A Very Exclusive Engagement

by Andrea Laurence

  But to do that without risking the company would mean that he needed enough stock to control ANS without his aunt’s shares. That seemed virtually impossible. Unless…

  Liam grabbed his phone and leaped out from behind his desk. He had to find Victor Orr before they returned to California. Francesca had mentioned they were staying on a few days to tour the Smithsonian, so if he had any luck, they were still in D.C.

  It took two phone calls and a drive to their hotel in bumper-to-bumper traffic, but Liam was finally able to track down Francesca’s parents. He was standing at the door, waiting for them to answer the buzzer, when he realized he didn’t know exactly what he was going to say to them. He would have to admit the truth. And that would mean that a very large, angry Irishman might be beating him senseless within minutes for hurting his daughter.

  Victor answered the door with a frown. Without speaking a word, he seemed to realize something was wrong. Why else would his new son-in-law show up alone just days after the wedding? He led Liam into their suite and gestured for him to sit down in one of the chairs in the living room.

  He watched Liam through narrowed eyes for a few minutes before Liam gathered the nerve to speak.

  “There are some things I need to tell you,” Liam said.

  “I’m sure there are.” Victor leaned back in his chair, ready to listen.

  Without knowing the best way to tell the story, Liam chose to start at the beginning. He began with the stock arrangement with his aunt, delicately skipping over the elevator debacle, and followed with Beatrice’s later demand that he marry to keep control of the network.

  “And my daughter agreed to go along with this phony engagement?”

  “Yes, sir. She seemed hesitant at first, but apparently she saw a sign that she should do it. A ladybug.”

  Victor shook his head. “Her and those damned signs. She gets into more trouble that way. Married to a man she hardly knows because of a ladybug!”

  “We never intended to go through with the marriage, but my aunt was adamant we do it now. She’s ill and wanted to make sure we followed through. I told Francesca she didn’t have to do it, but she insisted.”

  “She’s stubborn like I am.”

  Liam chose not to touch that statement. “What neither of us realized was that we might actually fall for one another. On our wedding night, Francesca told me she had feelings for me that she knew weren’t mutual and she couldn’t go on that way.”

  “You just let her walk out like that?”

  Liam frowned and looked down at his hands. “I didn’t know what to tell her. I wasn’t sure how I felt about everything. What was real between us and what was a fantasy? I didn’t know.”

  “And now?”

  “Now I know. I love your daughter, and I want to ask your permission to marry her.”

  “Son, you’re already married.”

  “I know, but things are different now. I want to be married to her for real. I want to go to her and tell her how I feel, but I need your help. Francesca will never believe our marriage is anything more than a business deal as long as my aunt is holding the stock over my head. I can’t afford to buy her out. But if I could get enough minority stockholder support, I might be able to get majority control without her shares.”

  Victor nodded. “I don’t think I have enough, but I’ve got a good bit. So does my friend Jimmy Lang. Together, that might tip the scales. Let me make a call.”

  As Victor got up and headed into the bedroom, a simmer of hope started bubbling in Liam’s gut. He really hoped that he could pull this off. He didn’t want to go to Francesca and tell her he loved her if there were any suspicions about his motives. This was the only way.

  “Good news,” Victor said as he returned a few minutes later. “I spoke with Jimmy and did the math. Combined with yours, we have fifty-two percent of the company stock. Close, but we made it. Jimmy and I are both really excited about the direction you’re taking the network, so we have no qualms about delegating our voting authority to you. So,” he said, extending his hand to Liam, “congratulations. You’re still running this network.”

  Liam leaped from his seat and excitedly shook his father-in-law’s hand. “Thank you so much, sir.”

  Victor shrugged. “I didn’t do it for you. I did it for my little girl. You have my consent to marry her, so get out of here and make it right between you two.”

  Liam’s eyes widened as he nodded. There was no arguing with Victor Orr, even if he wanted to. “Thank you again,” he said as he turned and bolted from their hotel suite.

