Page 108 of Handsome Devil
“Whya marriage?”
“Because marriage is part of the family-man package,” he said. “A big part. My family expects it. And I can’t date you. You’re employed by one of our companies. Even a lengthy engagement could get dicey. A relationship between us would be acceptable, though, if we were married. Quickly. That way we just skip over the whole employer-fraternizing-with-his-employee stage and make it official. And acceptable to my family.”
“You could date another woman,” I pointed out. “One who doesn’t work for any of your companies.”
“Another woman didn’t impress the hell out of my family last night.” He eyed me with icy determination. “This is a solution to both our problems. Consider that. I’m not a stranger, Devi. You know me.”
Yeah; I said I did, last night, when I called him the devil, with authority. But…
“I don’t know you. Not really.”
“You know me well enough to know I dislike you. And therefore I am not proposing to you because I want you.”
Right. I believed him.
And I didn’t.
I had no reason to think he actually wanted me, or ever had.
However, I did not trust the man.
But that thing about a solution to both our problems? That hit me right in my negotiation hotbox.
“Fine. Lay out this proposal for me, and exactly why you’re making it,to me, if not because you’re an entitled creep who thinks a woman who works for him should jump at the chance to whore herself out to him simply because she impressed his family at some party.”
“I’m not asking you to be my whore.”
“Semantics.”
He scowled, his icy features looking even more condescending than usual. “You want your agency. I want things, too. And as I said this isn’t about me wanting you. I turn thirty at the end of January. That’s just over three months away. I have a lot to prove to my family before then. I’m their future, and it’s not looking good right now, in their eyes… in light of recent events.”
The sex tape. He meant the sex tape scandal, right?
“As I explained to you before,” he went on, “the bulk of my inheritance is triggered when I turn thirty. Not just money, but power. Co-ownership of the family business. My grandmother is still CEO at Valhalla, but she doesn’t run the show. That’s my mother’s job. For now. For the next couple of decades, or until my mother is ready to completely step down, she’ll be running the company with me. Up until this point, I’ve been groomed to join her in running the company. Everything I’ve done in my life, school, work, has been bent toward this one goal. And as my mother’s sole heir, there’s a lot riding on me turning out… a success.”
“Uh-huh.”
“My mother and my grandmother are watching me,” he went on, “as I said. They want to make sure that I can carry this company when the time comes. And…” He hesitated. “And to make sure that I show no signs of turning out like my father. He wasn’t exactly… Davenport material.”
“What do you mean?”
“My mother married a man named Brett Easton. But my mom and I were never Eastons, even when they were married. My father… wasn’t exactly faithful to my mom. He wasn’t a good husband or a good dad. And believe me, I have no intention of ending up like him. But…” He rubbed his jaw.
“But then you made a sex tape while screwing two women and uploaded it to the internet.”
“I had sex with two women,” he said carefully, “andtheymade a video of it. And they uploaded it to the internet without my knowledge.”
“Uh-huh.”
“See, that look you’re giving me right now? Doubt. Distrust. That’s pretty much how my mother and my grandmother look at me now.”
“Because of the sex tape.”
“Yes. Worse… my grandfather died just last year. He wasn’t doing well for the last few years. He wasn’t involved in running the company anymore. But it’s been a pretty hard hit to the family. And when they needed me most, expected me to be there for them, the man of the family, strong and steady… I instead brought this shit show to their door.”
Well. Now I could see why they were so disappointed in him.
“Wow. That’s bad timing.”
