No way was he going to use her just to keep his company. She would get off this boat, even if she had to jump off and swim.
He must have seen she was half thinking about running for it.
He took her elbow. She hated herself for the way heat spiraled through her at his touch. She didn’t want to feel anything for him, knowing the way he thought of her.
“Yes, excuse us for a moment,” he said, glaring down into her eyes. “We have a few things to discuss, don’t we, sweetheart?” He gave her a grim smile, without any humor.
Kate clenched her teeth. As much as she liked the idea of running, she thought dryly, the water was too cold and she wasn’t the best swimmer. With a resigned sigh, she allowed him to lead her away––still virtually, his captive.
Once they were out of sight, he dropped her arm as if she were something too hot to handle.
She whirled on him. “What’s this about? You abhor me. Have you lost your mind?”
“That’s the point. I’m not crazy. This is about revenge.”
Tears burned the backs of her eyes. She’d had enough. “Now you want to marry me to get even with me?”
“Not a chance,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest. “Do you think I want to tie myself to someone like you, but this will be your payment to me, princess. You owe me for not hauling you off to jail. Although I do appreciate your sincere comment to my grandfather about me loving the company.” He rolled his eyes.
She raised her chin. So he had overheard. “I meant that. But I won’t marry you under these circumstances.”
“Ah, but you were willing to before?”
“I wasn’t trying to trap you into marriage! But you won’t listen—”
Backing her against a railing, he put both hands on either side of her, trapping her with his body. “You were hotter in the sack than any woman I’ve ever met. You were after something.”
He must have thought better of being so close to her because then he swore under his breath and stepped back. “Listen, I only intend for us to have a short engagement, just long enough to prove to my grandfather that I don’t need to be married to have a stable enough life to run the company.”
“You’d lie to your grandfather? And with what you think of me, why should I agree to do this? And you think I’m a liar. What makes you also think I’ll keep my word if I agree to this?”
He raised a dark eyebrow. “Because I hold the upper hand in this case. ‘Pretend engagement’ or jail… It shouldn’t be a hard choice.” Then he nodded toward the lounge area at the back of the boat. “Now let’s go and give the best performance of our lives and pretend we’re a happy couple.”
“You’re unbelievable, and you think I’m a scammer,” she muttered.
Gritting her teeth, she followed him back to the table. Cecilia was not there, and neither was Eden or Blake.
“Eden’s consoling Cecilia down below.” Trent’s grandfather waved them over to sit with him. “The girl thought you were going to marry her, but I’m happy with your choice.”
They sat. Trent put his arm around Kate and squeezed her shoulders. She frowned up at him. Damn that wasn’t gentle—he’d obviously intended for the squeeze to be too hard. When he forced a smile toward her face, her heart shredded. She returned a weak smile of her own, still very aware of how much he despised her.
Trent secured Kate’s hand in his. “We’re engaged. She just has to pick out a ring to make it official.”
Frank strode onto the deck. “Cecilia is taking this badly.”
“Sorry to hear that,” James said, raising his glass of ice water in salute. “But I have happy news. Trent and Kate will be married.” He smiled. “So Frank, it looks like I won’t be selling to you after all.”
“What?” Blake sputtered. “B-but—”
“As soon as the nuptials take place, I’m turning the company over to Trent. Now if Trent reneges on the wedding, I’ll sell to you Blake. You have my word that we’ll sit down and negotiate a deal.”
Blake’s tanned face reddened as if his head would explode.
Kate glanced at Trent. On the exterior, he appeared calm, but his hand tightened on hers. His grandfather’s face seemed to say ‘Don’t bamboozle a bamboozler.’
James calmly turned to Kate. “I couldn’t be happier that you’ll be my granddaughter-in law. You may call me grandpa now, dear. I’ll arrange for a minister to perform the ceremony in two weeks.”
“We don’t want to rush things,” Trent said. He looked to Kate for support.
