by Lexy Timms
Then they’d stepped off the elevator and the crowd had surrounded them to congratulate them on their marriage. One glance at the tabloid newspaper with the fake headline, and Allyson had lost her balance. If he hadn’t caught her she probably would have fallen or passed out.
The reporters showed up moments later and he’d had to haul her away from them.
She pulled out of his arms, her green eyes shining. “Who could’ve done this?”
“New York tabloid reporters are tenacious. They probably found a way to sneak in to the building on their own,” he replied with a shrug.
“No, I mean, how did the press know we’d be in Greenville?”
He cleared his throat. “Someone in your family must have tipped them off.”
“Excuse me? I know my family can be desperate, but you don’t actually think they’d do this, do you?”
“Your parents? Probably not. But your sister, Monica—”
“That doesn’t make sense,” she cut in. “Monica wanted to prove we were fake. Why call the press to make it look like we were the ones getting married?”
He frowned. She had a point. Monica was the last person who would want to make Allyson look good. As far as he could tell her sister delighted in tormenting Allyson, and would rather walk on hot coals than see Allyson happy.
His eyebrows furrowed as he got lost in thought. “And it couldn’t have been Holly.”
She shook her head. “Holly’s a sweetheart. She’d never betray me like that.”
“Actually, I meant it couldn’t be Holly because no bride wants attention taken off her on her big day.”
She narrowed her eyes, a fearsome expression on her beautiful face. “So, if it wasn’t for her wedding you actually think Holly would be capable of blabbing to the press?”
He adjusted his tie. “You’re not going to like the answer.”
“Spit it out.” She crossed her arms and lifted her chin defiantly.
How had he forgotten how sexy she looked when she got angry? Probably because, throughout their professional lives, he hadn’t given her many reasons to be angry. But now that they’d been so intimate, the formalities of their relationship were starting to crumble. He tried to remind himself not to get too excited. Allyson probably had an explosive temper and, as sexy as that might be, he had to focus on keeping her calm. She’d nearly keeled over twice today.
“Money has a way of making people do some crazy things,” he finally said.
“Holly isn’t exactly poor.”
“No, but she’s certainly not rich.”
“I hadn’t pegged you for a snob.” She glared at him. “You sound like your mother.”
His heart sank. How could he have forgotten about his parents? They would be furious about this news. His mother already disliked Allyson, and was suspicious about the time they spent together. He had tried to reassure his mother that their relationship was strictly professional. Somehow, he’d managed to shoot that all to hell in one weekend.
Worse, Prescott Global’s move into the European sports market depended on a merger with the Handel Company. A merger that wouldn’t happen if John Handel, the Vice President of the Handel Company, wasn’t happy. The one person who could torpedo the whole merger was Handel’s daughter, Katherine, a British beauty Dane had briefly dated and quickly soured on. Katherine was an ice queen, and Dane had seen glimpses of a cruel streak underneath the aristocratic beauty’s polished façade. Katherine’s petty jealousy of Allyson had poisoned his mother against his assistant, which had put her contract renewal in jeopardy.
He groaned inwardly. When had his life gotten so complicated?
“I think security is here,” Allyson said, dragging him back from his thoughts.
There was a commotion outside the conference room. He cautiously unlocked the conference room door and found security guards dragging the reporters away.
One of the guards turned to Dane and gave a nod.
“Thank you,” Dane said grimly.
“No problem, Mr. Prescott,” the guard said.
He shut the door and turned to Allyson. “They’re gone.”
“Good. But what do we do now?”
“It’s impossible to contain this now.” His cell phone started ringing. He reached into his pocket to fish it out. Shit. Prescott’s PR department. Undoubtedly, they were on the line to talk about the colossal mess with the media. No way could he deal with that now. Not without coming up with a strategy.
“Let me take it.” Allyson reached out her hand. Even now she couldn’t drop her instincts as an assistant. Somehow, he was going to have to get some sense into her. This wasn’t some work problem she could just fix with a wave of her hand. It involved her now, and they needed to figure this out together. As a team.
“You’ve got to be kidding,” he said. “I’m not tossing you to the wolves. We haven’t even talked about how we’re going to deal with his.”
Before she could respond, he hung up and shoved his phone back into his pocket.
She frowned. “What did you do that for?”
“Would you like the PR officer to yell at you now or later?”
“It’s my job. And it’s not the first time. Nor will it be the last.” She stared at him. “Okay, what’s the plan then?”
We can either tell the truth—”
“You mean tell the media this is a mistake?” She sighed. “What do we do if they find out we went to the wedding as a fake couple?”
He grimaced. That would surely complicate things. It was one thing to accuse the media of lying. It was a completely different thing to accuse the media of lying when you were also a liar. Embarrassing the press would just make them dig deeper. Prescott Global could try to scare off the press with a lawsuit, but that might backfire. “It won’t look good,” he replied. “A white lie like that, after all this, could end up being a front- page scandal. Any hint of impropriety between a boss and his assistant would send the tabloids into overdrive.”
