“How could you?” Larry bellowed.

Paige stared back at her father unflinchingly. “Tristan wouldn’t let the matter rest, Dad. It would just make things worse if he used the courts to force me to take a paternity test with him. Wouldn’t we be faced with more problems—not to mention a big scandal—if that were to happen?”

Larry sank in an armchair and held his head in his hands, while Debbie sat still on the couch next to Paige, her eyes wide as saucers.

“Anyway,” Paige said, swallowing her nerves, “Tristan has agreed to help us for the sake of our baby.”

“Help us?” Larry hissed. “He’s not going to help us. He’ll make us look weak!”

Paige shook her head. It seemed that not losing to Tristan under any circumstances was more important to her parents than resolving the problems they faced. “Tristan is a reasonable and honest person. You’ll see that if you cast your pride aside and talk to him.”

Larry snorted. “Tristan is nothing but manipulative and cunning. Look what he’s doing now. He’s trying to poison you against us.”

“Oh, please. He’s not,” she said in frustration.

Larry glared at her. “You should never have told him he’s the father.”

Paige stayed silent. She wasn’t at all sorry for telling Tristan. But her dad’s stubbornness was becoming concerning. Why did he hate Tristan so much?

“What are we gonna do now?” Debbie asked tearfully. “We only have three, maybe four, months to come up with the money.”

“I’m going to marry Tristan,” she announced.

“What?! No fucking way, Paige!” Larry growled.

“Why not? We’ll get the money from the trust, and you guys and Tristan can talk your differences over a family dinner,” she said sarcastically.

“Don’t be absurd! We cannot let Tristan Grant into our family!”

“It’s only going to be fake, Dad. Like you’d planned with Curtis.”

“I trust Curtis! I don’t trust Tristan!” Larry shouted, his face red.

“Well, I trust Tristan,” she muttered stubbornly.

“This can’t be undone now that Tristan knows the baby is his,” Debbie said, wringing her hands.

“We have to strike before he makes any moves,” Larry said. “We just can’t sit and wait for him to completely ruin our name and our company.”

“He doesn’t want to do that!” Paige said. “You’re so blinded by your hatred and suspicion that you’re going to make things worse! What has Tristan done to deserve this from you?”

“He wants to ruin us, Paige. Why else would he agree to marry you to help us out?”

Paige placed both hands on her belly. She’d seen the fear in Tristan’s eyes when he’d thought something had happened to Tanner. And she’d felt his relief—against her lips—when she’d corrected his mistaken assumption. “He’s doing it for me and the baby. He doesn’t want me to suffer from any more stress.”

Larry narrowed his eyes at her for what seemed like minutes. Finally, he leaned back on his chair. “No, Paige. He’s just saying that.”

Paige huffed. This was stupid. Her dad was being so paranoid that it was worrying.

“Something has to happen soon,” Debbie said. “Perhaps it is time to extend the olive branch to Tristan and start a conversation.”

“No!” Larry said.

“Dad,” Paige said softly. “I know it’s a matter of pride, but—”

Larry threw her a furious glance. “I said no, Paige.”

“Are you sure?” Debbie asked her husband, forehead creased with worry. “What other choice do we have?”

“Curtis is still a choice. He’s the only choice. Why would we let our daughter get involved in any way with Tristan Grant? There has to be a way to make him believe he’s not the baby’s father despite what Paige has told him. No paternity test has happened yet. I’m sure we can fix this.”

“Don’t I have a say in this?” Paige asked in a voice laced with anger. “I’d rather fake-marry Tristan than Curtis.”

“No. How many times do I have to tell you that?”

“You can’t make me do what I don’t want to do, Dad.”

Debbie stood up. “Paige, please leave me and your father alone to talk.”

Paige was more than happy to follow her mother to the front door. She’d had enough of her father’s stubbornness.

“I know you only want to help,” Debbie said quietly. “But you should have consulted us before you talked to Tristan.”

“Too late now, Mum. I just don’t know why dad’s being like this. And at the end of the day, no matter what you think of Tristan, he is the father of my baby. I can arrange for you guys to meet with him, and you’ll see that he’s serious in wanting to settle your dispute. All he wants is for you to stop saying negative things about him when he’s just trying to get you to explain why you believe he was too late in buying the club.”

“Don’t get yourself involved with that, Paige. Leave that with us,” Debbie said sharply.

