I set the timer but stayed in front of the mirror, practicing my rich-bitch face, talking through introductions and possible avenues of conversation until I was sure I was coming across as a believable, calm, collected businesswoman who likely came from old money. The kind of woman who took horseback riding lessons and whose dad golfed on the weekends to get away from her nag of a socialite mother.

Only then could I rinse out the dye and go to bed.

Only to wake up and need to do it all over again as I washed, dried, and straightened my wavy dark hair, applied minimal makeup, slipped in some unassuming little diamond studs, then slipped into the wide-legged gray slacks that I was told would flatter my short, thick-thighed body, and tight, white, short-sleeve sweater that Elizabeth had helped me pick out.

Taking a deep breath, I stepped back to look at my reflection.

“Who the hell are you?” I asked the reflection with her covered-up freckles over her nose, the understated mascara around her light brown eyes that took on a slightly gray hue in the bathroom lighting, and her dark brown hair.

I looked older.

Serious.

And maybe, just maybe, like I could actually pull this thing off.

CHAPTER THREE

Soren

“What’s the appointment at three?” I asked my receptionist, leaning in the doorway of my office.

The note on my calendar said simply S.A.

“Your meeting with the owner of the Brooklyn property,” Teresa said as she rose from her desk to make her way to the coffee station. Sure, she’d just brought me a cup an hour ago. But knowing me as she did—and she did, that was why she got the salary she did—that cup was already long gone.

“Right. Why the letters?”

“Her name,” Teresa said, coming back with one of the ten identical sixteen-ounce mugs with the square handles she knew I preferred. And collected all day on my desk.

“Her?” I asked, the mug half-raised to my lips.

“Yes, Mr. Vale. Women are allowed to own property now,” Teresa said, shooting me a smirk that made her smile lines deepen. “Crazy times we live in.”

She must have been a complete heartbreaker in her twenties because she was still a knockout now, with her long black hair, bright blue eyes, and tall, lean frame.

She had a man who’d seen what he had, and stuck a ring on her finger on their fifth date.