The Bad Boy Arrangement

by Nora Flite

  I leaned closer. “Choices? What's written in there, what's happening?”

  “Mr. Birch—Corin,” my mother hissed. “Please. Don't drag this out.”

  “Fine. As you wish.” He lifted his eyes, fixing them on me. “Miss Halloway,” he said, “Tell me, how long have you worked for your parents' company?”

  Under the table, something touched my foot. I startled, realizing it was Abell's shoe. He was trying to rub my ankle.

  Eyeballing him with a warning, he winked, clearly not bothered by my irritated frown. Ignoring him, I said to his father, “I've legally worked here since I was seventeen. But I've been here constantly since I was a child, doing anything they wanted—anything they'd let me.”

  Corin's smile was indulgent. “So you enjoyed working here?”

  “Of course!” Nothing felt more satisfying than figuring out what another company needed to increase their success. Marketing was a game, but it had rules and I'd ingrained those rules after years of hard work. Some of my tension melted as I dipped into this familiar territory. “It's how I spend all of my time. It's my life.”

  “And,” he went on, “You expected that someday, you'd take over? Inherit all of this, being an only child?”

  I wasn't technically an only child, but Gram had no chance of inheriting anything.

  Scrunching up my eyebrows, I asked, “Wait, 'expected?' That's what's going to happen.” Paranoia raced through my blood. I stared at my parents. “Right? I... that's my future, isn't it? CEO of Halloway Inc?”

  They said nothing.

  I let my tone get louder. “That's what you always told me. Talk to me. Tell me what's going on—why is he asking about my future?”

  Abell rocked back in his chair, but he was no longer smiling. All of us were feeling the heaviness in the air.

  “Nix,” my dad whispered. “Let him finish.” His face was pale.

  Sweat poured down my neck, I looked back at Corin expectantly. He slid the papers to me, nodding at them. “Miss Halloway, you'll find your answers in there.”

  Turning the stack around, I read the words. “This is a contract,” I said slowly, reading deeper as I flipped the pages. “It says that... no. It can't be.” In disbelief, I gawked at my parents. “You sold the majority of the company to Birch Industries? To him? Why didn't you tell me?”

  My mother's lips were fiercely puckered. “It was over twenty years ago. We needed the money Corin had, or we would have gone completely under.”

  Abell's chair creaked as he adjusted in it. “Why is this only coming up now?”

  I had the same question. Staring at Corin, I bent to read further. What I came across in that document made me start laughing. I knew I sounded unhinged, but I didn't care. The contents of that contract were pure insanity.

  “This is a joke,” I said, smiling in a way that never reached my eyes. “You're all messing with me.”

  “No,” Corin said. “It's not a joke. Not even a little bit.”

  Waving the papers, I tossed them at Abell. “Read that. Go on, read what it says.” A joke, I told myself firmly. A giant fucking joke.

  Abell turned the pages, and when he reached what was making me laugh, he froze. “This is a joke. It says her and I are supposed to—”

  “Get married!” I cut him off, pushing my chair away from the table. “Isn't that hilarious? They expect me to marry you, of all people, so that your father will return the majority ownership to my parents!”

  Insanity. Ridiculous.

  I couldn't, even for a second, allow myself to think this was real.

  My mother pinched the bridge of her nose. “That's what I agreed to when he loaned us the money. Corin wants you to marry his son and give him a grandchild.”

  “It's a giant fucking joke,” I nearly shouted.

  She scowled and said, “Don't overreact.”

  “Overreact!” Throwing my hands up, I looked at them one by one. “You're trying to tell me that after all these years of killing myself for this company, years of working with the expectation that I'd take it over someday, that now I could lose everything, and you want me to not overreact?”

  My mother shut her eyes, saying nothing.

  Corin sighed. “Miss Halloway, this is all very real, and all very serious.”

  “Fine,” I said, crossing my arms. “This contract is impossible to enforce. You can't make people marry each other or get pregnant! This isn't the eighteen-hundreds.”