The New York tabloids loved spreading gossip about him and the blue bloods he dated. His exes were photogenic and rich. It didn’t matter if some of them ended up being squeaky clean. Socialites, heiresses, and celebutantes were absolute fodder for the tabloids. Allyson wasn’t like his usual aristocrats, but she oozed sex appeal. Combine that with her proximity to him and the salacious nature of this story, and the press would have a field day.
She swallowed hard. “I knew the press was bad, but I had no idea they were this vicious.”
He gave her a smile. “That’s probably because you’ve been good at protecting me from some of it.”
“Some of them really will tell any kind of lie to get scoop on you,” she said with a roll of her eyes. “They’ve never gotten a word out of me.”
“I know.” He approached her until he was standing so close he felt the heat of her body. “That’s one of the reasons I’ve kept you around all these years, Allyson. You’ve always been discreet.”
“I was…until this weekend.” She looked up at him, her cheeks turning pink. No doubt she was thinking about what they’d done together underneath those linen sheets.
Memories of their lovemaking came flooding back. He remembered the way her legs wrapped around him, drawing him deeper into her. The sound of his name on her lips while he pleasured her had almost undone him. He knew he had assured her that they could go on as before. Go back to their professional relationship. But he had no idea how he’d ever look at her without recalling her perfect body, writhing naked underneath him.
He was painfully hard. So turned on that he could barely think straight.
Allyson leaned towards him, her full, sinfully-red lips mere inches away from his. This was dangerous. Them being alone together was never ever going to be anything other than illicit. Everything about the way they reacted to each other was wrong. And yet…
The day of the wedding, she’d kissed him first. But all he knew was that her lips yielded beneath his and he slipped his tongue into he
r mouth.
He kissed her now. Hard. Determined. Hungry. She moaned and ran her hands through his hair.
Their tongues swirled in a sensual, teasing dance. She nibbled his bottom lip, and that sent him over the edge—away from reason. With expert movements, his hands went down to the button of her pants to unbutton and unzip her.
Her hands slipped down to unbuckle his belt.
He broke the kiss to look at her. “Allyson, I want you. Now.”
Her lips glistened and her breasts were heaving as she breathed. With shaking hands, she started to undo his tie, her green eyes on his. “Touch me, Dane,” she breathed, her voice husky with promise.
This was insane. They were about to have sex in the conference room and he didn’t have enough sense to stop. Because he didn’t want to stop.
He didn’t take his eyes off her as she licked her lips. She took his hand, guiding it past the waistband of her pants and her lacy panties until he felt the bare flesh of her sex. His heart hammered in anticipation. She moaned as he gently pressed a finger inside her.
She was hot. Ready for him. So tantalizingly wet.
All he wanted right now was to bury himself inside her. Take her in the conference room until he made her come again.
His phone rang. With a curse he pulled his hand away from her and, without thinking, he answered it. The voice screeching on the other end stopped him in his tracks.
Enough to turn any man’s desire on a dime. Damn it!
His mother.
Chapter 10
She’d never felt so sexually frustrated in her life. One minute she had an intense spark of pleasure shooting through her, and the next minute Dane was answering his bloomin’ phone.
He didn’t look pleased. Actually, he looked downright pissed.
As disappointed as she was, the phone call was probably a blessing in disguise. Getting felt up in the conference room wasn’t exactly the best use of their time right now. Nor was having sex on the large table. She glanced over at it, still tempted. Sheesh! How wanton and desperate could she get? Forcing her gaze back to Dane’s face, and with her last scrap of dignity, she quickly zipped up her pants.
“I didn’t tell the tabloids anything! You’re the one who typically calls them, Mother,” Dane was saying into the phone, exasperation lacing every word.
Her stomach knotted up. Dane’s mother knew about the story. Of course, she did. Which meant she was as good as fired. It didn’t even matter if Dane fought to get her another job, this story in the tabloids would ruin her. She’d forever be the girl Dane Prescott didn’t really marry.
He glanced at her, his typically-bright-blue eyes now dark with some unreadable emotion. “We…we didn’t tell you because we knew you’d react like this.”
Panic flared inside her. What was he telling her? Now his mother would know what a liar she was. Damn it! This was all her fault. If she hadn’t lied to her family, nobody would ever mistake her for a woman dating a man like Dane. He was gorgeous, wealthy, a power player in a city as tough as New York. No way could she compete with the types of women who caught his eye. Soon the whole world would find out how desperate she was. How utterly dishonest.
Allyson had worried about her family discovering she’d lied about Dane. She’d never counted on being humiliated in front of the whole world! Monica, her vindictive, scheming sister would probably be delighted at her downfall.
Inwardly she sighed. She knew she was a disappointment to her family. The one with the less-than-stellar job. The sibling who was still single with very few prospects. Dane, like a knight in shining armor, had defended her at the wedding. Defended her like no one ever had.
For whatever reason, he’d been willing to fight for her. Stand up for her. She didn’t deserve him. Because, no matter how humiliating this was for her, her lies had put him in an untenable position. Prescott needed to avoid scandal if there was a hope of a merger with the Handel Company. That was now ruined. She’d destroyed Dane’s hopes and dreams with her selfish lies.
