“So that’s decided? We’ll part ways after a year. Quietly and amicably, no matter what state Wilde’s is in? I can’t be held responsible for you running it into the ground.”

Apparently, Cole had spent the early hours on the phone to his lawyer rather than sleeping and he’d come out swinging this morning. Briony hadn’t slept, either, but not because she’d chatted with anyone as useful as a lawyer. She took a deep breath and tried to channel her mantra. If you want it, take it, otherwise . . . Well, she wasn’t entirely faking it with the sex tape. Whether she would turn it into a real opportunity for Wilde’s would become apparent soon enough. “Okay. Seems reasonable enough. Although, I wouldn’t really know. I haven’t had any coffee yet.”

“Don’t you want to check this over with a lawyer?” He was cold this morning. Calculating. The businessman that had been hiding behind all the charm last night.

She raised an eyebrow. “Know any lawyers who are okay to be paid in fresh air?”

“You’d sign something without a lawyer?”

“Like I said. No cash, no lawyer. Guess we’re going to have to trust each other.”

He snorted. “Trust each other, good one. We’re not doing anything without you signing something. I’ll have the documents sorted by the afternoon.”

“Wait,” she said. “Mikey’s brother went to law school. He can read ’em for me.” She pulled out her cell and after a brief chat, she scribbled something on a napkin yanked from the bar. “Email it over and he’ll call me with any issues.”

Cole nodded as he took the napkin and put the end of his pen in his mouth. His luscious, full-lipped mouth. That was her problem right there. Not that she was about to sign a legal document, but that she was about to sign a legal document, a pre-nuptial agreement, a freaking wedding code of conduct agreement, with that man. A man who had been making her life hell for the last six months by giving every planning body in L.A. a reason to turn against her. Okay, further against her. A man who wanted to bulldoze Wilde’s, and a man who had driven her so crazy that she couldn’t get the image of his naked body out of her messed-up head.

When she got up this morning, her bed looked like Cole and ten of the Hell’s Boys had been fighting for her honor in it. Hardly surprising given the amount of tossing and turning she’d done. She’d relived every part of meeting Cole Knight, leading him to her lockup and—gah—riding him into oblivion. She’d never taken charge like that. And she’d never had such an incredible time. The way he’d looked at her. The way he’d moved inside her. That chest, that jaw, that mouth on her naked breast . . .

“You’ll have to attend functions with me. We’ll get you a new wardrobe, obviously.”

Briony snapped her attention back to the real, fully clothed Cole Knight. “What’s wrong with my clothes?”

“Nothing, if you spend your time watching car racing and drinking beer.” Briony hunched her shoulders as he looked her up and down. “My fiancée has to attend openings and fund-raisers. Only the bare minimum, don’t worry. But when she does put in an appearance I need her to be taken seriously by the mayor and his cronies. Would it kill you to wear a dress?”

“I wouldn’t know. I’ve never worn one.”

He rubbed his face, tired lines appearing around his eyes as he grimaced. “This is never going to work.”

Briony’s ego sank further till it was wallowing somewhere near her knees. “You saying I’d look awful in a dress?”

He sighed and took her hand. “You, my dear, would look incredible whatever you wore. Especially if it was just black lace.” He dropped her hand and she missed his touch immediately. “But given that you’ve made it abundantly clear you want to screw me over rather than screw me senseless, I don’t see how we’re going to put on a show that anyone will believe.”

Briony bit her lip. The cold business attitude had lifted for a moment and Cole Knight was plenty warm when he let himself be. If they’d met under different circumstances . . . “I can be fancy if I have to. You might have to give me some pointers on which fork to use, but I’m not exactly Julia Roberts.”

He laughed and his eyes flashed. Man, those eyes. They were the biggest issue here. Whenever he turned them up full volume and pointed them at her, Briony found her thoughts racing to get out of her head and moving down to her groin.

“I’m no Richard Gere, either. Guy was a sap in that movie,” he said.

“You’ve seen Pretty Woman?”

“It’s a classic, isn’t it? Figured I better work out what all the fuss was about. Doesn’t do it for me. But there were a few nice lines, I’ll give you that.”

She snorted. “Bet you like the one about all girls wanting to be princesses, given that you’re a Knight and all.”

He smiled and it softened him further. “It’s the truth, isn’t it?”

“Total bullshit,” she said with relish. “Knights don’t ride up on white horses with colors flying. And they sure as shit don’t rescue hookers, or bar owners.”

