Between Marriage and Merger
Автор
Karen Booth
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One
Lily Foster delighted in the idea of a wedding—two people so in love they vow to be together forever. The reality of a wedding, even as an observer, made Lily break out in hives. There she stood in the New York City Clerk’s Office, without the usual trappings of organ music or a minister or the bride in a flowing gown, and the nuptials still put her on edge. Her skin felt clammy. She couldn’t stand still. Her instinct was to run out of the building as fast as her pumps would carry her. But she couldn’t do that. She had to stay put. She’d been generously invited to the impromptu nuptials of her boss’s sister. Lily would’ve done anything for her boss, Noah Locke. To her own detriment, she adored him.
Still, for Lily, watching anyone get married was like unpacking a dusty old steamer trunk of miserable memories of her dream day that never was. When a woman has been left at the altar, no matter the reasons for it, she doesn’t forget it. Ever. And Lily’s world seemed hell-bent on dredging up the memory today.
“By the powers vested in me by the state of New York, I now pronounce you husband and wife.”
Tamping down her jealousy and choking back a sob of sentimentality, Lily watched as the bride and groom—Noah’s sister, Charlotte, and her new hubby, ridiculously handsome Michael, got lost in a passionate kiss. For that instant, she could feel the love between them. It was a life force that hit her from five feet away. Tears silently streamed down Lily’s cheeks. Charlotte, in a knee-length white dress that hugged her five-month baby bump, popped up on one foot, kicking the other into the air. It was like the cover of a fun contemporary romance. That was enough for Lily. She couldn’t watch anymore.
She pulled a tissue from her bag and dared to look at Noah, who was standing up for the groom. Noah wasn’t watching the kiss either. His hands were stuffed in the pants pockets of his slim-fitting gray suit. He was staring at his shoes, probably because they were beautiful and expensive, like everything in his life. Noah was a notorious playboy, so much so that the New York tabloids loved to play with him the way a cat bats about a mouse. Weddings were undoubtedly not Noah’s scene. Lily didn’t even need to ask.
It was no surprise that Noah chose to play the field. He was perfect—tall and trim, athletic but not muscle-bound, with expertly tousled sandy brown hair that was tidy around the ears and back, but a bit long on the top. His moss green eyes were hypnotic, or maybe it was the sum total of Noah that made Lily lose her words or her memory of what she was supposed to be doing. Noah was that guy. The one you can’t stop looking at. The one you can’t help but think about. Thankfully, Lily was beyond that for the most part. She’d spent the last two years training herself to ignore Noah’s beguiling features. She’d had no choice. As her boss, Noah was off-limits. Her job was too important. She was good at it, and even better, Noah and his brother, Sawyer, knew it.
Charlotte turned to Lily and Noah. Her newlywed smile took up nearly all the real estate between her diamond stud earrings. “Thanks for being our witnesses. Michael and I really appreciate it. I don’t know what to say. We just got a wild hair and decided today was the day.”
Michael leaned down and kissed the top of Charlotte’s head. These two were so adorable together it made Lily’s cheeks hurt. It also bruised her heart a little bit. She’d had an impossibly romantic love like that once. Or so she’d thought, but it had slipped right through her fingers, groom and all.
“Happy to do it. Congratulations.” Noah stepped in and kissed his sister on the cheek, then shook Michael’s hand.
Charlotte’s phone rang and she squealed, grabbing Michael’s arm and rushing out into the hall. Probably some famous well-wishers. The Locke family was known for their extensive connections.
“Want to grab a drink? It’s nearly five o’clock. No point in going back to the office.” Noah extended the invitation to Lily as if it were no big deal, as if she were just one of the guys, a role she suspected she would always have in his mind. He and Lily had done a few social things together, and they were always fun, but they filled Lily with pointless notions like hope and left her with sexy dreams, the kind where she’d wake up at 4:00 a.m. drenched in sweat and gasping for air. The sort of dream where you couldn’t bring yourself to open your eyes or get out of bed. You wanted to languish in it forever.
“It’s sweet of you to ask, but I think I’m going to head home, get out of these shoes and maybe do some reading.”
