You're The One (Very Irresistible Bachelors #1) - Layla Hagen Page 0,3

lower back, guiding her toward the door.

“Let’s go back before they get suspicious,” I said. I was close enough to notice a few freckles on her shoulders and the exposed part of her back. She only got them after being in the sun. Her skin looked so smooth that I barely stopped myself from touching her. Jesus, I had to stop that line of thinking.

Josie grinned. “I’m sure Tess already noticed we’ve disappeared. You just wait.”

My cousin Tess had noticed everything even as a kid, and that hadn’t changed. She pointed a finger at us the second we returned to the living room.

“So... what’s with the secret escape?” she asked.

Josie laughed, giving me an I-told-you-so look. “Hunter and I can keep our secrets, can’t we?”

***

Josie

I was on pins and needles for the rest of the dinner. The second I arrived at home, I kicked off my shoes, grabbed my laptop, and dove headfirst into my research.

Deported.

The word sent a cold shiver all over me. I wouldn’t let that happen. I knew he had the best lawyers on hand, but I couldn’t just do nothing. I was a lawyer too, and a very good one at that, and I was determined to help out my best friend.

Hunter was a powerful man. If he had a problem, he fixed it. If he set a goal, he reached it, no matter how many people told him it was far-fetched.

He’d been headstrong and emanating an unshakable sense of power since the day I met him. The two of us were scholarship students at the private school we attended. The other kids picked on me because of my clothes—my family didn’t have the money for fancy ones. But where I’d been short and scrawny, Hunter had been tall and muscular and not one bit afraid to use his physique to intimidate others into leaving me alone.

I checked the immigration services requirements for green cards and visa extensions, then investigated some statutes. The knot in my stomach turned tighter as the hours went by, because these were murky waters, especially once they’d decided not to renew your existing visa.

It was three o’clock in the morning when my phone buzzed with an incoming message.

Hunter: Are you asleep?

Josie: No, still researching.

I’d made lists upon lists but had no definitive answer for him. I scrunched my nose when he called.

“I’m not done with the research,” I said instead of greeting him.

“Josie, go to sleep. I’ll have my team deal with this on Monday. Hell, I’ll have a new team brought in.”

“I want to look everything up too. The immigration services are pretty exact in their terms.”

“All right, hit me up. What did you find?”

I was lying on the bed on my belly, dangling my feet, chewing the end of a pencil. I didn’t like talking about my work until I had researched every possible angle of the law to exhaust all available options.

“Come on, Josie. I’m your best friend, not a judge. Just hit me up with whatever solution you have.”

“Okay, okay.... Short of marrying an American, you’re stuck with going through complex paperwork and keeping your fingers crossed. I mean, paperwork will be involved anyway, but this is a more straightforward route.”

He gave a strained laugh. “You’re joking.”

“Unfortunately, not. Look, you have options of course, especially because you have a huge business, but they didn’t renew your visa... so I’m not quite sure what they’re looking for. Anyway, you need a green card. Your lawyers never mentioned that?”

“They did, I just didn’t have time to deal with it.”

“Okay. So, about the green card. Many people marry to obtain it. As a lawyer, I definitely don’t recommend that course of action. It’s a felony. If you’re discovered, your American counterpart can get up to a few years in prison, and you’d be deported.”

“But as a friend, you’d recommend it?”

I hesitated. “From my experience, it’s the easiest route. It’s not easy by any means, but easier than other options.”

Hunter said nothing for a few seconds. He sounded dejected when he spoke next. “I haven’t found anyone to marry in thirty-two years. I don’t think I can just whip someone up on demand....”

Interesting. I hadn’t known Hunter wanted to find anyone. He’d made it clear on more than one occasion that he didn’t intend to settle down anytime soon. I supposed when you looked the way Hunter did and had so much wealth... why settle?

“It doesn’t have to be real, Hunter. Just an arrangement with someone you trust until you’re done