The Cinderella Arrangement by Vanessa Waltz Page B

crazy.”
    “It’s his inheritance. He deserves it. He’s earned it. It might go to people who don’t deserve it, who aren’t even affiliated with the company at all.”
    Despite his assurances to the opposite, I still didn’t think Luke would be as motivated if his inheritance was a few thousand dollars. How does one earn five billion dollars? You can’t. Mr. Pardini could do whatever he wanted with his money. Still, it was an asshole move to shove your only son out, especially when he had worked so hard his whole life for his father’s approval.
    Hell, who am I kidding? He deserves it. Luke toiled his whole life expecting to take his father’s mantle. To have it ripped out of his hands when this line of work was the only one he knew would be downright cruel.
    At that moment, Luke rejoined us at the table and I was tight-lipped, avoiding his gaze. The waitress brought us three steaming pies surrounded by mashed potatoes and a moat of gravy and I soon forgot everything I worried about. Brandon laughed at me as I sighed in ecstasy with each bite. The steak and ale pie was dripping with decadence; the meat was slow-cooked for hours so it fell apart and melted in my mouth. The gravy mingling with the mustard seed potatoes was delicious, and I devoured it, burning my tongue. After we finished, we sat for a while and enjoyed the peace of a warm, full belly. Brandon patted his stomach and stood up to leave.
    “I should get going.”
    “I hope I see you again,” I said, shaking his hand.
    “Likewise.”
    Luke stepped forward to grasp Brandon in a one-armed hug and then he turned as Brandon left the pub.
    I couldn’t read his face. “Luke, I’m sorry. I didn’t know what to say—”
    “Don’t be sorry. That was brilliant, even if it was mortifying.”
    My cheeks flushed at his praise and they burned even brighter when he smiled at me.

    * * *
    L uke's arm dropped from my side the moment the elevator doors closed. He stepped a mile back and focused his gaze on everywhere but me. It was as though I was invisible.
    I thought that he believed he could ignore me into nonexistence. After the almost-sex in our hotel room, Luke avoided staying too long around me. For hours I'd stay in the room, alone. It wasn’t too terrible. The money I earned was used to travel across England. I visited York Minster Abbey and marveled at the Gothic splendor, even climbing the abbey’s spiral staircase. It was amazing, but I wished I had someone— anyone to experience it with.
    On the weekends, Luke and I went out together on fake dates. We kissed in front of paparazzi, we made out in park benches, and we took trains to Bath, Oxford, to the Lake District. The sexual tension between us was as taut as a tightrope, trembling, ready to snap. It all felt so damn real, but every time we returned to the hotel, Luke was distant. He separated himself from me the moment we stepped inside as though he couldn’t wait to be rid of me.
    There was an aching hole inside my chest. I no longer enjoyed going out with him—he made me feel even lonelier than I did when I walked alone. It sucked. 
    I closed my eyes. “Luke?”
    “Hm?”
    “I can’t take this anymore.”
    The elevator lights beamed with the sixth floor.
    Luke looked at me with a puzzled expression. “What do you mean?”
    “I can’t go on kissing you every day and acting like it means nothing.”
    “Jessica, we made an agreement—”
    "Then we almost had sex. I haven’t been able to think of anything else."
    A heavy weight settled on my shoulder. His abdomen bumped into my back and I tried to stamp down the swell inside my heart. His fingers brushed aside the strands of hair on my naked skin, and just that was enough to make the heat between my legs blaze into a forest fire.
    “Do you think I want to push you away? I'm trying to protect us."
    The bell chimed. Seventh floor.
    "Maybe I don't want to be protected."
    "You're making this harder than it needs to be. I want you,