She rolled her eyes. “So how bad is the company’s financial problem? Please be honest with me.”

Debbie’s eyes watered. “Like I said, we have three months, probably four, to come up with several millions to pay our outstanding debts. After that, if we don’t call the administrators ourselves, then the creditors will force us to go into insolvency. Either way, we lose Shipton Enterprise.”

Paige shook her head. “How did it get to this?”

Debbie sighed. “It’s a long story that I don’t want to get into right now. We’ve made the wrong calls and here we are.”

Paige hugged her mother. “I’m so sorry this has happened. Will you convince Dad to talk to Tristan? He genuinely doesn’t have malicious motives. Accepting his help would solve this problem.”

“Do you really trust him?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll try, then,” Debbie said wearily, clearly anticipating failure.

Paige kissed her mother goodbye and walked to her car. Since her father refused to see sense, she’d take matters into her own hands.

* * *

Paige waited while TG’s receptionist called Tristan to announce her presence. She hoped he didn’t mind her turning up unannounced, but she couldn’t wait to talk to him in private.

After spending a sleepless night tossing things in her head, she’d decided that her father was too stressed and scared to be thinking straight. So even though her parents would be horrified at what she was about to do, she was going ahead with it anyway. No point wasting more time when this was the only option she was prepared to accept.

She suppressed a sigh. The last few weeks had been such a whirlwind of occurrences she couldn’t even have dreamed of. Before she’d set foot in Tristan’s club in Brisbane, life had been simple and uneventful. Now, it was chaotic.

Here she was, carrying a baby in her womb and the future of Shipton Enterprise on her shoulders. Most unexpected of all, the man willing to help her save the company built by her parents’ blood, sweat and tears was the very person responsible for her parents’ despair.

Not that Tristan was at fault. He was within his rights to take his own company to the top. It wasn’t his problem that her parents couldn’t keep up with him and had made some bad turns in the process.

“Miss Shipton,” the receptionist said, “I’ll take you to Tristan now.”

Her heart pounded, both from nerves and anticipation, as she followed the receptionist.

“That’s his office right there,” the lovely lady said, indicating the room at the end of the corridor. “Just go right in.”

“Thank you.” She walked to Tristan’s open doorway, her heart hammering.

Tristan stood up when he saw her. “Hi!”

Did his eyes light up or was she simply seeing what she wanted to see? “Hi,” she said breathlessly as she walked in.

Tristan kissed her on the cheek and every nerve ending in her body seemed to reach out to him. How did he do that?

“I thought we were meeting in the clinic,” Tristan said.

“Yes, but I spoke to my parents last night and I wanted to talk to you about it first.”

Tristan closed the door and led her to a comfortable sofa near the window. “Did they give you a hard time?”

“Yes. But my dad is being stubborn.”

“You mean he still calls me a liar?” Tristan asked dryly.

“To be honest, it seems he can’t think straight from all the pressure he’s under. I’m not saying that to make excuses for him, but even though he can be very proud and arrogant, he isn’t usually this bad, especially with so much at stake.”

“Let me guess. They don’t want me to help in any way.”

“You’re right. But I’m asking you to help,” she said quietly. “Can we do this without their agreement, Tristan? When our marriage becomes public, my dad won’t have a choice but listen to you at the very least. His pride will dictate that he’s not seen as the unreasonable man who refuses to negotiate with his pregnant daughter’s husband. In the process, we’ll also hopefully solve Shipton Enterprise’s financial problems. I know there’s not a lot in this for you compared to the benefit we Shiptons are bound to get, but you said you’re prepared to do this for the sake of our baby?”

Tristan stared at her before nodding. “So we’re getting married against their wishes?”

“If you don’t mind.”

One corner of Tristan’s mouth curved up. “I don’t mind at all. No offence, but I like the thought of annoying the shit out of your parents.”

She let out a relieved sigh. She’d been worried that Tristan might be having second thoughts. “And I don’t mind what your motivation is. I’m just glad your happy to go through with this.”

“You’re a good daughter,” Tristan said seriously. “I know you won’t forgive yourself if Shipton Enterprise goes under when you could have done something to save it. I understand and respect that. Who wouldn’t help their family when they need it most? That’s why I find myself wanting to do this for our baby. Like you said, I’d hate for him to grow up and learn that his parents could have saved the company built by his grandparents, but didn’t because of pride and hate. We’d like to be a good example to him, wouldn’t we?”

