Gavin released Nicole to offer his hand to Stephan. “Gavin Burke. Before we start, I’d like to make it clear that I represent Nicole’s interests. You might want to have your own people read the contract over before you sign it.”
Stephan shook his hand, but Nicole could have sworn she saw Gavin wince when he did. Stephan said, “I have every intention of doing just that.”
“It’s probably also not a good idea for anyone outside of this office to know that your engagement isn’t real,” Gavin added.
In response to Stephan’s look of displeasure, Nicole said, “I told Gavin the truth. I trust him.”
“Apparently,” Stephan said, not making an effort to hide his disapproval. His hand dropped from her back.
She and Gavin shared a quick look, the kind that makes you giggle in church. She bit her lip and shook her head. Stephan did take himself a bit too seriously, but nothing would be gained by annoying him to the point where he walked out without signing the paperwork.
Gavin led the way to a table where he had the paperwork laid out. After they were all seated, he said, “It’s pretty cut-and-dried. This is essentially a pre-prenuptial. Read it over. Stephan, you’re agreeing that in the event that your engagement to Nicole ends, you will give her the right of first refusal at the same price that you purchased Corisi Ltd. You’re also agreeing that for the extent of time that Corisi Ltd. is owned by you, Nicole Corisi will be the acting CEO unless she resigns the position. Nicole, by signing this contract you are going forward with your father’s initial acceptance of Stephan’s buyout offer. The company and its profits will be solely Stephan’s until such a time that you either break off your engagement or you marry. Marriage will revert the company to a co-ownership status without the necessity of monetary exchange. Are the terms acceptable to you both?”
A knock at the door was followed by an apologetic secretary stepping into the room for a moment. “Mr. Burke, I’m so sorry to interrupt, but there is a man here who is adamant that he see Miss Corisi immediately.”
Who would come here?
Nicole held her breath the long moment it took the secretary to add, “He said his name is George Miles. I told him you were busy, but he insists that it’s urgent.”
Stephan spun back to Nicole and asked, “Miles . . . isn’t he . . .”
Nicole nodded. “He’s the vice president of marketing at Corisi Ltd.”
“Did you tell him why you’re here?”
Nicole said, “No.” Then she remembered something. “But I did tell Thomas.”
Gavin didn’t seem to mind the interruption at all. He said, “Send him in. This should be interesting.”
George rushed into the office, his face red and his forehead glistening with sweat as if he had taken the stairs. “Nicole, is it too late? Did you sign anything yet?”
Nicole got up to meet him. “George, calm down.” The last thing she needed this month was another heart attack.
“Did you sign anything?”
“No, not yet, but I’m going to.”
He wiped his forehead. “You don’t have to.” The glare he gave Stephan made his opinion of him clear to everyone in the room. “When Thomas told me what you were planning, I knew why you were doing it. You’re afraid your brother is going to fire all of us when he takes over, and you think this is the only way you can stop him.”
It is, Nicole thought.
“But it’s not,” George rushed to say. “I’ve invested well over the years. A few of the others have also. If we pool our resources and you take out a partial loan, we could buy Corisi Ltd. outright.”
Nicole whispered, “I can’t take your money.” It was a moot point anyway, since the only purchaser the will would allow was Stephan.
“Then let Dominic run the company for a while. Even if he fires all of us, we’ll be okay. You don’t have to do this.” And by “this,” he clearly meant Stephan.
“I can’t lose you, too.” She hadn’t meant to say it, but the truth poured out of her in a tone so full of desperation the room instantly, painfully stilled. Oh, God. Why did I say that?
The older man’s eyes shone with responding emotion. “Is that what this is about, Nicole? I’ve known you since you were five. My wife jokes that you are the out-of-marriage child I never had to pay support for. Do you think you won’t be welcome at my house on the holidays because of anything your brother could do?”
That’s exactly what I think.
Nicole fisted her hands and kept her thoughts to herself.
George stepped closer and laid a gentle hand on one of her stiff arms. “You don’t have to prove anything to anyone. We know who you are, and nothing and no one can change that. Come on. Come back to the office with me and we’ll find another solution.”
No.
Nicole searched Stephan’s face for some hint of what he was thinking. She wasn’t sure what she was hoping to see, but she was disappointed when she saw nothing.
In the beginning it had all been about saving the jobs of the people she’d known since childhood, but somehow it had become much more complicated than that. Was she a fool to hope that beneath Stephan’s tough exterior he was still the man she remembered?
She was moved beyond words that George and the others had charged to her rescue. She’d never dared to hope they could care for her the way she cared about them. She would never forget this day—the day she saw her first proof that some things could survive the Corisi curse.
If all of this had been only about saving the jobs of George and the others, she might have walked out that door and taken him up on his brainstorming offer. However, somewhere along the way, she’d let herself begin to hope again.
She couldn’t walk away from Stephan and his family. Not yet. If she did, there was a good chance she’d never see any of them again. Seven years ago, she’d run back to her father’s house and accepted the loss as inevitable. This time she wasn’t willing to leave so easily, and right now the fake engagement was the only thing holding them together.