“Friday night. Headed to that bookstore you like? What’s it called?”
Lily’s favorite spot in the city was a bookstore specializing in romance novels. “Petticoats and Proposals. You know all my tricks, don’t you?”
“I try. I pay attention. It’s a long-lost art, you know.”
Their gazes connected and Lily’s heart took up residence in her throat, pounding like crazy. Boom boom. Boom boom. It was as if Noah’s eyes were magnetized, pulling on her, not allowing her to look anywhere else. She wanted to put the world on Pause and simply stare into them for a few hours. In between kisses of course. If she was going to slip into a fantasy world, she might as well make it exactly what she wanted it to be.
“It’s because I can’t stop talking about it.”
“I’m sure that’s not the reason.” Noah cleared his throat and looked away for a moment. “Thanks for coming today. Charlotte couldn’t deal with the wedding and the baby on the way. I’m actually happy for her. I wouldn’t want to deal with all of those plans either. It seems like such an ordeal and then it’s all over.”
“Yeah. Me neither.” Noah didn’t know the half of it. And no amount of paying attention was going to get Lily to talk about it. Some things were better left buried.
“Okay, then. See you Monday.”
“Yep. Have a good weekend.” Lily smiled and walked away. Exactly like it didn’t hurt at all to distance herself from Noah Locke.
* * *
Working with Lily, Mondays were always the hardest. Noah had endured a few days away from her, and his ability to keep himself together had worn off. Today seemed like an especially difficult start to the week. He couldn’t even look at her.
“You’re in early for a Monday,” she said, with her usual happy singsong. She was standing in his office doorway, undoubtedly stunning.
“Some emergency meeting about the Hannafort Hotels deal. Charlotte’s coming in for it, too. Not sure if she told you, but we’ve cut her in since she made the initial introduction.” Noah still hadn’t raised his sights, but he could see in his periphery that Lily was wearing her blue sweater. The blue sweater. The one that not only showed off every beguiling curve she possessed, but the one that really brought out her mesmerizing sapphire eyes.
“Oh. Okay. Let me drop my things, check email and I’ll be right in.”
“Sounds good.” As if the sweater weren’t bad enough, he couldn’t avoid her heavenly scent. The faintest trace of it floated in the air when she left the room—sweet and sunny, just like her. His iron will was going to have to work doubly hard today.
“Unless there’s something you need right now,” she added.
He could hear her drumming her fingers on the door casing. For a moment, he imagined those delicate hands unbuttoning his shirt, touching the bare skin of his chest. He had to stop that train of thought right there or he’d lose it. “I’m good. Take your time.”
With that, Lily disappeared from view. Noah sat back in his chair and a heavy exhale rushed from his lungs. This is becoming impossible.
Even after two years, Noah’s love/hate relationship when it came to working with Lily wasn’t getting any easier. He loved seeing her face every day, the way she lit up the office and managed to diffuse tense situations, but he hated how she could turn him into a blithering idiot. He hated being in enclosed spaces with her, like the elevator, where it took superhuman strength to keep from telling her how badly he wanted to kiss her. He hated having this all bottled up inside him. It wasn’t how he operated with women.
But if ever a woman was off-limits, Lily was. She was a dream employee, clever and capable, a quick learner who was also organized and meticulous. She was too valuable to Locke and Locke, the company Noah owned and operated with his brother, Sawyer. As Sawyer had said many times, Lily might be uncommonly lovely and smart and kind, but Noah needed to keep his tongue in his mouth and his eyes in his head. To compensate, he’d been letting his eyes and his mouth wander elsewhere. It helped, but only a little.
“Okay. I’m back.” Lily waltzed into his office and started straightening papers on his desk. She knew exactly how he liked things, and he’d never even had to tell her. She’d simply picked up on his preferences.
“Good weekend?” he asked, making small talk and sneaking a single glance. Her golden blond hair in a low twist brought attention to her lithe and graceful neck. He loved the naughty librarian aspect of it. He wanted her to peer at him over reading glasses and tell him to be quiet.
“The usual.”
“Friday night at the romance bookstore?”
“I can sit there for hours and get lost in love stories.”
