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a trick on me first. “What can I say, love? He’s out of it.”
    “I see…” Belle opened the door wider. “Please come in.”
    “Thank you.” Hervé strolled in, studying her small apartment while Belle brought the bouquet to the kitchen and put it in a vase. It appeared Belle was a simple girl. The decor of her place reflected her taste. She painted the walls in a creamy colour with white trims, and decorated her place with monochromatic furniture and draperies. Everything looked neat and clean. When Hervé looked at her shelves, he noticed all of her books were alphabetised. No dust or streaks could be spotted anywhere. Hervé was impressed. “So, Belle, want to tell me everything I should know about this dinner party?”
    “Oh.” Belle put the vase on the living room table. The sweet scent of roses permeated the air. “We’ll have dinner with my mother and sisters. My mother…she’s…” Belle paused. “She’s very critical.”
    “How so?”
    “Well, she doesn’t always approve of everything I do.”
    “Doesn’t she? You don’t strike me as a difficult person. Why is she hard on you?”
    Belle shrugged. “I honestly don’t know. She probably thinks I’m a disappointment. After all, I’m not perfect like my sisters.”
    Hervé started to see the problem. He’d pieced together bits of information when he’d eavesdropped on her conversation with Armand, but he still wanted to hear everything from her own mouth. “And what about this charade? I heard from Armand she’d pressured you to get married?”
    “Unfortunately. She wants me to marry this man, Trent Curtis.” Belle shuddered. “He’s a jerk. So I told her I’m seeing somebody.”
    Hervé already knew this as well, but he was still curious to find out everything about her. “How do you know Trent’s a jerk?”
    She blinked. “I’ve known him since I was a teenager. Trust me, he’s a jerk.”
    Interesting. But one just didn’t brand someone a jerk so passionately unless that person had wronged her. “Has he done something to you in the past?”
    Her cheeks reddened in an instant. “Nothing. It’s not relevant.”
    “Belle. The more I know about you, the better we can pull off this charade. You do want to make this convincing, don’t you?”
    That got her attention. She pondered. “We dated briefly when we were teenagers. Well, actually it was more like he dumped me right after he got what he wanted. You know…” She shrugged. “It was stupid of me, I should’ve known.”
    Dumped her? What kind of fool would dump a woman like her? “You’re not stupid. He is a jerk.”
    Her eyes sobered. “Everybody thinks he’s a great guy, though.”
    “Why would your mother want you to marry him?”
    “That, I really don’t know. I haven’t spoken to my mother in years and suddenly, she showed up and demanded I got married.”
    “Don’t you think it’s kind of suspicious?”
    “You think so?”
    Goddess, this woman was also gullible. “Yes. It is suspicious.”
    “I thought, knowing my mother, she just wanted to see me miserable.”
    Hervé caressed her cheek. “Let’s put on a nice show for your family tonight.”
    “Thank you.” Belle paused. “This means I’ll be troubling you in the future too. I hope not, but I have a feeling everything won’t come as simple as this.”
    “I don’t mind, love. You can count on me. I love a little payback myself.”
    A smile lit up her face.
    Hervé resisted an urge to kiss her. Not yet. He didn’t want to scare her. “Ready to go?”
    She nodded. “Yes.”
     
    * * * *
     
    Her mother looked shocked when she saw Hervé introducing himself as her boyfriend. Her sisters as well. Belle had a feeling they didn’t believe the charade she was trying to pull off. Hervé was too handsome. Too elegant. Too cultured and exotic right down to his seductive foreign accent. Meanwhile, she was nobody, skinny, plain and awkward. The two didn’t belong together. Not in a million