Some Like It Charming - By Megan Bryce Page 0,61
Mackenzie laughed. “If this was real, you and me, and you cheated on me. If I loved you and you betrayed me.”
He stopped unbuttoning his shirt. “I wouldn’t.”
And he realized, he really wouldn’t. Wasn’t even a little worried about it, because he could never do that to her. Could never bear to see her look at him like she’d looked at her father. He couldn’t even imagine looking at another woman, but if he ever did he knew she would do exactly as she’d told his mother.
She said, “That’s what I told her. I don’t think she needs to worry about it. But she thinks you need a woman who would forgive you, just in case.”
He turned around and looked at her. “You told my mother I would never cheat on you?”
Mackenzie said, “Not me. But, you know. . . the one.”
He took a big step towards her, cupped her face in his hands, and kissed her. Long and slow. He pulled back and said, “How come you don’t doubt me? Women throw themselves at me every day. I have ample opportunity.”
She blinked. “Because. . . you wouldn’t.”
“Go on.” He couldn’t help the smile blooming on his face.
“You know you wouldn’t.”
“I don’t know that.”
“Have you ever faltered on any of your girlfriends?”
He didn’t have to think about it, of course he hadn’t, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t wanted to. He’d feared that want.
She said, “And why haven’t you? You’ve probably had women throwing themselves at you since you were eighteen.”
“Sixteen.”
She rolled her eyes, but undid the last button of his shirt and slid her arms inside. “Okay, sixteen. Why haven’t you ever taken advantage of your many opportunities?”
“Because that would hurt someone I cared about.”
“And that’s not the kind of person you are. You’re the kind of person who makes people happy.”
“If that really mattered I would still be with my very first girlfriend.”
She shook her head. “No. My guess is that you break things off when you start feeling the itch. Because you know it hurts less and for a shorter amount of time to break things off cleanly.”
“Maybe that’s why I was afraid of marriage. Afraid to find my devotion fading without being able to get out of it.”
He smiled at her, his hands still cupping her face. He’d known that if he’d just found that one, right woman his fears of marriage would seem silly. Powerless.
He’d been right. He’d just never expected that when he found her, she would want nothing to do with him. Never expected to find that she might like him just fine, but hated everything that made him him.
Hated his money, hated his family, hated his charming face.
He’d been looking for a woman who could see past all that since he was sixteen.
The woman he’d been looking for for nearly two decades said, “I’ve already said you’ve got issues. It’s like you’ve never heard the word divorce before.”
“It’s like budgeting. Just because I’ve heard the word before doesn’t mean I believe in it.”
She smiled up at him and started to undo his belt. He grinned at her and she said, “I’ve had a bad day. I thought we could stay in tonight.”
“What about dinner?”
“I thought I already got out of that.”
“You’re just going to let my mother win?”
She unzipped his pants. “I don’t think this is your mother winning.”
He backed her towards the bed. “I could tell them you came down with something.”
She smiled evilly. “Tell them I have to repair the hole I put in your wall.”
“You don’t want my mother dropping by again. And she’d come running if I told her that.”
She laughed. “Maybe I could just torture your mother for the next week. I might just make it then.”
He pulled her shirt over her head. “Or we could extend this for a few more weeks and really torture her.”
She said, “You can’t afford to pay me overtime.”
He popped the button on her jeans. “Oh, I probably could.”
“No. We already agreed on six weeks.”
“But if you’re not going back to work, there’s no rush. You can spend a million dollars just as easily in New York as you can in Los Angeles. And you still haven’t got that half out of me yet.”
“I really thought I was going to, too.”
“So stick around. Stop trying to do nothing, come to work with me, and stay a little bit longer.”
He sat on the bed and pulled her down on to his lap.
She shook her head and he said, “Stay. I like living