Читать книгу Between Marriage And Merger - Karen Booth - Страница 10

Two

Lily mustered the strength to hold her smile, but only because she was fairly certain her face was frozen. She managed to blink, so her eyes were working. That was good. Her mind, meanwhile, was frantically running around like a chicken with its head cut off. Had Charlotte Locke just said those words? Pretend to be Noah’s fiancée? At a wedding, no less?

Lily’s worst nightmare and her most closely held fantasy had decided to make sweet love to each other.

“Are you serious?” She realized how terrible the question must sound to Noah, but she needed clarification and she needed it now. This felt an awful lot like the moment her biggest high school crush asked her out in front of his friends, only to burst into peals of laughter. That was the day Lily learned how apt the word crush was when it came to love.

“I know it seems a little strange, but there’s a reason behind it and you would be helping the company immensely.”

Noah stepped closer and sat on the edge of Sawyer’s desk, crossing his long legs, facing her with a look that could only be described as raw embarrassment. His expression was difficult to endure, which spoke volumes about how real it was. Noah was ridiculously easy on the eyes.

“You don’t have to do this,” Noah said. “This is not part of your job.”

Lily couldn’t decide if he was saying that because he desperately wanted his own out, or if he was simply being kind. She hoped for the latter, if only to save her pride.

“We would pay you, of course,” Sawyer said. “We’ll have to come up with a number. Maybe you should sit down and think about what you would need for three days away from home.”

“Acting as Noah’s fiancée.” Lily wanted to be sure she’d heard that part right.

“Yes. There was a very unflattering video of Noah that turned up on a gossip website and we’re trying to curb its effects. Mr. Hannafort wants to know that the Lockes aren’t a liability when it comes to publicity.”

“Unflattering video?” Lily could only imagine what Noah’s sister was referring to.

“Do you want to see it?” Charlotte asked.

Noah grumbled. His straight shoulders dropped. “Don’t show her the video. It’s demeaning. Lily and I need to work together. I don’t want her to think of me that way.”

Charlotte leaned over the arm of her chair. “It’s about the stable of women he’s been dating lately.”

Lily could feel her lips mold into a thin line. Oh, she knew plenty about Noah and his dates. A few women had come by the office, all intimidatingly beautiful. And she’d heard him talk to them, as smooth as could be. Lily would’ve done anything to have a man say one-tenth of what Noah regularly said to women he apparently hardly cared about. “I see.”

“So as I said,” Sawyer interjected. “We would need to come up with a number, but I promise we’ll make it worth your while. This isn’t normally something I’d consider, but desperate times call for creative measures.”

Lily crossed her legs, her mind mired in the business of deciding whether or not this was a good idea. She loved working for Sawyer and Noah, so it would be next to impossible to say no. It wasn’t in her DNA to let them down. But one downside of being employed by Locke and Locke was the limited opportunities for advancement. Lily had already worked her way well beyond the parameters of her title of Executive Admin. Sawyer and Noah had given her more and more responsibility, they’d even given her a few raises, but she was capable of even more. If the payoff was there. She was a hard worker, but she wasn’t an idiot. She wasn’t going to kill herself if they were just going to take advantage of her.

“If I do this, I don’t want to be compensated with cash. I want a piece of the company.” Lily was impressed with herself. She’d come out with it, no hemming or hawing. She sat straighter, fighting back any concern over how her proposal might be met. “A small piece, but a piece. I believe I’ve demonstrated that I’m a valuable asset to the company, but I want to do more.”

Sawyer nodded slowly, as if he was still taking it all in.

“This isn’t my call. I’m in on this Hannafort deal and that’s it.” Charlotte looked at her phone. “I’m also going to be late for my doctor’s appointment if I don’t leave now.” She got up from her seat and shot both of her brothers a very pointed glance. “Don’t screw this up. And Lily, don’t let them screw this up.”

Lily grinned as Charlotte excused herself and left. She did love the way Charlotte put her brothers on notice.

“What do you think?” Sawyer asked Noah.

“You’ve said it yourself a thousand times. Lily is by far the best employee we’ve had. She’s irreplaceable. If she’s willing to put up with me for a weekend, we should give her what she wants.”

Sawyer chuckled quietly, and that made Noah laugh, which filled Lily with happy flutters in her chest. She was overcome with pride, knowing that she’d been a frequent subject of conversation between the brothers and in such a positive light, no less. It reaffirmed her decision two years ago to focus on her career and let romance and her personal life take a back seat. This might actually end up paying off.

“I think one percent is fair,” Noah said.

“Agreed,” Sawyer quickly added. “It might not sound like a lot, but if the Hannafort deal goes through, it will be sizable. And it should be income that comes in for years and years. Not bad for three days’ work.”

Lily was a bit of a whiz with numbers, so she knew exactly how big 1 percent of Locke and Locke could end up being, especially after having worked on the Hannafort projections. A nest egg to last her a lifetime? All for one weekend pretending to be enamored with gorgeous, unattainable Noah? This was a no-brainer if ever there was one. Even if the part about Noah did make her stomach flip-flop. Yes, she struggled at weddings, but she’d just endured one. What difference could another one possibly make? “I’ll do it.”

