Then he hugged me. He smelled nice, like cedarwood cologne, leather, and maybe a dash of home. It was probably all in his expensive cologne, but for right now, I hugged him back, ignoring the thought. It was nice to belong.
Chapter Five
Hope
* * *
As I stepped back into his world, it was like stepping into another universe. I knew people lived in the fancy buildings, but I'd learned to never judge a man by the suit or the job. In New York, people pretended to be who they weren’t all the time, and I had a liar magnet when it came to men.
He pressed his hand on my shoulder and I jumped. Touching was a bad, bad idea. I turned, and he pointed at the shoe rack I’d found my shoes on earlier. I tugged off my flats and placed them there.
As we finished breakfast, the butler, dressed in all black, came in. Charlie nodded to him. “Michael… Mr. Fuller, this is Hope Williams. Please call a jeweler so we can go get her a proper ring as my fiancée.”
“Yes, sir,” he said quickly.
Honestly, he was Britney’s type entirely, from how he dressed to how he spoke. I waved. “Hi.”
“Hello, ma’am,” he said then left.
My nose wrinkled, and I turned to Charlie. “I’ve never been a ma’am.”
He walked me to the room I’d woken up in. I stared at the white sheets I’d jumped to get out of yesterday.
“Well," he said, "I already had a small wardrobe delivered, so you can go and change before we go to the Diamond District.”
My heart beat faster. If my clothes I’d taken my time to pick weren’t good enough, I was in serious trouble. I tugged on the fabric near my chest. “My dress isn’t good enough?”
His eyes widened. “It is. I’m just used to women constantly changing clothes to match the occasion.”
I blinked. Right. Perfect. We were never going to be together for real. I rubbed the back of my head. “We’ll do that later. Can I ask why we’re jumping right to engaged? Most people would scale from boyfriend-girlfriend and then up when the time is right.”
“I’ve only ever told my parents that if I bring home a girl, then she’s the one for me. I’ve never done well with being conventional.”
“I believe that. Let’s go take a walk. I can’t just sit yet.”
He shrugged. “Sounds good.”
I marched back to the door. The penthouse needed some accents and things, but generally speaking, Charlie had good taste.
I tugged my shoes on, and he did the same. Then he opened the door, and neither of us said a word. I could hardly breathe until we were in the elevator. When the doors closed, I said, “I think we should make some rules about our relationship."
He faced me and tapped his pocket he’d put my letter in. “I’m listening, and I promise I’ll get this bill paid right away as a token of trusting you.”
The doors opened. People were waiting to get in. We filed out, and I waited until we'd passed security. As we headed to Central Park, I said, “I don’t think we should ever kiss again unless we’re in public.”
He folded his hands. “I liked kissing you, and you liked kissing me.”
I wrinkled my nose, though memories of us in my hotel room replayed in my mind. He wasn’t alone with that, but I shook my head. “That was when we didn’t mean anything to each other. Now everything about us fake.”
He shrugged as we went on a path that eventually would lead to the famous fountain from the opening credits of Friends. My friends and I had all taken a selfie day last year where we took pictures of ourselves all over New York like tourists might.
“You meant something to me," he said. "You were like a magnet for me right away.”
“That’s a recipe for getting burned.”
“Tell you what—I won’t kiss you first in private.”
He hadn’t quite agreed to my rule, and he was probably right. We were going to kiss. My lips ached for him already. However, I straightened my spine. “And no touching unless we’re trying to prove we’re in love.”