  As badly as he wanted to rush to find Francesca, he had one other stop to make. Fortunately, that stop was located in the same hotel.

  Liam rang the doorbell at the penthouse suite and waited for Henry to answer the door. The older man arrived a few minutes later, welcoming Liam with the same smile and nod he’d always received.

  “Come in, Liam. I don’t believe she’s expecting you this morning. We’re packing to return to New York.”

  “I’m sorry to pop in unannounced, Henry, but I need to talk to my aunt. It’s important.”

  Henry held out his hand to gesture toward the bedroom. Liam didn’t wait for him, moving quickly across the carpet and around the corner.

  Aunt Beatrice looked up as he charged in. She was sitting in her wheelchair folding her clothes. “Liam,” she said. “I expected you to be off somewhere basking in wedded bliss.”

  “No, you didn’t,” he said, sitting on the edge of the bed beside her. “You and I have been playing a dangerous game that could end up doing nothing but hurting people.”

  She didn’t bother acting offended by his insinuation. “I did what I thought was best for the family. And for you, despite what you might think.”

  “I know,” Liam agreed. “And I came here to thank you.”

  That, at last, got a rise out of the Queen Bee. She sat up straight in her chair, her eyes narrowing at him in confusion. “Thank me?”

  “Yes. If you hadn’t forced me to get married, I might’ve let Francesca walk right out of my life. I love her. And I hope she stays married to me for forty years—not for the network, or because of your demands, but because I want us to grow old together. That said, I’m not going to let you control me any longer. I don’t need your ANS stock or you holding it over my head. I now have enough backing to maintain control of ANS without your shares or your billions. I don’t care about any inheritance.”

  Aunt Beatrice sat silently for a few minutes, absorbing his words. After a while, he began to wonder if she was mentally going over the new changes to her will. He didn’t care. Cut him out. Cut him loose.

  “Those,” she said at last, “are the words of a man who can take charge of this family.” Beatrice smiled softly to herself and placed a blouse in her suitcase. “It’s what I’ve been waiting for. I never intended to sell my stock to Ron Wheeler. I just wanted to see you settled down, in control and happy with your place in life. Francesca is the right woman for you. I knew that just as certainly as I knew you two were pretending. In time, I figured things would work out between you. Once you both stopped fighting it. It’s a shame I’ll be dead before I can see you two genuinely happy together.”

  “You knew we were faking the relationship?”

  “It takes a smart, observant person to head this family. Very little gets past me, even now. But it’s okay. I’m sorry for meddling in your private life. Blackmail really isn’t my forte, but I did what I thought I needed to for the good of you and the family. I’ll call my stockbroker this afternoon and have the shares of ANS transferred to you.”

  “What? Now?” He had years and millions to pay off before he owned those shares outright.

  “It’s your wedding present. Most people don’t give networks as gifts, but you’re not the typical bride and groom.”

  Liam reached out and took his aunt’s hand. It was something he rarely did; she wasn’t very affectionate, but he was seeing the dents in her armor. Her illn
ess was revealing the person inside that she kept hidden. “Thank you, Aunt Beatrice.”

  She turned her head, dismissing his sentiment with a wave of her hand, but he could see a moist shimmer in her eyes. “It will be thanks enough when you save that company and take over handling our motley crew of relatives when I’m gone.”

  “Do I really have to be executor of the estate?”

  “Absolutely. And don’t worry. Eventually, you will grow accustomed to the constant ass-kissing.”

  *

  Francesca left ANS early. She’d been a self-imposed prisoner in her office all morning, afraid she’d run into Liam in the hallway. She had had a few days to sit at home alone, licking her wounds, but she wasn’t ready to see him again. Especially knowing that everyone still expected them to be a happy, newly married couple.

  After overhearing Jessica tell someone on the phone that Liam was out of the office, she figured this was her opportunity to escape.