“And yet here I am.”

Here he was. Wouldn’t be if you’d let him bail like he was going to, though. He screwed you then headed for the hills when he worked out who you were. Wilde’s will be a pile of rubble if you cave. “You’re only here because you have to be.”

“I’m only here now because you’re blackmailing me. A few hours ago I would’ve gladly climbed a tower to get in your window.” He put his hands in his pockets, and the warmth that had almost been between them only a moment ago left the room.

And you’re surprised? Briony clenched her hands into fists. She had no choice, not if she wanted to keep Wilde’s open. And she did. She had to. “So I’ll wear a dress. That’s it? I wear a dress, make nice, you save Wilde’s, and we break up after a year. Seems pretty straightforward.”

“And you’ll move into my apartment with me.”

Briony shook her head. “Say what now?”

“My lawyer thinks that if you’re going to insist on this engagement we need to fully commit, make sure it’s believable. If people think I’m doing it as a publicity stunt, then they’ll look too hard, find the cracks. Although being in the same room as you wouldn’t count as a publicity stunt in my books.”

“I’m not moving in with you.”

“Great.” He shut his folder of documents. “Hand over the video and we’ll move on. I’ll give you some money and you can start over.”

“No. Wilde’s needs to stay. And you need to commit to that by committing to me. It’s the only way I trust you won’t knock it down behind my back.”

He sighed. “If you’re going to renovate Wilde’s, though, you need somewhere to live.”

“There are twenty-five rooms. We can do one wing at a time.”

He glared at her and Briony did her best to glare right back. It was tricky, though, when the flickering muscle in his jaw only highlighted how chiseled it was.

“You’ll have to move in here,” she finally said.

“Ha. Nice one.”

You sure that’s a good idea? She didn’t have any others. “If your lawyer says we need to put on a show, then Wilde’s can put on the best in town.”

“It’s not really my usual type of thing.”

“Exactly. It’ll show how much you’ve come to love the place.” She paused. “And me.”

Their eyes locked again. Don’t look away, don’t look away. Damned if she was going to be the one to back down. Cole was the enemy here, not her. If he hadn’t been such a bully in the first place, she wouldn’t be in this position. No one at the bank was ever going to take her seriously when they had him knocking at their door.

“Come on. Let me show you what you’ll be falling in love with.” She held up a hand as he went to protest. “Don’t get all bitchy about it before you’ve even seen it. You want a great hotel in your development? No problem. Got one right here.” She put her hands on her hips, ready for him to scoff at her.

“Okay.”

Briony’s heart pumped faster. “Then you’ll move in. Good.”

“I never said . . .” He shook his head. “Just show me around first.”

Briony set off before he could change his mind. This had to work. “The upstairs bedrooms you’ve already seen,” she said, walking through to the empty kitchen and restaurant area. The paint wasn’t flaking off the walls as much, so the rooms looked to be in salvageable shape. But the cooker had definitely seen better days and between the mismatched chairs and the terrible carpet in the restaurant, she was the first to admit the place looked, well, unappetizing. But it was still a functioning kitchen; it all just needed some love, a damn good cleaning, and new appliances, and chairs, and tables, and, well, most everything. “Once we’ve done this up, this is where we’ll have a bistro. Simple food. Locally sourced, that sort of thing. I want to take that wall down and put in French doors so we can open them in the summer and then, bam, it’ll be poolside.”

She pushed out into the cold winter air to where the pool was hiding under its bright green cover. Briony did a double take. She could have sworn the pool cover was blue when she bought it. Oh shit. Algae. Taking Cole’s arm, she turned him toward the grassy lawn area but that didn’t help. The pavers were cracked in places and the grassy edges were overgrown. An empty cigarette packet blew up and sat forlornly on her toe. The sigh was unintentional. “It obviously looks much better when it’s not about to rain.”

“I don’t doubt it.”

Shit, this was a bad idea. “Let’s go back inside. I’ll show you the other wing.”

“You sure? You’re not exactly doing yourself any favors here.”

Something cold and wet settled in Briony’s stomach. Something not unlike the soggy cigarette packet on her foot. She stooped to pick it up and crunched the plastic wrapper in her hand. “I’ve already told you we’re going to do a bunch of work, but the bones of the place are good. And it’s got good heart.”

“Just like you, huh?”

She stiffened at his derogatory tone. “Yes, just like me. I like to build things up, not just knock them down.”

