Ember #2
I drew in another breath, trying to control the thundering of my heart.
It was startling to be glared at like that.
To be the center of his focus, his fury.
Fire lit inside me, sending heat through my limbs, pooling in the pit of my belly.
It was easy to see how Jack Mars operated.
He was handsome and confident. The face of Marswood Security, which he ran with his brothers.
His personality was a force of nature, and he was used to being submitted to.
This was not a man who fell in love easily, but I was sure he didn’t want for women.
Even now, I felt attracted to him. Even when I knew he was angry with me.
Hated me. When I knew that sex would only complicate things and thus had to be off the table.
What was I even thinking? Sex had never been on the table to begin with.
If I’d had any other option at all, I never would’ve signed up for an arranged marriage.
I wouldn’t have spent the countless hours researching the Mars family and deciding which man was my likeliest match.
I wouldn’t have carefully tailored my application to ensure I ended up in this seat, across from this man.
But I was here, and I would see this through.
I would get my inheritance, and I would use it to change my life for the better.
My father didn’t get to twist the knife when he was dead and buried in the cold ground.
I would rip that knife out and finally allow myself to heal with the comfort his money would provide.
“I didn’t hear it anywhere,” I replied when I was very sure I could keep my voice steady.
Now was not a time to show weakness; this was a lesson I’d learned young.
My hands were folded in my lap, and my face was utterly neutral.
I had a lot of practice maintaining the illusion of cool.
“You confirmed that your grandmother had leverage on you, and the only time you’ve come alive in this conversation is when your child is mentioned.
I put two and two together and made four. ”
“You need to leave.”
Normally, I would’ve. But I couldn’t make myself get up and walk away. There was a million-dollar payout sitting on the table between us. I owed it to myself to fight for it, even though it came from the father who’d never seen me as more than a burden.
Someone else might think the money was tainted. It came from the poisoned well, and bringing it into my life would only cause me ruin.
I knew better.
Money was a tool. I would do everything in my power to take what my father dangled in front of me—on my terms. I couldn’t afford to do things halfway.
I could have it. If I played my cards right. If Jack Mars married me within the next three months, and agreed to divorce once this was all over.
Right now, he looked like he wanted to rip my face off for mentioning his daughter.
I took a steadying breath, pushing down all my secret hopes and dreams, and met his gaze.
There was the magnetic, addictive feeling of being in Jack Mars’s presence.
Of feeling the weight of his gaze on my body, my face.
An alarm clanged in my mind. Being around this man was dangerous—to me, to my plans, to my heart. But what choice did I have? I needed a husband, and he, by all accounts, needed a wife. We could scratch each other’s backs and then go our separate ways.
I gulped. Keeping my voice calm, like I was talking to a spooked horse, I said, “If your grandmother is using this marriage as a way to withhold your child’s inheritance, this gives you another option.
” I gestured to the contract. “You can sign the papers, marry me, and within six months to a year, you won’t need to bend to your grandmother’s will.
You’ll have your own money to provide for your daughter’s future. ”
His jaw bulged, his eyes boring holes in my face. He dropped his gaze to the contract once more, and I sucked in a long, silent breath. Being in Jack’s presence was the most intense experience of my life. I couldn’t wait for it to end. I didn’t want it to end at all.
“Half,” he finally said, leaning back in his chair. The stuffing creaked slightly, and he tented his fingers in front of his chest. “I’ll do it for half.”
“You want half a million dollars,” I clarified, and I let out a scoff. “No.”
His eyes were hard chips of sapphire, and his smile was a little cruel.
This was not the charming, charismatic man I’d seen in the profile of the matchmaking application or the promotional material of his company.
It wasn’t even the cold, unruffled man who’d sauntered into the room and sat down across from me a few minutes ago.
This truly was the big, bad wolf. His smile was razor sharp and full of teeth. “When do you turn thirty, Ember?”
I was startled to realize he knew my name. But of course he’d known my name. He’d been matched with me. We were meant to be married. Algorithmically perfect for each other. I’d made sure of it.
“Ember?”
I licked my lips, and his eyes dropped to follow the movement. They flared briefly then returned to meet my gaze, a small smile curling his lips. In that smile, I saw the shadow of all the other women who’d fallen for his charm. The grin was temptation and invitation and danger.