“That’s great news. Thank you.” Sawyer’s eyebrows drew together. “I hope you know this is not something we would normally ask you to do.”

“I’ve been here two years. I know this is not the way things work around here. Sometimes things have to be done for appearances.”

“Exactly.”

“I should probably get back to my desk. I have lots of other stuff to do. Emails to answer.” Lily rose from her seat, but something about this was still leaving her unsettled. Was this the right thing to do? Would it ruin her working relationship with Noah? They got along so well. She didn’t want it to be awkward later. “I do want to clarify that this is for show, right? We’re pretending. That’s it.”

Noah’s eyes found hers and she felt naked, like he was looking right through her. “That goes without saying.”

She smiled and nodded, like the loyal employee she was. But inside, all she could think was of course. Noah Locke was that guy and he always would be.

* * *

Noah closed the door when Lily walked out of Sawyer’s office. “I don’t think you’ve fully thought this out.” He paced back and forth, between the chairs and the window. “We’re talking about pretending to be engaged to each other. Do you know what engaged people do?”

“Um, I’m pretty sure, but why don’t you fill me in.” Sawyer was still poring over the Hannafort reports, dismissing this conversation as if it was nothing.

“Hugging. Holding hands. Kissing.”

“Sounds about right. I know you remember how to do all of those things.” Sawyer flipped to another page.

“But am I not supposed to be staying away from Lily? You were the one who wouldn’t stop going on and on about how I needed to pretend that she was my sister. Don’t mess things up, Noah. Stop making up excuses to be around her, Noah.” He planted both hands on Sawyer’s desk and stared him down. “This could easily mess things up with her. Then what? We lose our best employee because of some stupid stunt?”

“Now you see the validity of my original argument? When we’re being forced to set it aside?” Sawyer closed the binder and looked him square in the eye. “I think the one thing that video proved is that you have no problem with walking away, so I’m certainly not worried about your feelings. As for Lily, she’s being rewarded handsomely and she seems completely comfortable with the idea. She’s a very strong person. I’m a little concerned, but I’m not overly concerned. How confused can two people get over the course of three days?”

“Honestly? I have no idea. I’ve never been fake engaged before.”

“And that’s the important thing to remember. This is fake. It’s not real. It’s not the same as if you had actually pursued her. That would have hurt her feelings when you decided to end it. Or...”

“Or what?”

“Or maybe she would’ve ended up ending it. Maybe she would’ve turned you down. I’m sure it’s hard for you to imagine, but it could’ve gone down that way.”

“You think I don’t worry about that every time I ask a woman out? Because I do.” Noah had thought about that a lot when it came to Lily, if only when he was trying to convince himself that going there in the first place would be a huge mistake.

Surely Lily dated a lot. She simply never mentioned it. In fact, she rarely talked about herself. He could only assume that she didn’t have a serious boyfriend right now. She never complained about working late and she was always doing her Friday night visit to the bookstore she liked so much. It was silly, but a few weeks ago, Noah had been dateless and bored on a Friday night, so he’d gone for a run and accidentally on purpose ended up there. He’d peeked in the window, but couldn’t see the corner she’d talked about. He’d also been too embarrassed to walk in. So he’d pretended his shoelace was untied and jogged back to his apartment, realizing how stupid the whole thing had been in the first place. What would he have said if she’d seen him? I always go for runs in neighborhoods that are totally out of the way from where I live.

“And don’t forget, Lily’s a tough cookie,” Sawyer said. “I’m not as concerned about it as I was when we first started working on the Grand Legacy project and you couldn’t keep your eyes off her or your tongue off the floor.”

“You act like I’m the horniest guy you’ve ever met. Have you not noticed how stunning she is?”

“I noticed. Believe me. I’ve noticed. As have lots of our clients.”

The worst part...or the best part, Noah couldn’t decide, was that Lily didn’t seem to know it. Or if she did, she didn’t seem driven by it or obsessed by it. She simply seemed comfortable in her own skin, which Noah found very sexy.

“Okay. Well, I guess I’m going to go back to work with my fake fiancée. This is officially the craziest thing I’ve ever done, just so you know.”

“I don’t want to be a jerk about it, but this was your own doing. I appreciate your willingness to make it right. It’ll all be fine. We’ll do the deal with Hannafort and you and Lily can quietly break up. I doubt it’ll even be on his radar at that point. But we need to remove any doubt he has now.”

“Got it.” Noah reached for the door.

“Wait. There’s more. We need word of the engagement out before we leave and Lily is also going to need a ring. Everyone will want to see the ring.”

Noah groaned in frustration. “How do we go about announcing an engagement? Do we call the society page?”

“I don’t think we have time for that. I’ll talk to Kendall. We’ll figure out a way to leak it to the press.” Sawyer’s wife, Kendall, was a PR master. She’d done a brilliant job on the reopening of the family’s historic hotel, the Grand Legacy.

