It sure felt different. I was used to helping people and spreading a legacy of kindness and comfort.
Cade was asking me to lie to strangers for a week.
Giving myself a moment to consider it, I sipped my mocha and looked around for Whiskey. He’d found Mac in the corner and was sniffing the stiff bodyguard’s foot. Seemingly satisfied with what he smelled, Whiskey rubbed against Mac’s ankles, weaving between his legs.
Mac straight up ignored him, standing still as a statue with his hands in his pockets and his dark gaze watching our table.
I cleared my throat to hide my smile and refocused on Cade.
I wasn’t sure why I was hesitating when this was the answer to my prayers. Besides, Sadie had readily jumped into the life of crime without looking back, and this wasn’t nearly as dangerous. I’d be agreeing to take a fancy vacation on a yacht while pretending to be engaged to an attractive rich bachelor.
I took a deep breath and set my mug down. “Where do I sign?”
One side of Cade’s mouth lifted in a smirk. “My legal team is working up a contract as we speak. I sent them the specifics to fill in, and there’ll be another NDA to sign. My assistant will run the papers over by the time we finish here. In the meantime, start memorizing everything inside this file.”
He must’ve signaled to Mac—or maybe the bodyguard had been eavesdropping this entire time—because he peeled away from the corner to approach our table. Whiskey trotted along behind him.
Mac placed a leather portfolio on the table in front of me without a word, then strode back to his spot standing beside a big cat tree while Whiskey stuck around. My little fluffball propped his paws against my leg to proudly drop a gift into my lap.
“Oh.” I held up the dark shoelace and frowned at Whiskey. “This isn’t yours, is it?”
Whiskey’s big blue eyes peered back up at me innocently, and I sighed before facing Cade.
“Sorry. He thinks he’s bringing me a gift, but I’m trying to teach him that stealing is wrong.” Biting my lip, I glanced guiltily across the room and raised the shoelace higher. “Is this yours, Mac?”
Mac trudged back over, gaze flicking between the gift and his laceless boot. “…How the hell did he take that without me noticing?”
I winced. “He’s a sneaky little guy.”
Mac snatched the shoelace back—while glowering at an unbothered Whiskey—before shooting a glare at Cade and retreating to his corner.
Cade kept busy on his phone while I paged through the portfolio. It contained information from his childhood, a family tree, and a list of his staff at the penthouse.
I was reading through his schooling—of course he’d gone to a posh East Coast boarding school called Weston Academy—when Cade asked a question without taking his eyes off his phone. “What’s your full name?”
I looked up from the page with a frown. How could he have forgotten it already? He must’ve seen it on the app. “Ellie Darling.”
He sent me a dry glance over the table. “Yourrealname.”
My frown deepened. “That is my real name.”
Cade went completely still. “…Your legal name is Darling? You’re joking.”
“I wouldn’t joke about that.” I pressed my lips together. “Do you need to see my birth certificate to believe it?”
He slowly shook his head. “I thought it was a stage name. Like a stripper.”
“I’m not a stripper!”
Not that there was anything wrong with stripping. I even felt a bond with the profession, since professional cuddlers also struggled with societal stigmas. But we deserved respect in our own right, too.
“I didn’t say you were.” Cade rubbed at his temple, briefly closing his eyes. “Now I’m concerned that you put your real name on an app like that. You know it must be full of creeps, right?”
I gave him a pointed look. “Says the guy who’s paying me to pretend to be his fiancée.”
His eyes opened just enough to squint at me, lips twitching. “Point taken.”
Fighting my own smile, I flipped to a new page that showed some impressive internships. “Should I prepare something like this for you, too? With my family and schooling and everything?”