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"It's only temporary. This isn't ideal, obviously."
"Right, obviously," she murmured.
"I'm sorry if my father was difficult to deal with."
She licked her lips, and like a fool, my vision trapped the soft pink tip of her tongue. The pull deep in my groin had me swallowing hard.
"Your father is a real dick."
The laugh that escaped was genuine and quick. "Did he talk to you again?"
"Just once. But Adrianna stepped in and saved the day."
"Yeah, she's good like that."
"I like her and Trevor a lot, actually. They were really nice, considering they don't know me, and well, me being your official marriage of convenience. Except this arrangement doesn't seem all that convenient for you."
"Don't worry about if it's convenient for me or not. For now, all you need to know is that you are protected."
You're lying to her.
Yes, I was lying. But at the end of the day, this was never going to come to fruition. My lawyers were already on it. I was never going to have to marry her. We were just going to have a nice long engagement. One where she'd be safe and I could get my father off my back.
"Why does he hate you so much?"
The question was unexpected. It made me stop and think for a moment. "Well, when Mum was still around, he was a real dick. Kind of like he is now, really. Expert, next level prick, he is. She took my side always. And when it came down to assigning her shares of the company, she gave them to me. I think he thought that she'd give up the fight along with her seat on the board, but instead, she handed them over to me. Or maybe he thought that she would give up her shares to all three of us, not just me. I don't know. Either way, he was less than pleased, and I wasn’t even here for all of it. I was deployed, so Adrianna and Trevor had to deal with most of his bullshit, but there were many, many calls when I was stationed with my team. Lots of video calls with the lawyer."
"I'm really sorry. All of this is about greed?"
"Yes, and no. He thinks I forced my mother. But he's the parent and should have acted like one. Instead, he's been trying to mess everything up. It's who he's been my whole life."
"And your mother, she had shares in the company?"
I smiled thinking about it. "Well, it was actually her parents' company in the beginning. My grandfather retired because hewanted to enjoy time with my grandmother. The two of them were madly in love.When Mum married Dad, Dad was the COO. After they were married, he took over as CEO after my grandfather’s retirement. He took his seat on the Board and rebranded the company as All Saints Technologies. But then there were problems. He couldn't keep his stick in his pants."
She winced.
"It's all ancient history though. It's fine."
"Well, I mean, ancient history or not, I do need to know about it since I'm going to fictitiously become part of the family, right?"
I slid a glance at her, and I could see that her lips were curled in a small smile. "Yes, fictitiously part of the family."
I pulled into the garage and found my spot right next to the elevators. "Look, all you have to know is you're safe now. No one's going to touch you."
"Are you sure? And why are you doing this again? This isn't your fight."
"Well, you see, there was this beautiful woman. She broke into my office. I chased her. She ran. She’s got secrets and she needs help. And I’m categorically incapable of not helping someone. That’s why.”
She searched my gaze. “I don’t believe you, but that’s okay. Because I do need your help. And I don’t have anywhere to go, so I am accepting this help. You can tell me when you start to trust me. I just want to crash in the meantime.”
“Yeah, let’s get you upstairs.”
Upstairs. The other night, I had dumped her in the guest room. I hadn’t had to think about it. But now,we’d told the world we were engaged, and what the fuck did that mean?
It didn’t have to mean anything.
Once we were upstairs in the hallway to the flat, she nodded her head down the way toward the Rook's flat. "So what's thedeal with him anyway? Is he just going to keep following me around?"
