6. Piper
6
PIPER
V incent Forde was the Beelzebub of the boardroom. I hated that man!
I was so consumed with frustration after our confrontation about the Sullivans I couldn’t focus on my work. I longed for one of those stupid rubber squeeze balls with a corporate logo on it, so I could squash it in my hand and pretend it was his face.
His distractingly handsome face. Why did he have to be so damn hot? I should not be finding him attractive when he’d dismissed me like he was a principal and I was his unruly student!
How I was going to survive the next few weeks of torture was beyond me. It was like it physically pained him to admit when I was right. And now we’d be traveling together? I wanted to visit Hawaii, but not with him as my plus-one unless I could toss him into a volcano as a human sacrifice.
I settled back at my desk and tried to focus on editing some web content photos, but my phone went off with three texts in a row.
Matthew, again.
A greeting, a question about if I was purposely avoiding him, and a request to meet for coffee to catch up and “chill.”
I snorted and pushed my phone behind my computer. No way. I knew better than to get caught up in his lies again. Matthew was magnetic in all the wrong ways, and I didn’t have the time or energy to waste trying to figure out his angle. Maybe he was in between women, and he was looking for someone to keep him warm as he tried to find better options? The guy was dumb enough to try a “U up” text during the daylight hours, so I wouldn’t put it past him.
I settled in and finally shifted into my drone-zone, where all the background noise of the day faded away, only to have the interoffice phone on my desk scare the hell out of me with an overloud ring.
“Vincent would like to see you,” his assistant Linda said. “Again.”
I picked up the subtext in her clipped tone. Something was up.
When I walked back into his torture chamber of an office, he jumped out of the chair behind his desk and welcomed me in as if he hadn’t just dismissed me like I was an impertinent servant thirty minutes prior.
“Piper, thanks for coming back. Hope I didn’t interrupt anything.”
I narrowed my eyes at his inexplicable lack of asshole-ishness, trying to figure out why he was suddenly displaying manners I’d honestly thought he didn’t possess.
“Actually, you did. What’s up?”
“Sit, please,” he said, pointing at the black leather chairs in front of his desk. As I moved to take a seat, I couldn’t help but notice his sleeves were rolled up, revealing strong forearms that looked annoyingly good. I cursed myself for noticing.
I was shocked when he opted to sit in the chair beside me and not behind his desk. Something was definitely weird with him, and I didn’t trust the shift.
Vincent took up space, and it wasn’t just his strong frame. Him sitting across from me, staring at me with his stupid piercing blue eyes, made it a little hard for me to breathe. He didn’t just look at me, he studied me.
Like he was trying to figure out how to swallow me whole. Which, honestly, sounded equally scary and hot, so I tried to push the thought away.
“This might come as a surprise to you, but I think we make a good team.”
I laughed in his face. “What in the world gave you that idea? We bicker every time we’re in the same room. You don’t respect my input. You’re pushy as hell. You’re rude. You don’t trust my process. None of that suggests teamwork.”
He smirk-smiled at me, like he thought I was being adorable. “Oh, come on. Things are going great! And that’s why I think we should expand our little charade.”
“Which one? The one where I respect you as a boss?”
He laughed good naturedly, not taking the bait at all. What was going on?
“I mean the dating thing we agreed to. For the Sullivans.”
“Um,” I replied, confused because what he was saying and the way he was acting didn’t compute. “But that’s specifically just for them. It doesn’t apply to the rest of our working partnership .” I stressed the last two words.
“True, true, but I think there are benefits to keeping it up here in New York too, not just in Hawaii, at least until Paul’s wedding. That golf nerd is definitely going to be at the reception, and you’ll have to fight him off all night if you’re not on my arm. Plus, you know how annoying it is at a wedding when you’re a single woman. All those questions about when you’re going to settle down…I can’t imagine how frustrating it must be! You could consider me your safety shield.”
I stared at Vincent and tried to figure out why my well-being mattered to him all of a sudden. Then it dawned on me: this was about him , not me. He was trying to work an angle—I just didn’t know what it was yet.
“Okay, what do you want?” I asked, not hiding my skepticism. “For real. Why are you asking me to do this? Because I don’t buy that you care about me being harassed at the wedding.”
A shadow passed over his face, and for a second, I came close to believing Vincent Forde had real, human emotions.
But that was impossible!
He sighed and dropped the “help me help you” cheery teammate bullshit. “Fine. The fact is, I’m currently going through some stuff with my father. He’s taking big risks—like doing twenty-four-hour adventure races and climbing mountains without prior training. His latest idea is…” He shook his head, looking genuinely worried. “Not good,” he said, “and even if I manage to talk him off this ledge, he’s just going to climb on another one.”
“I…I’m sorry to hear that,” I said hesitatingly. I didn’t have any memories of my dad—my real dad. He’d died when I was just a few months old. All I had were some pictures and the stories my mom used to tell me, back before she got together with Prentiss. But not remembering him didn’t stop me from missing him. I knew what it was like to have that absence in my life. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. Not even Vincent.
“I need to get him to refocus on all the good around him. He’s too old to be chasing thrills. I want him to be present for family, friends, a future…the stuff that matters.”
“So what does all of that have to do with me?” I asked.
“My father thinks it’s very important for me to find a partner and settle down. He wants nothing more than for me to fall in love, get married, and start a family.”
I was getting a bad feeling about this…
“So when my dad told me he was getting ready to pack up for a trip to Costa Rica for a microdosing experience?—”
I winced, because yeah, that did not sound like a safe idea.
