by Lucy Monroe
Vik shifted down, his car purring as it climbed the hills of San Francisco’s streets. “You refuse to sue Perry despite his defamation of your character.”
“Our friendship is over.” Ultimately that would cost Perry more than any settlement she might get in court.
“Is it?”
“Yes.”
“You sound very certain.” Vik didn’t.
“I am.”
Vik turned onto Highway 101. “Good.”
“And even if for no other reason than that he’ll never get another loan from me, that’s a serious consequence for Perry.” One she really didn’t think the other man had foreseen. He would have counted on her loyalty, but had made the egregious error of not giving her any. “He’ll also never again be able to use being my escort as a way into events his own connections won’t provide entrée.”
“It sounds like it was a pretty one-sided friendship.”
“That’s what Romi always said, but it wasn’t true.”
“Yes?” Vik sounded genuinely curious, if doubtful.
“Letting people in isn’t easy for me.”
The business tycoon who had spurred more fantasies than any teenage heartthrob in her adolescent breast made a disbelieving sound. “You have a huge social network.”
“And a total of two people I called friends, now only one.”
“I think two still.” Vik flicked her a glance with meaning. “Just not the same two.”
Unexpected and not wholly welcome warmth unfurled inside Maddie at the claim. Nevertheless, she admitted, “I’m glad to hear that.”
She just hoped it was true. Chances were good. Viktor Beck might be a bastard in the business world, but he was no liar.
“He made me laugh,” she admitted, falling back on old habits of sharing her uncensored thoughts with Vik.
“You have an infectious laugh,” Vik offered. “I missed it.”
It was weird to think of Vik missing anything about her. “You decided our friendship was over.”
“Not over, just truncated.”
“If you say so.” But six years on, she could maybe share his point of view.
“I thought it for the best.”
It was entirely possible it had been, no matter how much his rejection and subsequent pulling away had hurt. She hadn’t thought so at the time, the combined loss of her mom, then her grandfather, what little attention she’d had from her father and then Vik’s friendship had left Maddie with real intimacy issues. But if she and Vik had maintained their close friendship, she never would have gotten over him.
Nor would she have made her own way in life, building dreams completely independent of AIH.
“Looking back on it, it’s kind of surprising I let Perry get so close.” But then she’d needed a replacement for Vik at least.
“You loaned him money.”
Which had taken their friendship into a different realm, she now realized—a realm where Perry saw Maddie as a resource rather than a friend. “In the interest of accuracy, we’ll have to call them gifts, not loans.”
“And that makes it better?”
She shrugged, though Vik’s attention was on the road as they joined the heavy traffic over the Golden Gate Bridge. “Perry’s business ventures never seemed to work out.”
“Selling this story to the tabloids is pretty stupid as a long-term plan if you were already bankrolling him.”
“I wasn’t. I turned him down the last time he asked for money.” It had been a hard decision, but she’d had her own dreams to bankroll. “I’d come to the conclusion there were better places I could sink my money than down the rabbit hole of another one of Perry’s unlikely business ventures.”
“So, he betrayed you.”
“Yes.” She sighed sadly. “I had no idea my friendship was only worth a few dollars.”
“Fifty thousand.”
“That’s how much he got paid?” She wasn’t surprised Vik knew.
The man made it a habit to know everything of even peripheral importance to him. Maddie figured it would be a matter of days, if not hours, before he learned of her anonymous volunteering and even her therapist.
Uncertainty about his reaction to her secrets was the only thing stopping her from telling him herself.
“For the initial tabloid article. He planned to leverage the scandal into more paid interviews and even a book deal.” Vik’s voice was laced with disgust.
“That’s ridiculous. I’m not exactly a celebrity.” She hated this.
“No, but you are the Madcap Heiress.”
“Madcap Madison. It’s what they called my mother.” She could still remember the first time one of the tabloids had used the moniker for Maddie.
It had made Maddie feel like maybe Helene was still with her in some small way. Only later had her own maturity and help from her therapist helped Maddie to see how distorted that thinking was.
“You share her penchant for making it into the press,” Vik agreed. “Perry’s book wouldn’t have made him a million dollars, but someone would have paid him a hefty advance for it.”
“That’s just stupid.”
“That’s our reality-television, celebrity-drama-obsessed society.” Vik shifted into the higher gear as they finally made it over the bridge.
San Francisco’s gridlock could get really ugly, though it was better than the freeways that became parking lots during high commute times in and around L.A.
“I suppose. You talk about the book deal like it’s in the past.”
“It is.” Definite satisfaction colored Vik’s two-word answer.
She shouldn’t be surprised Vik had worked so quickly, but she couldn’t deny being impressed and only a little apprehensive. “What were Perry’s terms?”
“Timwater didn’t set the terms, trust me.”