“Yes, Mr. Farrington…grandpa. I’d love a big wedding…but one like that takes time. Uh, I’ll need a good six months, or perhaps a year to plan.”
“I never believed in long engagements. You made the decision. Now, go through with the marriage. Trent, make an honest woman out of this lovely young woman before someone else does.”
Kate’s face heated. Obviously, there weren’t many secrets around Mr. Farrington. Did he know about their weekend in Key West?
Under her lashes, she glanced at Trent. Had he thought with his grandfather being so sick that they might not have to take this step if the engagement was a long one? He’d said he planned to take back the proposal once he proved to his grandfather that he could run the company without a wife…
Trent’s plan for a long engagement had backfired. He returned a shuttered gaze and squeezed Kate’s hand. “My lovely bride-to-be and I have a few more issues to discuss. Come with me, sweetheart.”
With her hand clasped tightly in his, they once again returned to the railing on the other side of the yacht. He released his grasp immediately, indicating that holding her hand had only been for show.
“I know what we can do,” she said in an excited whisper as the thought occurred to her. “We’ll stage a fight just before the wedding. I’ll break it off. Then he can’t blame you.”
Trent shook his head and scowled. “No. As wonderful as your acting skills are, and as good as you are at conning people, he’ll still blame me.”
She narrowed her eyes. “You don’t have to get nasty. I was trying to help.”
“We may have to go through with this wedding. It might be the only way.”
“No,” she said, shaking her head in disbelief. “You hate me. Marry Cecilia.”
“Unfortunately, you’re the only one I can divorce. I don’t want to hurt Cecilia.”
“But me?”
He gave her a look that crushed her. “You can’t be hurt. You have no feelings.”
Her throat seemed to close and tears sprang up in her eyes. “No, Trent, I do have feelings. I’m not what you think, and you can’t force me to marry you just to use me. I won’t do it.”
“Oh, no?” He backed her against the railing. “I’ll have you prosecuted, starting tomorrow. It’s a serious crime practicing as a doctor when you aren’t one.”
The blood drained from her face. “But I want to be a psychologist. I plan to finish. This would destroy any chance for a career…”
He glanced away. “You’re right. You’ll never get your real license. And you’ve been in trouble before. It won’t look good for you with the police.”
“You’d do that to me? You’d ruin my life?” she rasped.
“Kate, you had no qualms about using me in the worst way a woman can use a man—and I need to use you now. Fair’s fair. To keep me from being fleeced, you’ll sign a prenuptial agreement. Look, I’ll throw in $200,000 for each year of marriage. You couldn’t make that anywhere else—honestly.” She stiffened at his dig. “You’ll be well-paid for your services.” He flung it like an insult.
Her cheeks stung in return, and her legs nearly gave out. “With the way that you feel about me, I won’t sleep with you.”
He grabbed her arm to hold her up. “Ah, you mistook my meaning, princess. Look, as delectable as I might have found you before I knew what you were, I’ve no intention of sleeping with you again either. You’re safe from me.”
“How long would this marriage last?”
she croaked.
“As short as possible—and two years at the most—just to make it look legitimate. Then we’ll divorce. That’s all I’m asking.”
Her shoulders slumped in defeat. Two years with a man who hated her? A man she loved… He really planned to go through with this. How would she stand being near him? She had cared for him and each day he’d be tearing her apart more and more.
“When we finally get a divorce, how will you break the news to your grandfather?” she finally choked out.
“He’s so ill… I hope he makes it, but when the time comes, I’ll tell him we’re not getting along. I’ll also confide in him that you’d previously had a hysterectomy without telling me until after we were married. Believe me, he’ll be glad we’re divorcing if he thinks you can’t have children.”
She rolled her eyes. “Nice. He’ll hate me, too. And I never thought you could be so ruthless and heartless.”
He shrugged. “Sometimes it’s necessary. In exchange, I’ll let you go with all your good qualities intact.” He released her arm and let his gaze rove over her body as if she were something reprehensible. “You’re used to con schemes. This should be easy money for you.”
