“I can’t believe he did this,” she snapped, her blue eyes piercing.
“Mother?” Weston choked as he came into the room. “What are you doing here?”
The woman turned on him, and Jamie stepped behind Weston in case she needed protection.
“I’ve been calling and you haven’t answered.”
Jamie hadn’t heard his phone ring, so she wondered if he had blocked his own mother.
“I wanted to see if it was true. You’ve married someone and not even told me? How could you do this?” She looked down at Jamie’s hand and gasped. “And you gave her your grandmother’s diamond? Are you crazy?”
Jamie looked down at her ring in disbelief. This giant rock was real?
“Holy shit,” she muttered. Not exactly the first thing that should come out of a person’s mouth when they met their mother-in-law.
“How did you find out?” Weston asked.
“Benjamin told me. I went to see Albert Lowry and he congratulated me on the addition to our family. He told me that you’d changed the beneficiary on all your accounts to your wife.” She glared at Jamie again. “How could you get married without a prenup? And why in God’s name would you put her on as beneficiary? What kind of spell does she have you under?”
“Are you insinuating I’m a witch?” Jamie said, her shoulders straightening. Wes had accused her of the same thing before, but when he did it, it was funny.
“I know your type. You’ve lured my son into your trap. Now you won’t be satisfied until you’ve taken the business my husband built and drained it dry.” She turned on Weston. “If you didn’t want to pick up the reins and run Archer Worldwide, that’s one thing, but to let this harlot take away everything your father worked for is another.”
“Harlot?” Who even said that anymore?
“How long before you leave him now that you’ve gotten your claws into his money?”
“Money?” She looked at Weston, who was looking at his mother with a look Jamie had never seen before. “Wes, what is she talking about?”
“Nothing. Mother, can I speak to you alone outside, please?”
With Jamie still standing there in shock, Weston escorted his mother out the door and closed it behind him. But not before she saw the look of devastation on his face.
“What the hell?” she said to their empty apartment.
Her heart was still pounding from the altercation when she went to her laptop and typed in Archer Worldwide.
A fancy website came up showing a number of projects the company was working on at the time. Further research revealed it was the biggest design firm in New York City. It had been run by Geoffrey Archer, until his death almost six years ago.
In a separate article highlighting the company, it listed the CEO as Weston Archer, with Benjamin Archer, vice president of operations, acting as temporary CEO in his absence.
She didn’t know what was going on, but it was very apparent Weston had lied to her. About a lot of things.
Strangely enough, she was almost more upset that he’d done nothing to defend her. And the way he’d rushed his mother out without so much as a formal introduction made her think he was embarrassed of her in front of his swanky mother.
She was so hurt by this she wanted to pack up her things and go home so she’d never have to see him again.
Unfortunately, she didn’t have a home to go to. Her home was now with Wes. And she would have to see him again, because they were not only married, but they worked together.
“Stupid. Stupid. Stupid,” she repeated while smacking her forehead.
It was nearly an hour later when he returned.
Jamie was sitting on the sofa trying to distract herself with television when he came to stand in front of her with his arms out. He seemed to be at a loss as to what to say.
She didn’t have that problem. “You’re the CEO of an engineering firm in New York?”
He didn’t answer; instead he just stood there looking stunned.
“Why do you work at Blain and Douglas?” Silence. “This diamond is real?” Nothing. “Why didn’t you defend me to your mother? You let her think I’m a gold digger! I didn’t even know there was any gold!”
That got a reaction.
He shook his head. “I don’t care what my mother thinks about you. Or me, for that matter. She doesn’t know me.”
“I don’t know you either!” she yelled. “You’ve been lying to me this whole time.”
“I know. I’m sorry. I just . . . wasn’t ready.”
Was this the thing he’d been working up to tell her? “Well, guess what? You’d better get ready. Because you’re going to spill it. Right. Now.”
He looked up at the ceiling as if hoping a meteor would crash through the building and strike him dead. That didn’t happen.
* * * *
Giving up on divine intervention to spare him, Wes flopped down on the sofa next to Jamie, prepared to tell all. She deserved to know the truth.
“My father built Archer Worldwide and made it into a successful design firm. The summer before my junior year of college, he brought me in to start grooming me to take over. I’d been planning for this my entire life. I always knew I would work there with my dad, and one day run the company when he retired.”
“Does Rob know?”
“No.” He shook his head. “He never asked and I never mentioned it.” No doubt his boss would have expected something like interning at the family’s firm would have been splashed all over his résumé, but Wes had purposely omitted it.
“I’m sure he wouldn’t have thought you were related, what with you applying to work for him instead.”
“Maybe.”
“Why aren’t you running the company?” she asked.
“I’m getting there.” He took a deep breath. “While I was working there that last summer, I kind of developed a thing for my father’s assistant. She was only two years older than me and she . . .” He gestured down at his chest. That had been all that mattered back then. How shallow he’d been.