Tears rushed to Paige’s eyes, and all she could do was nod her head. If only her dad would let go of his pride and hate! But for now, she had Tristan to lean on. His magnanimity would indeed be a great example for their child.

“Hey,” Tristan said softly, sitting next to her and putting an arm around her shoulders. “Please don’t cry.”

She chuckled. “These are good tears. Thankful tears—because of you.”

Tristan ran a thumb across her cheek. Then he kissed her so tenderly that a blissful sigh escaped her.

This wonderful man was going to be her husband. Short-lived their marriage might be, but she was hopeful it was only the start.

Tristan pulled away, as if suddenly remembering something. “I have to be honest with you, Paige. If your parents don’t stop saying slanderous things about me, I won’t have a choice but to take them to court even if they happen to be my in-laws.”

“That’s understandable. My hope is they’ll stop once we’re married,” she said, still giddy from the kiss.

“So what exactly is your plan?”

“Well, I’m thinking we elope. We can say we were hiding our relationship because of who you are—my parents’ competitor. And when we found out we were pregnant, we decided to get married quietly. It’s a story I can see the trustees buying.”

“Okay. When?”

“My parents need the money within three months—four, tops. If we submit the Notice of Intended Marriage straight away, we can get married in a month’s time. Hopefully, a couple of months is all the trustees need to be convinced that I’m entitled to that five million dollars.”

Tristan blew out a breath. “A month, hey?”

“Please don’t get cold feet,” she pleaded. “We’ll sign a prenup. I don’t want anything from you, not even support for Tanner.”

“Hey, I want to support Tanner,” Tristan said with a scowl.

“I’m just saying,” she said with a smile. Would she ever stop being thrilled by Tristan showing his fatherly love to his unborn son? It was so touching and… sexy.

“Okay. In a month, then,” Tristan said with a sigh.

“Um, we’ll also have to live together after the wedding,” she said, reddening.

Tristan grinned. “We’ll have to, won’t we? You’ve seen my city apartment. There are two spare bedrooms, and I’ve actually already earmarked one as the nursery. But I’m happy to consider your place, if you want to live there instead.”

“I don’t have as much extra space as you, so I’ll be happy to move into your apartment.”

“Done.”

“Thank you, Tristan. I really appreciate this.”

Tristan smiled. “I’m easy, as long as things are right between us for the sake of our baby.”

She smiled. “You really do want Tanner, don’t you?”

“He’s my child, Paige. I love him already.”

She welled up again. Whether she liked it or not, she was already more than halfway in love with this man. “Tristan?”

“Yes?”

She gulped. “How would you feel about… dating while we’re married?”

Tristan frowned. “Dating? I thought we can’t be seen cheating on each other?”

She flushed. “That’s not what I mean. I’m talking about the two of us. Since we can’t see other people, how would you feel about us seeing each other?”

Tristan’s lips twitched. “Well, considering I’m still very much attracted to you…”

Her heart skipped a beat before galloping fast. He’d said it! He was still attracted to her!

“And,” Tristan continued, “we are having a baby.”

“Uh-huh.” She tried not to look so hopeful.

“Yeah, I think dating each other is a great idea. But can we make something clear?”

“Of course.”

Tristan looked embarrassed. “This upcoming marriage will still only be a short-term one, right? I’m nowhere near ready for the ‘till death do us part’ thing.”

She nodded, smiling. “Even though we’ll be legally married, we’re really only dating. We can add to our prenup that we won’t give the other a hard time when it’s time to divorce. Let’s make this fake marriage thing separate from our real dating life.”

Tristan grinned, tilting her chin up with a finger. “Good. Now I won’t have to think too hard on how to seduce you,” he murmured.

She grinned, her body reacting instantly to his words. “I have to warn you about something.”

“What?”

“The hormones are making me horny all the time,” she teased boldly. “You might not be able to keep up with me.”

Tristan laughed. “I bet I can too, babe. I’ll always be up for it.”

Paige giggled, then moaned when Tristan captured her mouth and kissed her passionately. The bulge growing in his pants proved to her he was a man of his word.

Now, if she could only make her parents see sense, all her problems would be resolved. It shouldn’t be so hard to convince them once they got over the shock of her marrying Tristan, right?