by Lori Ryan
“There’s no reason it can’t be.”
The older man was shaking his head. “What was this company worth when you took over as CEO?”
“You know the answer to that.” Jack was beginning to lose patience with the conversation. “A shit ton of millions.”
Roark smirked. “Fifty-five million, give or take.”
“Your point?”
“You could have sat on that, let it ride, but you didn’t.”
“No I didn’t.”
“You’ve built it up and it’s worth close to two billion dollars now. You’ve hit the billion-dollar mark personally, haven’t you?”
“Not seeing the point here, Roark.” Jack had Andrew to thank for a lot of that. Jack might be a genius in the boardroom, but Andrew was with money. He’d made Chad, Jack, and Andrew a hell of a lot of money.
“The point is, you should walk away. Build your own company if you want. Or take a vacation. Expand your volunteer work. Anything. Just don’t marry a woman you don’t know.”
Jack leaned his arms on the desk and rested his head on them. He tried to picture his life without this place. Without his work. He couldn’t.
He’d been groomed by his grandfather and father to do this work. This company was everything to his family and everything to him.
“It wouldn’t be Sutton Capital, Roark. It wouldn’t be the same.” He looked up and met the man’s eyes. “I’m not giving it up.”
Roark’s dark eyes were sad as he shook his head.
“Draw up the papers, Roark. Make them airtight. That’s the only thing you can do for me right now.”
Chapter 15
Andrew caught up to Chad that afternoon heading down the hall to the back of the top floor where both of their offices were. Each of them had one of the back-corner offices with Andrew’s finance team and Chad’s security and tech people spread out around the rest of the floor with them.
Chad shot him a look as Andrew fell in step beside him.
“You’re running full background.” It wasn’t a question. Andrew knew Chad would run full background on Jack’s bride. What he wanted to be sure of was that Chad gave him a copy of the results.
And yeah, he wanted to be sure the check was damned thorough. Like knowing what kind of underwear the woman wore kind of thorough.
Chad gestured to his office. “Let’s wait until we’re alone.”
They passed several of Andrew’s people and most gave him smiles or nods as he went by.
Chad paused at the door to the office of his righthand woman at the office, Samantha Page. She was a computer genius who Andrew was pretty sure they’d never be able to replace if she ever left.
“Don’t forget to eat, Sam,” Chad said.
“The wizards have to die,” the dark-haired woman muttered as she leaned back in her chair, eyes closed.
“Samantha?” Chad said louder.
Sam shot forward, sitting up in her chair and throwing herself off balance as she overcorrected.
She flushed red and looked at them, brows raised.
“Don’t forget to grab lunch.” Chad said again before continuing on.
Samantha was brilliant on a computer but she could often get so tied up in whatever she was working on, she would forget things like eating and sleeping.
“Wizards?” Andrew asked.
Chad shrugged his shoulders. “She’s designing another multiplayer gaming world in her head. She told me once she designs the whole thing in her head before she starts the actual coding.”
Andrew didn’t have to ask if Chad minded her working on her outside projects while she was at work. Some companies would try to claim ownership of anything their employees created while at the office.
Sutton wouldn’t do that, at least not where Sam was concerned. She was one of those employees who got her work done and then some. If she wanted to take a break and let her mind wander to wizards and gummy bears, what did they care?
They reached Chad’s office and shut the door after entering.
Chad sat and began tossing pencils at his garbage can, more often than not, getting them in on the first shot. It was one of things he did when his mind was racing. Andrew and the rest of the company had grown to ignore that long ago.
“You’re digging deep?” Andrew asked.
Chad nodded. “I was going to check in with you about it. Jack didn’t tell me to run a background on Kelly, but seeing as the first I heard of her was when they announced their engagement, I thought it was prudent.”
Andrew had to walk a thin line here. He couldn’t let on to Chad about the truth of Jack and Kelly’s engagement. But as glad as Andrew was that Jack had a solution to his problem with a woman who, on the face of things didn’t seem to be a psycho, he needed to be sure about Kelly before he let his best friend go down this road.
Andrew skimmed that line, hoping to set Chad at ease about Kelly so he didn’t go digging into the legitimacy of the wedding, while still convincing him to run the background check he needed to feel right about this himself.
Jack was having someone outside the company run a check for him, but Andrew wasn’t one hundred percent sure Jack was thinking clearly on this. His head had been screwed up about this clause in the will and Andrew wasn’t convinced he was thinking straight.
“Jack says he met her through Jennie a couple months ago,” Chad said. “Did you know they were dating?”
“You interrogated Jennie?” Andrew asked.
Chad shot a scowl his way. “Talked. I don’t typically grill the people who work for us.”
It wasn’t entirely true. There was that time they had a guy in the mailroom stealing from their other employees. Chad had been the one to figure it out and if Andrew remembered right there’d been some grilling alright.
“What did she have to say?” Andrew had been planning to talk to Jennie himself, only she’d been down in human resources filling out the paperwork for her new job.
