Chapter 7
CHAPTER SEVEN
dom
I’m home earlier than I’ve ever been in years, and asking my assistant to reschedule meetings along with transferring only important calls to my cell phone raised a few questions.
Luckily, she’s paid handsomely and doesn’t rock the boat.
My phone has been silent since I left, stopping at an Italian joint to pick up salad, bread, and pasta.
There’s even dessert in the fridge for later.
“Wow.” I’m knocked out of my reverie when I hear her voice, not even the noise of the elevator clued me in. She looks small in the entryway, clutching her purse like a shield. There’s a faint shadow under her eyes, signs of her working too damn much.
“You’re here.” I lean against the marble kitchen island. I avoided making a drink, needing a clear head and my wits about me when it comes to Corinne Pierson.
“I can leave?” Cory voices it as a question.
“No.” I make my way toward her, and she meets me halfway.
“Why here?” she asks.
“Privacy. I don’t want to share you with the outside world.” Her scent wraps around me, the tension between us that of a high-voltage wire.
“Privacy for what?” Her breath hitches.
“For this.” I don’t give her time to think.
I step into her space, my hand cupping the back of her neck, fingers tangling in her hair as I pull her into me.
When my mouth finds hers, the slightest sigh slips from her lips, and I take advantage, deepening the kiss as my tongue claims hers.
Cory tastes like sweet warmth and sharp defiance.
Her purse drops to the floor with a dull thud as her hands fly to my chest, fingers gripping my shirt.
She doesn’t pull away. She pulls me closer, arching her body into mime.
A low growl tears from my throat, and my dick throbs. Her chest heaves, and my thigh moves between her legs, giving her the friction she’s after, nearly pushing me over the edge. I hold still, backtracking. A dick move, but if I take this where I want, it could fuck with her head.
One harsh breath of air, I force myself to break the kiss, dragging my lips away and burying my face in the crook of her neck. I need a fucking second, if only to control the raging hunger I have for Cory.
“Dom.” I pull back to take her in. Her face is flush, lips swollen and damp, eyes sparkling with a wild hunger.
“Christ, Cory. Come on, take a seat,” I command softly, my voice rougher than intended.
Before she can protest, I grip her hips, noticing the way she shivers at my touch, and lift her effortlessly.
I carry her to the kitchen island, setting her down on one of the leather-cushioned barstools.
It takes a lot for me to take a step back, to deliberately put so much as three feet of space between us.
Instinct is screaming at me to close the fucking gap.
Instead, I reach for the document on the other side and slide it toward her along with a heavy fountain pen.
“What’s this?” She looks from the documents to me. I see the subtle way her throat works when she swallows, and fuck if that doesn’t make my dick go haywire. I want my thumb gliding along her skin as she takes me to the back of her throat while on her knees.
“An NDA to start,” I say, pulling myself together, leaning against the opposite counter and crossing my arms to keep myself from reaching for her again.
“And a contract outlining the terms of our future.” She frowns, flipping through the pages, eyes skimming over the dense legal jargon, and I watch the exact moment her brain processes the numbers.
“A lump sum of fifty million dollars after three years of marriage.” Her jaw slackens before she reads aloud, her voice dropping in disbelief, “Marriage?”
“Keep reading,” I say when she looks up at me.
“Full liquidation of all current debts, effective immediately,” she mutters, her eyes racing down the page. “Including… oh my god, Dom.” She pauses, eyes filling with an emotion I can’t quite decipher. “My mother’s nursing home bills, for the remainder of her stay, however long that may be?”
“Every cent. And your college debt, paid in full by tonight, if you sign,” I confirm.
“What’s the catch? There’s always a catch. What do I have to do?” Her fingers grip the edges of the paper so tightly her knuckles turn white.
“You move in with me. Immediately. Tonight, if possible. Your things can be brought over tomorrow.” Cory shakes her head. A humorless laugh tumbles past her plush lips.