“Don’t talk about her like that,” he said sharply. “You can’t talk about my wife that way.”
Her eyes widened. His wife? What on earth was he doing?
She needed to stop him. Stop him from throwing his life’s work away to save her job. She waved her arms in his face to try to get his attention, but he only turned away from her to focus on the call.
“All right,” he said grimly. “We’ll be there.” With that, he ended the call and turned to face her.
She realized her mouth was hanging open. She shut it, and then opened it again to ask, “What on earth are you doing?”
He held his hands up. “I know we didn’t come up with a plan, so I had to think on my feet.”
She put her hands on her hips and glared at him. Annoyance ran through her. “You let her think we got married for real?”
“Yes.” He crossed his arms and scowled. “The alternative was throwing you under the bus and telling her we spent the weekend pretending to be a couple.”
Her mouth went dry. Things had gone from bad to worse. His recklessness was good for business, but was now turning her entire life upside down. “Do you have any idea what you’ve gotten us into?”
“You’d rather I tell her that our lies got us into this?” he demanded.
She hesitated. “I don’t know.”
Those blue eyes of his narrowed, and the corners of his sensual mouth turned up in the barest hint of a smile. Allyson had never seen him look so arrogant, so sinfully sexy. Part of her was irritated beyond belief, but most of her was getting all hot and bothered again. “See? I had no choice but to take matters into my own hands.”
“Must you always do this?” she shot back. “Why do you always march in and take charge of everything? First you just had to pay for that fancy lodge. And now you’ve gone and lied to your mother. Without consulting me.”
“So, this is my fault?” His eyes grew hard.
She sighed. She suddenly felt like crying, and blinked back the tears so he wouldn’t see them. “That’s not what I meant.”
Dane leaned against the conference room table, arms still crossed. The movement was fluid, powerful, utterly masculine. He overwhelmed her. Heightened her senses. Despite her frustration, it made her crazy with want and lust. “You didn’t consult me when you lied to your family that I was your boyfriend.”
He really knew how to press her buttons. How to use whatever he had to to get his way.
“I didn’t,” she said finally. “I’m sorry.”
“Look, forget I even brought that up,” he said waving his hand. “That’s behind us. We have to fix our present problem.” He stared at her. “And I have a feeling you’re not going to like what I’m about to tell you.”
She groaned. “This situation can get worse?”
“Depends on your definition of worse.”
“That sounds like corporate talk if ever I heard it.”
“We can fix this. I’m going with the only option I think is going to work.”
She knew him too well. Dane didn’t lose when it came to business. “What did you and your mother discuss?”
“The good news is that I’ve bought us some time with your contract negotiations.”
That was the good news? She wasn’t fired yet? “What’s the bad news?”
He cleared his throat. “Mother has…summoned us up to the family home in Rhode Island. We’re to head up to Prescott Hill, as a married couple.”
“What?” she practically shrieked. “So, not only does your mother think we got married over the weekend, but she wants us to visit her?”
“Tonight, if possible.” His tone was driving her crazy. Most people would have the decency to sound sheepish. Apologetic. Not Dane Prescott. Oh no. He’d never stoop to that. She knew from experience that all his decisions were final.
“Why?” she demanded. To hell with experience. No way was she going to let him get away with this.
“If my mother thinks
you’re my wife then I’ll have a card to play. I can easily renew your contract.”
She gasped. “By lying?”
He shrugged. “We didn’t start the lie. The press latched on to some photos and came to the wrong conclusion.”
“What’re we going to do when the press finds out the truth? Or when my family blabs about who really got married?”
“Call your family and the folks up in Greenville. Tell them to lay low and keep this quiet until we give the word. Pay them off if you have to,” he replied dryly.
This was crazy. Completely insane. Her mind swirled with so many emotions. She could just imagine how her sister would react. And her parents. They would be livid about her lie getting so out of control. “What do we do when the truth gets out? You’ll get away with it. Let’s be honest here. But I…I’ll be humiliated.”
He paused. Something stark and possessive flickered in his eyes. “I won’t let that happen. We keep the lie going for the next couple of days, and then I tell the press some story about proposing to you only to have you shoot me down. Broke my heart. That sort of thing.”
“So, more lies.” Her shoulders sagged.
“It’s what’s best for you. And for Prescott Global,” he added gently.
It was one thing for her to be embarrassed, but another for him to have the shame. No one would believe she shot him down. “But you’ll be shamed. I can’t let you go through that. This is my fault.” She hated that she sounded like she was whining. She hated showing weakness to him.
“This is the best thing for all of us. I’ll renew your contract. Prescott will avoid the brunt of a major scandal. And when I’m next spotted with some other heiress, the press will move on from this.”
Some other heiress…a dull pain knifed through her. Of course, he would find someone else. None of this meant anything to him. He still only saw her as his employee. Some invisible assistant he could have his fun with until the next blonde blue blood caught his attention. After they had sex at the lodge he’d hinted at wanting something more, but clearly that something more was closer to a fling than an actual relationship.
