pig named Hank the Tank, who liked kale and cantaloupe.

“Does he wear a vest?” she asked, heart already squee-ing in anticipation.

“No,” Jaime said. “But he does have a tiny bowtie collar.”

And boom, just like that, her ovaries exploded under the power of squeedom.

Three

Jaime

He stared across the table at a woman he probably should have avoided at all costs.

She’d asked him to participate in a scheme that involved lying to her family. Maybe he could have justified it because who cared, he was lying to people he didn’t know, wouldn’t know again, but he was a man who preferred honesty.

Had the lying ex once, got the souvenir T-shirt, wasn’t going to visit again.

That alone should have been enough ammunition for him to not reply to the message in the first place, let alone agree to the deception.

Except . . . he’d been following KateMcFunPants on Instagram for more than a year now.

She was the friend of a friend—apparently worked in the marketing department of Steele Technologies, a large tech company headquartered in San Francisco. His friend, Ben, was friends with Sebastian, a higher-up at the company, and Ben had been photographed with Sebastian and Kate(McFunPants) at a few events together. Jaime had been intoxicated first by her mouth, spread wide in a million-dollar smile, then had latched onto her eyes, her curvy body, and he’d followed her. She’d reciprocated, and they’d liked a few of each other’s posts—not an obsessive amount going back months and years, but a few here and there.

This was romance in the age of social media, and it was important to use the proper amount of creepage . . . at least publicly.

Because privately?

He’d gone way back, far enough to see her feed dotted with more events from Steele Technologies and ex-boyfriends and girls’ nights, but he hadn’t liked anything from then. He’d been playing the long game—slow and steady, get her comfortable, then boom, swoop in for a date and have her fall for him.

He’d commented on the meme she’d made of fantasy versus reality—in her case a picture of her at goat yoga juxtaposed with one of a model for the company. The half of the meme that featured Kate was an action shot, a goat perched on her head, eating her tank top, as her hands slipped out from beneath her during downward dog. Her expression, along with the goat’s, was hilarious, and so far removed from the model’s that he’d actually laughed out loud as he’d gotten off BART.

That had earned a few dirty looks in the otherwise quiet train and station, but frankly, the denizens of this city had seen far worse.

She’d liked his comments, and communications had increased.

Date night was in the near future.

At least, that was how it had gone in his head.

But it seemed to be destined to continue that way—remain in his mind and not in real life—unless he got his head out of his ass and pulled the trigger on the whole date thing. The problem was that he was a bit gun shy. Which was the point where his brain circled back to his lying ex and the reason for being gun shy in the first place. They’d originally connected