Emily McKay – Baby for the Tycoon: The Tycoon's Temporary Baby / The Texas Billionaire's Baby / Navy Officer to Family Man (страница 7)
He tried to interrupt her. “Actually—”
But she cut him off with a wag of her finger. “No, wait a second. I
And then—because she realized that was practically an invitation to kiss her for other reasons—she added, “In fact you have no business kissing me at all. If we’re going to do this pretend-marriage thing, we need to set some boundaries. And thirdly… well, I have no idea what thirdly is yet, but I’m sure it will come to me eventually.”
For a long moment, Jonathon merely stared at her, one eyebrow slightly arched, his lips curved to just hint at his amusement. “Are you done?”
She clamped her lips together, painfully aware of how cool and collected he seemed when she’d just been rambling like an idiot. A surefire sign that her emotional state was neither cool nor calm.
Maybe she was wrong about the kiss affecting him as much as it did her. And wouldn’t that just suck. Didn’t she have enough on her plate just now? This was so not the time for her to be nursing a crush on her boss. Or her husband.
When had her life gotten so complicated?
On the floor between them, Peyton wedged her tiny hands under her to push up onto her forearms. She let out an excited squeal of pride.
Right. This was when her life had gotten complicated. Approximately five days ago in her grandfather’s study when the lawyer dropped Bitsy’s will on her like a bomb.
Wendy let loose a sigh of frustration. “I’m sorry,” she said. “None of this is your fault. I shouldn’t take it out on you. I just—”
“I agree we need boundaries,” he said abruptly, cutting her off before she could bumble further into the apology. His tone was stiff, as if he was searching for the most diplomatic way to broach the subject. “Keeping sex out of this is a good idea. However, kissing you now seemed prudent because we will have to kiss again at some point.”
“We will?” she asked weakly, her gaze dropping to his mouth.
“Naturally.”
She felt a curious heat stirring deep inside at the idea. He was going to kiss her again. Soon? She hoped so. Even if it was a very bad idea, she hoped so.
“If we’re going to convince people we’re in love and getting married, people will expect certain displays of affection.”
“Oh, I hadn’t thought…” Obviously, there was a lot she hadn’t considered about this idea. She didn’t know whether or not to be thankful that Jonathon’s brain worked so much faster than her own. Was it a good thing he was around to consider things she hadn’t? Or was it merely annoying to always be one step behind?
“The people who know us best will be hardest to convince. Luckily Ford and Matt will both be out of town for another few weeks. We’ll have to get used to the idea ourselves before see them.”
“Ford and Matt? Surely we don’t need to lie to them?” Jonathon had been best friends with Ford and Matt since they were kids.
He leveled a steady gaze at her. There was no hesitation. No doubt. “Yes, we do. If your family decides to fight us on this, it could mean a court battle. I can’t ask either of them to lie for us.”
“Oh.” Feeling suddenly weak, she sank back to the edge of the desk.
Of course they couldn’t ask Ford and Matt to lie for them. In the five years she’d worked with FMJ, she’d served as executive assistant for all three men equally.
They worked so closely together they’d decided long ago it was easier to share one assistant among the three of them. Undoubtedly that was why they’d gone through so many assistants before she’d come along. Managing the schedules and needs of three such disparate men was no easy task. In short, she was a miracle worker.
If the thought of lying to them was this difficult for her, then how must Jonathon feel about the matter?
She propelled herself away from the desk and crossed to stand in front of him. Gazing up into his mossy-green eyes, she studied him. “This is a crazy and ridiculous plan. Are you sure you want to do this?”
His lips curved into a slight smile. His eyes lit with a reckless gleam as they crinkled at the corners, giving her the distinct impression that he was enjoying this. “Yeah. I’m sure. If there’s one thing I know, it’s how to make the strategic risk pay off.”
