Some Like It Charming - By Megan Bryce Page 0,18
I will be one more hurt. I don’t want to hurt anyone, especially anyone I care about. I can’t seem to stop, though.” He opened his eyes. “I need a buffer. I need you to be my buffer.”
She stared at him, trying not to feel sorry for him.
He said, “And I know that you will only play for my team when I pay you. When this engagement ends, we’ll let it leak that I gave you a share of my company. And everyone will say how smart you were to get a chunk out of me at the beginning instead of standing there empty-handed at the end.”
She closed her eyes, shaking her head. She hadn’t quite realized how desperate he was. He was willing to give her a share of his company? She wasn’t going to be able to stand against him if that was any indication of what he was willing to pay. Funny that he would dangle a piece of his company in front of her though because she didn’t want that.
“I don’t want three percent of your company.”
He shook his head. “I’m not going any higher. It’s my best offer.”
“I’m not negotiating here. I don’t want any part of your company.”
He blinked. “Why not?”
“You can’t give away part of your company for a favor. You can’t. It’s not worth that much. I can’t believe your grandmother would even go along with this.”
“She wants it to turn out real.”
She looked at him in disbelief. “Because I almost beat you at softball?”
“I think because you threatened me. She can’t stand women who throw themselves at me, who fall for the O’Connor charm.”
“I can’t be the only woman who can keep my wits around you.”
“It’s a short list.”
She pointed to the growing stack of tabloids piled haphazardly on the end of the couch. “Getting longer everyday.”
He laughed. “I can only hope. I’ll need a few more women than just you to choose from if I ever want to find the woman who can see past the money. And the looks.”
“And the bullshit.”
He saluted her with his beer bottle and nodded. “O’Connors marry forever. If I’m going to give my wife half my shares when I get married, I’d better be damn sure of who I’m marrying. And she’d better damn sure be able to see me.”
Mackenzie choked. “Half your shares?”
“It’s tradition. When my grandfather married my grandmother, he gave her half of his shares. When my father married my mother, he gave her half of his shares. When I get married, I’ll give her half of my shares.”
She shook her head. “You O’Connors are crazy. No wonder you dump your girlfriends as soon as they start thinking marriage.”
“Maybe love isn’t putting up with stinky fish. Maybe it’s giving half of everything you’ve ever worked for, everything you will ever work for.”
“That’s not love, that’s stupid.”
He looked into his beer bottle and said with a sigh, “It’s being certain of who you’re marrying.”
“And if you never find the woman who is worth half your fortune?”
“I will. She’s out there.”
She couldn’t decide if she thought him incredibly sweet or the dumbest person alive. “Now who’s a hopeless romantic?”
He smiled. “Maybe. Or maybe a hopeful romantic.”
She took a deep breath. “Well, I’m not going to take one and a half percent from your future wife. I won’t take any shares from you. You’ll have to think of something else to get me to play for you.”
He stared into her eyes, then smiled. “Oh, Mackenzie. I can even trust you not to take advantage of my desperation? You’ll never get me to change my mind now.”
She saw that it was true. She should’ve negotiated for half his company, half his life’s blood. Now she’d never shake him loose.
He leaned back in his chair. “How about this? Take a little break from work and come be my fiancé. I will continue to pay your average salary for the last year, including bonuses, out of my own pocket. Then after a few months, when all this blows over, you can go back to work.”
“And you think I can go play fiancé for a few months, break up with you, and then go back to work for your company like nothing happened? That my clients would even still be there waiting for me?”
He was silent, knowing she was right but refusing to agree with her.
She said, “I can’t work for you now or after. I can’t go work for a competitor engaged to you, no one would