Chapter 2 - Three Black SUVs
Maya followed Mason’s gaze toward the approaching vehicle.
A silver Mercedes rolled slowly through the estate gates.
Nothing about it looked threatening.
Still, Mason’s security team reacted immediately.
One man moved toward the driveway.
Another quietly positioned himself near the front entrance.
A third touched his earpiece.
Maya stared.
“Mason.”
“Stay here.”
Her jaw dropped.
“Excuse me?”
“Please.”
“That sounded suspiciously like an order.”
Mason looked at her.
“Then consider it a request.”
The Mercedes stopped.
A silver-haired man in his sixties climbed out.
Maya recognized him instantly.
“Uncle Robert?”
Mason’s shoulders relaxed.
Maya stared at him.
“You deployed a security team against my uncle?”
“I didn’t know who was in the car.”
“He owns an orthodontics practice.”
“I know that now.”
“You’re insane.”
“Possibly.”
She marched toward the entrance.
Mason followed.
Her mother spotted her first.
“Maya!”
Linda Bennett hurried down the steps.
Her smile widened when she saw Mason.
Then she noticed the SUVs.
Then the security personnel.
Then Mason again.
Her smile became confused.
“Oh.”
Maya swallowed.
“Mom, this is Mason.”
Linda looked from Maya to Mason.
“The boyfriend?”
Mason extended his hand.
“Mason Reed. It’s very nice to meet you, Mrs. Bennett.”
Linda accepted it automatically.
“Maya said your name was Daniel.”
Silence.
Maya wanted the earth to swallow her.
Mason looked at Maya.
Maya looked at her mother.
“Well.”
Linda waited.
Maya improvised.
“Daniel is his middle name.”
Mason’s eyebrow moved.
Linda blinked.
“Your name is Mason Daniel Reed?”
Without missing a beat, Mason said, “Today it is.”
Maya elbowed him.
Her mother stared.
Then she laughed.
“Oh, I like him.”
“This is going terribly,” Maya muttered.
“It’s been thirty seconds,” Mason replied.
Inside the estate, things became worse.
Aunt Judith appeared.
She was wearing lavender silk and the expression of a woman who considered weddings competitive sports.
“Maya!”
Judith kissed the air beside Maya’s cheek.
Then she saw Mason.
Her expression changed.
“Well.”
Maya recognized that tone.
“This is Mason Reed.”
Judith studied him.
“And what do you do, Mason?”
“Investments.”
“How interesting.”
Judith’s eyes moved toward the windows.
“Are those your cars?”
“Yes.”
“All three?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Maya jumped in.
“He’s very anxious about parking.”
Mason turned slowly toward her.
Judith looked confused.
Maya smiled brightly.
“Seattle traffic.”
Before Judith could continue, Maya grabbed Mason’s arm and pulled him toward the ballroom.
“You’re enjoying this,” she whispered.
“Immensely.”
“You promised not to flirt.”
“I’m not.”
“You said I looked beautiful.”
“That was an observation.”
“That counts.”
“I disagree.”
They reached the ballroom.
Flowers covered the tables.
Sunlight poured through enormous windows overlooking vineyards and evergreen-covered hills.
Olivia, Maya’s cousin and the bride, was standing near the staircase.
When she spotted Maya, she hurried over.
“You came!”
Then she noticed Mason.
Her eyes widened.
“Maya.”
“Olivia, Mason.”
Olivia leaned toward Maya.
“You liar.”
“What?”
“You said he was reasonably attractive.”
Mason heard her.
“I appreciate that.”
Maya closed her eyes.
The afternoon should have become easier after that.
Instead, it became stranger.
People recognized Mason.
Not everyone.
But enough.
A local developer approached him nervously.
Then a technology executive.
Then the owner of a regional shipping company.
Each conversation followed the same pattern.
They greeted Mason respectfully.
Mason answered politely.
Then they left quickly.
Maya noticed.
“So.”
They stood near the terrace while guests took their seats.
“So?” Mason asked.
“You’re famous.”
“No.”
“Three people have looked at you like their mortgage depends on your mood.”
“Business relationships.”
“What kind?”
“Complicated ones.”
Maya studied him.
“Why did you really agree to this?”
Mason looked toward the vineyard.
“I told you.”
“Curiosity.”
“Yes.”
“I don’t believe you.”
His eyes returned to hers.
“You should go inside. The ceremony is starting.”
“Mason.”
A voice interrupted them.
“Reed.”
