“My company does this all the time. If I had known… I would never have done this to you on purpose, Haley. You have to believe that,” he persuaded me. There wasn’t even a hint of deception or cruelty in his voice. He was sincere. I could tell.
“Okay,” I sighed. I leaned forward. “You said you wanted to help me. How the hell are you planning to do that?”
Chase gave me a brilliant smile. “All right. This is going to sound crazy, but hear me out.”
13
Chase
I paused, thinking what the best way to approach this proposal would be.
Honestly, it was a spur of the moment thought, but if that was what it was going to take to help either of us out of an otherwise impossible situation, I was not about to let it fall by the wayside.
Besides...it could be the one solution for a problem that had been looming over my head since before this whole episode with the Peppertree even started. It was one hell of a long shot, but...
I took a breath.
“I can’t stop the sale of the Peppertree,” I began, watching Haley’s careful gaze and suspicious face. “That ship has sailed. But it doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t still have control over it.”
“Let me stop you right there,” Haley interjected. “If you’re about to tell me that you would hire me out of your good graces and just let me be a manager with some…” She moved her hands in circles with a disgusted face. “...some name tag and a skimpy uniform, then-”
“No, good God, Haley, that isn’t what I meant at all,” I interrupted her, shaking my head and holding back a laugh. “I already thought about that the morning after we were together, and I knew that would never suit someone of your caliber.The Peppertree should belong to you.”
“Well, you know I can’t buy it back from you,” she retorted.
I leaned forward in my seat, and a smile crossed my face as I folded my hand over my fist on the table.
“I know, and that’s why I want to ask you this: Haley Simmons, will you marry me?”
She was halfway through a sip of her drink when the words reached her, and she immediately choked on her drink and started coughing violently. She put a napkin to her mouth and turned her head as she regained her composure, taking another sip to ease the coughing.
When she was finished, she slammed the cup down on the table and glared daggers at me.
“Give me one good reason I shouldn’t throw the rest of this drink into your face.”
“Because I just gave you the one option that would let you retain ownership of the Peppertree.”
She was still tense and stiff as a board, and her eyes were still flashing with anger, but she didn’t toss the remainder of her piping-hot chai at me, so I had her attention. I put my hands out and explained.
“Listen. The property is coming into my possession one way or another. Even if I pulled the plug on the deal and let hundreds of employees go jobless, you would still be sitting on a failing business, and it would be a matter of weeks, maybe months before the bank found another person like me who would take it. The Peppertree needs to be flipped, period.”
“Okay, twisting the knife so far, but go on.” Her tone was icy, understandably so.
“However, if you and I were husband and wife in the eyes of the law,” I continued, and I watched her eyes start to grow wide as she followed my train of thinking, “then what is mine would be yours. That would solve both of your problems. You would be the owner of the Peppertree so seamlessly that nobody would know anything changed, and moreover, you would have access to my company’s bank account to carry out all the renovations we need to make to get this place back in running order.”
I let that sit for a moment, and Haley just stared at me. Her jaw had fallen a few seconds into my explanation, and I didn’t think she had noticed until she fluttered those long eyelashes of hers and gave her head a little shake of disbelief.
“Let me get this straight. You’re offering me a...a marriage of convenience?” The word ‘marriage’ came uneasily from her, as if the idea was still shocking. “I own what you own, I get not just to keep everything, but to use your money to do everything I want with the place?”
“Everything we want,” I corrected her, “since this would still be an investment on my part, and I tend to be a very hands-on investor.”
A little color came to her face at the tone I used for those last words, but she swallowed and sat up. “So you get your returns on your investment. That’s it? No strings attached?”
A cocky smile spread across my face, and fear came across hers.
“One string,” I clarified, holding up a single index finger. She arched an eyebrow at me. This was the part where I thought I would lose her, so I had to take advantage of the upper ground while I had it.
“That is?”
“I need an heir,” I said.
She blinked a few times, staring at me with her arms crossed over her stomach, trying to process what I had just said. “An heir? What do you…?”
My eyes went down her front to her stomach as my smile grew wider, and she tightened her arms and scooted back in her chair as realization hit her.
“You cannot be serious. You mean an heir as in...from me?”
“With you,” I corrected her, an amused lilt to my tone that was perhaps too cruel for the way she was reacting.
“Just who do you think I am?”
“You’re Haley Simmons,” I replied, “a very talented, decisive young woman who has done her damnedest to pull her father’s failing business out of the nosedive his death put it in, and if you were in any other circumstance, you would be a powerful enough competitor in the business to give even me a run for my money. You’re also the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met in my life, and I can think of nobody else in the world I would even dream of proposing something like this to.”
My little speech left her shocked face wordless, so I continued.
“I don’t make this offer lightly. Look, my sister Celia is leaving the business, and my brother Chase could not be less interested in getting involved. Eventually, my company will need someone competent to take over, and neither of my siblings will be that person. I need a child of my own. I may be young now, but time slips away fast. I don’t want to be one of those executives in his sixties picking up a twenty-something and being too old to bring the child up as a decent person.”