“—I told him to stick around so he could meet my new girlfriend.”
Ah, so that was where I came in. Bad feeling confirmed.
“And you already signed me up for the job!” I fumed at him because he’d basically left me no choice.
I jumped out of my chair and started pacing around his office. This felt way too familiar. Just like Prentiss, assuming he could force me into whatever role he chose for me.
“Now, hold on, calm down,” Vincent said. “I’m not asking you to do it for nothing. I can pay you for the honor of dating you. Or should I say, fake dating you.”
I whirled to him. “What, like you’re my sugar daddy ? No freaking way, that’s disgusting! And don’t tell me to calm down, ever.”
“Well, you clearly need the money, because you’re here at Summit despite your obvious distaste for me,” he pointed out. Wonder of wonders, he didn’t sound taunting for once. Just like he was trying to get to the bottom of the situation so he could find a solution. Maybe that was why I answered him honestly.
“For my business.”
“Your photography business? But why? Based on my research, that’s already self-sustaining, what more could you need for it?”
“Not my photography business. I told you I have other goals. My side hustle is going to become my main if things go according to plan.” There was no reason to tell him any more. It was none of his business. But I couldn’t resist. I was proud of what Darcy and I had already built, and I wanted to brag, to prove to him he wasn’t the only one in the room with a head for business. “My best friend and I launched a leathergoods business called Strapped. We make these specialized leather camera straps for photographers—they let you carry three different cameras at a time but still keep them accessible.” I scrolled through my phone and walked over to him to show him a photo. “See?”
Vincent studied it. “Looks a little kinky if you ask me. Like S&M lederhosen.”
“Of course you’d go there,” I scowled at him, even though he was sort of right. “They’re incredibly functional, and people love them. Right now, they’re only available in little Etsy shops, but we want to mass market them. We sourced a group of leatherworkers in Italy, and they’re ready to go, we just need the funds to place our first major order. We’ve both been saving, but we’re hoping to get Mercedes Horan to come on as an advisor and angel investor.”
“Why didn’t you just ask me to invest?” he asked. “It sounds like you’ve got a solid plan. I’m always looking for new opportunities.”
I couldn’t stop the sour lemons expression on my face. “Ew. How would that even work, seeing as we can’t stand each other? No, we want Mercedes, not only for her deep pockets but also her expertise. She has a shoe line, so she understands the leathergoods market. She could help guide us. And she has a reputation for being a great mentor, especially to all-female enterprises like ours. We just need to get in front of her.”
“Yes, that does sound like something she’d go for. She was just telling me about her latest investment when I ran into her at the New York Public Library Board of Trustees meeting. We’ve served together for years.”
“Wait…what? You know her?” I asked, trying to hide my shock.
“Of course I do. Manhattan is a small town,” he shrugged.
A silence fell between us as I waited for him to suggest the obvious solution. He wanted something from me—and it was clear he had something to offer me in return. Specifically, an introduction to Mercedes. I wasn’t about to ask him for it—I didn’t want to give him the ego trip of me begging for his help—but if he offered, sure, I’d take him up on it.
I crossed my arms and stared at him, waiting for him to say the words.
Vincent leaned back in his chair and watched me. He seemed to enjoy the awkward silence, so I forced myself to remain still and not fidget. I’d read somewhere that whoever caves first in a negotiation always wound up losing.
It was a standoff, and I was going to win.
“I’ll introduce you.”
Yes!
“What are the conditions?” I asked, wanting to be very clear about what we were agreeing to.
His expression shifted from amused to all business. “We stay in what appears to be a committed relationship now through Paul’s wedding, including spending time with my dad. You continue working at Summit to get the Sullivans to agree to sell their blossoms to me, and once that happens, I’ll introduce you to Mercedes.”
“Hold on, hold on—that sounds like you just added a layer of requirements to a deal we struck. I’m already working on the Sullivans angle—that doesn’t factor into this new deal. You’re still paying me for that no matter what, correct?”
“Yes, you’re right,” he sighed. “This whole ‘meet the father to get an introduction to Mercedes’ thing is a side quest, I guess you could say.”
“My business is not a side quest,” I corrected him quickly.
He looked startled, but he nodded slowly, accepting my point.
“Yes. Agreed.”
I nodded, satisfied. “Okay, then. Now we need to outline the rules, because I have to know exactly how much togetherness I’ll be forced to tolerate in order to fulfill my side of the agreement. Like, are we supposed to be couple-y at work?”
He shook his head. “We don’t have fraternization rules, but there’s an expectation that people will keep things professional when they’re on the clock. When we’re here, we focus on the work to be done.”
“Good,” I replied primly. “It would be challenging for me to pretend to like you for eight hours a day.”
He rolled his eyes. “All I require of you is to be available for a few meals with my father and act like you like me. Attend Paul’s wedding with me. And the Hawaii trip, of course.”
“Which is separate!” I reminded him.
“Yes, yes, of course. You need to get it on the books first.” He gave me a pointed look.
“Watch me,” I shot back at him. “So when will you pay up with the intro to Mercedes?”
His wicked mouth twisted as he considered his answer. “After the wedding.”
The thought of entering into yet another weird arrangement with him gave me a tension headache, but the result was going to be worth it in the end.
At least that’s what I had to tell myself as he reached his hand out.
“Deal?” Vincent arched an eyebrow at me.
I stared at his massive mitt for a few seconds, then slid my hand against his. He held me in an iron grip for a beat too long, and when he finally let go, I felt lightheaded and woozy.
I’d made yet another deal with the devil.