Noah stifled another sigh. “Let me know.” As he walked down the hall, he noticed that Lily was not at her desk. He rounded into his office. She was putting things away in his filing cabinet. He came to a dead stop. He didn’t say a thing. Lily had this habit when she was standing, but concentrating on something—she’d step out of one pump and balance on her opposite leg, rubbing the back of her calf with her bare foot. Up and down, over and over until she was finished with the task. It was one of the many inexplicably sexy things she did.

Maybe this fake engagement had a bright side. Maybe this was the chance to get Lily out of his system. His brother couldn’t say a thing about holding hands, long embraces, or kisses now. And if those things continued behind closed doors, and Lily wanted him, too, clothes could come off and he could finally know what it was like to make love to her, to have her hands all over him, and at the end of the weekend, they could part ways on the romantic front. It was perfect.

A little too perfect.

Noah couldn’t escape the notion that his plan sounded like something his dad would do. He was not his father, and he would do anything he could to prove it. That meant he would have to be doubly careful and keep things especially chaste between them, all while trying to create the illusion that they were hopelessly in love. He had no idea how he was going to pull this off.

Lily whipped around, surprise in her eyes. She dropped down onto her bare foot and pressed her hand to her chest. “You scared me.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t want to startle you, but you were so deep in concentration.”

Lily worked her foot back into her black pump. “You could tell?”

“Yeah. You do that thing with your foot when you’re focused.”

Her cheeks turned the most gorgeous shade of pink, like cherry blossoms in spring, except brighter and more vibrant. It made him want to embarrass her more often. “I do?”

Noah swallowed hard. He hadn’t had time to get used to the fact that it would be okay for him to say something about this now. Before, a topic like this was best avoided. “I did. I’ve noticed it for a while now. I’m sorry if that bothers you.”

She shook her head. “No. Of course not. It doesn’t bother me at all.” Was that a hint of flirtation in her voice? If so, he liked being fake engaged to her, even if the clock hadn’t yet started ticking on their charade.

“So, are you okay with our arrangement? There’s still time to back out if you want.” He didn’t want to come off as unsure, but it was important to him that she not feel as though she’d been cornered. There had been three Lockes in that room and only one Lily Foster. It wasn’t entirely fair.

“I’d be lying if I said that I was completely comfortable with the idea. I’m not much for faking something.”

“Yeah. Me neither.”

“But I’m also smart enough to know that people do all sorts of things in business to make a deal happen. And maybe if you aren’t willing to be daring with something, you’ll miss out. This would be a big thing to miss out on.”

“The Hannafort deal.”

“Of course.”

It was good to have clarification, if only to keep things straight. “Well, our next step is for me to take you shopping for a ring.”

“Wow. A ring.” Lily looked down at her own hand as if she were trying to picture it. “I guess that’s a must-have, isn’t it?”

“Can’t be fake engaged without a ring.” He smiled when she shot him a knowing glance. “Except the ring will be real. I’m not putting a fake ring on your hand.” Lily absolutely deserved a real ring, but he did have to wonder if this harebrained plan was going to end up ruining any fantasies she’d had about getting engaged. He didn’t want to make assumptions based on her gender, but she did prefer books with happy endings.

Noah had zero fantasies about marriage. Or engagement. He’d never imagined the moment when he’d get down on one knee. He’d never thought about what it would feel like to love someone so much that the only thing that made sense was to be with them forever. It had always seemed, at best, unlikely and, at worst, doomed. Would he ever be in love? Would he ever feel as though he couldn’t live without someone? Seventy-two hours or so and he usually knew that the woman of the moment wasn’t the one. Or, admittedly, he’d gone into it with the assumption he would not find love. It wasn’t the best attitude, but time and again, things played out that way. It was hard not to assume that the common denominator—his heart—wasn’t built for love.

“Good to know that you’re not going to force me to be excited about a cubic zirconia. Not that I wouldn’t be happy with whatever you gave me. But, you know. A girl wants a diamond if she can get it.”

“The only thing about the ring shopping is that we have to plan it out in advance. Sawyer’s going to have Kendall leak it to the press so it will hopefully make its way back to Hannafort. And if not, we will at least have countered the bad publicity with good.”

She nodded. “So the video was that bad?”

The thought of it made his stomach sink yet again. He hoped Lily never saw it. He hoped she never looked it up on the internet, although if the roles were reversed, he definitely would have done some due diligence. He truly didn’t want her seeing him in that light. Even if it was biased, and pulpy, it wasn’t a lie. There was a whole lot of truth in it. “It wasn’t my best showing, that’s for sure.”

Lily patted him on the shoulder. When she moved her hand, it felt as though she’d marked him for life with her touch. “Hopefully we can make it go away. We should probably start tomorrow.”

“Do I have a hole in my schedule?”

“No meetings from eleven to three. A nice big window.”

“Perfect. Tomorrow at eleven we have a date to buy that ring.” Noah could hardly believe the words after they’d left his lips. For a guy who’d sworn he’d never get engaged, he’d said it like it was no big deal, when he knew for a fact that it was.