His Marriage Bonus

by Cathy Gillen Thacker

  “It may be a lot more complicated than you think.” They could be friends. And even if Grace was interested in Paulo, well—she was a grown woman. She had a right to pursue whatever sexual pleasure or emotional connection she wanted, without comment from anyone else, including her grown children.

  “That still doesn’t mean what she is doing with Paulo is right,” Mitch retorted gruffly. “Damn it, I never would have figured my mother would be easy prey for a fortune hunter like that!”

  Lauren did not like the presumption in his low voice. Nor did she believe, as Mitch apparently now did, that his mother would let herself be made a fool. She gave Mitch a warning glance, which he promptly ignored. “Mitch…”

  “I want to catch her before they leave.” Mitch released his hold on Lauren and strode over to the checkout line. “Mom, before I forget, Dad and I wanted to ask you if you would consider doing the voice-over for the new Deveraux Shipping Company promotional video we send out to prospective clients.”

  Grace sized her son up for just long enough to let everyone know Mitch wasn’t fooling anyone with his impetuous request. Finally, she gave him a cordial smile that did not reach her eyes. “Just let me know when and where you need me to show up.” She looked back at the dwindling line ahead of her, then dismissed Lauren and Mitch with a tight smile. “We’re up next. I’ll see you later.”

  Lauren took Mitch’s arm, and once again led him away. She waited until they got almost back to the appliance section again before she spoke. “Smooth, bud. Real smooth.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Not about to let him off the hook after the way he had just behaved, Lauren returned his long-suffering glance with a cynical smile all her own. “You just made that up, didn’t you?”

  Mitch shrugged, looking guilty but not apologetic. “We do use promotional videos. And we will be making a new one if the merger between Deveraux-Heyward goes through.”

  Lauren shook her head. “Doing that won’t stop your mother from hanging out with Paulo, if that’s really what she wants.”

  The corners of Mitch’s mouth turned down in dismay. “Whose side are you on?”

  “Your mother’s,” Lauren told Mitch grudgingly. “You have no right to try and manipulate her. It’s as bad as the way my father is trying to control who I see or don’t see by stipulating that I date you every night for seven days.”

  “But you’re doing what your father wants you to do anyway,” Mitch retorted.

  “With my eyes wide open,” Lauren conceded, wishing she weren’t so aware of the heat and strength emanating from Mitch’s tall, strong body. Wishing she didn’t want so very much to make hot, wonderful love with him again. “Because I really want to own the house at 10 Gathering Street. And I’m angry enough about that.” She was angry at herself and Mitch for agreeing to the deal and her father at concocting it. Because that “arrangement” had spoiled whatever romance and love she and Mitch might have one day found all on their own, had her father simply introduced the two of them in a much less pressured way, or better yet, let them discover each other on their own.

  Mitch refused to look away. “What I am doing for my mother is for her own good,” he said just as hotly. “And as for you, your father is just trying to ensure your happiness.”

  “I don’t care,” Lauren insisted stubbornly, aware that the differences between them had never seemed more pronounced. She angled her head up to better see his face, looked him straight in the eye and made her feelings on the subject perfectly clear. “I would never forgive anyone in my family who made secret deals or plans behind my back, no matter how noble or protective the gesture.” It was bad enough, she thought, what had already been done with her knowledge.

  MITCH THOUGHT ABOUT what Lauren had said while Lauren selected a mini-fridge, paid for it and arranged for it to be taken out to her car. She was dead wrong about what he was trying to do for his mother, of course. Grace needed to be busy right now, so she wouldn’t make a foolish mistake by getting romantically involved with Paulo. If helping out Deveraux Shipping was key to that, then so be it. He knew they would all benefit in the long run. His parents, because they would be forced to spend at least some time together on such a project. And himself, because he would know he had at least tried to keep Grace from embarrassing herself, and the family, with a yoga instructor half her age.

