14. Ford
FORD
Maeve stops dead in the doorway, her gaze fixed on the bed. A slight flush rises up her neck, painting her cheeks in a delicate shade of pink, and I have to bite down hard on the inside of my cheek. She’s so damn beautiful when she’s flustered.
“I would’ve thought your mom would insist on separate rooms,” she says, her voice a bit weak.
I snort in amusement. “I’m a grown man in my thirties. My mother isn’t going to force me to sleep in a separate room from my fiancée.”
“None of them know the truth?”
I shake my head. “No. My family aren’t exactly good actors, and I’m not taking the risk of someone letting something slip. We need to sell this charade to them, too. The deal with Silver Start depends on it.”
“No pressure,” Maeve mumbles.
“You’re doing great,” I promise, my voice a low reassurance.
I could feel how nervous she was around my mother and Liam.
When I think about how my brother acted just now, my blood boils.
He took Maeve for granted and dumped her like she was nothing, and now he has the audacity to act like I’m the consolation prize?
Maeve is too smart to still carry a torch for Liam, but that doesn’t mean his presence isn’t a fresh wound.
Of course, plenty of smart people have done stupid things in their lives, and love makes you more stupid than just about anything else.
I force myself to forget about that. Liam isn’t worth Maeve’s time or mine.
It’s unfortunate I have to spend so much time with him during these holidays, but at least I can use my fake relationship with Maeve to rub it in his face a little.
Maybe next time he gets a beautiful, smart woman like Maeve, he’ll know better than to lose her.
Maeve still looks flustered. In fact, she looks even more flustered than she did a moment ago.
I step in closer, but Maeve backs up a step. I can’t help but smirk, stepping forward again, then again, until Maeve’s legs hit the edge of the massive bed and she has nowhere else to go.
Rookie mistake. Always hold your ground.
I lean in, just close enough that I can get a hint of her scent—blackberries and cream. It suits her, since she loves baking. Fucking delicious. I want to lean in closer and get a proper lungful, but I restrain myself.
“I don’t see any reason why sharing a bed between two adults should be awkward. I’m perfectly capable of sharing a bed with you while keeping my hands to myself,” I murmur, my voice dropping lower. “Are you nervous you won’t be able to do the same?”
The way Maeve’s eyes go wide and her breath hitches in her throat is intoxicating. It makes me want to see what more I can do to unravel her.
I shove that thought aside. Maeve is gorgeous.
That’s nothing new. But she’s still my employee, and she still dated my brother.
I’m not going to cross those lines for her.
Especially when I know I can’t really give her what she wants.
I didn’t know Maeve very well when I first met her while she was dating Liam, before I offered her the job, but I had suspected it then, and I’m sure of it now: Maeve wants a proper romance.
Good fucking luck to her, and everyone else who wants that.
Maeve shoves at my chest, her eyes flaring. That’s my little spitfire. “Don’t flatter yourself,” she snaps.
I look pointedly down at my chest, where her hand rests.
She blushes even harder and yanks her hand away, then raises her chin, her gaze boring into me. “I’m not getting paid enough for this kind of nonsense.”
“Fine, then I’ll triple it.”
Maeve blinks several times. “Triple… what?”
“Triple what I’m already paying you. It was five hundred thousand, right? That brings it up to one and a half million, I believe.”
She goes a bit pale, and then flushes harder than I’ve ever seen her. I wonder if that flush goes all the way down her chest…
“Just like that?” she stutters. “I know you’re rich, Ford, but one and a half million dollars? Just like that?”
“It’s what you’re worth.”
“Don’t flatter me.”
“I’m not. Maybe it’s time that you learned to appreciate yourself and know just what you’re worth.”
Maeve stares up at me, flushed, shocked, eyes bright. My entire body aches to take her and show her just how much she really is worth. She should have demanded a million dollars from the first. She should walk into a room with confidence and never let a man like Liam get to her.
Then Maeve’s gaze drops away and I take a small step back, breathing deeply. I can’t muddy the waters here. And I sure as hell can’t give her what she really wants. I’m not going to mess with her head by having a one-night stand with her just because I can’t keep it in my pants like an adult.
“The rest of the family will be waiting for us. We should go and greet them.”
I’m sure my mother has plans already. Not a single moment goes unplanned by her, especially around the holidays. Going on vacations always felt like a military operation.
When we get out into the hall, Gabriel and Hayden are also stepping out of their rooms, changed into slightly more casual clothing. Gabriel’s in one of his luxurious form-fitting sweaters and Hayden has changed into a different button-up with the top few buttons undone.
I’ve left on my suit. I think it’s best when it comes to my father that I remain as professional looking as possible.
“All settled in?” Gabriel asks as we head downstairs, his eyes glinting with amusement, as if he knows how Maeve reacted when she saw the bed.
“Great, thanks,” Maeve replies, her cheeks going slightly pink.
I exchange a knowing look with Gabriel. She really is far too much fun to rile up. I never would’ve dared to do this to her in the office, but in this setting, where we’re pretending to be engaged, it feels more than appropriate to tap-dance on that line, just a little.
My sister, Lydia, and my father, Charles, are in the living room, where a fire is roaring. Lydia is reading one of her historical romance novels, curled up and cozy under a throw blanket, while my father is reading the paper.
As we approach, I put my hand on the small of her back to guide her. Maeve shoots me a sharp look.
I lean in. “Try to act like you love me, and not like you hate my guts, okay kitten?”
“Call me kitten again and I’ll bite you,” she hisses. “And it’s not you, anyway.”
“Oh? What is it?”
“Just…” Maeve smooths her clothes down and glances up at the warm lights that brighten up the room. “Nothing. The lighting, that’s all.”
