Three
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 have blown his plans.
“When Ellie figures out you staged this meeting to get a photo of her coming out of your office she’s—”
“Going to yell.” Derrick knew it. He even felt a twinge of guilt over it—one he could easily ignore. “But we know this is about more than a PR job. This is about saving the company and there’s no way I’m letting her know I need her help for something that big. I’m not giving her that power over me.”
“Very romantic.”
“This is business. According to my father’s stipulations, I have to get my brothers in line and in this office, clean up my image and stop Noah Gold’s public hit job, all while single-handedly running a commercial real estate company.”
After a lifetime of aiming his sons at each other, Derrick’s father wanted them to be one big happy family, all working in the office and getting along. And if they didn’t, Derrick would lose the business that meant everything to him. His father already had a buyer outside the family interested. A rich old friend with liquidity and the ability to move fast on the sale.
Just thinking about the requirements of his father’s stupid business proposal touched off a new wave of fury in Derrick’s gut. He literally could forfeit everything because of his father’s stupid whims.
Derrick was about to launch into an angry rant about Eldrick when his office door pushed open. Ellie stepped inside again, looking a little flushed and not a bit worried or afraid of him.
He liked her attitude but the security lapse was a concern. Then he thought about the photographer and wondered if the guy had moved too soon. “How did you get in here?”
“I walked.”
He guessed he should have expected that answer from her. “You shouldn’t be able to wander around the building without an escort.”
She waved the concern away as she approached the desk and held out her hand. “You can worry about your over-the-top paranoid protocol later. Give me the agreement.”
“What?”
She continued to hold out her hand. “If I’m going to consider this—”
“Are you?” That surprised him when almost nothing did.
“—I want to make sure you didn’t add anything weird in here.”
Whatever he planned to say left his head. He suddenly wanted to know what her definition of “weird” might be. “Like what?”
“With you?” She snorted. “Who knows? I don’t trust you.”
Jackson nodded as he grabbed the folder and gave it to her. “A very solid beginning for a relationship.”
Her eyes narrowed as her gaze moved from Jackson to Derrick. “Your guy knows about this nonsense fake dating and engagement offer of yours?”
“Yes, and that document in your hand is nonnegotiable.” Derrick knew from their combined thirty minutes together so far that she’d be whipping out the red pen and revising if he didn’t put a stop to it now.
She shrugged at him as she opened the file and took a peek inside. “Whatever.”
He fought back a sigh. “I’m serious, Ellie.”
Her head shot up and she glared at him. “You’re not going to win every argument.”
“I think I am.” He rarely lost and had no intention of starting now. “I’ll see you at ten tomorrow.”
She turned and headed for the door. “You’ll get my answer when you get it.”
She was gone before Derrick could respond.
Damn, he liked her. The fire and self-assurance were so sexy. She wasn’t yet thirty but she’d grown up fast when she’d lost her parents. He understood what it was like to take on responsibility early. It was one of the reasons he thought they’d be able to handle this arrangement. She would get what she needed and he’d get his obstinate father off his back.
Jackson cleared his throat. “You’re smiling.”
Derrick refused to play this game. “She’s...interesting.”
“This engagement thing is fake, right?”
“Of course.”
“Right.” Jackson exhaled. “That explains the stupid look on your face whenever you see her.”