Mason froze.
Maya turned.
A man stood ten feet away.
Mid-forties.
Expensive gray suit.
Cold smile.
Mason’s security chief appeared almost instantly.
“Mr. Reed.”
Mason raised one hand.
The guard stopped.
The stranger smiled.
“I didn’t expect to see you here.”
Mason’s voice became colder than Maya had ever heard it.
“Victor.”
The man’s eyes shifted toward Maya.
“And who is this?”
Mason stepped slightly in front of her.
The movement was subtle.
Protective.
“This is Maya Bennett.”
Victor smiled.
“The waitress.”
Maya’s stomach tightened.
“How do you know who I am?”
Victor ignored her.
His attention remained on Mason.
“You should be more careful about the people you spend time with.”
Mason’s jaw tightened.
“Leave.”
Victor smiled again.
Then he walked away.
Maya stared after him.
“Mason.”
“Inside.”
“No.”
“Maya.”
“You know that man.”
“Yes.”
“He knows me.”
Mason said nothing.
“He called me the waitress.”
Still nothing.
“How?”
Mason looked toward Victor disappearing down the driveway.
Then at his security team.
Finally, he turned back to Maya.
“This is exactly why they’re here.”
“The SUVs?”
“Yes.”
“The guards?”
“Yes.”
Her pulse quickened.
“Who is he?”
“A former business partner.”
“That explanation is doing a heroic amount of work.”
Mason almost smiled.
But the expression disappeared quickly.
“Maya, your cousin is about to get married. Today should belong to her. Victor is leaving. My people will make sure he stays gone.”
“My people.”
Mason said nothing.
“You really talk like that.”
“Apparently.”
The wedding coordinator appeared at the doors.
“Maya, we’re starting.”
Maya looked at Mason.
“This conversation isn’t finished.”
“I know.”
They entered together.
The ceremony began.
For the next thirty minutes, something surprising happened.
Maya forgot to be suspicious.
Olivia cried through her vows.
Her fiancé cried harder.
Maya’s father pretended not to.
Even Mason seemed affected.
Maya caught him watching the couple.
Not the room.
Not the exits.
The couple.
There was something unexpectedly lonely in his expression.
At the reception, Maya discovered another problem.
Mason Reed was very good at pretending to be her boyfriend.
Too good.
He remembered details she had mentioned casually at the café months earlier.
Her favorite pastry.
Her graduate-school plans.
Her mother’s name.
The fact that Maya hated champagne.
When Aunt Judith asked how serious their relationship was, Mason answered smoothly.
“Serious enough that I’m here.”
Maya nearly dropped her water.
Later, while everyone danced, she cornered him near the terrace.
“That sounded real.”
“What did?”
“Serious enough that I’m here.”
“It was technically true.”
“You’re impossible.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because you keep proving it.”
Music drifted through the doors.
Mason looked toward the dance floor.
Then extended his hand.
Maya stared at it.
“No.”
“We’re supposed to be dating.”
“That wasn’t in the contract.”
“There was no contract.”
“There should have been.”
He kept his hand extended.
“Dance with me.”
Something about his voice had changed.
Less billionaire.
Less mystery.
Just Mason.
Maya placed her hand in his.
“One dance.”
“One.”
On the dance floor, his hand settled carefully at her waist.
No pressure.
No possession.
Exactly within the boundaries she had set.
Maya rested her hand on his shoulder.
“You’ve done this before.”
“Attended weddings?”
“Pretended to be someone’s boyfriend.”
“No.”
“You’re disturbingly good at it.”
“So are you.”
“I’m mostly improvising.”
“So am I.”
She looked up.
“That’s terrifying.”
For the first time, Mason laughed.
A real laugh.
Quiet.
Warm.
And Maya suddenly understood why she had never seen it before.
He didn’t give that part of himself away easily.
Her heart stumbled.
This was fake.
Twenty-four hours.
Nothing more.
Then Mason’s security chief appeared at the edge of the dance floor.
His face was tense.
Mason noticed immediately.
“What?”
The man leaned close and whispered something.
Mason stopped moving.
Maya felt his hand tighten slightly at her waist.
“What happened?”
He looked toward the entrance.
“Victor didn’t leave.”
Maya’s stomach dropped.
“Where is he?”
“He never came here for me.”
Mason’s gaze moved across the ballroom.
Toward Maya’s family.
“He came here for someone else.”
May you like
And before Maya could ask who, her father disappeared from the reception.
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