The Fake Debutante and the True Billionaire novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Terms

Alone in the conservatory, Jess sets the terms for the man who knows her secret, until his fiancee steps in and invites her to supper.

I made it as far as the conservatory.

It was a glass room at the back of the Cotillion house, full of lemon trees in pots and the smell of wet stone.

I pulled off my gloves, sat down on the rim of a fountain, and began to count.

One, two, three, four.

"Five," said a voice behind me.

I did not turn around.

"I'm going to scream," I said.

"You won't."

Carlisle Landis came down the steps with his hands in his pockets.

"Screaming brings Sabina."

"Then what do you want?"

"Nothing you haven't already decided to give."

"That's not an answer."

"It's the first one I've got."

He stopped a few feet away, with the lemon trees between us.

Up close, the scar through his eyebrow was a hair thinner than I'd guessed.

"Here is what I'm going to do," he said.

"Nothing.

"I haven't said a word to anyone.

"I won't.

"I don't know why a woman would be Rosamond Cabell at four o'clock and somebody else at one in the morning.

"I'm not going to ask."

I looked at him for a long moment.

"Why not?"

"Because if you wanted me to know, you'd have told me.

"And because I'd like to be the man you don't have to explain it to."

My throat did something strange.

Men had told me a lot of things in a lot of dark rooms.

None of them had ever told me that.

"You tipped me five thousand dollars," I said.

"I did."

"For what?"

"For forty minutes of the best thing I've seen in this city."

He said it plainly, like a weather report.

"I'd like to see it again.

"Privately, Thursday, after hours.

"I'll pay the house, whatever Tavy names.

"Not you.

"The house."

I blinked.

"You know Tavy's name."

"I asked the bouncer and he told me nothing. I asked the bartender and she told me everything."

That sounded like Tavy's bartender.

I stood up, because I had never negotiated sitting down.

"Then listen," I said, "because I'm only saying this once. My terms."

"Go on."

"One. The mask stays on. So does the wig."

"Agreed."

"Two.

"You don't touch me unless I put your hands somewhere.

"I mean it.

"Hands under your legs, hands on the chair, I don't care.

"If I say stop, you stop."

"Agreed."

"Three. You never ask me my name, and you don't follow me home."

A muscle moved in his jaw.

"Agreed."

"Four. You're engaged."

"Yes."

I had been waiting for the lie, the it's complicated, the she doesn't understand me.

It didn't come.

"I'm engaged," he said. "I've been trying to end it since August. It isn't an excuse. It's a fact, and you should have it."

"Then Thursday is a show," I said.

"Not a promise.

"I'm not your mistress and I'm not your secret.

"I'm somebody you pay a club to watch."

"Understood."

"Say it."

"Thursday is a show, not a promise." His mouth bent a little at one corner. "Do I get to know the fee?"

"Ten thousand. To Tavy."

"Done."

He said it so fast I felt a flash of temper, and underneath it a flash of something else.

"You didn't even haggle."

"Would it have helped?"

"No," I said, "but it's polite."

He laughed.

It was a low, rough sound, as if it didn't get used much, and it went through the glass room like a struck bell.

"Miss Cabell," he said.

"Mr. Landis."

"Darling?"

Sabina's voice came from the top of the steps.

She stood there in her ivory silk with two women behind her, all three of them looking from his face to mine.

Carlisle did not step back.

"Sabina," he said. "Miss Cabell felt faint. I brought her some air."

"How gallant." Sabina came down the steps slowly, one hand trailing the rail. "You're so good with strays."

"I'm fine, thank you," I said.

"Of course you are."

She took Carlisle's arm.

Her nails were pale pink and very sharp.

"I'm throwing a little supper for Mama on Thursday.

"Seven o'clock, at the house on South Battery.

"You must come, Miss Cabell.

"All the new girls come."

Thursday.

"I have a prior engagement," I said.

"Do you? Where?"

"With my brother."

"How sweet." She smiled. "Bring him."

"He's unwell."

"Then you'll come alone."

The smile did not move.

"I looked up the Cabells of Atlanta, you know.

"I couldn't find you in a single directory."

"We're a private people."

"Mama's very good at finding things, dear."

She turned Carlisle toward the door with the small, proprietary pressure of a woman steering a car.

Over her shoulder he looked back at me, one eyebrow lifted against the scar.

Your call, the look said.

I took a breath.

I could say no.

I could go home, put the wig in a drawer, and take the four thousand I was missing from a second job.

I thought of Tenny's walker, and of the folder, and of the Sponsor's wire due on Friday.

"Seven o'clock," I said. "I'd be delighted."

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