Chad shook his head. “Said Kelly’s just a nice normal person. She and Kelly have known each other for years, met at a yoga class. Kelly’s going to law school next year.”
Andrew worked to keep his face blank as he nodded. “When will you get her background check?”
“I’ve already got a basic report. I’ll have more by the end of the day.”
“You’ll share?”
Chad nodded and Andrew stood. When he opened the door, Chad called out to him.
‘Hey, you never answered my question.”
Andrew turned back. “What’s that?”
“Did you know they were dating?”
Andrew could see the hurt in Chad’s eyes. The man was trying to hide it, but it was there. And Andrew got it. Jack and Chad were close. It had to have hurt to hear Jack was going to marry a woman Chad had never met, much less even heard of.
Andrew didn’t want Chad to think he had known something Chad didn’t and make the situation worse.
He shook his head. “No. I didn’t meet her before yesterday.”
It was the truth. It just wasn’t all of the truth.
Chapter 16
Two days later, Kelly stood outside the New Haven County Courthouse on Church Street and waited for Mr. Sutton.
She shook her head. Jack. If she was going to marry the man, she needed to call him Jack.
She thought about how she would break the news to her mother that she got married without telling her family. Without even introducing them to Jack first.
It would break her mother’s heart and her sister wouldn’t easily forget the fact that she missed out on being Kelly’s maid of honor, but she also knew it was wrong to have her family witness a fake marriage. Asking for forgiveness after the fact instead of inviting them to the ceremony was really her only option.
Kelly tucked her hair behind her ears as she watched Jack striding down the street toward her from his office a block away, and was again taken with how utterly and completely gorgeous the man was.
Just as he
took over any room he entered with his presence, he seemed to take over the street as he moved down the sidewalk. Kelly couldn’t take her eyes off him as he strode confidently toward her as if he owned the city. People moved out of his way as though he did, too.
Nerves took over as she thought about what they were about to do. It should be a crime to look as good as Jack Sutton. Tanned skin and mahogany eyes that burned through Kelly, and a smile that made her legs turn to mush right there on the sidewalk.
As Kelly stood watching Jack, her palms got sweaty, and for a minute she thought about running—just leaving and forgetting all about this crazy idea. She sighed and, despite her reservations, resigned herself to go through with it. It was her crazy idea to begin with, and she had given her word she’d do it, so she would. It wouldn’t be fair to Jack to go back on her word now.
She stepped toward him but her feet had different ideas, tripping over themselves and pitching her forward. Her heart slammed in her chest as the ground came rushing at her and she knew this was going to end badly. She couldn’t right herself. Couldn’t stop the fall. The concrete was going to hurt.
Then Jack was there, catching her in strong arms that circled her and held her until she had her balance back.
It seemed to take longer than it should have and Kelly had a feeling he was as responsible for the lack of equilibrium as the fall. Her heart was still tapdancing in her chest and she didn’t think that was going to stop anytime soon.
Jack smiled at her taking her hands as if he knew she needed to be grounded. Maybe he could spot that she was considering bolting.
He gave her a look that felt as if he could see deep inside her, understood her anxiety, and with it, she felt a wave of calm wash over her. She was ready.
Jack watched the play of emotions that ran across Kelly’s face as he walked toward her. There were times when she was so calm and confident, and other times when he could see the panic start to edge onto her face.
He supposed that made sense since it was a bit crazy to walk into his office and propose he pay her for a year of marriage—and then actually go through with marrying a man she didn’t know at all. He found it fascinating to watch her shift from one emotion to the next. Hell, who was he kidding? Jack found it fascinating to watch Kelly no matter what she was doing.
Jack thought Andrew was going to keel over in his office that day when he finally wrapped things up with Kelly and explained the situation to his best friend.
Andrew had a protective streak, so although he found her approach mildly amusing, he was more than a little suspicious of her. Jack knew Andrew had damn good reasons for his distrust of women where money was concerned, but even Andrew began to warm to her when Jack explained that she had only asked for law school tuition.
And when the results of the private investigator’s report came in the next day with nothing but squeaky-clean results all the way around, he was sold on her. So, it looked as though, for better or worse, he was getting married.
Jack wanted to make this marriage look as real as possible, so he had picked out an engagement ring and wedding bands he thought Kelly might like. As he stood in front of the courthouse with her, Jack took a small box out of his pocket and opened it to reveal an elegant diamond ring in a platinum setting. The diamond was an Asscher-cut diamond surrounded by smaller princess-cut diamonds. Kelly gasped as he placed it on her finger.
“W-what is this for?” she stammered as she stared at the ring.
Jack shrugged a shoulder. “Well, it only makes sense that I would buy you a ring. People will expect it, and I thought this one was pretty. Do you like it?”
It was stupid how much he cared about her opinion. He wanted her to like the ring he’d chosen for her.
“It’s beautiful,” Kelly said, and she nodded vigorously as she fingered it on her hand. She looked as if she weren’t used to the feel of a ring, much less one as heavy as the one on her finger now.