He found it adorable that Lily was a bookworm. He, too, loved to read, but preferred nonfiction—history and biographies. He was not an incurable romantic like Lily, which was probably a big part of his attraction to her. He longed to shed at least some of his pessimism about love. Case in point, Lily had teared up at Charlotte’s wedding, even when the civil ceremony had none of the sappy buildup of a traditional wedding. Noah was happy for his sister, but he did not get choked up. The very notion of a wedding unnerved him.
Charlotte’s voice rang out from the hall beyond Noah’s office walls.
“Sounds like my sister is here.” Back to work. Noah stepped out from behind his desk and only allowed himself the smallest of glimpses of Lily in her black skirt. Studying the sway of her hips was a luxury he couldn’t afford.
“Morning.” Noah greeted his sister in the reception area, aka Lily’s domain. Charlotte came by the office now and then, especially since involving her in the Hannafort Hotels deal, but she usually only came at lunchtime. It wasn’t normal for her to be here first thing. She was always too busy running around doing real estate agent things, and lately, mother-to-be things.
“Did Sawyer talk to you about the video?” Charlotte’s voice had a frantic edge to it as she swished her long blond hair to the side and unbuttoned her wool coat.
“Sawyer’s on a call with Mr. Hannafort,” Lily chimed in, buzzing around the office, running the photocopier, answering phones. “He left a note on my desk and said he was not to be disturbed. I’m not sure when he’ll be done.”
Sawyer’s door opened and out he marched. His suit coat was off and his shirtsleeves were already rolled up like he’d been working for hours. This was not a good sign. It was hardly ten minutes after nine. “Charlotte, did you tell Noah about the news story?”
“I haven’t had a chance,” Charlotte said.
“She just got here.” Noah felt as out of the loop as could be. “Does somebody want to tell me what’s going on?”
“Hannafort saw it. He’s not happy,” Sawyer said.
“Oh no.” Charlotte bustled into Sawyer’s office with all the dramatic urgency of a lawyer about to declare “I object!”
“Do you want to sit in on this?” Noah asked Lily. He was unsure what “this” he was about to walk into, but he and Sawyer were making a point of including Lily in high-level discussions. She’d earned the opportunity and it made everything in the office run more smoothly.
“I do, but I’m almost done with the Hannafort projections. You guys will want those for the meeting.” She smiled wide—a flash of bright white framed by full, pink lips. Noah savored that instant. He had a feeling the rest of his day was about to tumble sharply downhill. “You go ahead. I’ll be there in a minute.”
Noah wandered into Sawyer’s office. “Does somebody want to tell me what’s going on?” He took one of the two seats opposite Sawyer’s desk. Charlotte was in the other. The morning sun streamed through the tall, leaded glass windows of their office in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. It was a bright late March day, a bit brisk for Noah’s liking, although the mood in Sawyer’s office was even colder.
“Charlotte called me early this morning,” Sawyer started.
“I tried to reach you, Noah, but I got voice mail. Why do you never answer my calls?”
Noah hated his phone. He often turned it off or simply left it in another room. There was something about being available to everyone at all times that he detested. It made him feel trapped. “Sorry. So what?”
Charlotte pulled out her phone. “I have the link saved.”
Sawyer held up a hand and turned his laptop around so Charlotte and Noah could see it. “Let me save you the time. I have it pulled up on my computer. Lyle Hannafort sent it to me.”
The webpage Sawyer had opened looked to be a spot for online gossip. Not Sawyer’s usual fare. If he was online, he was watching the markets or sports, particularly college basketball this time of year. “Now I’m really lost,” Noah said.
“You won’t be.” Sawyer scrolled down and clicked on the icon in the center of the screen. The video began to play.
Noah only needed to hear his name, purred by a woman with a sultry voice, to feel like the ground had fallen out from under him.
Big Apple businessman, Noah Locke, of the Locke hotel family, has been busy with the ladies over the last several months. And do we mean busy.
All warmth drained from Noah’s body. His hands went cold. He’d been in the tabloids before, but this was different. These were moving pictures—shot after shot of Noah walking into and out of bars, restaurants and apartment buildings all over the city. A different woman on his arm in every picture. With a number counting them off. One...two...three... They stopped at fifteen. Noah felt sick.