“I hate you.” She didn’t mean what she said. She loved him, but anger caused her words to slip out.
“The feeling is mutual,” he said as he turned to go back to the lounge area.
The blood drained from her face because she knew he meant it.
CHAPTER TWENTY
A week later, Trent called Kate to his office. “For appearances sake, we’ll take a weeklong trip out of town,” he suggested.
She frowned, surprised he’d want to be anywhere near her.
At her raised eyebrows, he added, “Not together.”
Her shoulders drooped. “Of course.”
“And after lunch, I’ve scheduled an appointment for us with my attorney.”
They met at his lawyer’s office for the meeting regarding their prenuptial agreement for this marriage that he’d blackmailed her into.
Even though Trent had suggested she should have her own representation, she shook her head. “I don’t have an attorney. I’ll sign away my right to one.”
“I can get one of my partners down the hall to represent you,” his lawyer said. Another lawyer was quickly brought into the room.
Glancing at the contract, Kate frowned when her gaze fell on a certain line in the agreement.
“Yeah, that’s right,” Trent said. “If anything should happen to me, my assets will be split between charities and my family—not you.”
Tired of his constant attempts to hurt her and his accusations against her character, she shrugged numbly. She didn’t care about making money. However, if Trent died and Roland was in line to inherit money, there was more reason for Roland to make that happen—at Trent’s expense.
“Here’s what you get.” Trent pointed to a line in the contract. “You’ll receive $200,000 for each year––upon the breakup of the marriage.”
Kate jerked her head toward Trent’s attorney. “Mr. Smith, please strike that sentence. I don’t want any money allocated for me in the prenup.”
Trent raised a skeptical eyebrow. “She’ll take it. Of course she wants the clause.”
She clamped her arms over her chest. “No,” she insisted, “I don’t.”
“Could we have a moment alone?” Trent asked the attorneys.
After the lawyers left the room, so they could settle their dispute, Trent grumbled, “I’m not insisting on this for your sake, Kate. My attorney said if you don’t take something in the agreement, it might invalidate the prenuptial.”
“Oh,” she said her shoulders sagging. “But really, I don’t want anything from you.” He cast her a suspicious glance. Damn him. He wanted to think the worst of her, so let him. “Then when this farce is over, Trent, I’m going to give the money to the Children in Crisis Center.”
“Right,” he said, rolling his eyes.
She blew out an exasperated breath. “If you don’t believe me, suit yourself.” She skimmed through the prenuptial. “Thank you for the future donation to the Center,” she said firmly as she signed on the signature line. “They can always use the money for the children.”
And Trent had his ironclad agreement so she couldn’t fleece him––that was what he thought of her character.
* * *
A week later, the weekend after Thanksgiving, the wedding ceremony was to be held in a small chapel.
Kate hadn’t slept any the night before, so her skin looked pasty white when she’d looked into the mirror that morning and applied makeup. The blush didn’t help. Instead, it seemed garish against the pretty ivory cocktail-length dress and her pale face, so she wiped off most of the makeup.
Before the ceremony, Trent’s grandfather seemed concerned when he took in her appearance. He patted her hand. “Come on, honey, smile. I promise you that you and my grandson will be good together. You’ll have lots of babies, too.”
She mustered up a smile for his sake, but guilt ground into her stomach at the deceit they played on him by going ahead with this sham of a marriage.
Kate couldn’t stop trembling as she stood beside her soon-to-be husband. Darcy and Greg stood in as their best man and maid of honor. Since Kate didn’t have family, a private affair was fine with her. However, this wasn’t the wedding of her dreams where love flowed between a man and a woman.
In Trent’s family, only James and his Aunt Vera sat in the pews.
Although Mrs. Farrington wanted Cecilia for Trent’s bride, Kate couldn’t believe she wouldn’t attend her only child’s wedding. However, Eden came in at the last minute and sat in the back row of the church.
