right.”
“I don’t think—”
“Yes, it would be better if you didn’t, but I’m betting you will study this proposal from every angle.” Derrick put his hand on the folder. “You can have until tomorrow morning.”
She had to grab on to the chair next to her for balance. The room had started spinning and with each word he said rocked her harder. “For what?”
“To give me your response. As I said, time is of the essence. I am currently holding off the prosecutor but he needs an answer about your brother.”
“And he’ll do what you say?”
“We went to college together.”
“Of course you did.” From her experience with the job search she knew powerful people stuck together. But the caress of Derrick’s voice, the concern in his tone—it all had her taking another step back. “This bargain or offer or whatever it is...it’s ridiculous. You know that, right? I need to know you know that.”
But even as she said the words her mind starting working. He could help Noah. She could get her life in order. Derrick offered breathing room and support, and that tempted her even though she knew she couldn’t trust him one inch.
“Your brother’s actions leave me with little option, and he shows no signs of stopping even if he is arrested. Shareholder discontent is an issue. I also have a reputation in the community.”
“One that would suffer if people found out you made an offer for a fake fiancée.”
He hadn’t been moving but still his body froze. “Is that a threat, Ellie?”
“I’m trying to understand why a man with your money and power would make this offer.”
“That’s my problem, not yours.”
“If I’m going to be your fiancée then—”
He held up a hand. “In name only.”
“No sex then?” Where had that come from?
His eyebrow lifted. “I am willing to negotiate that point. Very willing.”
She could almost feel his fingertips brush over her. “Forget it.”
“You have until tomorrow at ten to give me an answer.” He broke eye contact and hit a button on his phone. “Not ten after, Ellie. Ten exactly.”
It was a dismissal. She heard it, felt it and ignored it. “I wouldn’t clear your calendar if I were you.”
He didn’t look up. “Ten.”
Derrick leaned back in his oversize desk chair and blew out a long, haggard breath as the door closed behind Ellie and she left his office. He’d expected anger and a hint of distrust. He would have worried if she’d said yes to his fake engagement offer and jumped in. Eagerness was not a bonus in this type of situation.
No, he’d been prepared for all that. The sucker punch of need that slammed in to his gut the second he saw her again? That one had been a surprise.
She’d walked in with her long brown hair tied up behind her head with those strands hanging down, all sexy and loose. She’d worn a thin black skirt and white shirt and all he could think about was stripping both off her. The tight body. Those legs. The way fire lit her hazel eyes as she argued.
It all worked for him.
His attraction to her had sparked the minute she’d opened her mouth. She was tough and smart, and not easy to throw off or to scare. She met every one of his verbal shots with one of her own.
The woman was hot, no question.
She didn’t fit his usual type.
He thought about the women he’d dated over the past few years. All cool, reserved business types. He preferred competent over sparks and heat. Maybe that’s why the last three were now some of this favorite business associates. Friends, even.
He didn’t believe in the idea of grand love. That struck him as nonsense. He’d grown up in a family that yelled. His father pitted him and his two brothers against each other. At his urging, they’d been racing and competing since the cradle. Every mistake had been dissected and fed back to them in an endless loop by their unforgiving father and then by the press that followed the Jameson boys’ every move.
Never mind that Derrick’s grandfather was a disgraced congressman or that their father, Eldrick Jameson, a self-made man with three former wives and a new much-younger one, had made his initial millions, before he lost them, by not always playing fair. Derrick and his brothers were magazine and news favorites, and few in the press gave them favorable coverage no matter what they did.
No, Derrick didn’t believe much in emotions. But he did believe in this company. He’d rebuilt it from the dust left over from his father’s fires and while the old man ran through woman after woman. Derrick labored over every contract and every deal. Gave his life to it. And now he was getting screwed by the old man—again.
His father handed down his requirements for turning the business over, the main one being that Derrick clean up his reputation and resolve “the Noah problem” within ninety days. That meant dealing with Ellie since his PR team thought trying to deal with Noah directly could result in another video.
From the photos he’d seen of her before they met at the party, he’d expected pretty in a girl-next-door kind of way. Quiet. Not someone likely to light his fire. From what he knew about her job situation, he’d expected desperation and a willingness to deal.
He got none of that.
Jackson Richards opened the door and slid inside the office. He wore a stupid grin as he walked across the office and stopped in front of Derrick. “She’s not what I expected.”
Now there was an understatement. “Me, either. And did you call me sir earlier?” That was new and Derrick didn’t like it.
Jackson shrugged. “I thought it fit with the mood you were trying to create.”
“You can skip the overly deferential act. I have enough people around here who do that.”
“Are you engaged yet?” Jackson sounded amused at the idea.
Derrick was happy someone thought the nightmare situation was funny. “She’s difficult.”
“She sounds perfect for you.”
Jackson was one of the few people who could get away with the comment. They’d known each other for years and were about the same age, both in their midthirties. Eldrick had brought Jackson into the company, but Derrick liked him despite that. They’d been friends from the start. With Jackson, Derrick let the firm line between boss and employee blur.
But right now his mind was on the hot brunette with the impressive ass who’d just left his office. “She seems to think I should be able to find a real date.”
“Did you tell her about your father’s conditions for signing the business over to you and how you have something of an impossible deadline in which to meet them?”
The damn agreement. Leave it to Eldrick to make everything difficult. “You mean selling it to me? For a lot of money he can then spend on my new stepmother? Of course not.”
Jackson winced. “It might help your case.”
“I doubt Ellie would be sympathetic.”
“Not if you keep placing false rumors with the Insider.” Jackson shook his head. “I warned you that could backfire. Women hate stuff like that, and with good reason.”
“Speaking of which, is the photographer waiting outside?” That’s why her tardiness mattered. Much later and she would