Breaking Up with Barrett: The English Brothers #1 (The Blueberry Lane Series - The English Brothers) Read Online Free

contrast to his stiff conversation was the way he looked—easy, smooth, and ridiculously debonair. Her eyes flicked down for a second to check out the cut of his suit, which was obviously custom made, because it fit him like a dream. Navy blue and sharp, it was the perfect complement to the light blue dress shirt with bright white French cuffs underneath. Her eyes touched on his wrists where shiny silver cufflinks were engraved with BEE. Barrett Edward English. It was good the sun was so bright—he wasn’t able to see her pupils dilate with a lifetime’s worth of lust.
    “I’m interrupting you,” he observed.
    “It’s fine.” Emily’s eyes strained against the sun, narrowed to slits in an attempt to maintain eye contact. “Do, um, do you want to sit?”
    “No. How are your parents?”
    “Very well, thank you. And yours?”
    “Fine.”
    “Fitz, Alex, Stratton, and Weston?”
    “All well, thank you.”
    Her shoulder slumped in disappointment as their pleasantries found a dead end.
    Why did she wish, every time she saw him, which wasn’t very often, that he’d loosen up with her? It’s not like she had a chance with him, so why did it matter? Maybe because they’d known one another forever, and yet, they didn’t actually know one another very well at all. What was it about Barrett that had always made her heart thump faster and her eyes widen with longing? And what would it take to get Barrett to be even a little bit playful? Was it even possible?
    The sun was so intense, Emily couldn’t bear the glare anymore. She had looked down at the notes on her lap, blinking to clear her vision, hoping she didn’t appear dismissive as her pulse pounded in her neck.
    The silence had grown thick and awkward between them, and she finally wondered if he was waiting for her to politely say “goodbye,” releasing him from her company?
    “Well…” she had started. “It was nice of you to say hel—”
    “Are you dating anyone?”
    Taken off-guard, Emily had gasped, then scoffed lightly, looking back up to see if he was serious. Without a smile to soften the boldness of the question, it appeared as though he was. “W-What? Why are you asking?”
    “I’m just wondering,” he answered, his blue eyes boring into hers.
    Her heart had surged behind her ribs, racing like a prizewinner at Preakness. “N-no. Not right now.”
    “Then I have a proposition for you.” His voice was businesslike and level, but the word “proposition” hung between them, loaded and—she guessed unintentionally—suggestive.
“Oh?”
    “I need a—well, what I need is a woman to occasionally—”
    “Barrett!” she exclaimed, a flush starting at her breasts and creeping steadily up her neck to scorch her cheeks.
    “No, no! Nothing like that. Don’t be ludicrous, Emily,” he said, quickly moving to sit beside her. His thigh pressed against hers, and if anything was ludicrous, it was the jolt she got from that tiny bit of contact. She turned to find him looking at her seriously, and he searched her eyes as he added, “I don’t want any romantic complications.”
    Her jaw dropped, and her eyes widened with offense. “Now you listen to me, Barrett English. My family may work for yours, but I am not that kind of girl and you have no right suggesting that we—”
    “No! Damn it. I said it wasn’t like that. That’s not—I mean, I need a date. Occasionally. I need a woman to pose as my fiancée from time to time.”
    She couldn’t have been more shocked if he’d stripped out of his Armani suit and done the Macarena for her.
    “Come again?”
    He looked at his lap before seizing her eyes in the no-nonsense stare he must use for all of his corporate dealings, and she started to understand why his nickname was “The Shark.” His gaze was focused and unyielding, she found it incredibly exciting.
    “Emily, let me be quite clear. I am offering you a job. I would like to pay you to occasionally accompany me to business dinners