8. Ford
FORD
The words leave my mouth, and the world narrows to the space between me and Maeve. To the shocked stillness of her body and the beautiful, disbelieving green of her eyes.
My wife.
She looks as stunned as I feel, but years of high-stakes negotiations have taught me to master the art of the unreadable expression.
Despite the fact that I can’t quite believe what I just said to her, I lock it down.
The mask of indifference I’ve perfected over a thousand hours spent in boardrooms serves me well now, giving nothing away.
I must have genuinely lost my mind. But I can’t even blame myself. I’ve never been especially logical when it comes to her.
The second I realized that she wasn’t going to back down on her decision to quit, I knew, with a certainty that bypassed all reason, that I needed to keep her close to me at any cost.
For a moment, we just stare at each other.
I’m not sure which of us is more shocked, but I damn well hope it doesn’t show on my face, at least. I’ve been dealt a lot of surprising blows as I built a successful business with my two best friends, and I’ve sometimes jumped in during important meetings, or when closing a deal, and found myself saying something I didn’t mean to.
It’s worked out for me every time, and one of the keys is a killer poker face.
I just have to hope that my poker face is holding steady now.
“ Fake wife,” I add, the idea already forming in my mind. I can spin this. I can always spin things. This is just another business deal, in a way. I want something, and I’m going to get it. That’s all.
Maeve blinks several times, looking like she wants to pinch herself to make sure she’s awake.
The shape of her full breasts and the hard peaks of her nipples through her blouse, now free of her bra, are insanely distracting.
She has no idea how tempting she is just sitting there, existing so casually.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers. “What did you just say?”
“You heard me talking with Hayden earlier today about a partnership that’s coming up. A potential partnership.”
She nods. “Hayden’s been tense about it. I haven’t really seen him like this before.”
It hits me that she could tell Hayden was out of sorts. Most people just think my friend is annoyed about everything all the time. They can’t pick up on the nuances and see through the veneer. It stands to reason that Maeve, of all people, can. “A lot is riding on it.”
“I can imagine.”
“It’s called Silver Start.”
“That’s the one?” Maeve rolls her eyes. “Here I was, racking my brain. I should’ve known.
That double S has been popping up on your schedules a lot lately.
You do realize that if I’m not supposed to know something, you shouldn’t put mysterious initials with blocked-out times on your calendars, right? I can see all of that.”
A smile wants to tug at my lips, and I have to work hard not to let it win. That’s our Spitfire. She’s damn good at her job, the best assistant we’ve ever had, and it’s for a reason. And she’s not wrong, either.
“This is the most important potential partnership we’ve had in years. It’ll unlock a whole new direction for the company. You know that we like a challenge and this will be a fun one. But first we need to secure the deal.”
“And this has to do with me because…”
“George Watterson is the CEO of the company and he’s a bit old fashioned, we’ll put it that way.
He thinks that because the three of us are bachelors we might be prone to distraction and not take the company as seriously as he’d like.
He’s dropped some hints that he thinks our success until now might be due to family money and luck. ”
Maeve bristles. “Well then he’s an idiot. Anyone who’s actually done their research knows just how hard you and Hayden and Gabriel work.”
“Like I said, he’s old fashioned. He believes that men work harder when they have to provide for a family and be the head of a household.”
“God forbid we just marry for love, huh?”
It’s always difficult not to smile when Maeve gets like this. “He’s been dragging his feet on finalizing the deal and we just found out why this afternoon.”
“Hayden must’ve been freaking out.”
“You could say that. So, if that’s the only thing standing in the way of this deal, then we have to fix it. I’m not going to let one man’s strange opinions stop my company from achieving the success I know it deserves. That’s where you come in. I’d like you to pretend to be my fiancée.”
“A fiancée who just appears out of nowhere, with no mention of me previously? That’ll ring alarm bells.”
“That’s why it has to be you. You dated my brother. It would’ve been awkward when we first started dating. We would’ve wanted to keep it quiet, make sure it was serious before we went public. And I’m known as a very private man.”
“There is that,” Maeve agrees, although I see her cheeks go pink at the reminder of Liam. My brother is an idiot for letting her go, but then, that’s Liam for you. He takes every good thing he has for granted.
“Doesn’t change the fact that you’re crazy,” she adds, standing up. Her breasts bounce a little with the movement, and I do my damnedest to ignore it. The worst part is that she has no idea that if she walked down the street like this she’d cause several car crashes.
“You wanted something other than the assistant position,” I point out. “This is something.”
She scoffs. “Oh, don’t try that with me. I’m not going to be paid to just sit around and look pretty.”
“Ah, but you do it so well.” I gesture at the couch where she was just sitting.
“You’re impossible.” She huffs a breath.
“It would come with financial compensation,” I tell her.
Maeve opens her mouth, a witty comment clearly on the tip of her tongue, but then she stops. She folds her arms, eyes narrowing. “Compensation? How much?”
I lean back, folding my arms. “Name a price.”
She stares at me, her jaw still hanging open. It seems to really be sinking in for her that I’m serious about this. “You… you can’t just say that to people.”
“Why not? I’m a billionaire, Spitfire. I’m not hurting for money. I can give you whatever you ask for.”