  As for Lauren, well, that situation was going to be a lot trickier to manage. He knew for certain now that if Lauren found out about the secret dowry her father had offered Mitch to marry Lauren, and Mitch had not told her about, Lauren would never forgive him. She would feel too betrayed.

  Hopefully, she would never have to know—even if the two of them did end up together, as he was beginning to hope. Because if he did marry Lauren, Mitch admitted, it would not be because of anything her father had offered him. It would be because the two of them had fallen recklessly, head over heels, in love.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Interesting. Going for the rainbow effect?” Mitch remarked Saturday evening when he arrived to pick Lauren up for her father’s black-tie birthday party. She had been incredibly put together on all five of their previous dates, but tonight she looked breathtakingly beautiful in a shimmering floor-length gown of beaded taupe silk chiffon. The strapless bodice hugged her midriff, emphasizing the slenderness of her waist and the fullness of her breasts, and leaving her graceful neck and soft, silky shoulders bare. At her waist, the fabric became wispier, the beading more sparce, and the gown flared out so it moved when she walked, adding to the overall sexiness. Her high silver evening sandals had spiked heels that made her look several inches taller and she had put her hair up in a simple, elegant style. Mitch wanted nothing more than to sweep her away to some romantic hideaway and make mad passionate love to her all night long. But he knew it wasn’t possible—not yet—not until after they had attended the celebration for her father. Once their sixth date ended, however, all bets were off, as far as he was concerned. For then they were going to be on their time. Subject only to their own whims and desires, no one else’s….

  “The only way to tell if you can live with a color of paint on the wall is to put a little bit of the paint on the wall and live with it for at least a week,” Lauren said. She smiled at Mitch as she fastened simple but elegant diamond studs in her ears. “You try and look at it in all different types of light, at all different times of a day.”

  “What’s the verdict so far?” With effort, Mitch tore his eyes from Lauren and studied the slashes of peach, gold, green and marine blue on her foyer walls.

  Lauren pursed her lips into a sexy moue as she followed Mitch’s glance. “I can’t decide.”

  “Somehow, I knew that,” Mitch drawled, pivoting back to face her. If he hadn’t known it before, he knew it now—Lauren Heyward was the only woman on earth for him.

  “I want something dramatic enough to really make a statement, and yet sort of soothing and tranquil, too,” Lauren continued thoughtfully.

  Mitch grinned as he pushed back the edge of his tuxedo jacket. “Or in other words, no gray.”

  “Not a lick of it.” Lauren picked up her evening bag.

  “Why don’t you hire an interior designer to decide for you?” Mitch asked, drinking in the intoxicating fragrance of her perfume.

  She shot him an amused glance as he held the door for her. “That would take all the fun out of it.”

  “Somehow, I knew that, too,” Mitch said wryly.

  Lauren went into the front parlor, closing the drapes and turning on the overhead light. “I think this is the place where you give me a lecture on how I need to delegate more,” Lauren said.

  “No way.” Mitch followed her around the downstairs as she checked the doors to make sure they were locked and turned on lights here and there so they wouldn’t have to come home to a totally dark house.

  “How come?” She slanted him an inquiring glance as they completed their check of the first floor.

  A
nd suddenly Mitch couldn’t contain his need for her anymore. “Because I like you just the way you are,” Mitch said, drawing her close enough for a sweet, lingering kiss. Knowing they’d never make it to the party at all if they continued kissing, and surprised by the tenderness that swept through him whenever he was with her like this, Mitch let the embrace end as sweetly and softly as it had begun.

  Lauren looked up at him mistily as they moved apart.

  “You about ready to go?” Mitch asked, wondering if she felt about him as he did about her.

  THE HOTEL BALLROOM where the party was being held was still being prepped when Mitch and Lauren arrived some fifteen minutes later. “I hope this doesn’t prove awkward for us,” Mitch said as he nodded at his ex-wife. Jeannette Wycliffe was standing in a corner of the ballroom, clipboard in hand, firing off instructions to the catering staff.

