Can't Buy Me Love by Amy Lillard Read Free Book Online Page A

you to sleep in the suite with me. There’s no need to alert them to which bed, but we’ll have to share the bathroom. I hope you don’t mind. I promise not to squeeze the toothpaste from the middle, and I’ll do my best to keep the toilet lid down.”
    Paige struggled with the intimate thoughts of sharing toothp aste and toilets with this man. She had survived in the jungles of Africa with no bathroom for miles.  Sharing the elegant suite with the man at her side should be a cakewalk. Should be…“That won’t be a problem,” she finally said.
    “ Good.” He turned and walked through the large bathroom toward the door he had indicated led to his room. He paused and turned to face her, a sheepish look on his face. “Just one more thing. In the mornings, so Julie doesn’t ask questions, would you mind making your own bed? Being an ex-prostitute and all....Well if the truth is ever made public, I don’t think she would understand why I’m paying you to sleep alone.”
    ****
    Paige held her ring up in the half-light of the moon that filtered into her room through the gauzy pale yellow curtains. It was a knuckle to knuckle band of gold that signified nothing more than she was married. Blake wore one almost identical to hers though not as wide. She couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps he was lying in his bed looking at his ring with the same wonderment.
    Paige shook her head at her fanciful thoughts, then rolled over in her big white and yellow bed. Men like Blake longed for women like Lydia: beautiful, elegant, and serene, not plain women like her: ordinary, average, and medium. A fact that she would do well to remember in the months to come.
    She pulled the covers over her head and drifted off to sleep.
    ****
    Blake wrapped the dark blue towel around his waist and stepped from the shower. The bathroom steamed with a cloud of fog. He liked his showers hot. Hot enough to make his skin red. Hot enough to mist over the mirror. Hot enough to ease the tension brought on by too many problems at Caldwell.
    He flexed his shoulders trying to dispel the tightness that remained even after his scalding shower. With the corner of a hand towel, he wiped clear a large circle on the mirror. The Hollywood lighting above the mirror caught the band of gold on his left hand and sent the Midas sparks to reflect in the mirror.
    The restless night he had spent hadn ’t changed any of the problems he faced. Caldwell needed new blood and fast or else it would be the company of yesterday. The last thing he needed right now was a new bride to care for. He had other responsibilities, like the jobs of the many people that worked for him. Like the new designs they needed to keep them afloat. Caldwell was the largest clothing manufacturer in the mid-West, but it had been slowly crumbling under his aunt’s short-sighted reign.
    Blake lathered his face with shaving cream and mulled over the problems of outdated designs, jobs, and brides. If only he could get his hands on a talented designer like the one who had fashioned Paige’s wedding dress.
    He made a mental note to ask her where she had bought the dress. It had to be someplace off the beaten path. Temp secretaries didn’t make enough to buy one-time dresses from the swanky boutiques on Michigan Avenue. Temp secretaries didn’t make enough buy dresses from there period.
    W hat was he thinking? Chances were that Paige had bought that dress off the rack in some discount store and had no idea who designed it or even what country it was made in.
    “ Oh, I’m sorry.”
    Blake whirled around at the sound of Paige ’s voice. Her eyes were saucer-wide as she looked at him. He carefully avoided her gaze, casually turning back to his reflection. He scraped the blade down the side of his face, acting as if having a woman watch him shave was an everyday occurrence.
    “ Come on in,” he said.
    In the mirror her glorious gaze captured his. The razor sliced.
    “ Damn.” He knew better than to look