Some Like It Charming - By Megan Bryce Page 0,20
for a few minutes, then sat back and they looked at the number together. Her heart started beating very fast.
“Well,” he said. “You should have been an accountant.”
“Looks to me like I can be anything I want now.” She swallowed. “Is it worth that much to you?”
She couldn’t decide if she wanted him to say yes or no. Talk about a mutually beneficial agreement. She just might throw in a kid or two for that.
And still, she knew, it wasn’t anywhere near half his fortune.
Ethan said, “If you really can get ten percent per year, I can just give you an even million. You won’t have to go work for HGC, at least.”
She wouldn’t have to work for anyone ever again. She could sell her house, move somewhere cheaper than L.A., and live pretty well.
He breathed in her ear. “You could just take a share of the company. It would practically be the same.”
Except she’d never be rid of him. “I don’t know why you keep trying to give away part of your company. Stop it.”
“I think my mother would like you if she could hear you protecting my interests.”
“Someone has to. You keep trying to give away your legacy.”
“But this way you know I’m serious.”
She gestured toward the computer. “I’ll know you’re serious with this, too. Are you really going to pay me a million and a half dollars to be your fiancé for six weeks?”
“No. Just a million.”
“I like the sound of a million and a half better.”
“Who doesn’t?”
She twisted in her chair. “I could say two million.”
He raised his eyebrows. “There are probably a number of women who would do this for two million.”
“Good. Call them up.”
“I’ll thumb wrestle you for the half.”
She shook her sadly. “Good thing you inherited your fortune. I don’t think you would have made it on your own.”
“I’ll have you know I’ve won quite a few negotiations with my stellar thumb wrestling skills.”
“Since the sixth grade?”
“If you’re going to be picky about it. . .”
She couldn’t help her smile. “Half now, half later?”
“You don’t trust me? That hurts, Wyatt.”
She could see he was real worked up about it. “It’s not really about trust. It’s more I just don’t believe you’ll do it.”
“To show I trust you, I’ll have the full million wired into your account in the morning.”
“Million and a half.”
He shook his head. “It’s never going to happen.”
“You shouldn’t have begged. I know you’ll pay the half.”
He held his hand out and she gave him the pre-nup. He read it over quickly. “I hesitate to bring this up but you’re missing something.”
“What am I missing?”
He wiggled his eyebrows at her and she shook her head. “I’m not missing anything. There will be none of that.”
“None of that or none of that? And what about this and that?”
“There will be none of any of it, so I don’t need to include it.”
He looked down at her lips. “I’m just saying it’s ambivalent. Just how real is this pretend engagement going to be?”
“It’s not real at all. This contract is for our public performance.”
He leaned down close to whisper in her ear. “Ooh, public performance. Will there be any of that?”
She placed her fist in his belly and his breath rushed out. He said in an exaggerated wheeze, “I’ll have to remember you have a temper.”
“Please do.”
He rubbed his stomach, then grinned. “Okay, you can have the half. But I expect something good for that half.”
“Mmm. If only we were in Nevada. Because that is illegal in California.”
He sighed heavily. He grabbed the pen from her, scribbling one million only where she’d put one and a half, and signed it with a flourish. He held the pen out to her. “Very well. At least this way I’ll know that if I get you into bed it will not be because I’m paying you.”
She took it gingerly. “You’re not getting me anywhere near a bed.”
“Semantics. It could be the couch, a table, the floor.”
She shook her head.
“But a bed is the most comfortable. A guy’s got to hope.”
She paused, staring at the paper, then closed her eyes and scrawled her name hastily.
She whispered, “Shit.”
He chuckled, folding the paper and putting it in his pocket. “I’ll keep this until we can get a copy made for you.”
“You’re the devil.”
“You’re the only one that thinks so.”
“That doesn’t make me wrong.”
His fingers circled her wrists, pulling her gently out of the chair and towards him. She resisted. “What are you doing?”
“Sealing it with a kiss.”
She reared back.