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the accent.

      So, given those facts, what was she risking, really? And was spending New Year with her family – and keeping up the illusion of her perfect life in front of her nearest and dearest – worth the risk?

      ‘Do you promise that whatever happens I won’t lose my job?’ Dory asked.

      ‘Absolutely. You’re unexpectedly and inexplicably the best assistant I’ve ever had.’ Tyler looked too confused by the fact for her to take this as an actual compliment. ‘After the holidays, we’ll just decide that we’re better as friends, or we need to keep things professional, or something.’

      Yeah, that sounded well thought out. But since the break-up would be his problem, as long as she still had her job at the end of it, Dory wasn’t too worried.

      ‘And you’ll fly me business class back home in time for New Year? And give me two weeks’ holiday there?’ May as well push the boat out, she figured.

      Tyler raised an eyebrow. ‘If that’s what you want. Personally, two weeks seems far too long to spend with family, but who am I to question the English way? So you’ll do it? Spend three days with my family and faithfully swear to be the woman in the photos? And – this is important – not ask questions?’

      Dory bit her lip. No questions? She didn’t like the sound of that. ‘No questions at all?’

      ‘Not if you want the trip.’

      She should demand to know who the other woman was, why he couldn’t take her. But she really wanted to go home for New Year…

      ‘Do you snore?’

      ‘I said no questions.’

      Dory sighed. ‘I’m in.’

      ***

      Two days later, late afternoon on December 23^rd, Dory rolled her suitcase out of the lift – no, sorry Tyler, elevator – straight past her desk and into Tyler’s office. She’d negotiated the day off to prepare for the horrors ahead. But now it was nearly time to go and Tyler was still working.

      He glanced up as she entered, but his attention went right back to his paperwork the moment he realised it was only her. That kind of attitude wasn’t going to convince anyone that he was madly in love with her. The man in that photo had looked considerably more besotted.

      ‘I’m guessing the perfect boyfriend act doesn’t start until we actually get there, then?’ she said, dropping into the chair opposite his desk. His suitcase was propped up against the wall in the corner of the office, which was something.

      ‘Mmmhmm.’ He didn’t even look up that time. How had the idiot ever got so many women to fall for him in the first place?

      ‘I’ve got the train times here,’ she told him. He worked on, oblivious. ‘Want me to try and reserve seats? Or just get tickets at the station?’

      No response.

      ‘I’ll call a cab to Grand Central, shall I?’

      Nothing. This did not bode well for the journey north.

      She sighed. ‘So the chances of getting you to carry my suitcase out to the cab are—’

      ‘Slim.’ That wasn’t Tyler. The word came from the doorway, in a deeper, warmer, far more amused voice. A voice she recognised. Dory wondered how much Lucas had heard. Hopefully not the perfect boyfriend crack. She winced. She really was going to have to be more careful.

      Tyler had jerked to attention the moment his brother spoke. Dory rolled her eyes. Of course he looked up now. ‘Lucas.’

      Something about the way he said the name sounded off. But Dory didn’t dwell on it too long. Not when Lucas Alexander, the black sheep himself, was standing right behind her. Her curiosity had much better things to do than ponder about Tyler’s big brother issues.

      Instead, she swivelled the chair around, plastered on her best ‘meet the family’ smile, and got gracefully to her feet. Well, mostly gracefully. She only had to grab the arm of the chair a little bit, and she didn’t think that Lucas noticed. Much.

      ‘Hi! I’m Dory,’ she said, letting go of the chair and wobbling forward. Probably the fault of the heels on her new knee-high boots. Because Lucas, though tall, broad, and smiling that same Alexander smile that had been plastered all over the Internet that week, wasn’t nearly as classically handsome as his brother, and she worked with Tyler five days a week without swooning even a little bit. Which wasn’t to say that Lucas wasn’t attractive, of course. Better looking than his photos, even. Just… with rougher edges than his younger brother.

      Maybe it was the stubble.

      ‘So you’re who he’s bringing home to meet Mother.’ Lucas ran his eyes from her perfectly straightened and shiny hair, past her respectable yet stylish, seasonally green dress, to the aforementioned polished boots. Dory waited him out. She knew how to dress for a part. In the end, his gaze flicked over to Tyler instead, and she chalked a mental point up to her side. She wasn’t entirely sure what the competition was, yet, but there was no mistaking the challenge in Lucas’s gaze. What was it? she wondered. Checking to see if she was good enough for his brother? Or did he have his own suspicions about who Tyler was with the other night? Why else had he suddenly shown up here, when as far as she was aware, he was supposed to already be up at the family estate, dancing attendance on Felicia?

      Tyler darted out from behind his desk at last, standing midway between her and Lucas, glancing between them, obviously caught off-guard by his brother’s arrival.

      ‘Lucas, this is Dorothea. My girlfriend.’ He didn’t even choke on the last couple of words. She was almost proud.

      ‘Dory,’ she corrected him.

      The smile Tyler gave her was far more charming, more affectionate than she’d ever seen from him before. Apparently the perfect boyfriend act was on, at last.

      ‘Darling, you know I prefer your full name. Far more beautiful. Just like you.’

      Yeah, they were screwed. Nobody was going to fall for this. Ever.

      But in the doorway, Lucas merely rolled his eyes. ‘Well, if you two lovebirds are ready, we may as well get this show on the road.’

      ‘Show?’ Dory asked. ‘I was just about to call for a cab to the station…’

      Lucas shook his head. ‘Not anymore. Mother decided there were far too many ways a train journey could get delayed, or even cancelled. So I’m driving us all up there. Together.’

      ***

      Lucas didn’t wait to see the annoyance on his brother’s face. Bad enough he was being sent to play fetch because Mother’s insecurities, paranoia and control issues had reached a new height. He wasn’t pandering to his brother’s fragile ego too. He didn’t care who Tyler was dating, besides a fleeting thought that Mother would hate the heels on those boots. Lucas quite liked that thought and the way the boots clung to Dory’s calves, but beyond that he didn’t really care if she came for Christmas or not. Personally, Lucas wasn’t all that bothered about being there for Christmas himself. In and out, that was his plan. Stay just long enough to mollify Mother for another few months, then get the hell out of town, back to his real life. The one that didn’t involve the Alexander legacy anymore.

      Except… the thing with the photos. Something about it felt off. Like Tyler was hiding something. And if there was a problem, Lucas really needed to get it fixed before their parents figured out what it was and used it as another excuse to try and drag Lucas back into the family business. He’d only got out in the first place because Tyler was there, ready and eager to step into the CEO role – and had already proved himself capable while Lucas was in the hospital. But Patrick Alexander believed in the proper way of doing things, and Lucas knew that not having his eldest son in charge of the company still rankled. Mostly because he kept telling him so. And if he got it into his head that Tyler was a liability to the family reputation…

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