Although his brother, Sawyer, and sister, Charlotte, have both settled down, it seems Noah is rallying to keep that trademark Locke wild streak alive. His father, James Locke, has not only been married four times, he’s been romantically linked to hundreds of New York socialites over the years. Perhaps the middle Locke child is patterning himself after dear old dad.
Noah had a real talent for shrugging things off, but right now, he wanted to put his fist through a brick wall. “I’m calling our lawyer. This is defamation of character.”
“Is it? Did they lie about a single thing?” Sawyer turned his computer back around to Noah’s great relief. That final voice-over line and slate in the video was already permanently burned into his brain. Perhaps the middle Locke child is patterning himself after dear old dad. That was absolutely not the case.
“Well?” Charlotte asked. “You didn’t answer the question.”
Noah sat back, kneading his forehead, trying to think of anything they’d said in the video that was untrue. He would’ve asked to see it again if it hadn’t made him sound like such a miserable excuse for a human being. Was he terrible? He didn’t want to think he was. “Well, no. I mean, yes, I dated all of those women. That’s true. But the last time I checked, this is a free country and a single man is allowed to have dinner with a single woman.”
“Or fifteen,” Charlotte quipped.
“I don’t really see the point of this. Is it the slowest news day in the history of the world?” Noah’s jaw tightened. He hated this.
“People love gossip. Especially about rich men who like to spend time with pretty women,” Charlotte said. “You should know that by now.”
Noah did know that, but in the past, Sawyer had most often been the target if there was anything tawdry to be said about the three siblings. A few times Charlotte had been busted for her party girl ways, but that had been a while ago. Now that both Sawyer and Charlotte were hitched, and both sets of wedded couples had babies on the way, apparently Noah was left to be the top of the dubious Locke family heap.
Noah then remembered what Sawyer had said before they’d come into his office. “Hold on. Hannafort has seen this? How in the hell did that happen?”
“It’s the internet, Noah. This stuff spreads like wildfire. He’s not happy about it, either.” The deal they were working on with Lyle Hannafort, founder and CEO of Hannafort Hotels, was massive. A real game changer. There was a mountain of money to be made. “He’s a straight shooter. He doesn’t mince words. And he’s already predisposed to thinking badly of anyone named Locke. You know how hard we’ve worked to convince him we’re not like Dad.” Lyle Hannafort hated Sawyer and Noah’s father and the feeling was mutual. They were bitter competitors. As much as that might have been one of Lyle’s reasons for doing this deal, it was also a reason for calling it off.
“I’m very aware of how hard we’ve worked.”
“He said he’s not sure he can do business with a man who doesn’t treat women as they should be treated,” Sawyer said.
Noah sprang from his seat and jabbed his finger into the top of his brother’s desk. “Now, hold on a second. Taking a woman out to dinner does not equal treating her badly. I’m always a gentleman. Always.”
“You’re just a gentleman a lot.” Charlotte cocked a judgmental eyebrow at him, bobbing her foot. Noah could’ve easily fought back—Charlotte had once dated half of the men in Manhattan—but he couldn’t be mean to her. Plus, she was expecting, and if he was worried about being seen as an ass, lashing out at his pregnant sister would not be a good move.
“I know that you’re a good guy, Noah,” Sawyer said. “Charlotte knows that, too. But Hannafort has built an empire on being a family man. He has five grown daughters, so I’m sure he’s seen his fair share of men behaving badly. He totally owns up to being old-fashioned. He and his wife were high school sweethearts.”
Noah had been impressed to learn that little factoid about the Hannaforts. That was a long time with one person. How did they make it work? In Noah’s family, they didn’t. Their dad had burned through each of his marriages, and there had been many serious girlfriends in between. There was a difference between Noah and his dad, though, and it was plain as day—one man a serial monogamist, carrying relationships to a cherished place only to destroy them. The other man, Noah, knew his limitations. He never led a woman on. Never. He was always clear about where and when things were ending.
“So what is Hannafort saying?”