Huh. Interesting.
“There you are!” Lydia spies us and flings her book aside, getting to her feet. “Oh, it’s so good to see you all!”
She hugs Hayden and Gabriel hello, teasing Gabriel that she’ll steal his comfy sweater if he’s not careful, and telling Hayden that if she catches him on his phone she’ll bury it in the snow and he won’t find it until spring.
“We are still technically working,” Hayden grumbles as Lydia moves on to me.
I give her a tight hug. Lydia decided long ago that if I viewed these two men as brothers, then she was going to view them as brothers, too, and I can’t think of a better example of her welcoming heart.
“Lydia, Dad, you remember Maeve.” They’ve met before, of course, but I do the introduction anyway, making sure to add, “My fiancée.”
“Of course I remember her! It’s so good to see you again.” Lydia warmly hugs Maeve hello. Out of the corner of my eye, I see my father put down his newspaper and stand up to join us. “I had no idea that you were seeing Ford.”
“None of us did,” my father adds.
“Oh, honey.” Maeve turns to me, her voice dripping with gooey sweetness—a tone she’s never used when speaking to me before. I should’ve known she’d get me back for that ‘kitten’ quip I just made. “You didn’t tell them about me?”
Lydia seems to know that Maeve is teasing me, or maybe she’s too excited to care, because she takes Maeve by the hand and leads her to sit down. I follow with my father and the others. “You have to tell me all about it.”
“All about… what?” Maeve asks. She sounds genuinely confused.
“The proposal, of course.” Lydia gestures at me. “Did he even remember to get down on one knee? Or did he treat it like a business proposal?”
Maeve chokes with laughter. Oh, if only my sister knew. “No, no, he was very sweet about it.” She smiles over at me softly, like we’re sharing a secret. “Ford’s been very understanding and generous with my needs in this relationship.”
I know she’s just talking about the money and our arrangement, but my sister and father don’t know that. My father has the permanent half-frown on his face that it feels like he always wears around me, but Lydia looks delighted.
“So, how long have you two been together?” she asks.
“Not as long as you might think,” Maeve says quickly.
“We haven’t been keeping this from you for too long.
” It’s smart of her not to pin us down with a particular timeline.
“I was just paranoid, since I’m Ford’s assistant.
I didn’t want people to gossip. But now that we’re officially engaged it felt like it was all right to go more public—and of course we didn’t want to keep you all in the dark. ”
She sounds perfectly gracious and reasonable, and thank fuck for that.
I was so busy thinking about Maeve and what it was like to have her at close quarters, and keeping her from leaving, that I forgot that people were going to want to know details about how we got together.
I’m not used to explaining myself like that, not since I achieved success.
“How did he propose?” Lydia asks, stars in her eyes. My sister is such a romantic.
“Well, you know Ford likes to make grand gestures, like my ring.”
Lydia picks up Maeve’s hand to see the ring, cooing over it.
“But I like to keep things private,” Maeve continues.
“I don’t want to feel like our relationship is for other people, I want to feel like it’s for ourselves.
Ford likes to close his office door when he really needs to concentrate, so I didn’t even think about it when I left the office one night and saw the light on and the door closed.
I figured he didn’t want to be disturbed.
But instead, when I got home from work and walked into my apartment, there he was, standing there.
He’d filled the whole place with flowers.
I mean, I was shocked they weren’t bursting out of the windows, there were so many. ”
Lydia looks delighted.
“He got down on one knee and said… well, what he said was for just between us. But it was about keeping me in his life forever. Doing whatever it took to make sure that happened.” Maeve looks over at me, her eyes warm and soft.
Damn, she’s good. She’s taking what really happened and making it sound truly romantic. And she’s not that far off. I was, and am, willing to do whatever it takes to keep her by my side forever, just not in the romantic way my sister thinks.
Smart of her to not try and come up with a whole speech on the spot. She could’ve run the risk of going over the top and not sounding like me at all, and it emphasizes again the idea that Maeve and I are private people when it comes to romance. Very clever.
She should be in a boardroom with these kinds of instincts.
I see movement out of the corner of my eye and look over to see Liam standing in the doorway, leaning against the frame. He has a sour look on his face as he listens, watching Maeve and my sister.
I turn away before he can catch sight of the smirk threatening to spill across my face.
I wasn’t thinking about this when I ‘proposed’ this little plan to Maeve, but getting to rub my brother’s face in the massive mistake he made is a fun bonus.
If I were Liam, I’d never stop kicking myself for what an idiot I’d been.
Hayden clears his throat. “As much as I love to listen to all this lovey-dovey stuff,” he says, obviously sarcastic, “I’m afraid that we do have to get some work done.”
He stands up, waving his phone at Gabriel and me.
I stand as well. “Of course. This won’t take too long, we promise.”
“You’re here with your family for the holidays,” my father says. “You can’t take a couple of weeks off?”
“No,” I say calmly. I’m used to my father disapproving of me and everything I do, of all of my choices.
It’s been like this ever since I decided I wanted to take the money I inherited and use it to be my own man.
I think my father in some ways even prefers Liam to me, preferring his laziness to my independence.
“Don’t even worry about it,” Lydia says. “You guys get your work done and I’ll entertain Maeve here.”
I open my mouth, then close it. I can’t force Maeve to hang around while the three of us just work on our presentations and go over the paperwork. But I can’t help but feel a strange reluctance to let her out of my sight.
I shove that thought down. It’s just nerves. Maeve can hold her own with my family for an hour or so before dinner.
“I’ll find you when we’re done,” I tell her in a low voice. And then I let her go. For now.