  “I’m sure it will be fine,” Lauren told him confidently. “We all want this party to be a success. Jeannette isn’t going to do anything to wreck her rep as the most innovative events planner in the city.”

  Mitch hoped not. Recalling the bitterness of his divorce, however, he did not have the same faith. “All the same, I’m going to steer clear of her,” he said as Jeannette disappeared through a pair of double doors.

  Lauren headed for the gift table being set up, then turned to Mitch, a concerned look on her face. “I left my father’s birthday present in the back of your car. And I want to give it to him as soon as he gets here, before all the other guests arrive.”

  “Not to worry. I’ll go get it,” Mitch said, glad to help make this evening a success in any way he could.

  “All right.” Lauren beamed her relief. “I’ll stay here and see if there’s anything else I can do.”

  Mitch headed out and returned five minutes later. Lauren was nowhere in sight. Jeannette, however, spotted him immediately. She walked over to him, clipboard still in hand. “Looking for your heiress?” his ex asked sarcastically.

  Mitch sighed, the gift box still in his hands. This was the kind of witchy trouble he’d been expecting. “If you’ve seen her—”

  “She just slipped into the coatroom with Ron Ingalls,” Jeannette informed Mitch. “I don’t know what they were whispering about, but whatever it was, it looked pretty intense to me. I hope you don’t interrupt anything if you go in there.”

  So did Mitch.

  Then again, he conceded, still reluctant to let anything spoil the evening ahead, maybe this was his chance to find out a little more about what was going on between Lauren and Ron Ingalls. And if whatever it was had anything to do with either the Heyward or Deveraux shipping companies. Ignoring the uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach, Mitch thanked Jeannette and headed for the coatroom. He was about to go in when he heard Ron say soothingly, “There’s no reason for you to be disappointed.”

  “Yes, there is,” Lauren countered, upset. “I’d hoped to have everything worked out by tonight.”

  Tensing, Mitch ducked out of sight so he could continue to listen, unobserved.

  “It practically is,” Ron stated happily. “I mean—he’s obviously interested. He said as much to me on Wednesday, when the two of us talked about it.”

  Mitch had lunched with Ron on Wednesday, and they had talked about the ship Ron wanted to unload for a bargain price. Was that what Ron was referring to? Or was it something—someone—else?

  “And you know by everything he has said and done so far that he gets on well with your father and would like to make the necessary commitment—as soon as he can set everything up anyway,” Ron continued persuasively. “So I don’t understand why you can’t tell your dad what you’ve got up your sleeve.”

  “Because as far as my dad’s concerned, it’s not a deal until it’s signed, sealed and delivered,” Lauren whispered emotionally, as if much was riding on whatever it was she and Ron were conspiring about. “And we’re just not there yet. Something could still go wrong, and I couldn’t bear it if I disappointed him again, especially after what happened last year.”

  What had happened last year? Mitch wondered. Was Lauren somehow responsible for the ship order her father had had to cancel, and the inevitable financial loss that had followed in terms of the lost deposit?

  Without warning, Jeannette came up behind Mitch and pinched him on the arm, startling him so much he almost dropped the gift box. “You ought to be ashamed of yourself,” Jeannette whispered in Mitch’s ear. “Eavesdropping like this.”

  Mitch lowered his face to Jeannette’s, intending to tell her to lay off, just as Lauren and Ron rounded the corner.

  Mitch wasn’t sure what Lauren thought was going on between him and his ex-wife. But he knew, by the way the color first drained from and then flooded Lauren’s face, that whatever Lauren was thinking was going on there was not liable to make her think more kindly of him.

  “Get everything taken care of?” Jeannette asked Lauren and Ron brightly, stepping away from Mitch. Once again, to Mitch’s relief, Jeannette was all business.

  “Sure did.” Ron smiled at Mitch and extended his hand. “Say,” he continued gregariously, “have you had any more time to think about that ship…?”

  “NOTHING WAS GOING ON,” Mitch reassured Lauren the very first moment he had her alone again after dinner had been served, the gifts presented to Payton and unwrapped.

