Chapter 3 CHAPTER THREE: NEW FLAME

ZARA

My eyes fluttered open to the bartender lying on his side, back turned to me and the blanket slipped low on his waist. The aching between my legs was all enough proof of what happened last night.

He stirred in the bed and turned to me gently, his eyes half-open and a bright smile against his lips. I wanted to lean in and kiss him, but the deal was one night.

“Good morning, princess,” he muttered. I heard girls gush over how sexy Morning Voice was, but I had never experienced it until now. My stomach flipped and my heart rate spiked.

I cleared my throat and pushed myself into a sitting position. “I am not your princess.”

“Didn’t hear you complain last night,” he said, and that made it ten times worse. Of course, I didn't complain when he had done everything right. “I have something to tell you.” His tone had changed from the playful, slutty one to a more serious ‘we need to talk’ one.

“Don’t go confessing your love to me,” I snapped. He let out a small laugh, like he had been caught in the act, and silence fell. I waited for him to speak, but nothing came.

I cleared my throat again to rid the itchy feeling in it; my mouth opened, not sure what I was about to say, when my phone began ringing. My eyes caught it lying face down on the rugged floor, probably tossed there when we stumbled to the bed last night.

“Ms. Crawford,” my assistant Zoey sounded distressed on the other side of the phone. “You finally picked up,” she let out a sigh of relief.

“What?”

“I have been calling you.” I turned when I felt eyes boring into my back, icy blue eyes staring blatantly at me, making me want to jump back in bed. I shuffled on my feet, trying to pretend that the way he was looking at me didn't matter.

“Is there any reason you have to call me so early on a Wednesday?”

“Not just any Wednesday,” she remarked, and I wished she would just stop beating about the bush and just say what she called for. “Today is your engagement party,” she declared, and a small disbelieving chuckle escaped my lips.

“My what?”

“Your engagement party to Aiden Knight”

“Yeah, I already told my parents I am not…” I stopped myself. I told them, but I knew that didn't change this. Rushing the engagement party because they knew I was going to find a way to ruin it was a wise thing to do.

“You need to get back soon so…”

“Are you asking me to surrender?” I snapped my voice loud. I glanced over at this man who was still staring at me like a prize. She shrugged when our eyes met.

“I…I…a…am…not, ma’am,” she stuttered. “But I might lose my job if I don’t do what Lady Crawford has asked of me,” she finished.

Of course, she had to listen to who paid her cheques. I sighed and lowered myself into the couch; my finger ran through my already tangled hair.

“That party won’t hold tonight,” I declared, even though I didn’t have a single plan in mind. I made a weird sound from the back of my throat and nodded. “I will make sure of it.”

“What do you want me to do?” she asked.

“I will let you know,” I said. My voice carried confidence, like I had thought of something. She made a wounded sound before the line beeped dead.

I hurried through the room, picking up my clothes scattered across the floor. I had to get out of here and try to solve this one way or another.

“Is there some kind of trouble, princess?”

“None you can help me with,” I mumbled the response as I slipped on the dress.

“Are you sure? I am skilled in many other ways.” I could hear the hidden innuendo in his voice, but chose to ignore it.

“My parents want me to marry Aiden Knight, but there is no way I am marrying that jerk, so I am going to make sure I find a way out of it.”

“Aiden Knight is a jerk?” He tried to sound neutral, but I caught a hint of interest in his casual tone.

“Oh, a big one.” I shook my head with a deep sigh. “That is definitely not the problem here. I need to…” I trailed off, the words getting lost in my throat.

Another idea is forming in my head. If I were to show up with a groom of my own, it might not stop the process, but it would definitely slow it down, and that way I could find a way out of it later.

“I was going to pay you, but what do you say to making a couple of millions?”

“What?”

“I have a proposal for you.” A sly smile stretched my lips as everything fell into place. “One that would leave you with a lot of money; you’d have to quit your job as a bartender.”

I needed a shield, not a husband – someone not connected with my family or my past.

“I am listening,” he said, and I knew I had gotten to him. Of course, a man like him would make do with the money, and I had enough money to spare.

“I will pay you ten million to be my husband.”

“To be your husband? ” He repeated it, and I nodded. “Zara…”

My name slipped out of his mouth, natural and comfortable like he had always known it; the only problem was that I had never told him before. I gulped and held his eyes. Something about this was off.

“I know you,” he added. I shouldn't be too surprised; after all, the blogs called me the spoilt princess heiress, and that trouble followed. “You are Zara Crawford after all.”

“So what do you say? Are you going to be my husband? ” I asked, ignoring how well everything was falling into place and how uneasy it was supposed to make me feel.

“Can you explain how this is supposed to work to me? ” He pulled him from the position he had been in into a sitting position as his eyes held mine steadily.

“We sign a contract; you come with me as my groom to get my parents off my back so I don’t have to marry Aiden and you…” I gestured to him, realising his name was something I had no idea of.

“Michael,” he said once, and when my eyebrow went up, he finished. “Michael Black”

“You, Michael Black, would be my groom, so my parents get off my back for the next two years.”

After that, I was sure I would think of something else. He blinked as if he couldn't believe I was asking for something so absurd.

I didn't know where this plan would end, but it was better than surrender.

“So what do you say? ” I asked, forcing a steady tone.

“So what about sex?” he asked so boldly. My cheeks fanned red as if I had not just begged him last night to sleep with me. “Are we going to…”

“Not at all. It is purely a business relationship, and we have to keep it that way.” I cut him off.

“Sex complicates things; I want control, not chaos.”

I explained. It wasn't like I didn't want sex like he did, but I knew what happened when we allowed things to distract us.

“But we both have needs.” He inched closer; the back of his fingers ran across my bare arm as he looked on, a dangerous expression across his face.

“And we know that we both can satisfy them,” he added.

I cleared my throat and got up; his hand fell to the bed. “Then I’d say only when we both have needs.”

I knew I shouldn't have offered, but business was give and take. He finally got out of bed, still naked and enticing.

“I’d say we have a deal.” He stretched his hand to me, and I swallowed before taking his hand.

“Deal.”