Maeve looks like she’s in genuine shock. “You—just because you can throw money at anyone doesn’t mean you can buy me. I’m not going to be bought.”
I purse my lips. This woman has never been intimidated by any of us, and she’s also got her dignity. If she hadn’t been good at this executive assistant job when she first started, I think she would’ve demanded that I fire her, no matter how much she needed the money. That’s just who she is.
“I’m sorry,” I say, lifting a hand. “That’s not what I mean. What I mean is that I would be asking a lot of you, in this role, and I want you to be compensated fairly. So whatever price you feel would work, that’s the price I’ll pay. You don’t have to worry about asking for too much.”
Maeve narrows her eyes. Not like she’s suspicious anymore, but like she’s doing math in her head.
I got a good look around the apartment while I was waiting for her.
I know it was rude of me to snoop and I tried not to do too much of it, but I couldn’t help my curiosity.
It’s smaller than some closets I’ve seen; a studio, the secondhand furniture close to falling apart, the kitchen appliances and tiled floors so old that no matter how much you scrub them, they’ll probably never look clean again.
Maeve deserves to live in a much better place than this.
A place with a proper kitchen, at the very least. Given the quality of her cookware, I know she’d love that.
I’ll happily pay whatever is needed so she can have it.
Although the salary we give her, especially with the overtime bonuses, should’ve already been enough for her to rent a much better place.
A frown tugs at the corners of my mouth.
I want to ask why she’s living here when she could afford better, but I get the feeling Maeve wouldn’t appreciate it.
She’s never said a word about what happened between her and Liam or what her circumstances were before they started dating, and I’ve never found a good way to ask.
“How long would I have to pretend to be your fiancée?” she asks, drawing my attention back to our conversation.
“Just until the deal is signed. Shouldn’t take too long.
Once that happens, we can start backing off.
Take some time apart. I’ll tell George that things didn’t work out, but by that point, he’ll realize it doesn’t matter.
We’re the right company for Silver Start to partner with. We’ll have proven ourselves.”
The man is an idiot, if you ask me. He should be grateful all three of us are bachelors.
Time after time, I’ve seen businessmen screw their lives and companies over because of love.
They can’t resist taking a mistress, and then their wives divorce them and take half of everything, including the business.
They throw everything away for hot wife number three.
They stop focusing on work because they have a new girlfriend.
On and on and on. Love is a terrible distraction at best, and an actual hazard at worst—a danger. It can upend your entire life.
But it’s not my job to change George’s mind. It’s my job to make sure this deal goes through.
Maeve chews on her lower lip lightly. “This will probably last at least through the holidays, then.”
“Probably. We’re on a time crunch to get the deal signed before the end of the year. Then we’ll need a little time in January.”
She nods. “All right. If you want me to pretend to be in love with you for all that time, it’ll cost you two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.”
I can’t hold back my smirk. She could ask for more than that. She should have gone high, then bargained down. “I’ll double that. How’s five hundred thousand sound?”
Maeve goes pale, like she might pass out. I’m actually alarmed, nearly reaching out for her to steady her on her feet. “That’s half a million dollars.”
“It is, yes.”
“Oh my god. That would be enough to—” She cuts herself off, clearing her throat.
I tilt my head to one side, curious what she was about to say.
Enough to do what? But I don’t ask. It’s not my business, and while I know that I’ve as good as broken into her apartment, part of being a good negotiator is to know just how far you can push.
And, like any good negotiator, I know when to keep silent and wait out the other person.
Finally, Maeve speaks. “All right. But I won’t go back to being your assistant afterward. I meant what I said about quitting. I can’t work for you and the others anymore. I have other things to do with my life.”
She sounds passionate, more so than I’ve heard from her before. I wonder what it is she wants to do with her life, what drove her to march into my office today and quit.
“We can work that out later when the time comes,” I say, biting back the questions burning at the back of my tongue. “I don’t think that we need to hammer down every detail just yet.”
I have no intention of letting Maeve out of my life, but I can cross that bridge when I get to it.
“As long as you’re on board,” I add.
She narrows her eyes, a little line appearing between her brows. I have the feeling she knows that I’m not letting this ‘quitting’ thing go. I’m sure she’ll fight me every step of the way, but like I said, that’s an issue for another day.
“What will the ground rules be?” she asks. “What would you require? How… intimate would we have to seem?”
“I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.
I’m not buying anything from you, just your time.
There might be the need for an occasional public kiss, but only something light.
A peck. I’d obviously offer you my arm. Maybe put a hand on your back, an arm around your waist. Just casual physical touches.
But I don’t think anyone wants to see any PDA from us like we’re teenagers. ”
Maeve nods. “That makes sense.”
She still looks a bit hesitant, and I’m tempted to sweeten the deal just that little bit more, offer her even more money, but I worry that will make me seem desperate. Fuck, I am desperate to keep her from leaving, but she can’t know that.
But before I can break down and do something as ill-advised as getting down on my knees and begging, Maeve suddenly squares her shoulders.
“Okay,” she says, exhaling slowly. “Yes. I’ll pretend that I’m going to marry you.”