by Lexy Timms
Allyson swallowed hard. She shifted uncomfortably in her seat. Now that the merger was all but finalized she should have felt like a weight was off her. Instead, the fear of keeping her lies straight clawed at her. The merger had been one of the reasons to agree to do this. But now that it was staring her in the face, the pressure to keep up the charade was building and building. Tension knotted her shoulders. Sweat formed on her brow. “Yes, wonderful,” she finally managed to choke out.
“It seems your marriage to Dane has gone over quite well with John Handel,” Liliana said.
John Handel was the Vice President of Handel and Company. Allyson had spent the day with him last month when she and Dane had taken some Handel executives on a tour of New York City. He had been polite and jovial. Now it seemed her phony marriage to Dane had delighted Mr. Handel. The thought made her insides churn. “That’s great,” Allyson squeaked.
“If you had just been fucking Dane that would have been a scandal, and a real problem for us,” Liliana said.
Allyson almost choked at Liliana’s language, but Dane’s mother didn’t seem to notice as she rushed on. “But you two are married. Legally. And as disappointed as the Handels were, all’s forgiven because it looks like love has won them over.”
“So…now you don’t want me to break up with Dane?” Allyson asked, trying to figure out where Liliana was going with this. And still trying to forget the word Liliana had used: legally.
“Oh, dear, of course I still want you to divorce Dane,” Liliana said, her voice syrupy-sweet. “But I don’t want you to divorce him right away anymore. I think we can give it a year. You and Dane together could really do wonders for business, and the next year is crucial for Prescott Global. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before. You really add that common touch that people seem to love.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying you have your fun with Dane for the next year. And as a show of gratitude I’ll triple the offer I made yesterday.” Liliana rose from the sofa and walked over to her desk.
“Triple the offer?” Allyson stared in total disbelief. The original offer had been in the millions. Now Dane’s mother wanted to add even more to it? This was crazy. Never in all her life had Allyson know anyone so scheming and ruthless. Monica’s mind games were child’s play compared to this.
And yet, she found herself tempted by it. Not by the money, but by the chance to be by Dane’s side for a year. They wouldn’t have to meet in secret or fake things at work. Dating would be easier. She and Dane could explore their feelings out in the open while they put on a show for the world. Maybe it would actually progress to something more.
No. Lies were what had gotten her into this mess in the first place. There was no way they could pull off something like that for a year. The press would get wind of the truth, and their lies would be exposed. Keeping up a fake relationship for two weeks was one thing. But an entire year of lies was too much. No matter how deep her feelings for Dane.
Allyson watched in horror as Liliana reached into her desk drawer, pulled out a checkbook, and started scribbling. She tore out the check and handed it to her. What do I do now? Absently, she took the check with shaking hands and stared. All those zeroes. She’d never have to work again.
“There. I knew I could count on you.” Liliana snapped the pen lid closed and set it on the desk.
“This is insulting,” Allyson snapped.
Liliana rolled her eyes. “For heaven’s sake, girl, that’s more money than you’ll see in a lifetime. Show some gratitude. That’s one third for now. You’ll get the second third at the six-month mark, and then the rest of it when your divorce comes through next year.”
“I don’t want your money,” Allyson said flatly. “I know you think I don’t care about your son, but I do. Your behavior is appalling.”
“My behavior?” Liliana ground her teeth in irritation.
“I know you’re trying to protect Dane, but this isn’t the way to do it. Paying off people who care about him isn’t protection. It’s meddling and it’s cruel. You don’t have the right to make big decisions for him like this behind his back. You pick all those women for him that he isn’t even interested in. Now that he has a chance to be happy, you’re trying to sell him out.” She found herself shaking at the realization that she had essentially just told off one of her bosses. But even if Liliana fired her, she was glad she had said her piece. Dane deserved better than to be used and lied to.
Lied to him like she had done. She’d kept his mother’s original offer from him. That hadn’t been fair, and she could see that now. She had no intention of turning Dane against his mother, but he deserved to know the lengths his mother would go to. Telling him would protect him. If she didn’t tell him now his mother was just going to keep up with her antics, and that wasn’t healthy for any family. For all they knew, Liliana had done all sorts of things to keep Dane from being happy.
A knock on the office door stopped both women.
Dane stepped inside. “There’s a phone call for you. From the other side of the Atlantic.”
“Thank you, dear.” Liliana headed for the door. “I’ll be back to finish our talk, Allyson.”
Allyson stared at the woman’s back. How could someone like her have given birth to someone like Dane? She glanced over at him. Now she was trapped in a room with Dane. She wanted to tell him the truth, but not like this. Not here in the house. Better for him to be away from his mother, where he could process the awful truth. She didn’t want to drop that kind of bombshell with the chance that it would start a confrontation between mother and son.
“What were you two chatting about?” Dane raised an eyebrow as he stared at her.
She shrugged. “Oh, nothing. This and that.”
“You’re a lousy liar.” He frowned. “You look pale.”
