“Darling,” a voice from behind saved him. He turned gratefully as he felt Holly’s hand on his back. “Bob was just telling me the funniest story about his law school days. I think you’ll get a kick out of it, especially since you love baseball.” Sabrina gave Grace a pointed look, then lowered her eyes to where her hand rested on his arm. “Excuse us. I’ll have to steal my fiancé for a moment.”

Grace instantly withdrew her hand as if she’d been burned.

Sabrina pulled him away out of earshot of the woman. “Was that all right?”

Daniel took a step closer to her. “Perfect,” he said and planted a quick kiss on her cheek—her now flushed cheek. “That was close. I don’t know how these women hone in on bachelors within seconds. She was about to dig her claws into me.”

“One of her claws was already on you.” Holly chuckled softly. “You don’t like women much, huh?”

He gave her an astonished look. “No, that’s not it. I don’t like gold diggers much. So, how did you manage to survive Bob?”

“Easy. Don’t worry about me. I can handle Bob.”

He gave her an admiring glance. She evidently could handle Bob. He figured there were a lot of other things she could handle too, maybe even him. Maybe he could get a taste tonight of exactly how she would handle him.

“Come, we’ll have to mingle a little before we can get out of this circus.” He took her hand again, not that it was necessary, but he wanted to. He liked touching her.

***

Sabrina enjoyed the evening. Daniel introduced her to many people, whose names she instantly forgot as they moved on to others, who wanted to make her acquaintance.

From all the chitchat, she’d pieced together that Daniel was in town to finalize the acquisition of a company, and given the many beautiful young women, who wanted to meet him, she also realized that he was one of the most eligible bachelors currently in town. No wonder he wanted somebody as a buffer. She did her best to scare all women away as he’d requested.

Even though it was her job for the evening, she loved it. She loved touching him, taking his hand, calling him darling. He’d kissed her on the cheek only that one time, and she wondered whether he’d do it again. His lips had felt so warm and tender, she’d started fantasizing about how his lips would feel on other parts of her body. The thought made her feel flushed.

Since he’d obviously simply hired her to be his pretend girlfriend, though inexplicably elevated her to fiancée status, in order to ward off other women, there was little chance he actually wanted to have sex with her. He seemed like a man who chose his sexual partners carefully and not like one who’d hop into bed with an escort, not even a pretend escort.

Well, at least she got a nice evening out with a charming and attentive man. The envious glances many of the young women gave her throughout the evening confirmed that she wasn’t the only one who thought Daniel was yummy.

Strangely enough, he didn’t seem to like the attention those women paid him. Most of his conversations were held with some of the men in the room and centered on business. Whenever he was introduced to a woman, especially an unattached one, he extracted himself from the conversation as quickly as possible.

Most times he used her as an excuse.

“Holly, darling, can I get you another drink?” he said smilingly as another young woman tried to drag him into a conversation. Sabrina stretched out to hand him her empty glass and while he took it out of her hand and put it onto a side table, he led her hand to his mouth, kissing her fingertips in full view of the other woman who instantly made her exit.

“You’re terrible,” Sabrina chastised him laughingly, knowing he’d deliberately showed affection in order to get rid of the other woman.

“I can’t help myself.” Daniel winked at her. Whatever he meant by that, she wasn’t going to ask.

“Ever heard of self-control?” she teased.

“Impossible to achieve in the presence of a beautiful woman.”

“Which one?” Sabrina let her gaze wander around the room.

He didn’t answer and instead pulled her with him to make more introductions.

Later, she and Daniel stood next to a beautiful arrangement of colorful flowers at one end of the large hall. As a waiter passed by, Sabrina snatched another canapé off the tray and devoured it. She’d stopped counting how many delicious little canapés she’d already scarfed down and didn’t care. What did it matter if she gained another pound? It wasn’t like anybody would see her naked anytime soon.