She started to say something, but she hesitated and bit her lip. “I…”
“I know this is a lot to take in,” I admitted, “but keep in mind, it would mean an heir for you, too. What’s mine is your and yours is mine, and any child that comes from us would inherit both our empires.”
Her cheeks were flushed. I was aware that in some sense, I was talking about her as if her womb was a commodity on the table to be traded with the rest of the property we were dealing with. The thought of that made my cock twitch, and judging by the way she was squirming, I wondered if it wasn’t getting her a little excited too, despite herself.
“So, this is sex for a favor?”
“Not at all,” I retorted, and my smile turned into a grin. “That part is just icing on the cake. We obviously already enjoy that part.” I cocked my head to the side. “Why don’t we make it so something useful can come out of it while we’re at it?”
14
Haley
I stared blankly at Chase, my eyes wide and my mouth hanging open. Was he really suggesting what it seemed like he was suggesting? Because if so… well, that was crazy, right?
“Chase,” I murmured, trying to get a hold on the situation. “You can’t be serious.”
He nodded, sitting up straight. There was not even the slightest shred of deceit or pretense in his expression. “This is not a joke. I mean every word I said,” he proclaimed.
“But that’s insane,” I protested. I was utterly flabbergasted.
This did not seem like the kind of thing that could possibly happen in the real world. This had to be the
plot of some over-the-top, made-for-TV movie or something.
I shook my head. “No. I get that you’re offering this to make up for the fact that your company just bought my father’s legacy out from under me, but you know I can’t accept this. You’re trying to be noble, and I get that. But this? This is the most ridiculous half-baked idea I’ve ever heard. No offense,” I added.
“None taken. I understand how all of this must sound. But do me a favor and humor me on this. Just think about it,” he insisted.
He reached across the table to take my hand. I almost flinched away, but he was too fast. And as soon as his fingers closed over my much smaller hand, I felt a rush of warmth and affection I couldn’t fully explain. I hated that even the tiniest touch from Chase could render me weak and speechless. All he had to do was utilize one itty-bitty drop of his charm and suddenly I was putty in his hands.
“Okay. So, just to get this straight, you’re saying that we should marry each other to fix the mistake you just made,” I laid out. I stared at him.
“I wouldn’t call it a mistake so much as an unfortunate side effect of being an overworked, overzealous businessman who leaves the fine print to his team of lawyers,” he clarified.
I raised an eyebrow at him.
“Yeah. I would still call that a mistake,” I corrected him in a flat tone.
A brilliant, fiendish smile spread slowly across his face. My heart skipped a beat. He could take whatever I dished out at him, and we both knew it. Hell, judging by the spark in his eyes, I had a feeling he actually kind of liked it when I gave him a hard time. Despite the serious nature of my situation, I had to fight to keep a smile off my own lips. His good humor was infectious.
“Whatever you want to call it, I think it would be in our best interest to turn this change into a benefit for both of us,” he reasoned. “There is no reason why either of us can’t make this work. There are winnings to be had on both sides. It’s a mutually-beneficial arrangement.”
“Careful,” I warned him. I smirked. “Using that corporate lingo might just turn me on.”
Chase chuckled. “See? This is what I mean. You and I work well together. We mesh. When the two of us come together, it’s magic. Especially if last night was any indication.”
I rolled my eyes even though my heart was pounding. I was willing my face not to blush as I replied, “I hardly think one night of admittedly awesome sex is an accurate predictor for how well we would work as business partners. Or as, well, make-believe life partners.”
“We could try,” he urged me.
All the joking disappeared from his demeanor. Now he was just earnest. Genuine. He was imploring me. Not begging, because Chase Hawthorne never begged for anything from anyone. But he was dead serious. Still, I knew this was a bizarre offer, no matter how earnestly suggested. No matter how gorgeous and brilliant and amazing Chase was. Who in their right mind would ever agree to such a crazy idea?
“I don’t know.” I shook my head and withdrew my hand from his grip, folding my hands in my lap as I looked at him.
He didn’t waver for even a moment, his eye contact unbroken. “What you’re offering me, what you’re suggesting right now in this cafe is that you want to get married. For convenience. As a strategic move.”
“It’s not so much a marriage of convenience as a marriage of business,” he clarified. I cocked my head to one side and gave him a soft smile.
“And that makes it better, how?” I asked gently.
“There’s nothing convenient about marriage,” he answered. “Even a marriage based on a business deal. If you want me to be totally honest, the convenient option for me would be to just walk out of here with the deed to the Peppertree and never look back.”
I frowned. “Well that’s a cruel thing to say,” I mumbled.
“I know,” he agreed, nodding. “And that’s not even me saying it. But I know my investors and my lawyers well enough to know that’s what they would tell me. They would try and convince me to just turn and run off with the money, leave you stranded. To hell with your father’s legacy, with the dream you’ve been holding onto for years and years. As far as they’re all concerned, you were just a blip on the radar. A small hurdle to jump.”