“Good,” Jack smiled at her then enfolded her hand in his and they walked side by side into the courthouse. He almost laughed when he realized how much he liked holding hands with Kelly. And in a way, he felt as if he had walked into some bizarre world where nothing he’d known before made sense.
Jack Sutton didn’t hold hands. He might put a hand to a woman’s back to steer her through a crowd or take her arm to help her from a car. But hold hands? No.
And yet, here he was, happily grabbing her small hand in his large one and trotting up to the altar with her.
They found the right room, signed in and presented the paperwork for their marriage license. The ceremony was short, basic, with two of the courthouse staff serving as witnesses. Kelly now wore a thin platinum band inset with diamonds next to the engagement ring, and Jack wore a thick, plain platinum band on his hand.
When the Justice of the Peace said the final words, “You may now kiss the bride,” Jack leaned down and softly, gently, pressed his lips to Kelly’s.
The shock of arousal that the small kiss sent coursing through him shocked the hell out of him—and from the look on her face it had done the same to her.
Kelly stared wide-eyed at Jack for a split second before glancing away while he worked to school his expression; covering all emotion that he might have revealed in the split second he’d been caught off guard.
What in the hell was that?
Chapter 17
Andrew Weston stepped out of the ’66 Corvette that was his newest baby. He’d waited until he found one in the color combo he wanted—silver with red interior—that was in mint condition. Someday he’d do the restoration himself on one of his cars, but that would have to come when he stopped working so many hours.
He jogged, taking the front steps to his grandmother’s house two at a time. The door opened and Lydia, his grandmother’s housekeeper and cook met him with a wide smile on her face.
Lydia was in her sixties and his grandmother was pushing eighty. The two women were more like mother figures to him than anything else so it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary when he wrapped Lydia up in a hug.
“What are you doing here in the middle of the day?” Lydia asked.
“Is that Andrew?” His grandmother called from the sitting room to the right where she and Lydia spent a lot of their time.
“Yep, it’s me Nora!”
He didn’t call her grandmother like most people did. She’d been Nora to him for as long as he could remember but that didn’t mean she wasn’t the kind of loving grandmother who spoiled him growing up.
Still spoiled him, as a matter of fact. It made no difference that he was thirty-two.
He got his blond hair from Nora, though her brown eyes hadn’t passed through to him. He had his dad’s blue eyes, a fact he wished he could erase since looking in the mirror at those eyes every day made him want to break the glass.
“Why are you here?” Lydia asked.
“Is he okay?” Nora called out from the other room, seemingly asking Lydia like she couldn’t trust his answer.
“I’m fine,” he called back, winking at Lydia as they walked into the sitting room. He wasn’t going to mention he was there because his best friend was out marrying a woman he barely knew.
The room was richly appointed with upholstered couches and chairs in matching shades of blues, greens, and pale yellows. The heavy inlaid coffee table and matching end tables should have made the room look stiff and stuffy, but Nora made any space she was in seem welcoming and lived in.
There were small framed photos of Andrew growing up and tchotchkes on every surface of the space. A knitted throw covered Nora’s lap and she turned her novel over in her lap to hold her place.
He leaned in and kissed her on the cheek, the feel of her papery thin skin soft against his.
“Am I here in time for lunch?”
Lydia snorted at him. “I should have known you came looking for free food. Just like college.”
Andrew turned his best smile her way. Lydia’s cooking was easily so
me of the best he’d ever tasted. He and Jack had come here often in college looking for free food and a place to do their laundry without having to wait for the dorm washers and dryers to be free.
“We’ve eaten,” Nora said.
Andrew’s face fell and both women laughed.
“I’ll get you something. I have some chicken salad in the fridge and I can warm up some of the leftover pie we had last night.”
Andrew groaned. “Please tell me it’s apple. I live for your apple pie, woman.”
Lydia glowed at his eagerness for her cooking. She always had and he was happy to gush over her cooking any day.
“Apple with walnuts,” she said.
Andrew let out a hearty groan of appreciation. When he was a kid, he hadn’t appreciated it when she ruined his apple pie by adding nuts to it, but he had to admit, as an adult he loved the addition.
“Perfect. A serving of fruits and nuts. It’s doubly good for me. I’m practically a paragon of healthy eating.”
Both women shook their heads but they were laughing as he’d hoped they would.
Lydia left the room to fix his food and he lowered himself onto the sofa across from Nora’s wing chair. He gave her a quick once over looking for any signs that she might not be well. Her color was good and he could see her ankles since they were propped on a stool in front of her. They weren’t overly swollen today, which was always a good sign.
“Now then,” Nora said, leveling him with a look. “Tell me why you’re really here.”
He shook his head, tossing her a grin. “Jack’s playing hookie so I’m taking an hour away from the office to visit my two favorite women.”
His only favorite women, actually.
“Oh?” Lydia said coming in with a tray she placed in front of Andrew. “Jack’s not working today? That’s unusual.”
She gave a raised brow look to Nora as Andrew dug into his pie, choosing to eat it before the chicken salad sandwich she’d placed on his plate. He’d get to both, for sure, but he saw nothing wrong with starting with his dessert.