  He nodded. “True. I can't force you to marry Abell. However, you're deciding your fate—and the fate of everyone working for this company. Marry him, give me a grandchild, or watch as I absorb this company and remove everyone you know and care for from its property. Including you and your family.”

  Cold prickles grew along my spine.

  He was serious.

  This would change everything about my world.

  Lifting my chin, I stared Corin down. Then, I turned towards his son; the man I'd slept with last night. A man everyone here expected me to sleep with again. Marriage? A baby? That wasn't the future I'd been chasing.

  But if I didn't agree, they'd rob me of the one thing I'd run myself into the ground for.

  Not just me. My parents...

  And Gram.

  What was I supposed to do?

  “You,” I said, gesturing at Abell. “You're being really quiet. Aren't you upset? This affects you, too. Don't you realize that?”

  His eyebrows went up. “I'm not stupid, of course I know it affects me.”

  Suspicion infected me. “Did you know this was going to happen?” He didn't act like he recognized me last night, or this morning, but...

  Abell curled his lip in disgust. “I had no fucking clue.”

  “Then say something! Tell me what you're thinking!”

  “About which part?” he asked, tilting his head. “The bit where I'm supposed to marry you, or the part where, if I don't, I lose nothing?”

  I opened my mouth, but Corin spoke first. “You misunderstand, Abell. If you don't marry her, I'll happily cut off your access to my money. It's about time you learned to stand on your own, anyway.”

  Shock burned through Abell's expression. “Is that so? How fucking considerate of you.”

  My sourness was briefly relieved by Abell's situation. Good, let him see how it feels to be threatened. I didn't want to delight in his misfortune, but it was nice to have someone in the same shoes as me.

  “You're awful,” I said softly, seething. “All of you. How can you plan my future like this? How can you just decide I'm supposed to marry a guy like... like him?” I threw my arm out to indicate the tattooed man.

  Abell's lips slid into a neutral line. “A guy like me?” Then, a wicked smirk took over his face. “Why do you think 'a guy like me,' who can have any woman, would want to marry you?”

  Tensing up, I felt my jaw drop open. He wouldn't want to marry me? Don't think about what he said, that's not important! What did I care if he rejected me? I wasn't marrying anyone! I had dreams, goals, so much to do...

  And settling down to pop out babies wasn't in my cards.

  Breathing in sharply, I stood out of my seat. “I'm done with this. I'm not going to sit here and let you turn me into some brood mare.”

  “Nix,” my father gasped, reaching for me. “Think about what you're doing! If you don't agree to marry him, we'll lose everything!”

  I knew he was right, but the disgust—the rage inside of me—was burning away any part of me that could be patient enough to debate this. “I can't agree to anything,” I snapped. “Not here, not without—I don't know, some time to think!”

  My mother spoke, but her eyes stayed on her lap. “If you'd read the contract closer, you'd see you have time. Nothing is final until the day of the wedding passes.”

  “The day of the wedding,” I laughed bitterly. “Great. Fantastic. When is that?”

  “One month from tomorrow,” Corin said calmly.

  One month.

  That
was all I had.

  Abell lifted his hand in the air. “Isn't that sort of fast?”

  I grabbed the door handle, shoulders hunched. Again, my father called out to me. “Where are you going?”

  Gritting my teeth, I glared at him. “I already said I wasn't going to sit here while you guys wrapped me up like a present to hand over to a manwhore like him!”

  Abell didn't hide the low boil of distaste that filled his glare. What I'd said or how I'd said it, I'd managed to piss him off.

  Let him be mad, I thought firmly. It was his family that had set out to ruin my life.

  They thought they could force my hand, but I wasn't going to let anyone choose my future.

  Without looking back, I slammed the door on all of them.

  - Chapter Three -

  Abell

  That woman was a piece of fucking work.

  Manwhore?

  Sure, I'd been called that name and worse before, but somehow when she'd said it—her tone seething with disgust—it had hit me hard. So fuck her, I didn't need her to like me.

