Free Outrageous Proposal (A British Bad Boy Romance) by Sienna Valentine

a confused frown.
    “Is this… this is a joke, right?” She gave a sour look at the ring. “I just met you this afternoon. Is this some sort of poorly planned con or something? You did not seem that stupid until this moment.”
    “No, it’s not… I’m not stupid…” Harrison sighed and shook his head, expression falling. He snapped the ring box closed. “Bloody Christ, this is all Bruce’s damn fault.”
    “This was Bruce’s idea?” she said, a look of disbelief already building on her face.
    “No, it was my idea, and Bruce said it was stupid and wouldn’t work but he clearly didn’t work hard enough to convince me of that,” said Harrison.
    She folded her arms, and it was apparent she was quickly losing her patience. “Look, why don’t you just tell me what the hell is going on? I’m sure my dinner is getting cold and this vacation is getting weirder by the minute.”
    Frustrated, Harrison ran a hand through his hair and kicked at the sand just a bit with his toe. It struck him as something a bratty child would do, but that’s exactly what he felt like at that moment. “This stuff is a little on the top-secret side.” He looked around the beach.
    “Oh, give me a break,” said Clarice. “You’re the one who made a dramatic appearance at dinner in your fancy GQ suit, for this moonlit beach walk, in order to make this proposal. If you wanted this to be top secret, you failed hard at that before you even got to my table buddy.”
    Usually, someone pointing out his shortcomings turned him instantly cold, but the fact that Clarice didn’t let him get away with shit was terribly endearing in a way he didn’t expect. He gave her a coy smile. “Suppose you’ve got me there. I’m a bit desperate.”
    “So that means you’re in no position to negotiate. Spill it, what is it you need my help for? What is this really all about?”
    Harrison sighed, he could see by the stern look on her gorgeous face that Clarice wasn’t going to be budged, and anyway, she was right, he had no leverage. “It’s a long story, alright? The short part of it is that I need someone to act as my fiancée for the next week while my parents are visiting from England. I thought you would be the perfect fit, so… I’m asking you to marry me. For a week.”
    Clarice scoffed, but she didn’t immediately run back for the patio in an angry huff, which he took for a win. “A pretend fiancée? Who am I, Meg Ryan?”
    “She wishes,” said Harrison. “You’re ten times hotter than her.”
    Clarice blushed, but she did it with a half-angry huff. “Oh, go to hell, don’t try to butter me up now, keep talking straight. Why do you need a pretend fiancée?”
    “Well, and this might surprise you, I’ve found that my big mouth has gotten me into a few pickles over the years. This just happens to be the newest and most exciting.”
    “Shocking.”
    “Indeed,” he said, running a hand over his hair. “To make a long story short, I run this resort, but truly, it’s my father that owns the place, along with five other resorts and a dozen smaller hotels around the South Pacific. I’m quite wealthy, but my fortune is nothing compared to his.”
    Harrison was very used to a particular, wide-eyed expression on women once he told them the reality of his financial situation yet that expression was nowhere to be found on Clarice’s beautiful face. She only stared at him, waiting for him to continue, seemingly unimpressed by his confession. He was so thrown by it, he almost lost his train of thought.
    “I’m, uh... of course, as an only child, I’m in line to inherit his business empire once he retires, but he is a bit of a traditionalist, unfortunately and it has complicated things.”
    “Traditionalist?”
    “He refuses to pass on the empire to me if I’m single. I must be settled down with a wife and preferably a future heir before he will acknowledge my worth to touch his precious business holdings,” said Harrison with