Chapter Thirteen
What in the living hell just happened? Medora had about one second to come up with a plausible story to feed the Board that would satisfy them and wouldn’t send her to the psych ward of Daddy’s favorite hospital.
It’s not that marriage to Jerik sounded awful. She could think of a thousand worse things, most of them involving cancer. Or vegetables. But from what she knew of Jerik, he could never stomach an actual marriage. Jerik of the ungodly long name? Owner of several sex clubs? Saddled with one woman for another six thousand years? (Not that she could live that long, but she’d heard rumors of women called charls who were practically granted immortality when they mated with Krinar). He’d said the words she couldn’t quite imagine any man saying to her. But did he actually mean them? Covenanting fidelity? She felt his arm securely around her waist. If she thought for a second that he actually meant it…that would be a different story altogether.
He gripped her tighter, and they appeared in the boardroom of the Humans with Heart building on Michigan.
She saw the men and women of the board sitting at the conference table already. They all jumped a bit at her unorthodox arrival. Oops. They wore grim expressions. She waited for them to speak. They were the ones calling this stupid meeting.
“Uh, thank you for your, ahem, timely arrival,” Barbara Belvedere said. Her eyes flicked to Jerik. “Jerik of the X-Clubs, I presume?”
He nodded. Medora squeezed his hand.
Barbara continued. “We called this meeting because we wanted to give you the opportunity to defend yourself from the tawdry allegations brought against you by several online media outlets.” Barbara leveled her gaze at the both of them. “However, your appearance today seems to verify them.”
“Due respect Ms. Belvedere, but the press is lacking a vital piece of information,” Medora said. She stepped forward and pulled Jerik closer to her. “Mr. Jerik asked me to marry him, and I said yes.” Medora brought her smile to bear and blinked tears away. “He’s my fiancé. I’ll not apologize for my relationship with him.”
Barbara sat back, unable to hide her astonishment. “But, for so many years,” she glanced between Medora and Jerik, and thankfully didn’t finish her thought. Medora knew exactly what she was going to say.
“Love often ignores the arbitrary rules we set for ourselves, does it not?” Medora asked sweetly and gazed up at Jerik’s handsome face, letting her girlhood fancies flutter out of her heart like unfettered butterflies. His amber eyes devoured her face, and her heart nearly stopped.
She turned to look at the men and women around the table, waiting for more comments. Jerik spoke, instead.
“It may interest you to know that I am in talks with a business associate to sell the X-Clubs,” he said. “If that has any bearing on your decision to allow Medora to remain as the Executive Director.”
Medora saw softening on several board members’ faces and felt gratitude wash over her. Yet she remained still, waiting to hear their reaction.
Ms. Belvedere looked around at the board. “Well, we will dismiss you and Jerik. It seems that we were misinformed and mislead by the news organizations,” she chuckled nervously. “You would think with our collective experience we would know better. We will reconvene and let you know if any changes are to be made. Thank you for your time.” She stood and walked around the table, holding her hand out to Jerik. “Welcome to the family.”
Jerik bowed over her hand and gave a slight smile. Some of the others bobbed their heads at him, and then he took Medora’s elbow and they popped out of the boardroom and into another living room. His living room.
“Oh!” Medora gasped. “I haven’t been here since that night,” she murmured. Her knees were weak, and she sat on the couch, in the exact spot where she’d sat before. She put her hand to her heart. “I’m sorry, but I was so nervous. I can’t stand right now.”
“A rarity, unless you are in my presence?” He goaded her.
Her mouth gaped, but then she laughed. “You’re right! I can’t seem to stand up straight around you.” She smiled, and noticed his expression seemed relaxed. “You’re remarkably calm for someone who got engaged and sold his business in the last hour.”
“Well, not precisely. I made a call, though.” His laugh was without humor. “It was the least I could do for you.” He stepped closer and looked down at her. “Almost from the first moment, I’ve done nothing except knock you down or trip you up. I suppose I feel beholden to you.”
Medora’s heart sank. It was as she feared and suspected. He felt some strange sense of duty to her. But why should this bother her? Their sham of an engagement was just to keep her position at Humans with Heart, and perhaps to deflect attention from his sex clubs. She was uncertain if bad press affected his clubs or not. Seemed like any publicity would be good for his establishments. Er, was he really selling them? Just for her?
“We need to talk more about this, Jerik.”
He nodded. “I agree.” He sat in a chair across from her, much to her relief. Being in his awe-inspiring presence shook her up.
“We’re not,” she started and stopped. Waved her hands between them. “You and I aren’t in…” She laid her head back on the couch. She wasn’t exactly in love with the Krinar. And she knew he wasn’t in love with her. While wealthy people made marriages of convenience all the time, the arrangement wasn’t for her.
“How real is this?” She cut to the chase.
His amber eyes bored into her own. “How real do you want it to be?”
Medora felt her pulse quicken. She looked away and spied a newspaper on the side table. She picked it up and turned it over, seeing a photo of him on the Sun-Times. He had that gleam in his eye, the one that seemed to undress her and kiss her at the same time, and she shivered. Then she recalled their conversation at the Winter Ball. What she’d told him.
Realization smacked her in the face. She gasped and looked up at him.
“Oh. My. God.”
He lifted a brow.
“You’re doing this just so you can have sex with me?” Her voice rose and she stood on unsteady feet. “You’re such a pig!” She spat out her insult, pressed the ring into his hand and stormed to the door of his apartment. “I can’t be in the same room with you right now. Call me a driver, Jerik.”
His mouth opened, closed. Then a strange smile crossed his face. “Ah, I get the joke now. The hambulance.”
“What the hell are you talking about? Just get me the damn car.”
“Of course, my dear. The car will be waiting for you when you get to the lobby. We’ll talk again soon.”
Medora shook her head. She could not understand that alien. Was it all of them who were so obtuse, or just him? Right now, she didn’t care. Her heart was splitting into a thousand pieces, and she had to be at the hospital in three hours. The calm and predictable presence of death seemed much more welcoming than anything else she had done today. What was wrong with her life?