“You say that as if all I do is bulldoze places. I build things, too. I’m building a place for communities to grow.”

“You build things to make money.”

“And you sell beer and rooms to make money. Or that’s what you should be doing. Looks like you might be selling the wrong type of beer. Surely, that’s something you’d have figured out after all these years in business?”

The damp, cold cigarette packet–sized lump in Briony’s stomach sank a little lower as she thought about her pop. Sure, he’d been harder than a bike chassis, but he’d still been her pop. It might have taken her a year to work through the piles of paperwork that led to the bottom of the debt-pile he’d left her, but he hadn’t meant to leave it like that. Trouble was, working out what the problem was was one thing, getting the funds to fix all his mistakes was another. “I’m working on it. Let’s go. It’s cold.”

“I could have been the guy that warmed you up. You know that, right?”

Briony fought the urge to put a finger to her mouth as she remembered just how well Cole had warmed her up. “Well, you shoulda thought of that before you tricked me into sleeping with you.”

“Tricked you?”

She waved him off. “It’s history, move on, Slick. I’ll sign your stupid paperwork, but you have to move in here. I’m not budging. Take it or leave it. And of course by leave it, I mean suck it up when the shit-storm hits the papers after Rocco does what he does with that stuff on his laptop.”

Cole’s eyes blazed and his jaw looked like it might just be able to crack the pavers surrounding the pool. “Fine.”

“You’ll move in?”

“As long as I don’t have to share a room with any of your bodyguards.”

“You don’t have to share.” She gulped. “Unless your lawyer was trying to suggest we needed to.”

“Share a bedroom with you? We never made it to a bed the last time, and given the . . . circumstances, it’s not going to happen now.”

“Clearly.” She nodded, but her heart wasn’t happy about it. It sped up and pumped blood at an overzealous rate, enough that she thought she might faint. She rubbed her forehead. Damn. She needed coffee. But the guy didn’t need to be quite so happy about never sleeping with her again.

Cole straightened. “We’re agreed then, so let’s get out of here. I need a change of scenery and you need coffee. Let’s go.” Cole took her arm and propelled her back through the hotel and to the front door where the clouds had decided to finally let go of their contents.

Out the door and into the rain before she had a chance to argue, Briony tried to ignore the whirlwind the past twelve hours were making of her stomach. In the car, fixed by some overpriced same-day service, she broke her thin-lipped silence. “We could’ve gotten coffee at the hotel.” His car made almost no noise as it ate up the bumpy road leading away from Wilde’s.

“I don’t do filtered.”

“Neither do I. We have an espresso machine.”

“Well, that’s something if I’m going to be spending more than two minutes there each morning.”

She looked at his clean-cut, strong-jawed profile. “I don’t make a habit of this sort of thing.”

“I should hope not. There’s only so many times a girl can get away with blackmailing a guy with a sex tape. Or maybe not. I don’t want to know.”

“I’ve never done that before. None of it.”

He looked at her again, hard. “You know what? I believe you. Perhaps I should feel privileged that you chose me to unleash your inner vindictive vixen on. Still doesn’t make it right and doesn’t mean I’m not pissed.” He paused and looked in the rearview mirror. “And if you could let your henchmen know I’m playing nice, I’d appreciate it.”

Briony looked behind and saw three chrome-heavy Harleys trailing them. Still stinging from his caustic words, she buzzed the window down despite the downpour and waved their escort on. With a roar of motors, the three bikes drew up alongside them and after nodding at Briony, they roared off along the road.

“Here.” Cole made a hard turn into a lot and quickly put the car in park. Almost immediately he was out of the car and waiting for her under the shelter of the café awning. Briony looked up and huffed out her surprise, both at where they were and that he’d found a parking space so close. Tierra Mia had a great reputation for home-roasted coffee beans and making heavenly café Cubano con leche, two things she wouldn’t have thought Cole with his big-shot attitude would’ve gravitated toward.

She clambered out and followed him inside. “You’ve been here before?”

“I like good coffee. These guys do it properly.”

Huh. Go figure. Maybe that explained the nasty that she’d first spotted in his eyes; it was fueled by dark, Cuban coffee. While they waited for their drinks, Briony looked at the wet, gray, wild, stormy world. It fit the whole mess she was making of her life. But as she took her first sip of the bittersweet brew, Briony sighed deep and long. “Sooo good.”

“Great. You inhale that and then we can get back to business. I’ve got meetings this afternoon.” He held up a finger as his phone rang. “Yes. At Tierra Mia. Great. See you soon.”