“My dad worked a lot of late hours. I decided one night I would stay later so I could experience the reality, and make sure I was able to handle it.” He wiped his hand over his face and took a breath. He could still see it clear as day.
“I was bored, so I was planning to stop in to hang out with my father. But when I got to the door, I heard noises.”
“Noises?”
“Sex noises. And I knew one of them was my father’s voice and the other belonged to his assistant. I thought I was going to be sick, so I went outside. I was going to leave, but instead I sat in my car. I guess I wanted to be sure. They came out together, and he kissed her before she got in her car and drove off.”
He rubbed a hand over his forehead.
“I was going to confront him. I wanted to make him confess to my mother. But that night he came home and she was so happy to see him. He was her whole world, and I knew it would destroy her if she knew.”
He couldn’t imagine how he would feel if someone told him Jamie had been unfaithful.
“I kept quiet for a while. The relationship between me and my father became strained to the point that I took an internship with Blain and Douglas between my junior and senior year. He approved, saying it was good to learn from the competition.”
She put her hand on his thigh in an effort to comfort him. He picked up her hand to play with her fingers.
“I knew there was no way I would be able to work with my father and his mistress unless I got it out in the open. I was ready to do it. I even wrote out what I wanted to say so I didn’t get emotional and start yelling at him. I wanted to get through graduation and come home so I could be there for my mother. But he died three days before I graduated. I never got to confront him.”
“Oh, God,” Jamie whispered.
“My mother was busy turning him into a saint. I couldn’t tell her, and what good would it do to destroy the marriage she thought she had?” He held out his hands. “But I couldn’t stay there, listening to her praise him anymore. I took the job Blain and Douglas offered and stuck Benji and my uncle with running the firm. My mother still expects me to take over—it’s why she hasn’t let Ben hire anyone to replace me—but I just can’t do it. I don’t want to run the company my father built. Honestly, even if he hadn’t been a liar I wouldn’t want to run it. I like creating things more than managing. Ben does a great job with it, but my mother refuses to let him officially take over.”
He stepped away from her.
“My mother is angry with me for not stepping up. She doesn’t know why I’ve been so distant all these years, and I can’t tell her the truth.”
To his surprise, he felt Jamie’s arms wrap around him from behind.
“I know it will be difficult, but I think you need to tell her. It’s the only way you’ll ever have closure with this. You’ve had practice with Holly.”
“This won’t be like telling a stranger who already had suspicions. This is my mother and the man she put on a pedestal.”
“Still, you’ll feel better when it’s out in the open.”
He turned in her arms and frowned down at her. She was making sense, but it wasn’t what he wanted to hear.
“You can’t hide from this forever. Your father made a mistake,” she said.
He narrowed his eyes at her.
“Okay, it was more than a mistake, it was a colossal lapse in judgment and he was wrong. But he was still your father, and he still built his company knowing one day you would run it. It’s your destiny.”
“You sound like a movie right now.”
“It doesn’t make it any less true.”
“She’s going to be devastated.” Although after the way she’d treated Jamie, he wasn’t feeling all that sympathetic.
“She will survive. And she will move on.”
“Maybe.” He frowned and sat down. “I have four days to give Benji an answer on whether or not I’ll take over the company. My uncle is retiring. It’s time to either step up or step away forever.”
“This is a huge decision. You should have come to me to talk it out,” she scolded. “I would have helped.”
How could he tell her she couldn’t help him? That she was the only thing making the decision so difficult? “Let’s talk about it later, okay?”
“All right, but what is this about you making me your beneficiary? Why would you do that?”
She’d moved on to the next difficult subject. His money. “You’re the most important person in my life, and I promised your father I would take care of you.”
He’d taken the air out of her sails with that answer. How could she be angry? “How much is the rent for this place?”
Well, maybe she could be angry after all. He shrugged and let his head fall back against the leather sofa, not wanting to answer. “I don’t rent.”
“You own this apartment?” she said in shock.
He let his head flop to one side and then the other in an effort to answer without actually answering. It didn’t work. “The whole building,” he confessed.
She gasped in surprise. “Exactly how much money are we talking here? How much are you worth?”
“I’d make more if I collected my full salary at Archer instead of just the base and interest from my shares of stock. But the last time I met with my adviser regarding the rental income, it was like four-point-seven million.”
She choked and he patted her on the back to help.
“You’re a millionaire?” She swallowed and shook her head before correcting herself. “A multimillionaire?”
“Yes. Relax. Four-point-seven million dollars isn’t what it used to be.”
“It’s more than what I have. Much, much more.” She sat for a moment, obviously thinking things over. “It’s no wonder your mother reacted the way she did. Any normal person would think I was a gold digger too.”
“I don’t care what anyone thinks.”
“Do you care what I think?” she asked.