“How lovely,” I said icily.
“But that’s them. Not me,” Chase assured me. “I know that meeting this morning probably has you convinced that I’m some wheeling and dealing corporate asshole. And you know what? For the most part, you would be correct. But you’re forgetting one important detail.”
“And what is that?” I asked.
“I care about you,” he replied matter-of-factly.
“Do you care about me? Or do you just want an heir to your company?” I inquired, not mincing my words at all. If there was going to be any chance of my accepting this wild idea, it was of the utmost importance that I be completely honest with him about everything.
“Both,” he responded. He leaned back, regarding me with a mild curiosity, like he was waiting to see what I might ask next.
“Okay. And what about me makes you think I would be a good mother? Or a good womb-donor?” I corrected awkwardly.
He smiled. “You can say ‘mother.’ You’re not a lab rat.”
“So, what? We’re just going to get together and make a baby to carry on your legacy and then I disappear into the background? You dump me back at the Peppertree and find a more suitable, high-class wife to mother our child?” I demanded to know. I kept my tone calm and even, knowing that it was in my best interest to keep my emotions under control.
Chase looked almost hurt by the insinuation. “Of course not. We don’t even have to stay married more than a year. Just long enough to cover both ends of the contract. And when it’s over, we can figure out how to regroup and either detach and move on or come up with a plan for being in each other’s lives as much as we need or want to. We could talk about how to work out custody agreements and everything later on. Those are details. Right now, I’m focusing on the big picture, Haley.”
“Our potential future child is just a detail?” I asked, my temper just starting to flare. Keep your cool, Haley, this is serious business. Don’t be so easily offended, I warned myself. But at the same time, this was a lot to take in on top of that horrible meeting at the bank earlier.
“That’s not what I mean.” He sighed. “Look, I’m not offering you this to trick you into doing anything you don’t want to do. All I want is to put the offer on the table, be clear about my expectations and yours, and then let you decide. You don’t have to do anything. I will respect whatever decision you make. But I need you to know that our relationship, business or otherwise, does not have to end on the sour note it did at that meeting this morning. It doesn’t have to end that way. I don’t want to take the Peppertree away from you. I don’t want to wreck your plans or derail your father’s legacy. I see this offer as a chance for both of us to get what we want. It’s a gaping loophole, a way around the fine print.”
I had to smile at that, even as I could feel my eyes stinging with tears. I nodded and looked down at the table, knowing that if I met his eyes for a moment longer, I wouldn’t be able to keep from crying.
“Okay. I hear you. But just give me some time, all right? I need to think things over. Clear my head,” I bargained. “A baby. Your baby. It’s a lot, Chase.”
“I understand. I think that’s a great idea. Go home, think it over, and get back to me. Take your time, but not too long. The offer is time-sensitive. My company is expecting to totally remodel the Peppertree, change everything about it. The structure, the style, everything. If it was all up to me, I would put an indefinite hold on the project, of course. But there are jobs riding on this. Not just mine. So if you want to go through with my plan, I will need to know soon, so I can make other arrangements for the crews and teams who would otherwise be working on the Peppertree,” he explained. “I need an answer by five o’clock tonight. Understand?”
I nodded, even though my stom
ach was twisting into knots. “Of course. I will get back to you as soon as I can,” I promised.
I got up and began to walk away, but Chase grabbed my wrist for a moment. I looked down at him.
“Think hard about your future, Haley. When you have your answer, you know where to find me.”
“I will,” I told him gently, and I walked out of the cafe.
I somehow made it back to my car around the corner and drove slowly back to the Peppertree, careful in the ice and snow. When I got back, I was still in a complete haze, my mind running in every direction. I just couldn’t seem to get a firm grip on things.
I knew of one way I could always clear my head, though. I changed clothes into something more comfortable and warm and made the trek through crunchy snow across the grounds to the insulated stable where I kept my horses. Of course, for years my lawyers had been telling me to get rid of them, to sell them. But the horses were more than just a fun activity for guests to enjoy. They were part of the family here.
One of the horses was a seventeen-year-old palomino American named Valentine. She was calm and sweet, perfect for little kids to ride and pet. I’d had her since I was eleven years old, and she was the horse I first learned to ride.
As soon as I walked into the stable, Valentine whinnied and stomped happily to greet me. I gave her a smile and grabbed the saddle before leading her out. I started riding, heading toward the trails that wound in and out of the forest surrounding the resort. The property had a lot of free space to roam, and out here in the woods with Valentine, I could finally relax and let go of some of the tension building over the past few months. As we trotted along, I pondered Chase’s offer. On the one hand, it was crazy. Insane, really. The idea of marrying him just so I could keep the Peppertree and he could get an heir was like something out of a wacky romcom. It was not something normal people did.
My Playboy Fiance Page 8