“We’re meeting someone?”

Cole just nodded and flipped through his phone. After a while he sighed and put it down. “What?”

“Nothing.”

“You’ve been staring at me for the last five minutes.”

“What else am I supposed to do? I finished my coffee.”

“So get another one.” He waved at the barista and soon another smooth coffee was sitting in front of them. By the time she’d finished it, Cole’s phone had pinged again. “Ah yes, I can see you.” Cole walked to the door and a cycle courier handed him an envelope. “Here it is,” he said to her when he sat back down.

“Here what is?”

“The contract. Your guy approved it so my lawyer had it sent out.”

Wow. Efficient.

“We’ve covered the expiry date. We need to settle on a start date. I’m guessing you’d like to make that as soon as possible,” he said as he opened the envelope and flicked through the pages.

“Start date, expiry date. Way to make a girl feel the romance.”

He looked up at her sharply. “Romance? Seriously?”

Again, Briony’s heart shrunk. What the what, girlfriend? None of this was real, and he was a coldhearted bastard. Yes. Right. Just because he turned her panties to molten fabric didn’t mean she had designs on the guy. This was business for her as much as it was for him. She took another sip of her second coffee. “Kidding. Starting soon is good. Means I can get my liquor license reissued before it expires. And make a start on renovations.”

“About that. There’s a clause in here that gives you a quarter mil. If you breach any of the terms of the contract, you have to pay it back.”

“Terms like?”

“Like you or any of your associates mouthing off to the media. Bringing my name or my business into disrepute. Having an adverse effect on my stock market rating.”

“Whoa.” She put up her hands. “Big terms.”

“It’s a big check.”

“I’m not going to talk to the media, not unless you break your side of the bargain, then the deal is off, obviously. And I’ll stop the boys from saying anything. But what do you mean, bringing your business into disrepute? Or affecting your stock market rating? I can’t control that.” She thought she saw a glint in his viper-green eyes. Was he enjoying this?

“It’s directly related to your actions, if you’ll bother to read the fine print. Your lawyer has okayed it already.”

“Give it to me.” She grabbed the weighty document from him and looked at the section he pointed to. Jeeezuuus. He’d covered his ass good. “Your lawyer must cost an arm and a leg.”

“Worth every penny.”

“I’d say.” She scanned further and dialed Mikey’s brother. He assured her the section was restrictive, but not unfair. It made no sense for her to hurt her husband-to-be’s reputation anyway, not if this was going to work. And of course, the sex tape wasn’t all that. No audio meant no confessional rant; seeing a developer in next-to-nothing was hardly news to a seasoned L.A. media hack.

“Okay,” she said, still reading. “I think I can work with that. Hang on.” She’d spotted the final clause in the Remuneration Conditions section. “What do you mean by an ‘adulterous affair’?”

“Just that you can’t have one.”

“Makes it sound like I can’t sleep with anyone.”

“You can’t.”

“What?”

“You can’t cheat on me or you lose the money.”

“So I can’t sleep with anyone for a year.”

“No.”

“Except you?”

“Well, that’s clearly not going to happen.”

She took another sip of coffee to give herself space and stop her from saying anything stupid. “We have to be celibate for a year. Someone save me.”

“I imagine that would be a stretch for you.”

Her head snapped up and she glared at him. “Yes, I like sex. But I bet you’ve slept with more women than I’ve had hot dinners. So don’t talk to me like that. There isn’t one standard for men and one for women.” She took a breath, her anger still boiling. “Anyway, last night Rocco gave me some crazy drink and you were feeding me bourbon.”

“Hardly. You knocked it back like you’d been drinking it from your baby bottle.”

They glared at each other in silence.

“Fine.” She relented. What choice did she have?

“So you’ll sign?”

“Give me a pen.”

He handed one over and with more flourishing than was strictly necessary, Briony signed away her sex rights for a whole year. Oh, and agreed to become Mrs. Knight if only on paper.

“At least we can be civil about this, despite the somewhat uncivilized beginning,” he said, shuffling the papers back together.

She snorted. “I don’t remember you complaining.”

“Oh, I wasn’t complaining. If our tryst had been the beginning and end of our evening I probably would have come back for more. One of the highlights of my year.”

He was so cold about it, so matter of fact. But he did say it was one of the highlights of his year. She saw Cole spot something over her shoulder.