I’m not afraid of the fight anymore.
The old her would have chosen to play it safe. She would have gone along with her father’s will and thought there was nothing she could do about it. She would have accepted the superficial intimacy Stephan had offered her and expected him to leave her.
Not anymore.
If she lost her inheritance, it wouldn’t be because she hadn’t fought for it.
And if she and Stephan separated at the end of this fake engagement, she was going to walk away knowing she had been brave enough to keep her heart open, and strong enough to demand to be treated with respect.
Her decision was made.
Nicole hugged George and said, “I love you for coming here today, George. I’ll never forget that you did this for me, but I’m here because I want to be. Stephan and I fell in love back when I worked for his father, and we’ve been secretly seeing each other for a while now.” She walked over and took Stephan’s hand, smiling at him to prove to George there was nothing lascivious going on. “I want to marry Stephan. I love him. Please, try to be happy for me.”
Stephan pulled her to his side, and she could hear his heart beating wildly in his chest.
George looked back and forth between them, not quite sure he was willing to believe her. “You’re sure?”
Nicole wrapped both arms around Stephan’s middle and rested her check on his chest. “I’m sure. Go back and tell everyone we’ll invite them to our engagement party when we have one, so they can celebrate with us.”
Gavin led George back out the door.
George stopped just before he walked out the door and said, “Hurt her, Stephan, and it will be the last thing you do.”
Stephan continued to hold Nicole against him. He felt like he’d been run over by a Mack truck and dragged down a highway.
She loves me?
No, she couldn’t. Their engagement was purely a business arrangement. She’d made that abundantly clear to him last nig
ht.
It was all a lie. He knew it. So why had he stopped breathing and felt a little woozy when she’d claimed she really wanted to marry him?
Without looking down at her, he forced out a question he wasn’t sure he wanted to hear the answer to. “Do you love me, Nicole?”
Nicole stepped out of his embrace, and he felt both relieved and profoundly disappointed at the same time. She said, “I had to say something. I couldn’t let him leave here worrying about me.” She walked over to the table and signed the paperwork.
Gavin had returned and was watching the two of them closely.
Stephan strode over and signed the contract.
“It’s done,” Nicole said. “Thank you, Gavin. I’ll be in touch.” She shook his hand and gave him a light kiss on one cheek. She turned to Stephan and said, “I’ll see you at home.”
Stephan’s stomach did a painful flip.
Without another word, Nicole turned and walked out of the office. He simply stood there, watching her go.
Gavin said, “You don’t deserve her.”
Four truer words had never been spoken.
“Just send a copy of the papers over to my office,” Stephan said and strode out.
Mr. Smooth Lawyer might be in love with Nicole. He might even be close enough to her that she shared confidences with him. But she wasn’t going home with him.
Nicole was already gone by the time he reached the street. He wanted to chase her down, demand she tell him the real reason she had fought so hard for her father’s company, and kiss her until they both forgot why they didn’t belong together.
Instead, he headed to Tiffany’s and bought her the biggest, most expensive diamond they had.
Chapter Eleven
Who knew burning sauce could make so much smoke? Nicole coughed and waved a hand towel in front of the smoke detector as it went off for the second time. Even in shorts and a white T-shirt, she was working herself up into a sweat.
Tonight she was celebrating. She’d done it. The top executives at her father’s company—no, now it was just Corisi Ltd.—could rest easy. Their jobs were safe. Her quasi family unit would not be dismantled, at least not in the immediate future. And her phone would finally stop ringing with calls from a brother she refused to talk to.
With that stress behind her, Nicole was free to focus her attention on an equally pressing matter: Stephan. How did you say thank you to a man who purchased a computer software company for you? She knew how his family would.
Confident that she’d found the perfect gesture, Nicole had written her first grocery list and had happily, successfully purchased all of the items for the meal at the local supermarket. What she hadn’t anticipated was how quickly the heat from the oven would overtake the effects of the air conditioner.
The oven. The chicken.
Opening the oven door revealed a now blackened-beyond-recognition entrée that billowed thick smoke into Nicole’s face. Her eyes stung and began to water.
“Corisi family recipe?” Stephan asked over the smoke alarm.
Nicole spun from peering into the oven. Stephan was leaning against one side of the doorframe, jacket flung across his shoulder.
“Very funny,” Nicole snapped, waving a hand in front of her face in an ineffective attempt to dissipate the smoke. “How do you get the oven to stop smoking?”
Stephan laid his jacket on the back of one of the kitchen chairs and walked over to where she was. She didn’t move. He came to a close stop. His head came down until their lips were almost touching. At first Nicole thought he was going to try to kiss her again, but instead he reached behind her and turned a couple of the stove’s dials. “It helps if you turn it off,” he murmured.
Nicole tried to back up, but her legs were already against the stove. Leaning back brought her rump in contact with his hand briefly. She jumped forward as if burned, only to find that doing so pressed her chest against his. His quickly indrawn breath revealed that their fleeting physical contact had affected him as much as it had her.