  My father had dropped a bomb I'd never expected. For years, I'd lived comfortably on the money my family had earned. I never wanted for anything, women and expensive toys were at my fingertips.

  And now that's all going to vanish.

  Well, unless I married Nix Halloway.

  How could I marry anyone, let alone her?

  She'd made it clear, she wanted nothing to do with me. It didn't seem to matter that I'd made her squeal and whimper as she came. This woman had 'standards' and she didn't think I met them.

  My father really expects me to not only marry her, but to get her pregnant?

  Did he not know me at all?

  “Abram.”

  Looking up, I spotted Corin heading my way. I'd left soon after Nix had, stealing into an alley behind the building. The cigarette between my fingers glowed like a beacon.

  I didn't smoke often, just when I was super pissed. “You still call me that,” I said, flicking ash away. “You know I hate that name. I guess it shouldn't surprise me that you insist on using it.”

  “You're angry,” he started, “I get it—”

  “Angry?” I chuckled. “Not at all, why would I be? You've just blackmailed me into knocking up a woman I barely know.” A woman with a fiery mouth and a killer ass.

  Thinking about her positively was bad, it didn't help me one bit.

  He stood an arm's length away, hands folded across the front of his suit. “I don't see why this is such a big deal. Last I heard, you've been busy sleeping with anything that'd give you the time.”

  “That doesn't mean I'm okay with being forced into it.” Tossing the cigarette, I crushed it under my shoe. “Tell me why you're doing this. What's the goal? You already own their company, this song and dance with marriage is pointless bullshit.”

  “My reasons are my own.”

  “That's classic you, right fucking there.”

  Staring me down, he turned partially away. “You're going to get the girl to marry you, Abram. Do you understand that?”

  “You want a grandkid that bad and this is the only way to get me to do the deed for you, huh?”

  “Never mind what I want. If you want to keep being a playboy, running around without worrying who's responsible for paying your bills, you'll get this ring on her finger.” He slid a small box from his pocket, shoving it into my chest.

  I clutched it, caught off guard. Cracking the lid, I saw the diamond wedding band inside. “Wait. You want me to marry her, but you also want me to keep fucking other women?” Laughing without humor, I resisted chucking the box back at him. “Okay, I'm officially confused. This isn't some attempt to get me to settle down?”

  He watched me without any emotion, eyes as flat as dusty glass. “This isn't about punishing you, it's about punishing her.”

  “Nix? What the hell did she do?”

  “No. Not her.”

  Confused, I looked on as he strode away. Once he'd rounded the corner, I slammed my forearm against the brick wall. My father and I had never gotten along, suddenly he wanted me to do something for him?

  I understood when I was being used.

  Still, I thought, rubbing my tingling skin. What he's asking me to do... Could I really marry Nix, but still keep up my lifestyle? She'd be my wife on paper, but I'd be free to run around, banging who I wanted, spending money on whatever I desired.

  She'd get to keep access to her family's company, too.

  Honestly, this was starting to look like a win win. I didn't want to be married, the idea of it didn't match who I was. If it was the only way to maintain the fun wave I'd been riding for years, though, what choice did I have?

  Lifting the velvet box, I frowned. If my father seriously doesn't care if I'm loyal to this girl once the papers are stamped, then he isn't out to hurt me. He also said he wasn't punishing Nix.

  What is he trying to accomplish?

  I had no clue what was going on behind the scenes, but I did know this:

  If I wanted to keep my cash, I had to coerce Nix Halloway into tying the knot.

  Thinking of that woman filled me with mixed emotions. She'd been delicious in bed, then cold and distant when she woke up. I hadn't really expected to see her again, but when I had, she'd turned into a stuck up bitch who hated my guts.

  Clenching my fist, I breathed in deep. The way she rolled her hips under me, how her pussy hugged my cock... So what if she hated me?

  You don't need to like someone to fuck them.

  No. We didn't need to like each other at all for this to work.