I clenched my jaw for a moment, then forced myself to admit, “I turn thirty in three months.”
“Hm.”
We watched each other, assessing. I’d lost the upper hand, and we both knew it. Gritting my teeth, I said, “Two hundred.”
“My daughter is bright,” Jack answered conversationally. “She might want to go to a top college. Might want a big wedding. Might want a nice house. Two hundred grand won’t go far.”
I wasn’t going to negotiate with myself, so I simply waited.
“Three months isn’t a long time to find someone to marry,” he added, smiling coldly.
“Long enough if I’m offering them a hundred grand.”
“And yet you’re here, offering me two. Did everyone else say no?”
I flinched. My body was reacting like I was being chased through the woods by a predator.
I needed to calm down, so I took a deep breath.
I hadn’t expected this—him. His presence had thrown me.
The way my body was reacting to him had knocked me sideways.
The fact that I wanted him to say yes was yet another big, bright, glaring red flag.
The smart thing to do was to get up and walk away, and I, by all accounts, was a smart woman. Usually.
And yet.
“Three-fifty,” Jack said in a low voice that made my inner thighs clench and pulse.
I narrowed my eyes, watching him. “Three hundred and fifty thousand dollars,” I repeated. It was laughable. It was ridiculous.
But if I said no, there was a risk I wouldn’t find someone in time.
Three months wasn’t a long time to get married, file the paperwork, and get the certified copy of the marriage certificate to the estate lawyer before my birthday.
Maybe I would find someone, and they’d take a hundred thousand.
Maybe I’d end up with nine hundred. Or maybe I’d end up with nothing.
If I said yes, I’d end up with six hundred and fifty thousand dollars from my father’s estate. Enough to set me up for life. It was as good a deal as I was going to get.
But I’d have to marry Jack Mars. I’d have to stay married to him until I got the money.
My legs felt like jelly, and my mouth had gone dry. Jack watched my every move, and I hated how much I loved it. I shouldn’t have liked his attention at all. This was supposed to be business. Nothing else.
I unhinged my locked jaw and said, “We will not be consummating the marriage.”
His lips curled into a dark smile, and sparks flitted down the insides of my thighs. He knew he’d won. “But that’s the fun part.”
“The fun part is both of us becoming financially stable and setting ourselves up for life.”
He hummed, gaze finally leaving mine as he glanced at the closed door leading to the hall. He turned back to me and said, “If my grandmother gets even the slightest whiff of this, she’ll lose her mind.”
I shrugged. “You’ll still have three hundred and fifty thousand dollars.”
“Still, I would prefer that she thinks she’s won this round.”
“What does that mean, exactly?”
“You know about the get-out-of-jail-free card written into the marriage contract, I assume.”
He was talking about the six-week clause.
In Maine, we had ninety days to file our wedding certificate following the ceremony, but the wedding contract had another deadline.
We would have six weeks. If either of us decided the marriage wasn’t for us in that time, we would tear up the certificate and go our separate ways.
If we decided to go forward within that time period, we’d file the paperwork and make it official.
I nodded. “Six weeks,” I said.
He hummed. “We’ll have to make it convincing for that time.”
“The whole six weeks?” I repeated, incredulous. “You don’t think people will believe I want to marry you?”
He flicked his fingers. “More like the other way around.”
I flinched like I’d been slapped. “That,” I gritted out, “was offensive.”
I’d never seen eyes so blue. He arched a brow. “That’s not my problem.”
“Two weeks, and we file the certificate. I need to get the paperwork to the estate lawyer, and these things move slowly.”
“Two weeks isn’t enough to throw Grandma Mars off the scent. She’d never think I’m willing to bring a woman into my daughter’s life after only two weeks.”
Would this man negotiate every single thing I proposed? Why couldn’t he just be agreeable?
I huffed, grimacing. “A month,” I finally said. “We file the certificate after a month.”
That only left two months between our official marriage and my thirtieth birthday, and it was four whole weeks where anything could go wrong.
If things fell through before we filed, I’d have so very little time to find someone else.
A risk. I resisted the urge to wipe my palms on my pants, despite the fact that they’d grown damp.