Kate met Trent at the front of the church. He wore a dark suit and looked incredibly handsome. Instead of devotion, her groom gave her a cool glance as if he despised her, and she nearly began to cry again.
Her fingers were stiff and cold when he took her hand in his warm palm. He smelled so good, and all male. From his shuttered gaze, she couldn’t tell if he was nervous too. After the vows, he kissed her—she knew for appearances’ sake. He pressed his warm lips to her cold ones just long enough to satisfy his grandfather. But this wasn’t real and she thought she might cry. If Trent had ever had any feelings for her, they had crystallized to disgust.
Swallowing the despair that threatened to overwhelm her, she lifted her chin and walked out of the chapel ahead of Trent who assisted his grandfather.
* * *
After the tiny wedding reception at James Farrington’s mansion, she drove alone to Key West and spent the next agonizing week alone in a hotel that Trent had booked for her. She spent most of her time wondering where her new husband was and if he thought of her at all.
Thankfully, he’d chosen a hotel on the newer part of the island for her. To stay where they had once made reckless love would have been excruciatingly painful. Perhaps, on his part, he didn’t want her to dwell on their weekend at the older Victorian hotel either.
She had no idea where he went for the week. Trent was, after all, her employer—which was how he treated her now—not as any loving husband would.
During her stay in Key West, she made two decisions. The first was no matter what happened, she wouldn’t lie to him ever again. The second, she’d make the most of her time left with the company, and track down the saboteur. If not Roland, her other instincts pointed to Frank Blake.
Had Blake given up trying to buy the company now that she and Trent were married and it looked like he would take control? Now, with the hope of heirs, it was unlikely James Farrington would sell, no matter how many times Blake tried to wreck the company’s reputation. So maybe his scare tactics would cease. Perhaps Trent thought the same.
Since the wedding, the only contact she had with him was an email to ask her if she’d arrived at the hotel and that he wanted her to email him everyday to let him know her status. For a moment, she’d thought he might care just a bit, but
then reality set in. He was probably protecting her as his investment.
On her return drive from the Florida Keys to Fort Lauderdale, Kate wondered if Trent would allow her to remain in her own house. If only she could go to her own home, she thought she could begin to heal from the devastating pain that she’d brought on herself.
Or would he think it necessary for her to live somewhere near him to maintain their front? Hopefully not. Her emotions were too raw, and it was better for her if she saw him as little as possible. She was sure he’d want it that way, too.
With the week up, she hadn’t tried to call to let him know she was on her return to Fort Lauderdale. And since he hadn’t made other suggestions on her living arrangements, she pulled into her driveway, assuming she’d be staying in her own home.
The only thing good about the situation was he had said before she’d left for the trip that she could keep working in the offices. Of course, even if he stayed out of her face, she was sure he’d watch her every move. He didn’t trust her enough to leave her alone.
* * *
On her first day back at the office, wearing her frumpiest brown suit, thick glasses and tight bun, Kate sat at her desk and opened her briefcase.
Darcy strode through the doorway. “I’m glad to see you. I’d say something about your appearance—but I don’t think you need to hear it from me.”
Kate nodded. “Thanks.”
“I thought you might have skipped town—permanently.”
Kate shrugged. “I wanted to leave. Thought about it, too,” she said with a wane smile.
“Did you tell Trent everything?”
“I haven’t seen him since the wedding. He refused to listen to me.”
Kate hated to admit even to Darcy that she had tried at the small reception, when they’d had a moment alone on their wedding day. Trent was in a bad mood the entire day. He put his finger on her lips. “I don’t want to hear one word.” He had turned and walked away.
Kate’s cheeks burned at the memory that he thought she was nothing but a liar. She began checking her emails. “I’m sure I must have a lot of work to do after being away.” Trent had given her back her duties, but any decisions she made had to be under his complete supervision.
Disguised with the Millionaire (Dangerous Millionaires Series Book 2) Page 26