Some Like It Charming - By Megan Bryce Page 0,33
mother.”
She narrowed her eyes at him, as if she didn’t believe him. “Why?
“Because neither one of them likes to live alone. When my grandfather died, Ellen moved in with my parents. And when my father died, they just kept living together. They share a 4000 square foot penthouse; they’re not tripping over each other.”
“It’s still weird.”
“Why? They both like living in the city, but don’t want to live alone in the city.”
She looked unconvinced.
He said, “They have someone to go to the movies with, go to dinner with, argue with.” He grimaced. “Follow me across the country with. They would be lonely without each other. They have separate lives, separate interests; they’re just not alone.”
“That’s. . . sweet?”
He grinned. “You like living alone.” It hadn’t been a question but she nodded anyway.
He said, “You like having no one to spend the evening with, to talk about your day with, to just be close to when you don’t want to be alone?”
“I have my friends. I don’t need to live with them.”
“Maybe family is different.”
She blinked a few times. “I wouldn’t want to live with my family. Besides, Ellen and Christine aren’t really related. They’re in-laws.”
He shook his head. “Family. As thick as blood when you marry an O’Connor.”
She shuddered. “Remind me not to marry you.”
He tapped his temple. “Locked up tight. If you forget, I’ll remind you.”
“If I forget, you can shoot me.”
“Will do.” He smiled. “So are you going to live with me or my mother?”
She looked as if he was asking her to choose between arsenic or hemlock.
He said, “Will you live with me if I promise not to chop you to bits, maim you in any way, or even leave the toilet seat up? You will be completely safe from me.”
He thought about Alyse wanting to live with him, nearly every girlfriend he’d ever had wanting to live with him, and Mackenzie Wyatt trying to bargain her way out. There was definitely something to said for the chase. At least for him. There was no way she was living anywhere else but with him.
She took a deep breath and nodded slowly. “Separate rooms?”
“Of course.”
Maybe.
“Locks on my door?”
He looked to the heavens beseechingly.
She tried not to laugh and said, “Fine.”
He paused. “I would like the same assurance from you.”
“I promise I will not chop you to bits, maim you, or leave the toilet seat up.”
He smiled at her. “I’ve already alerted housekeeping to remove all staplers from the premises. Anything you would like removed before we get there?”
She opened her mouth and he held his hand up to forestall her. “If you say me I will tell housekeeping to also get rid of all the chocolate.”
A laugh escaped before she could stop it. He grinned at her. “See, we do know a little something about each other.”
She folded her arms. “If I’m going to be living with you, I’m going to need some sort of compensation. Everyone will think I slept with you.”
“Who is everyone, and why do you care?” His eyes twinkled as he mimicked her.
“Everyone is everyone. And I care because if one more person talks to me about our sex life I am going to dunk my head in the nearest toilet bowl and drown myself.”
“Sounds extreme.”
“You’re not the one they’re talking to.”
“True. And perhaps all that trauma is worth something.” He stood up, leaning in to say softly in her ear, “Maybe that half mil you keep going on about?”
“That’s all my reputation is worth?”
“Seems about right.”
She huffed and he took a step back, grinning. “But it’s not going to happen. I’m not going to pay you for people thinking you’re sleeping with me. You’d actually have to do it.”
She grimaced. “I honestly don’t know what everyone sees in you.”
He sighed in satisfaction. “I can say things like that because I know you won’t take me up on it.”
“Say things like that and no one will want to.”
He shook his head. “You, especially, would be surprised.”
Mackenzie snapped her fingers. “That reminds me. Cassandra says if this doesn’t work out as you’re hoping, she’s available as a wife and mother.”
“She’s a lovely woman.”
“Lovely. Yep, that’s the word I would have chosen. You two might work out well. Want me to call her up?”
“I’ll keep her as a back-up. Gotta give you a chance to earn that million first.”
“Okay, but she’s got a pretty mean death glare, too.”
“Does she? She seemed quite sweet.”
Mackenzie shook her head in disbelief. “That’s because she loses all of her brain