  Stuffing the ring deep in my jacket pocket, I saw the plan forming in my mind.

  I was going to marry Nix.

  I'd make her long for me, like I had last night. I'd force her to scream and moan. Then, once she was addicted to what I could do to her body, Nix would be begging me to marry her.

  She was going to be mine in every possible way a woman could be.

  I just had to do the one thing I was good at.

  - Chapter Four -

  Nix

  I was fucking furious.

  Rounding the hallway, I spotted my half-brother at the end. He looked up at the sound of my stomping heels. I started to veer towards him, ready to seek comfort—to cry and berate our parents—when something stopped me.

  Gram's eyes were glistening with guilt.

  For a moment my knees locked up. No. It can't be. But I was sure it was true. He wore his emotions on his sleeve.

  Snatching the fabric of his jacket, I yanked him into en empty office and slammed the door behind us. “You knew something bad was going to happen in there!” The words tumbled free. “How could you not warn me?”

  His hands went up in defense. “Nicky, please, what could I have said?”

  “I don't know!” Palming my forehead, I breathed through my nose loudly. All the fight went out of me; I was too exhausted. “Sorry. I don't mean to get upset at you, it's not like you did anything wrong. I just... a heads up that I was walking into an ambush would have been nice.”

  “I didn't realize it was an ambush, just something strange, what with my dad and Gabby and Mr. Birch sitting inside all alone, waiting for you.”

  “Something strange is putting it mildly.”

  He put a hand on the back of his skull. “So, what did they say, what happened?”

  Sticking the heels of my palms against my eyeballs, I laughed sarcastically. “Well, nothing too huge. They just expect me to marry a stranger who's known for sleeping around, and if I don't, everyone here loses their jobs. Oh! And I'm supposed to give the Birch family a grandkid!”

  Gram was silent. I pulled my hands away to find him staring at me in horror.

  I smiled sadly and said, “Yeah. That's the face I made, too.”

  “Nicky. That's... how can they do that?”

  Pacing the room, my voice grew tense. “They're blackmailing me, that's how. Legally I can't be made to do shit. But if I
don't, I'll never become CEO! Everything I worked for, just... just gone! Over with!”

  “Being forced into a marriage like this isn't worth any level of job status.”

  “It's not just the status. It's time. Energy.” Running my fingers through my hair, I gave a manic grin. “I killed myself for this company. How can I walk away from it? Lose everything that was waiting for me? I had the potential to be something! Taking that away isn't right! And what about my promise to you?”

  His smile was stale. “Oh, Nicky, that doesn't matter.”

  “No.” Stepping forward, I grabbed his shoulders. I needed him to see the severity in my expression. I took my promises seriously, and the one I'd made to Gram years ago—when I'd stumbled in on him crying after my mother had berated him over being useless—had been the most serious of all.

  I loved my brother dearly, and he deserved some karma for everything he'd gone through.

  “I told you,” I said firmly, “When I become CEO, you can stop scraping your nose on the ground around our parents. I'll be in charge, you won't have to feel so... so uncomfortable here.”

  “Listen,” he said, “Do what's best for you. That's all you should think about.”

  It didn't make sense. People should always fight for their future, why wouldn't Gram? I'd always pictured Gram and I running this place, I trusted him more than anyone.

  What if I couldn't give him that future anymore?

  “But I promised,” I whispered.

  Shrugging, he reached out for me. On impulse, I leaned in, embracing the hug as fiercely as he did. “It's only money,” he said against my scalp. “I'd find a new job. So would you. So would everyone.”

  Everyone.

  How selfish was I being? There were hundreds of people relying on their jobs here, and Gram wanted me to do whatever I felt was right. He wasn't interested in forcing me to marry someone, and he had a lot to lose if I didn't go through with it.

  I need to think about how my choice affects others.

  Marriage would let me keep the company. I could become CEO, let everyone remain financially secure. I could have everything I'd always wanted.

  And something I don't want.

  Abell. That bastard.