She had no trouble believing that, not when Vik was involved. Perry had no hope with the power of AIH brought to bear against him at the instructions of its VP. “What did Conrad get him to agree to?”
“Do you think, after his screwup this morning, I would trust this negotiation with Conrad?”
“You met with Perry? Wasn’t that overkill?” Putting Vik and Perry in the same room was like pitting an alley cat against the heavyweight champ.
The cat might be wily and street smart, but he was still going to get pulverized.
And she wasn’t entirely convinced of Perry’s street smarts.
“From now on, anything to do with you goes through me personally.” Vik exited the freeway, downshifting the powerful Jaguar.
“That’s not how my father operates.”
They were headed toward the Marin Headlands. Maddie recognized the route, though she hadn’t been there since her school days, on the obligatory field trip to the Golden Gate Bridge and to view the city vista.
“I am not your father.”
“But you’re a lot alike.”
“In how we do business? Yes. But you share more personality traits with your father than I do.”
“You’re kidding.”
“No.”
“I know we’re both stubborn, but...”
“It does not stop there, believe me.”
“So you say.” She was nothing like her father.
“I do.”
Typical. Vik felt no need to explain himself, or convince her, which only made her want to hear his justifications all the more. She wasn’t going to ask, though.
Not right now.
Right now, she was far more interested in what they were doing in the parking area near Battery Spencer. “Is the magazine photographer here to get some color shots, or something?”
“No.”
Vik pulled neatly into a parking spot and turned off the car, but made no move to get out.
He unbuckled his seat belt and turned to face her. “It is a good thing the friendship is over from your side. Timwater signed a nondisclosure agreement that covers every aspect of his association with you. The penalties for breaking
it are severe.”
“But he’s going to talk about our friendship.” It had spanned the same six years as the dearth of Vik in her life.
“No, he is not.”
She had no desire to see the man again, but she wasn’t sure how she felt about their friendship disappearing as if it had never been, either. “It isn’t going to help with what he’s already done.”
Vik’s eyes bored into hers. “He’s signed a retraction, admitting everything he told the tabloid was a lie.”
“Won’t that leave him open to a lawsuit from them?” And why was she worried about someone who had so very blatantly not been worried about her?
“They don’t get a copy of the confession...unless he screws up again.” The threat in Vik’s words would have been spelled out to her ex-friend in no uncertain terms.
“And that will protect him?”
“Do you care?”
“I probably shouldn’t.”
“You would not be you if you didn’t,” Vik said with something like indulgence and no evidence of judgment.
“I’m not a pushover.”
“No one witnessing you facing your father down in the conference room this morning would ever question that.”
“Okay.”
Vik smiled. “You are a strong woman whose strength is tempered by compassion. My grandmother Ana is such a woman.”
“And you love her.”
“Yes.”
Did that mean he might love Maddie one day? She did her best to quash that line of fantasy thought. Like she’d told her father earlier, Maddie wasn’t the fairy-tale believer her mom had been. She had no expectations of marrying for undying love and irresistible passion.
So, she couldn’t understand where the tiny ember of hope burning deep in her heart despite Maddie’s strictest self-talk came from.
Unaware of the war going on inside of Maddie from that simple admission, Vik added, “Timwater will make a public apology for his prank after our engagement is announced.”
Even though they weren’t engaged, according to Vik.
It suddenly occurred to her that they hadn’t come to the overlook for privacy to discuss Perry.
Even so, she needed to know one thing. “How much?”
“Did we pay him?”
“Yes.”
“The way his apology will play, he’ll get to keep his fifty thousand from the tabloid.” Vik didn’t sound particularly happy about that fact.
“And?”
“The only thing I gave Timwater was my word not to destroy his name in the business world. The nondisclosure agreement guarantees we will not sue him in civil court, either—so long as he keeps his side of it.”
“He never would have believed I would do that.”
“I would. Regardless of if it was on behalf of the company rather than you, Timwater would be just as screwed.”
“You’re ruthless.”
“It’s not just an Archer family trait. We do what we need to get what is important to us.”
“Like marrying the owner’s daughter to take control of a Fortune 500 company.”
“Yes.”
“Thank you.”
“For?”
“Not trying to pretend this is something else.” No matter what her heart wanted.
“What exactly do you think this is?”
“Necessary.”
He nodded. “Yes, but it will be a marriage in every sense of the word. You do realize that?”
“You mean...”
“Sex. We will not be living celibate lives.”
“No affairs?” Not that she would be willing to take this step if she thought he was a womanizer, if she herself had plans to look outside the marriage for that kind of companionship.
“No affairs,” he repeated, making no attempt to suppress how disgusting he considered the idea.
Vik wasn’t that guy.
He was the grandson of a very traditional Russian man. Vik would never do anything that would disappoint the old man. He thought his father had done enough of that.