  But Mitch and Jeannette had shared a secret—Lauren had noticed that the moment she rounded the corner and saw Mitch and his ex-wife standing with their faces so close together just outside the coatroom. Lauren didn’t like feeling like the odd woman out, when she was the woman on the date with Mitch. “Then what were you talking about?” Lauren asked, point-blank.

  To Lauren’s disappointment, instead of answering her outright, Mitch hesitated. And it was in that second of hesitation that Lauren saw the second flare of guilt and evasiveness in his eyes. And she knew, whether Mitch meant to do it or not, he was holding her at arm’s length, just the way her father always had. Only telling her what he felt she ought to know, nothing more, nothing less. “Never mind,” Lauren said as her temper inched ever higher. “I’m sorry I asked that. It really isn’t any of my business,” she concluded flatly.

  But suddenly Mitch seemed to think it was. He clasped her arm just above the elbow. “Look. Jeannette was just goading me—”

  “About…?” Lauren prodded when Mitch showed no inclination of continuing.

  Mitch shrugged. “My interest in you, among other things. I was about to tell her to back off, when you came out of the coatroom. That’s what you interrupted. If I seemed on edge, then or now, it’s because I know I shouldn’t let her get to me, but when it comes to you, she does.”

  What Mitch was saying made sense. And yet, deep in her heart, Lauren had the feeling Mitch still wasn’t telling her everything. And she didn’t like that one bit. She wanted to feel she could trust him.

  Looking determined to resurrect their earlier carefree mood, Mitch changed the subject smoothly. “Your father really seemed to like his new putter,” Mitch said.

  “Of course I do. It was wonderful,” Payton Heyward said, coming up behind them and joining in on the conversation. “But as nice a gift as that was, Lauren, you still haven’t given me what I really want.” Payton continued to look at Lauren with obvious disappointment. “I arranged this week of dating to give you two a chance to get to know each other under after-hours circumstances. And what do I see when I look across the room tonight but the two of you behaving about as intimately as a lamp and a rug.”

  Lauren stiffened under the onslaught of her father’s unexpected—and undeserved—criticism. So what if she was suddenly rethinking her closeness to Mitch? Was she supposed to just forget about the tête-à-tête with his ex-wife that she had just witnessed, or the sly, knowing looks Jeannette was still sending Mitch every chance she got? Looks that seemed to make Mitch increasingly tense and on edge?

  “And that in turn makes me wonder,” Payton Heyward continued
, oblivious to the real reason for the tension between Mitch and Lauren, “if maybe you aren’t behaving this way because you’re afraid to let your guard down with Mitch for fear of what would happen if you did.”

  “And what would you have me do?” Lauren retorted, frustrated that she hadn’t been able to give her father the big surprise she had been planning and working on for weeks now. The gift that would have shifted his focus from her to him and kept conversations like this one from happening!

  Payton sipped his sparkling water and lime as he looked at Lauren gently, and said, “I want you to open yourself up to the possibilities, Lauren, and give Mitch—give this arranged courtship—a chance to work out, instead of spending all your energy trying to resist him, as well as any other romantic feelings such closeness might engender.”

  “And how should I do that?” Lauren demanded emotionally, feeling more boxed in than ever by her father’s expectations and demands. Did he want them holding hands during his birthday party? Kissing? Looking deep into each other’s eyes? What?

  “I think you know the answer to that,” Payton said, giving Lauren a level look. He paused, choosing his words carefully. “I made this bargain with you, and I’ll own up to my part of it two days from now, no matter what the outcome of the prescribed courtship. But in the meantime, I expect you two to honor not just the letter of the agreement but the spirit of the deal. And that is all I have to say on the matter.” Payton turned on his heel and walked away.

  Lauren stared after her father, fuming, as the music started up and couples moved onto the dance floor that had been cleared in the center of the hotel ballroom. She crossed her arms in front of her and regarded Mitch belligerently. “He probably wouldn’t be happy unless I was sitting in your lap,” she told him sarcastically.