One month. That was how long I was given to decide whether I want to get married or not. To a complete stranger. It was such a short amount of time to get to know the man who sat across from me as I ate my first meal in a house I didn't know. I was too nervous to really enjoy the food and my eyes hardly stopped looking at the man who was to be my husband if I were to agree to the marriage. 

As I studied him, I tried to figure out what kind of job he had to afford such an extravagant house. Even though I didn't have enough time to explore the place, I knew that the house was huge. Far bigger than a single man would need. But the possibilities for a job that my imagination would come up with were some type of doctor or a drug lord.

But the more I looked at him, the more I was thinking he was some type of high profile lawyer. He wore a pristine white buttoned up dress shirt. Even though the sleeves were rolled up so he could comfortably eat, nothing looked out of place. The black tie around his neck was even perfectly done. The more I noticed how perfectly done everything was about him, the more nervous I got. 

My stomach turned, making me put down my fork. I was too tense to finish eating. But it just made things worse for me. Now I didn't have the motions of eating to keep me distracted from the strange situation I was in. I ended up fiddling with my hands as I placed them on my lap. Looking around the room, suddenly feeling intimidated by the man in the room.

He suddenly put down his own silverware making me realize that he was looking at me. Just the way he looked at me was intense. It made me scared of him. Of course he was nothing but a stranger to me anyways. This was all set up by my mother to begin with.

"I guess we should go over the agreement that I had with your mother. Answer any questions you may have," he said as if it was a matter of fact. Making me squirm in my chair a bit, "I know you are probably wondering what your mother has gotten you into. Sending you to a stranger's home and telling you that you have a month to decide what you want to do."

"What did she tell you?" I heard myself ask quietly.

He gave me a small smile as he leaned back in his chair, "She didn't tell me too much. Just said that you ran into some trouble and this was a way to save your career."

Just hearing him say that I ran into a little trouble made me want to laugh. Only because that was understating what had happened. It turned out my ex was running a ring of illegal activity. Luckily at the time we were just seen as friends and not as lovers. The mess he had caused wouldn't have been so hard for me to be saved from if the dating rumors were revealed to be true.

"Your mother made a statement a few days before your arrival saying you were going to spend some down time with your fiance," he explained some more. He didn't have to tell me who the supposed fiance was, "She may have also mentioned a possible wedding coming up, but that is up to you after the month is over."

"Why did you agree to this? What is in it for you? Money?" I said coldly. My guard is up because my nerves were getting the best of me. Also I just couldn't understand how anyone would agree to something like this if there wasn't something in it for them. 

He let out a small chuckle, "It's pretty obvious that I don't need money. But I'm looking for someone who I have admired for many years. I have a feeling you can help me find them."

I didn't mean to roll my eyes, but it was like an automatic response. It was also just my luck that I would be used for something. People using me and my connections was something I wasn't a stranger to. But it was definitely something I didn't want any part of anymore. Yet, it still came to find me anyway.

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Standing up, I glared at him, "I'm not helping you with anything. Just show me to my room."

"You mean our room," he corrected.

"Excuse me?" I said.

He smiled as if he knew something that I didn't, "In order to keep up with the appearance of us being engaged, we have to share the same room. Just in case paparazzi manages to find this place."

My jaw dropped. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I protested making my voice get louder with every sentence, "You've got to be kidding me. I don't know who you are. I don't even know your name."

"Zaden Keaton."

"What?"

"That's my name. Zaden Keaton." he mentioned, "And you are the famous Riley O'Day. Especially after the scandal I'm saving you from."

Just being reminded of the scandal I was a part of made me want to hunt down Jax Moon and strangle him with my two hands. Everyone had told me that he was a good for nothing that only used women for his own needs. But I didn't listen and look where it got me. Now to save my image I had to pretend to be engaged to a complete stranger.

That stranger, who's name I now knew was named Zaden, leaned back more in his chair with a serious look on his face, "Jax wasn't the man you thought he was, was he?"

I let out a sigh, "No, he proved to be exactly what I thought he was. I was just an idiot to think that he was different from what they all said."

"Hopefully it's a lesson learned now," he said with a small smile on his face. He then stood up and motioned for me to follow him. After hesitating a bit, I followed. He spoke to me over his shoulder, "As I lead you to the bedroom, I might as well give you a tour of the house as well. This is your home now after all. You should get familiar with it."

We left the dining room and he led me through the foyer that I had walked through when I first arrived. Ahead of us was a closed door and next to it was the stairway leading to the second floor. As he started up the stairs he explained the door, "That is where my office is when I'm not at work. Even though I'm nothing but a surgeon, there are some cases where I need to do research."

As I followed him up the stairs, I glanced at the closed door. He probably closed the door because it is such a mess. I pictured pictures all over the place and books falling off of shelves. But then I looked at the well put together stranger in front of me and then my image of a chaotic room turned into a pristine room with nothing out of place. 

Once at the top of the stairs he pointed to a small room to our left, explaining that it's just a spare room that is used as an office for whoever needs it. Across from the stairs was a large full bathroom for whoever uses the guest room, which was right next door. We then walked down the small hallway to a set of double doors. 

As we stood in front of them, he turned to look at me with a serious look on his face, "This is our room. I’m sure things will be a little uncomfortable for the first few days, but just pretend you are shooting a movie for the world to see.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” I heard myself ask dumbly. Mentally I slapped myself because we were keeping up appearances. Meaning that we would be sleeping in the same bed as well. Opening my mouth to speak, the sound of his cell phone ringing kept me from saying what I wanted to. 

Watching him answer the phone, I listened to what he was saying. From what I could pick up from his end, it had to be his job calling him to come in. He even mumbled, “So much for having a day off.”

“Duty calls?” I asked, trying to mask the hopefulness in my voice. He nodded in response and then left the room. Leaving me to stand there to process all of the things in my life that changed due to my ex’s mistakes. 

I was now publicly in a relationship, which was the one thing Jax never could give me because he had an ‘image to uphold’. It was a bunch of crap if you tell me. Also I now no longer lived on my own. Which would be nice to come home from long periods of time to someone who missed me, but would this guy really miss me if I was gone for a long time? Or, was this only for money?

Then there was the next question on my mind. What would happen if he found that girl he had admired for a long time? What would happen to me? What if I went through with this marriage and he suddenly didn’t want me anymore? All of these questions were just proving one thing, I was better off on my own.