The resolve in his gaze was as clear as the doubt probably was in her own. Then she looked down at where Peyton lay on the floor. She scooped up the precious little girl and held her close. This moment felt profound. As though she and Jonathon were striking a bargain that was going to change all of their lives. It seemed only right that Peyton be a part of it as well. “Okay,” she said. “Let’s do this.”
Jonathon’s face broke into a full grin. He gave a brisk nod then spun on his heel, moving toward his office as he started barking orders, back into full boss mode.
“First off, email Ford and Matt and schedule another teleconference for later in the day. Then call Judge Eckhart and see if he has time in his schedule to perform the ceremony next Friday. Clear my schedule and yours for the following two weeks.”
Wendy was used to having Jonathon rattle off a to-do list like this. Even trying to juggle Peyton, she kept up pretty well. Until he got to the last item on the list.
“Wait a second. Clear our schedules? What are we going to be doing? And what about the government contract?”
“We’ll work on that this week. And we’ll have another couple of weeks after we get back. It’ll be tight, but I have no doubt we’ll get it done.”
“Get back? Get back from where?”
He paused by his desk and looked up at her, that cocky smile still on his face. “From our honeymoon.”
“Our honeymoon?” Surprise pitched her voice high.
“Don’t get too excited. We’re just going to Texas. If we’re going to win this battle with your family, we need to go on the offensive. That means taking the fight to them.”
When Jonathon called her into the conference room the next morning, she was surprised to see Randy Zwack there. Randy had gone to college with Jonathon, Matt and Ford before going on to law school. He’d occasionally done work for FMJ, before they’d hired an intellectual property legal department, but that had been long before her time. She was more confused than surprised when she walked into the conference room and saw him there—looking more harried than usual.
Jonathon stood at the far end of the room, back to the door, staring out at the view of Palo Alto sprawling below. Randy sat dead in the center of the table, stacks of paper spread out before him. The lawyer looked up when she entered. He half stood and offered her a strained smile.
“Oh, good. You’re here,” he said as if he’d been waiting for her. “We can get started.”
“Hi, Randy.” She looked past him to Jonathon. When he turned around, she raised her eyebrows in question.
“What’s up?”
He frowned and with unusual hesitancy said, “I asked Randy here to draw up a prenuptial agreement for us.” He held out a hand to ward off some protest he imagined she might make. “Don’t worry. I trust his discretion.”
“I’m not worried.” In fact, delighted was more like it. “Calm down. I think a prenup is a fantastic idea.”
“You do?” Randy looked surprised.
“Why wouldn’t I?” She sat down in the chair opposite Randy. “I assume Jonathon told you why he’s helping me?”
Randy gave a little nod, still looking suspicious.
“This is a marriage custom-made for a prenup.”
“In the interest of full disclosure…” Randy ran a hand over his hair, which today looked disheveled, though it was normally meticulously styled to hide his growing bald spot. “This is not my area of expertise. I told Jonathon he should hire a good family lawyer, but—” Randy winced.
“But Jonathon can be very pig-headed.”
“I was going to say determined.”
No wonder the poor guy looked so disconcerted. Jonathon had obviously browbeat him into drawing up the prenup. And doing it on a very tight schedule, since Jonathon had proposed less than twenty-four hours ago.
“Don’t worry.” Wendy reached across the table and patted Randy’s hand. “I’m sure you did great. It’s all pretty cut-and-dry.”
Jonathon took a few steps closer to loom over them from the end of the table. He’d shoved his hands into his pockets in that way she found so distracting.
This was the man who was going to be her husband. In less than a week. Her stomach tightened at the thought.
“Okay, let’s see this puppy. It’s just your standard prenup, right?”
Reaching for the stack of papers in front of Randy, she clapped her hands in a way that was overly cheerful, as if this was a big fake check from Publishers Clearinghouse. But neither man noticed. Randy was too busy sending Jonathon a pointed glance and Jonathon was too busy glaring Randy into intimidated silence. She looked from one man to the other.
“This
Jonathon cleared his throat and loomed some more.