  She made it back to her town house without incident. Relieved, she dropped her purse on the coffee table, kicked off her shoes and went into the kitchen for a drink.

  When Francesca rounded the corner and found Liam sitting at her kitchen table, she nearly leaped out of her skin. “Oh, dio mio!” She jumped, pressing her back against the counter and clutching her rapidly beating heart. “What the hell are you doing here, Liam? You scared me to death.”

  He looked a little sheepish as he stood up and came over to her. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. I thought you’d notice my car out front. You gave me a key, so I figured I would wait around until you got home. When I called Jessica she told me you’d left.”

  “I gave you that key when we were going to be a happily married couple. Using it after everything that happened is a little creepy. Why are you here, anyway? We don’t have anything to talk about.”

  Liam shook his head and came closer. She was able to catch of whiff of his cologne and her body immediately began responding to him. Apparently, it hadn’t gotten the message about the breakup of their nonrelationship.

  “We have a lot to talk about. Starting with how much I love you and how miserable I’ve been since you left.”

  Francesca started to argue with him and then stopped. Did he just… She couldn’t have heard him right. “What did you say?”

  Liam smiled, sending her heart fluttering at the sight. He was wearing a navy collared shirt that brought out the dark blue of his eyes as he closed in on her. She noticed a few weary lines around them. He looked a little tired and tense, but she had attributed that to the stress of running the network and the fiasco of their wedding.

  Could it be that he was losing sleep over her?

  He stopped just short of touching her, forcing her to look up at him. His hands closed over her upper arms, their warmth sinking deep into her bones. “I love you, Francesca. I’m in love with you.”

  As much as she wanted to melt into him, she couldn’t let herself fall prey to him. She ignored the excited flutter of butterflies in her stomach and pulled back out of his grasp, watching him with wary eyes. “You didn’t love me Friday night. You could’ve told me then and you didn’t. You let me leave. And now you show up singing a different tune. What happened? Did your aunt find out? Trying a different tactic to keep the network?”

  Liam swallowed hard, a flash of resignation in his eyes. “I thought you would say something like that. Which is why it took me so long to come see you today. I had some important business to take care of.”

  Francesca crossed her arms defensively over her chest, but she didn’t think it would do much good. Her armor where Liam was concerned had been permanently breached. “It’s always business first with you.”

  “You’re right. First, I had to go confess to your father.”

  Francesca’s eyes grew wide with unexpected panic. “You told my father? Why? He’s going to kill me. How could you do that without asking me?”

  “Because I needed his help. And his blessing to marry you.”

  “It’s a little late for that.”

  “It’s never too late where an overprotective father is concerned. Not only did he give his permission, but he and his associate have pledged their stock to support me at ANS, giving me a majority share without my aunt.”

  Francesca tried to process what he was saying, but she kept getting hung up on what kind of conversation he’d had with her father when she wasn’t there. “You don’t need your aunt’s stock anymore?”

  “No.”

  That meant they didn’t have to be married. “But you don’t want an annulment?”

  “Absolutely not.” Liam crowded back into her space, closing the gap she’d put between them. “I have no intention of letting you out of my sight, or my bed, for the next forty years.”

  The butterflies in her gut went berserk. She brought her hand to her belly to calm them. “Wait. You love me. You want to stay married to me. And it has nothing to do with the network?”

  Liam nodded. “Not a thing. I told my aunt this morning that I wasn’t going to play along anymore. I didn’t want you to think for a moment that I wasn’t one hundred percent sincere in my love for you. This isn’t about my aunt or the network or appearances. It’s about you and me and the rest of our lives.”

  His arms snaked around her waist and this time, she didn’t pull away. She molded herself against him and let out a small sigh of contentment at the feel of being in his arms again.

  “I am in love with you, Francesca Crowe. I want to stay married to you until the day I die.”

  Her heart skipped a beat at the use of her married name. She hadn’t heard anyone use it since the wedding. “I love you, too.”