“Let’s say that we’ve gone from a place where both parties were head over heels to a place where one side is thinking about leaving the dance.”
This deal had been in serious discussion for only a month, so things were still fragile. After months of convincing Lyle to talk to them, they were just starting to get comfortable with each other. This was supposed to be the honeymoon phase, but that seemed to be over. “Seriously? It’s that bad?”
“As he put it, he has no patience for negative publicity that could have been easily avoided.” Sawyer rocked back in his seat.
“How was I supposed to avoid this? No one could’ve predicted this.” Noah had been looking forward to a quiet day in the office. He had no meetings, only a few phone calls, and he and Lily were supposed to have a discussion about some new projects. He’d been looking forward to that, however hard he’d have to try to concentrate on work.
“I think his point was that it never would’ve happened if you weren’t the guy who dates dozens of women.”
“What he really means is that if I wasn’t like Dad.” Which I’m not. Noah grumbled under his breath, frustrated beyond belief. He would never admit it to anyone, but part of the reason he’d been going out so much was because of Lily. The nights when he went home alone were awful. He couldn’t watch TV, he couldn’t read a book. His mind kept drifting to Lily, everything she’d done or said at work that day, replaying in his head like a never-ending movie. There was something about her that stopped Noah dead in his tracks.
But Sawyer had been crystal clear about it—all of that was too bad. Lily is the best employee we have ever had. She is perfect. Don’t mess this up. We need her and all you do is break hearts.
Noah got it. Lily was forbidden fruit.
“How do we convince Mr. Hannafort that Noah’s not that kind of guy?” Charlotte asked.
Sawyer snickered. “By finding him a wife. Or a fiancée.”
Charlotte stifled a grin. “But it would have to be right away. Preferably before we go to Hannafort’s daughter’s wedding.”
“Ideally, yes.” Sawyer stared off into space like he was brainstorming. Charlotte was doing the same. Noah wasn’t about to contribute to their ludicrous meeting of the minds. There was no woman in his life he’d consider asking to marry him. No one was even close.
A knock came at the door. Noah turned as Lily walked in with four black binders in her arms. “I have the revenue projections from Mr. Hannafort’s team. I cross-referenced them with our own, which are considerably more conservative.”
“Great. Thank you,” Sawyer said.
Lily doled out the presentations while Noah remained standing.
“Lily, you can take my seat. I’m happy right here.”
She settled in, rocking her hips from side to side. “You got it all warmed up for me.”
He sucked in a sharp breath. Good God, she was going to be the death of him.
Noah opened his binder. There was no time to absorb all of the information in this report, but one quick glance at a few spreadsheets told him one thing—they were going to make a lot of money if this deal went through. And his actions, which had been perfectly innocent at the time, could end up taking it all away. Charlotte, and Sawyer in particular, would never forgive him. Or if they did, it would take a very long time. There was already enough acrimony in his family from their dad. Noah refused to be the cause for this blowing up in their faces.
“Wow.” Sawyer flipped through the pages. “These numbers are impressive.”
“They are.” Charlotte closed her folder and chewed on her nail. “Can’t let this get out from under us.”
“No, we can’t.” Noah racked his brain for a way to make himself seem less like a Lothario.
Charlotte narrowed her vision on him, then her sights drifted to Lily. She sat a little straighter and turned in her chair. “Lily, can I ask you a question?”
“Of course.”
“Would you have any interest in going to a wedding with all of us? This weekend. I don’t know what sort of personal obligations you have, and I know it’s short notice.”
As the words out of Charlotte’s mouth found his ears, Noah quickly realized what she was doing. She was setting him up. With Lily. The woman who he’d been fighting to keep in the friend zone. Noah bugged his eyes at Charlotte, but she shot him a steely look right back.
“A wedding? Do you mean Annie Hannafort’s wedding?”
Charlotte smiled effortlessly, like this all made perfect sense and would not cause a single problem. Noah already had a dozen reasons not to do what Charlotte was about to suggest. The reasons were already stacked up and waiting, and he’d only been living with this realization for less than a minute. “Exactly. It’s just that we would need you to be Noah’s date. Well, more than his date. We would need you to pretend to be his fiancée.”