“Why? Why me? You don’t need a charity case, Dom. You could have any woman in the city. Why me?”
“It’s simple. You have a problem. I have the solution.” I shrug, keeping my expression cool, even though she’s the one I’m putting all my cards on the table for.
“A solution that’s going to cost you millions?” Cory questioning me is obvious. Cory questioning herself that she wouldn’t be worth this much sits like a dead weight in my stomach.
“A drop in the bucket compared to what I could lose,” I reply, straightening to my full heigh and walking over to spin her around.
This requires direct eye contact. I brace my hands on the marble counter on either side of her and settle between her thighs.
I’m essentially trapping her, though I’m keeping my hands to myself.
“There’s forty billion dollars sitting on the table.
The board members at Sterling Capital won’t put up the money for an investment I’m going after.
They think I’m a wild card, unpredictable, untamed, and not the image they want.
They want me to settle down, so they feel safe.
It doesn’t matter that I pulled my dad out of the world of bankruptcy.
After I worked myself to the bone for years and years, I let off steam, a little too much, and now it’s catching up to me.
A marriage of convenience will work in both of our favors.
It gives them an illusion of stability, and it provides you with a clean slate. ”
“First of all, how did you find out I’m in debt up to my eyeballs?
Nobody knows, Dom. Not Alex, not Jett, not Seraphina, not Romy, not Mischa, not Genny, and definitely not my mom.
” Cory stares at me, her gaze searching my face for any sign of a joke.
She doesn’t find one. Her expression hardens, and a spark of fire meets my eyes.
“Money can buy you anything, sweetheart. Including a private detective who can make the three-letter government agencies look like amateurs.” It’s the truth.
Miller has a military background that rivals no other.
He got out, started his own company that involves detective work and other shit we’ve never gotten into.
“This is blackmail, Dom. You’re leveraging my mother’s health and my financial ruin to buy yourself a wife.
” I let my gaze drop, slowly, deliberately, dragging my eyes from her face down the column of her throat, over the swells of her breasts down to the curve of her waist and thighs, before bringing my eyes back to hers.
“You call it blackmail.” I drop my voice, a slow smirk spreading across my face. “I call it protecting my assets. Emphasis on assets.” Cory lets out a snort of laughter, the sudden sound breaking the heaviness in the room.
“You’re an insufferable bastard, you know that?”
“So I’ve been told. Time and time again.” She taps her nail against the contract, looking at it with a mix of trepidation and resolve.
“Say I’m crazy enough to consider this. When does this need to be signed by?”
“Tonight. The board meets Monday morning. I want to make an announcement of sorts by tomorrow afternoon.” I also don’t want to give her too much time to overthink this.
“And how exactly are we going to swing people into buying this?” She gestures with her finger between the two of us. “We’ve barely spoken in public. People know I don’t work in your orbit, and they aren’t stupid. They’re going to see a sudden marriage and smell a rat.”
“That’s easy.” I lean in a fraction closer, enough so she can feel the heat radiating off me, close enough that her eyes flicker to my lips.
“We’ll dabble in a fake relationship. A couple of weeks of dinners, charity galas, and the likes.
Then we’ll play it off as a whirlwind romance, a passion so intense we couldn’t contain it.
A simple Justice of the Peace wedding, and we’ll live happily ever after.
” Cory’s chest rises and falls, unsure of the portrait I’m painting, I’m sure.
“And you think people will believe we just, I don’t know, fell in love?” I reach out, my thumb catching her chin, tilting her face up. My thumb brushes across her lower lip, reminding her of the kiss that was so hot, it nearly consumed us.
“Look me in the eye and tell me it’s a stretch.
” My voice is thick. I’m barely able to keep myself in check.
“There’s no denying our chemistry, Cory.
Everyone in the room sees it when we’re together.
It works in our favor. We won’t even have to fake how this feels.
” The contract lies beside us. I let my hand drop, pick up the pen, hold it out for her, and say, “What do you say, Cory. Will you be my wife?”