He leaned over and kissed her temple. “Yeah, I do. It’s why I didn’t say anything. I didn’t want it to be weird between us. Are you freaking out?”
“I am, but I’ll be okay. I think you need to stop hiding at Blain and Douglas and take care of your family’s business.”
“My family’s business is in New York, and you are here.”
She seemed touched, but she didn’t give up. He knew he was putting off the inevitable.
“If you’re not going to step up, they need to know so they can make some decisions. It’s only right.”
He nodded. She was right. He knew she was right. It wasn’t anything his mother hadn’t told him before.
“I guess it’s time I make a decision. I think I’d like to try it. See if I can do it. I want to know for sure.” It had been a nagging thought for months, and the only thing that kept him from going for it was the woman sitting next to him. Back then she hadn’t even been his wife, but she was his partner and he didn’t want to strike out on his own and realize he’d made a mistake after it was too late.
“That makes sense. There’s only one way to know for sure.”
“What about us?” He squeezed her hands in his.
“I’m not moving out of this swanky apartment,” she joked, and then leaned against him with a smile that warmed his heart. “I’ll be here. I don’t want to leave Mike and Rob high and dry.”
“And if I decide to stay in New York?”
“Would you give me a job?”
“Hmm. I don’t know. I’d need to speak to your references.” He laughed and then winced. “We’re not going to be fooling around on the desk in my father’s office, I’ll tell you that.”
“I know an interior designer in New York. I’ll have her redecorate and make it your office.” She wrapped her arms around his neck. “Then we can have sex all over that office to christen the place.”
“Thank you for understanding.” He could never thank her enough.
* * * *
Jamie wasn’t sure that she understood, but she held him against her and kissed him. He seemed to take the affection as an invitation, and soon they were in bed, touching and smiling.
She knew what he was doing. He was making sure nothing had changed between them. And nothing had. They still shared that same bond, and were able to please each other. She still felt happy in his arms after he’d pleasured her, and they still stared at one another without words as they lay together, sated and sleepy.
She still felt the same way about him, both physically and emotionally. She didn’t care that he had gobs of money, he was still just Wes to her. Wes who was now sleeping next to her. His face soft in slumber.
What did he expect would happen when she found out he was rich? Did he think she would start demanding things? Like a big diamond ring? She looked at the one she was wearing and winced. What was he thinking?
Why had he agreed to her plan? He obviously had money to go on a trip. He didn’t need to go for free. He’d never been as obsessed about being Team One.
This seed of thought turned into more, until she couldn’t take it anymore.
“Wes? Wes, wake up.” She shook him until he blinked awake.
“What is it?”
“Why did you marry me?”
“What?” He looked around, probably confused by her attack.
“Why did you marry me? You didn’t need the free trip. You could have bought Jamaica.”
“I don’t think you have a clear understanding of how little four million dollars is in this economy.”
“Okay, maybe you couldn’t have bought Jamaica, but you could have afforded to go there many times. And y
ou didn’t need the Atlantic Global job. You have your own company.”
“If you remember, I offered to give you the money to go, and you turned me down.”
“That’s because I thought you made the same salary as I did. Why didn’t you tell me then? Why did you agree to marry me?”
He sat up and leaned against the headboard. “I thought it would be nice to have a wife. I was lonely.”
“Lonely?” she squeaked. “Lonely? Lonely people buy a cat, they don’t agree to marry their co-workers, Wes!”
“I do have a cat.” He waved off toward the hall. “I was still lonely with the cat. He doesn’t come out that much.”
“Wait. There is a cat living here?”
“Yes. The litter box and food bowls are in the corner of the laundry room. His name is Shadow. The lady across the hall took care of him when we were away. He doesn’t like people.”
She blinked and remembered this conversation was not about their mystery cat. “Wes, I married you to get a free vacation and a better position at work. You married me because I’m too large to hide under the sofa.”
“I would bet we still don’t hold the record for the worst reasons to get married.” He smiled and she flopped back on her pillow. She wanted to be angry, but she couldn’t summon the energy.
He leaned over her and brushed her hair from her face. “For what it’s worth, I told my mother I didn’t want to see her again until she could speak to my wife with respect. I also told her you weren’t using me to get to my money.”
“Not that I was given the chance,” she grumbled.
He laughed and kissed her forehead. “I married you because you make me happy. At the time, it was only friendship, but I trust you, Jamie. With my money and my story and maybe even with my future.” He kissed her again and smiled. “Please don’t start hiding under the sofa. I would miss you even more than the cat.”
Chapter 22
After discussing things with Rob, Wes managed to get a leave of absence to go explore his options at the family business and make a more permanent decision. His boss didn’t want to lose him, or Jamie. Which is why she was offered a week off to go visit her father. They’d already submitted the proposal to Holly McCafferty. She would be looking over the options and make her decision in the next week or so.
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