now or never. Since a man only had one chance to get this deal right…Dex dropped to one knee in front of her.
“What are you doing?” Lacey’s voice notched up.
He reached for her hand. Curled his fingers carefully around hers. “Lacey Amari, would you do me the honor of being my wife?”
Her lips were parted. Her eyes now huge. Shock covered her face.
He waited, knowing this was the big moment and—
“No, absolutely not. I would never, ever marry you.”
Chapter Two
Dex Ryan had just asked her to marry him. Impossible. Insane.
She shook her head and even gave her arm a little pinch on the down low, just to make sure she hadn’t fallen asleep in her bedroom and that this whole scene wasn’t some crazy nightmare.
Nope. She felt the pinch.
Still down on one knee, Dex exhaled slowly and stared mournfully up at her. “I was afraid you’d say no.”
“Of course, I said no! I’m not marrying you! You don’t love me. I don’t love you and—”
“Relax. Love doesn’t need to be involved. It would strictly be an undercover ruse. Not legally binding in any shape or form.” He rose to his feet. Cocked his head. “Unless you need that. If it’s easier for you to get into character by actually marrying me, I’d be game. I would be—”
“No.” She put her hands on his chest. Very strong chest, by the way. Ignoring that thought, she pushed him toward the door. “I’m not going to be your undercover fiancée. That’s not happening.”
“Pity.” He backed up and went along with her push easily enough. “Would it help if I told you that lives were on the line? That this was a matter of national security?”
She stopped pushing. Her hands pressed to his chest. Once again, she couldn’t help but notice he had a very muscled, powerful chest. Her fingers stretched a tiny bit and—
Lacey caught herself. Her hands yanked back. “I need to know more.”
“I can’t tell you more. Not until you’re on the case.”
She glared.
He stared. And she realized that his eyes were actually quite beautiful. Deep gray. Super intense. They seemed to see right through her. Or, in to her.
“I know why you’re working at Wilde,” he murmured.
Her spine straightened. “I know, too. Because I respect Eric as a boss and because I enjoy helping people.”
Dex shook his head. “You’re smart. Very smart. I bet you haven’t even left a trail there, have you?”
OhmyGod. She could feel the color draining from her face.
“At first, you tried to use a regular PI to get the job done, but when he turned up jack, you knew you had to step up your game. If no one else was going to help you, you had to help yourself. You turned your whole life around. Changed all your plans as you devoted yourself to finding the truth.”
“You should leave,” she whispered.
“You got Eric to hire you—because, hey, on paper, you look great—but then, once you made it into his inner circle, you helped yourself to Wilde resources. You’ve been using his tech and his agents to help you with your own investigation ever since you walked through the door of that business. And Eric has no clue.”
This was bad. Very, very bad. She’d intended to tell Eric everything—especially after all the recent developments at Wilde. When they’d found out that they had a traitor at Wilde, she’d known that she had to tell Eric the full truth about herself. But…
The situation at Wilde was strained enough. And maybe…maybe she’d been afraid that he’d kick her out.
Her lashes swept down as she considered the situation. Eric hadn’t just hired her for her skills. He’d hired her because she was family. A connection most people didn’t know about. She’d used that connection as her in at Wilde. She hadn’t thought her secret investigation would be a big deal. She had just intended to use the firm’s resources, then slip away. But…
Eric Wilde is a good person. Eric and his brother Ben—they had treated her with nothing but kindness and respect and if they found out the truth, if they found out that she’d been using the company’s resources…
What if they turn on me? She would be alone again. No family.
“So, the way I figure it…” Dex drawled. “I could walk out of this door right now. The door that you were pushing me toward. And I could go to Eric. I could tell him what I learned. Could get him to search through his system and see