  Liam dipped his head down to capture her lips with his own. This kiss—their first as two people in love—blew away all the others they’d shared before. Every nerve in her body lit up at his touch. She wrapped her arms around his neck to try and get closer to him, but it could never be close enough. She lost herself in the embrace, letting his strong arms keep her upright when her knees threatened to give way beneath her.

  Pulling away after what felt like an eternity, he said breathlessly, “I want us to get married.”

  Francesca wrinkled her nose and put her palm gently against the stubble of his jaw. “Mio caro, we’re already married.”

  “I know,” he said with a devious smile. “But I want a do-over. With a tropical honeymoon. And this time, it will just be the two of us. No family, no pressure and especially no cake throwing.”

  Epilogue

  Antigua, One Week Later

  Francesca had no idea a vacation could be so perfect. With Ariella’s televised reunion show coming up, they didn’t have the luxury of taking a long honeymoon, but they did manage to sneak away for a long weekend in the Caribbean.

  So far, they had sunbathed, swum in the ocean, dined on the best seafood she’d ever tasted and renewed their vows in a private white gazebo hovering over the water.

  Their previous ceremony had been legally binding but tainted by his aunt’s machinations and Angelica’s tantrum. Their vow renewal had been just for them. A chance to say the words again and wholeheartedly mean it. Afterward, they drank champagne in their private bungalow and shared a tiny cake for two that no one could ruin.

  Today they had planned a snorkeling trip in the morning, followed by marathon lovemaking and lots of luxurious naps. The snorkeling trip had been excellent. The water was crystal clear and a rainbow of fish was in abundance. They were on their way back to the bungalow when Francesca stopped and tugged at Liam’s arm.

  “Liam, stop. Look,” Francesca said, pointing out the television mounted above the cantina bar.

  It was the live coverage of Madeline Burch’s arraignment. Before they left, the video of her confession had played repeatedly at every news outlet, with ANS breaking the story. The media had jumped on the tale about her involvement in the hacking scandal after both Brandon Ames and Troy Hall agreed to testify against her. T
he news of her double life was just the icing on the ratings cake.

  For a moment, Francesca almost felt badly for Madeline. She looked awful. Orange was not her color. Going without her expensive hair coloring and extensions, she had mousy brown roots at the crown of her stringy, thin hair. Her last dose of Botox had faded away, as had her spray tan. Her colored contacts had been replaced with thick, prison-issued glasses. Several more pounds also had been added to her frame since their reception. There was no doubt that Angelica was Madeline Burch now.

  “The news is out,” Liam said as the news banner at the bottom changed. They couldn’t hear what was being said on the television, but the words scrolling at the bottom announced the breaking news that investigator Hayden Black had testified that Madeline was Graham Boyle’s secret, illegitimate daughter. Liam had told Francesca what he’d overheard during the argument at the reception, but her motivation for taking down Graham had been withheld from the press so far.

  “Wow,” Francesca said, shaking her head. “It’s just so sad. And senseless. How many lives were ruined just so she could get back at Graham for the way he treated her?”

  When she turned, Liam was pulling his phone out of his pocket. He had done well to unplug from the news world while they were on their honeymoon, but now that the news was out, all his journalistic buttons were being pushed.

  He unlocked his screen and started typing something, and then he stopped. He pressed the power button and slipped the phone back into his pocket.

  Francesca arched an eyebrow at him in surprise. “Really?” she asked.

  “I am sure the network and my employees have this story well in hand. And even if they didn’t, I am on my honeymoon. I couldn’t care less about Graham Boyle’s secret daughter.”

  He turned to face Francesca, snaked his arms around her waist and pulled her tightly against him. She melted into him, surprised to feel the firm heat of his desire pressed into her belly.

  “Right now,” he said with a wicked grin, “I’m more interested in making love to my wife.”

  *

  Keep reading for an excerpt from A Conflict of Interest by Barbara Dunlop