His face darkened. “Today? Of all days?” he growled. “Come here.” Not giving her a moment to react, Cole leaned over the table and pulled her chin toward him, roughly covering her mouth with his.

Panties. Melted. In her head, Briony pulled back and slapped Cole Knight in his smug - neighborhood - destroying - rich - boy - developer’s face. Her body had other ideas; she leaned closer and let him push a hand through her hair, dive his tongue into her mouth, and cup her chin as if he owned her.

He was the one to pull back and she quickly shoved her coffee cup in her face to stop a repeat.

“Anyone would think you were trying to hide from me behind this gorgeous woman.” A laconic male voice came from behind Briony. “You forget I’ve known you your whole life though. Didn’t know you knew anyone in L.A.”

Cole looked at Briony and his eyes glinted a warning. Then he looked up. “Turns out I do now.”

Briony turned and looked up into the bright blue eyes of more sunshine-drenched version of Cole. Blue eyes, blond hair, wide grin.

“You going to introduce us?” the man asked.

“I don’t know if I’m ready to share yet.”

“Well, too late. I caught you out.” The man pulled a chair from another table and joined them, waving at a waitress to bring him a coffee.

“Oh, sure, sit down.” The hard glitter in Cole’s eyes was back. His viper eyes could’ve taken the other man’s heart if they’d wanted, Briony was sure of it. She suddenly wondered if blackmailing Cole Knight was biting off more than she could chew. Too late for that.

“I’m Briony Wilde.” She held out her hand. “You must be . . .”

The man took it. “Nice to meet you, Briony Wilde. I’m Cole’s brother, Rick. The lawyer told me I’d find you here.”

“Rick?”

Rick ignored the question and looked at Cole. “You two . . . work together?” Rick eyed their hands.

There was a pause. A long pause. “I guess we will soon.” Briony rushed to fill the silence. “We’re getting married and Cole’s helping me renovate my hotel.”

Rick’s eyebrows nearly reached her hairline. “Married?”

Briony ran a finger along Cole’s jaw. “Does he always get what he wants?”

“Hardly,” Cole muttered but Rick just kept beaming. “He’s a hard worker, my brother. But then, I guess you know that. But, hell, engaged. That was quick. Congratulations.”

“Yes, well, nice we’ve all met,” Cole said, his face set, “what are you even doing in L.A.?”

“Lucy had a meeting here and we thought we’d come out together, make a day of it. Then the board decided that since I was flying here I should go meet Jeremy Holder. See if I can get him on our side.”

“What the fuck for?”

“Because you never know who you’re going to have to be nice to,” Rick said, eyeballing Briony carefully.

“No one thought to tell me you were coming?” Briony watched Cole’s face as he spoke. He didn’t show the effect the snub had on him, but she could see from the way his eyes darkened that he was hurt.

“It was a bit last minute; we’re flying back to New York tonight.”

“Right. Well.” Cole shut down. His face flattened and his eyes lost their dark spark. “If you don’t mind, we need to get back.”

“Wait. What? Aren’t you going to let me get to know my future sister-in-law a bit better?”

“Another time perhaps. Right now we have work to do.” He emphasized the word work and Briony felt the tension crackling in the air between the brothers. Whatever history there was, it wasn’t apple-pie friendly. Cole stood and Rick knocked back the rest of his coffee, then followed. They shook hands, a little awkwardly.

“I look forward to hearing more about you, Briony. Come for lunch sometime.”

“Sure,” she said and returned his air kiss as if she gave them out all the time. Then all of a sudden he was gone and the hum of the café filtered back in around them.

“Well, that was fun.”

Cole sat again, his face a mask. “You know that clause about bringing my name into disrepute?”

“I was nice. And he’s your brother. Surely he’s the first person you’d want to tell about your happy news.”

“He’s the last person I was going to tell.”

“Man. Family drama. The two of you should get in a ring and fight it out sometime. Sometime soon.”

“We’re fine.”

“Uh-huh. If my brother came into town and didn’t even bother to call I’d be pissed, too.”

“I wasn’t pissed.”

“Whatever. You might as well have written it on your forehead. Your body stiffened like it got caught in a trap.”

The flicker in his jaw spread, and Cole allowed himself a quick smile. “I’m used to it.” The smile disappeared. “But let’s not have a repeat performance. I didn’t want to tell him like that.”

“Oh well. Had to come out sometime.”

Cole grimaced. “Yes, but I could have chosen a better messenger than my brother.”