Some Like It Charming - By Megan Bryce Page 0,10
Enquirer knows a good thing when it sees it.”
“I’m starting to worry about you. Really, I am.” She watched him rifle through her desk. He held up a box of envelopes with a hopeful look and she shook her head. “That other thing isn’t so easy to ignore though.”
He sighed. “No. Please tell me you have some chocolate hiding somewhere.”
Mackenzie pushed herself to her feet, walked over to her filing cabinet, and took out a box of hanging folders. She took out a Twix and handed the rest to him.
“Sneaky, Wyatt.” He dug through the box, pulling out a Snickers with a satisfied look.
“Desperate measures, O’Connor. I could spend all my bonuses buying chocolate for you. Does your mother know about this obsession you have?”
“I keep my obsessions away from the innocent eyes of my mother.”
He took a big bite, leaning back in his chair. Her chair.
She closed her eyes and took a bite of Twix, crunching into the cookie and letting the smooth caramel roll over her tongue.
She mumbled around the cookie. “Just this once I’m not going to bug you about sitting in my chair. You’re having a bad day.” Her eyes flicked to the cover of the Enquirer again. “You know what, I’m having a bad day, too. I’m going to need my chair now.”
He smiled wide, chocolate smeared across his perfect white teeth. “You can come share it with me.”
“You don’t learn, do you? There’s probably someone in that building over there, taking pictures of us right now.” Mackenzie squinted out the window. “Actually, there really might be. Close the blinds, will you?”
She hurried away from the window and sat back down, slouching to hide from unseen cameras.
Ethan shot up in his chair. “I’ve just had a brilliant idea.”
“I seriously doubt that. It’s just the sugar rush, it’ll go away.”
His eyes sparkled and he laughed. “Mackenzie Wyatt. You trust me, right?”
She frowned and shook her head. “No.”
He leaped to his feet, rounding the desk. He grabbed the arms of her chair and leaned down close. He smiled into her wide eyes. “I swear I will make this up to you, Mackenzie.”
The smell of peanuts and chocolate wafted towards her and she frowned at him. “That sentence never comes after a brilliant idea. Usually it comes after a really, really stupid one.”
“Nope, it’s brilliant. You’ll hate it, but it’s brilliant.”
She grabbed his forearms. “Ethan, what are you thinking? My God, I should never have given you chocolate.”
“I’m thinking you are the answer to all my problems, Mackenzie Wyatt.”
And then he kissed her. Kissed her.
A quick peck on the lips that tasted like Snickers, and then he was gone and halfway down the hallway before she could even snap her mouth shut.
She turned in her chair to see two women standing outside her office wearing the same dumbfounded expression she was.
She said, “What just happened there?”
The two women looked at each other and then said, “He kissed you.”
Mackenzie nodded. “That’s what I thought.”
The press conference started at one that afternoon. Ethan looked his most handsome, his most charming, and Mackenzie wanted to find some Tums for the ulcer his smile was causing her. What had he meant when he said he would make it all up to her? Maybe he’d meant the pictures.
But how in the world was she the answer to any problem he had? She’d bet money she was one of his top ten irritants.
She gathered with the rest of the floor and watched the live press conference.
He addressed the accusation of beating, the abortion, and sounded very sincere and believable. He told the world that he hadn’t done any of the things he was accused of, and he could’ve killed someone on primetime and no one would have believed it after listening to him.
He looked into the camera. “I want to apologize to the women I’ve hurt in the past. I know that strong emotion can make an ordinary person a little jealous, a little crazy. What I did to them was unforgivable. I used them to ignore my own breaking heart and can recognize their need for getting back at me through the press.
“These women built hope that I would one day love them enough. That one day I would choose them. And now that I have chosen another, they’re lashing out.
“After five long years, Mackenzie Wyatt has agreed to marry me. She has worked for O’Connor Capital for more than seven years and has repeatedly refused to even acknowledge our mutual feelings. She