She slid sideways and escaped to a few feet away, cursing herself for not changing into something nicer before he came home. Nothing was turning out the way she’d planned. “The internet said chicken and pasta is one of the easiest meals to make.” She blew a stray hair out of her face. “They are full of shit.”
His chuckle was unexpected, and the best sound she’d heard in a long time. “I have a full-time cook, Nicole.”
“I know,” she said defensively. “I wanted to do something special to thank you for helping me today.”
He studied her for another moment, as if he’d been about to say something but had decided against it, and said, “Maddy would love this story. Her rule was if she cooked for you, you had to eat it. The whole family was relieved when she married a chef. Before Richard, we were considering buying stock in an antacid company.”
Despite the fact that everything she’d planned for the evening had gone impossibly wrong, she smiled at the mention of his little spitfire of a cousin. “How could she not know how to cook with Elise and Katrine around? They are amazing.”
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Maddy doesn’t take advice well. She does what she wants to do . . . even with recipes.” Stephan shuddered.
“I really like Maddy,” Nicole said spontaneously.
Stephan looked like he was engaged in some inner debate. Finally he said, “I believe you mean that.”
Nicole leaned back against a corner of the counter. “Your family has always been kind to me, Stephan. When our engagement ends, I’ll make sure it’s done in a way that makes you look good in the public eye. I would never deliberately do anything to harm your family.”
Her words had the opposite effect on Stephan than she’d anticipated. His face tightened and he said, “Planning the end already? Do you regret signing the paperwork?”
“No, do you?”
Instead of answering, Stephan tossed Nicole a small box. She caught it just in time. Opening it revealed a 24-carat emerald-cut diamond in a raised platinum setting. Elegant, and wildly expensive. It was exactly the kind of ring you’d expect a Corisi to want. Nicole’s heart sank. She took it out of the velvet box and turned it slowly between her fingers.
Not me at all.
“You don’t like it,” Stephan stated flatly.
Nicole grimaced. “It’s fine.”
He said gruffly, “You can take it back and get something you want.”
What she wanted was not something she was going to find in a jewelry case at Tiffany’s. His choice of ring for her made it painfully obvious that he did not know her. She slid the large diamond on her left finger. “It’s beautiful, Stephan, and it’s only for a short time anyway. Thank you.”
He let out a harsh breath. “Most women would love that ring.”
Nicole bristled. “I said it was beautiful.”
His frustration was growing. “I spent thirty—actually, thirty-five million dollars on you today. Thirty-five million dollars. Do you know any other women who can say they’ve had that kind of day? And you don’t look happy. I thought you’d be grateful.”
“I am. I cooked—” Sudden comprehension hit her. “Do you mean grateful? Or grateful?”
He put both hands up in mock defense. “I—”
She jabbed one finger into his chest and said, “Let’s get a few points straight right now. This is a business arrangement. Your help bought you the rights to one conversion patent. That’s it. And although you did spend a lot of money today, you’ll get it all back in a few weeks.” She waved her left ring finger in front of his face. “Along with this. I hope you kept the receipt. I meant what I said last night. I don’t know if I like you. You’re rude. You’re arrogant. Just because you’re gorgeous doesn’t mean every woman wants to have sex with you. Women want more than hot suggestions whispered into their ears. They want conversation. They want—” His amused expression halted her tirade. Hands on hips, she said, “What? What are you thinking
? Just say it.”
A devil of mischief sparkled in those beautiful blue eyes. “No, go on. I’m listening.” When she didn’t, he prompted, “You were telling me what women want.”
She shook her head and said, “I’m serious.”
He smiled.
“You’re an ass,” she said.
His smile widened, but he stepped closer. “But I’m a gorgeous ass.”
She threw an oven mitt at him when he reached for her. “Don’t touch me.”
He didn’t, but he continued to stand so close that her body began to betray her. She licked her suddenly dry lips. He leaned an inch closer. “So, no whispering ideas into your ear? No touching? Just conversation? That’s what you want?” His lips were so close she could almost taste him.
She gulped. “Yes.”
“Because you want to sleep, every night, all alone in your little twin bed?”
No. “Yes.” She forced the word out, trying to ignore how her skin tingled with anticipation of his touch—how her body was clenching, moistening, preparing for what she was refusing.
“Do you know what I want?” he asked, his voice practically purring.
Oh, God.
He stepped back and said, “Pizza, because I don’t think I can eat that chicken. Do you mind ordering some while I make a few phone calls?” He sauntered over to pick up his jacket again and added, “I’ll be in the living room, since I don’t have an office anymore. Then we can eat and talk.” He emphasized the last word, and her scowl gained a deep laugh from him. “Unless you have another suggestion?”
Not one that didn’t include smacking that smug look off his face.
He swung the jacket over one shoulder and headed for the door. “Oh, and ask them to put the ham and pineapple on only half. Fruit doesn’t belong on pizza.”
As soon as he was out of sight, Nicole plopped down onto one of the chairs.
He remembered my favorite toppings.
Would she ever figure him out?
The Legacy Collection Box Set Page 9