“Lousy liar? We’re screwed if I am.” She rose to her feet, eager to get out of the claustrophobic room. “There’s nothing to worry about. It’s just business stuff.”
“Did she insult you again?”
“No, of course not,” she said dismissively.
Dane stared down at her shaking hands. “What’s that?”
Her mouth went dry. “Nothing.” She shifted and crumpled the check in her hand.
“You keep saying that. And yet, you’re shaking like a leaf.” He reached his hand out to her. “Let me see.”
Seeing no choice, she placed the thin paper in his hand. Her stomach knotted up.
His face hardened. The warmth in his eyes turned to ice. “Allyson, what the hell is this?”
She flinched at his harsh tone. “A check.”
“I know it’s a check,” he gritted out. “Why the hell is my mother giving you all this money?”
“Not here, Dane,” she begged. “Your parents will hear—”
“Let them,” he snapped. “I want to know why you’ve been having these out of the way talks with my mother. Have you been scheming with her this whole time?”
“No, of course not,” she said in a small voice. Her heart was in her throat. She ached for him. The betrayal. Even if she managed to talk him down, the fact that this had been going on behind his back would shatter whatever illusions he had.
“So, explain all this to me.” He crossed his arms. “What’s this payment for?”
There was no escape. No time to get out of this mansion and quietly explain. No time to prepare. She bit her lip, unsure of how to break all this to him. “Your mother promised to pay me if I divorce you.”
He said nothing. Silence filled the room, descending upon them like thunder. His body was rigid, a scowl on his face. Beneath the fury blazing in his eyes, Allyson saw something else. Pain. Hurt. Betrayal. He had vouched for his mother. Allyson remembered his words last night when they walked on the beach. She means well.
“Is that what she talked to you about last night?” he finally demanded.
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?
”
“I didn’t want to hurt you,” she replied. “I know how close you are to your parents. I know that lying about this relationship has been hard on you. I didn’t want to make all this more difficult for you. I know how hard it is to not get along with your parents. I don’t want that for you.”
“How could you do this? I trusted you.”
She hadn’t done anything—really. “I’m sorry I kept it from you,” she breathed. “I should’ve told you. I planned on telling you once we got back to New York…”
“I can’t believe a word you say,” he interrupted. “You were going to take the money, weren’t you?”
“Wait! What? I—”
“Take advantage of my parents and my…feelings for you, then grab as much money as you can,” he said bitterly.
“I don’t care about the money,” she insisted. “You have to believe that.”
“But you do care.” His voice was cold, pitiless. “That’s why you lied and told your family we were together. You wanted to impress them. Wanted to show them you had a rich boyfriend, but when that wasn’t enough you decide cold hard cash was the better option.”
His words ripped her wide open. How could he think that of her? Tears formed in her eyes. He didn’t trust her anymore. She had broken his trust with her original lie but, somehow, he’d kept on believing in her. A lie was one thing, but two lies… “I wasn’t going to go through with this, I swear.” She choked back a sob.
“The minute my mother came up with this scheme, you should’ve told me,” he said. “But you didn’t. Instead, you were ready to take advantage.”
A tear slid down her cheek. “I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.”
“That’s why you wanted out of this, isn’t it?” he asked. “Last night you questioned whether we should keep up this charade, and I thought it was because you didn’t want to hurt my parents. Now it’s obvious that you were planning to pretend to dump me so my mother could pay you off. You were playing me and my parents.”
Hot tears blurred her vision. Suddenly everything was crashing down around her. She was going to lose her job. Lose Dane. The thought of never seeing Dane again made her ache down to her soul. From the way he was glaring at her with cold glittering eyes, she knew she’d already lost him.
It was all over, before it even began.
The office door swung open and his mother walked inside. Liliana gasped. “What’s all this?”
“I know about the check,” he spat out.
Liliana’s eyes widened. “Dane, please—”
Dane glared at Allyson. “You think you’ve got everything figured out, Mother, but you don’t. Because while you were scheming behind my back, Allyson was conspiring behind yours.”
“Dane, don’t. Please,” Allyson whispered.
He ignored her. “The truth is, none of this is real. We’re not really married. There was no wedding. All of it was fake.”
Chapter 15
“You lied?” his mother shrieked.
Dane Prescott nearly cringed at his mother’s reaction. He hadn’t wanted to tell her the truth—if he had the choice. Not that it mattered now. Still, he didn’t want to tell her. Not like this. But Ms. Allyson Smith had forced his hand. His mother needed to know that his assistant was conning her. His blood boiled at the betrayal. Disappointment settled in his gut. What a fool he had been to trust her. Never had he allowed himself to feel such deep feelings for a woman, and it had come back to bite him in the ass. “Yes,” he replied. “I lied.”
“No, I lied,” Allyson whispered, her voice wavering.
He turned to her in surprise. Her beautiful face was streaked with tears. He wanted nothing more than to reach out and comfort her, but he forced himself to harden his heart. For all he knew, her tears were fake. A trick to manipulate him.
Still, her interruption was unexpected. Why was she coming to his defense?