He’d shared that, and a lot more she hadn’t expected him to, when they were friends during her teen years. He’d never been like a brother, but he had been one of the few people she’d believed she could rely on back then.
Could she rely on him now?
“Be very sure you understand what I am saying here, Madison.” Vik reached across the console and cupped her nape in a move that was becoming familiar. “I am not Maxwell Black. My children will not be conceived in a test tube.”
“Of course not.” Whatever their feelings for each other, this situation was very personal for him.
He nodded like that had settled everything still left unsaid between them. She wasn’t so sure she agreed, but she didn’t hesitate to get out of the car with him.
They took the path to the overlook, Maddie grateful she’d worn the sensible pumps and that the ground was dry. Neither of them spoke while they walked, but he kept his hand on the small of her back, moving it to her elbow in the uneven patches of terrain.
When they stopped, they were at one of the favorite overlooks that gave a view of both the famous bridge and the San Francisco skyline. A few tourists dotted the area, but none near enough to hear any discussion she and Vik might have.
Vik maneuvered them so he stood only a few inches from her, his body acting as a barrier against the incessant winds off the harbor. The close and clearly protective positioning felt significant.
“My grandfather gave my grandmother her first view of San Francisco in this very spot,” Vik said after a moment of silent contemplation of the vista before them. “He promised her a future with food to put on the table for their family. A future without oppression for their Orthodox beliefs.”
“He kept his promise.”
“Yes.” Vik went silent for several seconds of contemplation. “Grandfather brought my dad up here as a child. Misha told Frank he could be anything he wanted to, a true American with no accent, his name just like all the other boys’.”
“Your grandfather gave your father the freedom to be anything he wanted to.”
“Even a failure.”
She couldn’t argue that assessment, not when she knew Frank Beck had spent his adulthood running from responsibility. Unless something had changed in the last six years, Frank only contacted Vik when he wanted something. Usually money.
Placing her hand on his forearm, Maddie said, “He didn’t fail when he fathered you.”
“Misha and Ana raised me to be who I am.”
“An undisputable success.”
Vik turned to face her. “You believe that?”
“I do.”
“That is good.”
She smiled, not sure why she felt the need to reassure Viktor Beck, but determined to do it anyway.
“Deda brought me up here, too, when I was boy. Frank could not be bothered, but I made promises to myself, commitments to the children I would one day father. Promises I will keep.”
“I have no doubt.”
Vik’s gaze warmed, his expression filled with unmistakable determination. “My grandparents were not in love when they married, but theirs is one of the strongest marriages I have ever witnessed.”
“They are devoted to each other.”
“And to their family, even my dad.”
“I believe it.”
Vik nodded, his dark eyes reflecting approval of her words. “That kind of dedication runs in my veins right along with the ruthlessness.”
“I know.”
Vik laid his big hands on her shoulders, creating a private world of two for them. “I believe our children will share those traits.”
“No doubt.” There was nothing she could do about how breathless her voice had become.
He was touching her, and even through the fabric of her Valentino suit jacket and the shell she wore under it, she felt the connection intimately.
“Considering it will come from both their mother and their f
ather, our children have little hope otherwise.”
“I’m not ruthless,” she said, shocked by the accusation.
“The paperwork you signed today would say otherwise.”
“You know that isn’t the way I usually do things.” It just had been...necessary.
“Ruthlessness does not have to be the dominant trait in your nature for you to have it.”
“And it doesn’t bother you?”
“That you’ll fight for those who deserve your loyalty, even those who do not? No.”
“You expect to deserve my loyalty.”
“Yes.”
“And will I get yours?”
His expression said her question surprised him. “Do you doubt it?”
“Six years ago...”
“You kissed me and I pushed you away.”
“That’s a simplified way of looking at it and not entirely accurate.”
“No?”
“No. I told you I loved you. You told me I was too young and you didn’t just push me away, you pushed me out of your life completely. Our friendship ended with one kiss.”
“It was necessary.”
“We could have stayed friends.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“You were an eighteen-year-old, barely a woman.”
“But I was a woman.”
“I know.” There was a message in his voice she couldn’t decipher.
“You were also the daughter of a man I admired and who trusted me with you.”
“Not to mention he was your boss,” she reminded him a little snidely.
“Yes, my boss. The president and owner of a company I intended to run one day.”
“A relationship with me would hardly have gotten in the way of that goal.”
“It would have. Six years ago.”
“But not now.” No, now it was the opposite.
Marriage to her would give Vik exactly what he wanted.
“No, not now.”
“I loved you.” She wouldn’t call it a crush; it hadn’t been by then. She’d gotten over it, but at one time she had loved him. “Your rejection hurt me.”
“I am sorry.”
But he wouldn’t change his past actions, even if he could. She knew him.
“Look on the bright side,” he said almost teasingly.
She didn’t remember anything bright about that time. “What?”
