Читать книгу Friends With Benefits - Margot Radcliffe - Страница 14

CARTER WAS ASTONISHED to see Alexa in his house this morning at all, much less with pastries, witnessing a near indiscretion on his part and proposing a fake engagement. It was a less-than-ideal wake-up call.

When he’d gotten home last night, Kelly had been waiting in his driveway. She was an old friend who’d just shown up with an expectation that usually he was up for, but they hadn’t slept together last night. He should have sent her away, but he’d been just pissed off enough to hope Alexa got wind of it to let Kelly stay. He was still pissed now, as a matter of fact, because last night had been some pretty epic bullshit even from Alexa, who was never honest about what she was feeling.

However, the call he’d gotten from his board just minutes before she arrived was the reason he’d nudged Kelly out the door. His company’s stock had risen in value today after the story of his and Alexa’s stairwell indiscretion hit the national news circuit. Apparently, the tech world loved that one of their geeky own had conquered the closest thing Vegas had to royalty. The increase had more to do with the fact that he was about to launch a product to expand his business, but his board would say anything to maximize their investment. They’d gone so far as to suggest him making the most out of his relationship with Alexa even though they’d previously been against his friendship with her because of her rep. It was nonsense that he ignored, so he wasn’t about to take their advice on his personal life now, either.

“You really want to get fake-engaged?” he asked Alexa.

“You know it would work,” Alexa contended. “Uncle John is madder than I’ve ever heard him. He threatened to sell Halcyon, too, if I didn’t clean this up.”

It figured. John knew that selling Halcyon would be just the incentive Alexa needed to take the threat seriously.

“Alexa, I still don’t think it’s a good idea,” he said, shaking his head.

He would literally give her the shirt off his back in an ice storm, but they needed to talk about what had happened last night. Unfortunately, now that she’d seen Kelly this morning, Alexa was closed up tighter than one of her casino vaults.

“Come on, Carter. You’re my best chance to turn this around quickly.”