“Will someone please tell me what on earth is going on?” his mother snapped. Her hair was disheveled and her face was growing redder by the second. He’d never seen his mother look so out of control.
“You might want to sit down,” he warned. He took the chair by his mother’s desk while Allyson and his mother resumed their seats on the pale blue sofas.
Quickly, he filled his mother in on the details of the last several days. Allyson’s lie to her family that she was dating him. Him agreeing to help her keep up the lie by showing up as her date to her brother’s wedding. Her family discovering the truth. Then, worst of all, the tabloids getting the wrong impression, and thinking he and Allyson had been the ones to marry over the weekend.
He kept the details about their sexual escapades to himself. Part of him wanted to keep those moments private because, damn it, he still had feelings for her. He’d never had sex with a woman he’d such a deep connection with, and he knew it was something he would never forget. Even if she didn’t feel anything for him. Besides, none of that was his mother’s business anyway.
His mother sucked in her breath. A rather unladylike sound, and most unlike her. “Of all the irresponsible, stupid things!” She gripped the sofa’s armrest, shaking with fury.
It was rare for her to lose control like this. His mother could be scheming and passive-aggressive, but she almost never outright lost her temper. Hell, she never outright showed any strong emotions. Not even in private.
Which was so different from Allyson. At work, his assistant was the consummate professional who kept her emotions in check. But over the past several days, she had been so vulnerable and open with him. Revealed a side he had never seen. She was warm, and sweet, and surprisingly passionate.
Hard to believe that this mess had only started last Thursday. It was Tuesday now, but the last five days felt like an age. A crazy, exhilarating whirlwind of an age with his sexy assistant. And now that had all come crashing down. All those confessed feelings. Getting into bed with her. Had any of it been real? Or had she pretended to play along so that she could get her hands on some money? It didn’t seem possible that she could have played pretend on top of a pretend relationship.
“I thought you’d be happy about us being fake,” he said coolly. “I haven’t set myself up for life with a gold-digger.”
Allyson’s shining eyes met his, her gaze full of utter devastation and sadness. He thought she might speak, but instead she averted her gaze to stare down at her hands, her shoulders slumped.
The look that passed between them almost made him regret his words. Her sadness tore at him.
“How could I be happy when the Handels think you two are married?” His mother stared daggers at him. “This sham of a marriage is supposed to be used to charm them into signing the merger deal.”
The deal. He’d been so outraged over Allyson’s scheme that he’d forgotten about Prescott Global’s upcoming merger with Handel and Company. “We’re still negotiating the deal, so—”
“Earlier today, John Handel promised me that the merger will be made official at the gala next week,” his mother interrupted. “I managed to smooth things over with him because of the marriage. If you two had merely been screwing, the scandal would have ruined the deal. Only a marriage could have saved us, and now we haven’t got one, have we?”
“I know you’re angry, but I had to tell the truth,” Dane said. “I couldn’t let Allyson con you and take your money.”
His mother rolled her eyes. “As much I don’t trust the little conniver, she wasn’t the least bit interested in the money. I have no idea what her game is, but it’s not money.”
He paused. Processed his mother’s words. Stunned, he turned to Allyson. As he stared, he willed her to look at him. Willed her to see the regret he was now grappling with.
But she merely glanced at him, shifted her gaze, and asked his mother, “Why are you defending me? You could just lie and throw me under the bus.”
“I’m not defending you. I have a plan, and it won’t work if you two don’t cooperate,” his mother answer
ed. “If I lie and let my son think you’re a gold-digger he’ll cut you out of his life, and we can’t have that because Prescott would be ruined.”
“What plan?” Dane asked.
“The plan where you keep pretending to be married until we get that merger deal at the gala next week,” his mother said.
He scoffed. “You’re kidding.”
“I never kid, dear.” His mother rose to her feet in one elegant movement. “You two sit tight until I get back. I’m going to go make a few phone calls to make sure the press keeps this quiet. And whatever you do, don’t tell your father.”
With that his mother swept out of the room, leaving them alone together.
An uncomfortable silence settled.
Dane looked down at his hand, suddenly realizing he was still holding the check his mother had written. With anger at his impulsive assumptions and regret roiling through him, he crushed the paper in his hands. When he lifted his gaze, he found her staring at his hand, her green eyes huge and shining.
“I would never take the money,” she whispered hoarsely. “How could you think I’d do such a thing?”
How could he tell her that somehow, over the years, his mother’s beliefs had become a poison? Wealth didn’t matter to him. He didn’t care that Allyson wasn’t rich. But, somehow, he’d allowed himself to believe that, like the heiresses who had come before her, she had some angle to play. That she wanted to be seen on his arm because it benefitted her. Advanced her career. Made her famous for fifteen minutes. Got her rich. The heiresses were good for business. And so were Prescotts. That’s all relationships had always been. Transactional. Business arrangements. Feelings were inconsequential. Even his parents had started off that way. That they fell in love was nothing short of miraculous.
“I jumped to conclusions,” he muttered stiffly.
“That’s the closest a man like you is going to get to apologizing, isn’t it?”
