Between Marriage and Merger

by Karen Booth

  Prop, meet your date for the next three days, Mr. Tall, Suave and Smoking Hot. “How’d you get into the building?”

  “One of your neighbors was coming out. I didn’t want you to have to carry down your own bag.” Noah reached for her suitcase, his arm brushing her shoulder. “Ready?”

  Was she ready? An entire weekend of getting to look at him, hold hands with him, kiss him in front of other people, all while knowing it wasn’t real? There was no way this wasn’t going to leave a dent in her sense of self. “Yes.”

  “Got your ring?”

  She presented her hand, which seemed like the normal response, but he had to go and cup her fingers, lifting them for further inspection. “It really is stunning. It suits you.”

  As to whether he was inferring that she was also stunning or merely that it did its job in giving her the appearance of a woman of substance, Lily was unable to determine. She knew only that her heart pinged around in her chest. “It’s gorgeous.” You’re gorgeous. “Thank you.”

  Noah took her bag, Lily locked up and they made their way downstairs. His driver rushed over to them, taking Lily’s suitcase and placing it in the back of the car. She climbed inside, followed by Noah.

  “Won’t take us long to get out to Teterboro,” Noah said, referring to the small airport in New Jersey popular for private and corporate planes. “I hope it’s okay, but I need to make some work calls.”

  “Please. Go ahead.” This was perfect—he’d work and so could she. Lily sat back in her seat and opened her email on her phone. Her job was her ace in the hole. She didn’t question herself when it came to that.

  She responded to messages about several Locke and Locke projects, all commercial properties, one a renovation and the others new construction. One of Lily’s primary responsibilities was to communicate with the general contractors and make sure they were on schedule and on budget. It was the nuts and bolts of the entire operation and freed up Noah and Sawyer to focus on long-term strategy, including deals like Hannafort Hotels.

  She didn’t take Noah’s and Sawyer’s trust lightly. Crucial and sometimes sensitive information came across her desk every day. She appreciated that they had no qualms about trusting her with it. Now that she had a stake in the company, her job was even more important to her. If ever there was a reason to stay on the straight and narrow this weekend, that was it. Being Noah’s fake fiancée was simply another part of her job. Unconventional for sure, but if she looked at it like that, in three days, she’d have her nest egg, and an even bigger chunk of Noah’s and Sawyer’s confidence. As long as she kept her heart and her libido out of it, she’d be fine.

  They arrived at Teterboro and the driver pulled through the security gate back to where the Locke private jet was waiting. Charlotte and Michael were climbing the stairs to board. Lily had arranged for the jet a few times, but she had yet to go anywhere on it. Scenes like this had never been part of her life, although she’d sure read about them in books. As much as most stories came alive in her mind, living it was surreal. Everything was moving in slow motion.

  “Anything we need to go over before we get on the plane?” she asked, if only to keep herself wedged in reality.

  “About?”

  “You know. Us. We never had a conversation about getting our stories straight. You got called to that meeting after we bought my ring and I went shopping with Charlotte. Things in the office have been crazy the last few days. We haven’t talked about it at all.”

  “It’s pretty straightforward, isn’t it? You came to work for us and we became close and there was an attraction and one thing led to another.”

  This was not helping Lily keep her head in the game. Her mind was too drawn to the many memories of times she and Noah had flirted at work. He’d flash his green eyes at her and make a joke. She’d laugh and smack his arm. And then next thing she knew, she was fantasizing about ripping his shirt off. “That works.”

  “We know each other so well, I think we can fake our way through it pretty easily.”

  “Of course.”

  The driver opened the door and Noah climbed out. Lily scooted across the seat and looked up to see Noah put on his sunglasses. He turned and offered his hand. Her skin touching his instantly put her off her game. It led her mind in too many hopeful and delusional directions, but she would’ve been lying if she’d said she didn’t enjoy it. They walked across the tarmac, a stiff breeze blowing her hair from her face and rustling her coat. It was run-of-the-mill brisk weather for early April in New York, but she was glad for it. The crisp blast helped keep her wits about her. Noah kept rubbing the back of her hand with his thumb. He stopped at the bottom of the airplane stairs, letting her go first. Taking each step, she reminded herself to relax. She’d be fine once she was settled in her seat.

  The interior of the plane was straight out of a movie—pure luxury with white leather seats, white carpet and chrome accents. A flight attendant was hanging coats in a closet. The chairs were clustered in fours, pairs facing each other with a table in between. Charlotte and her husband, Michael, were seated across from Sawyer and Kendall. They all waved and said hi, but they quickly returned to their conversation. That left Lily and Noah to sit together across the aisle.

  The flight attendant breezed over. “Please, let me take your coats.” The woman hardly looked at Lily, her eyes were so trained on Noah. Lily was used to his effect on women. She endured it every day, although before they’d become fake engaged, she’d tried to think of it as a perk, not a test.

  “Want the window?” Noah asked.

  “Oh, sure.”

  Lily took her seat and Noah settled in next to her. Charlotte leaned across the aisle. “How’s the happy couple this morning?”

  “Great,” Noah responded. “Couldn’t be better.”

  Charlotte smiled. “Perfect. You look amazing in that dress, Lily.”

  Noah turned to Lily and in the light streaming in from the window, his eyes were especially entrancing. “Better than amazing. You look perfect.”

  Out of the corner of her eye, Lily could see the look on Charlotte’s face. It was exactly the same one she’d given her on the escalator at Saks. Noah was doing everything she’d said he would and Lily needed to prepare herself. At some point this weekend, Noah was going to make his move.

  * * *

  The flight time from New York to Key West was just under three hours—long enough for Noah to gain a full understanding of exactly how challenging this weekend was going to be. He not only had a front row seat to Lily in that mind-blowing dress, he had his siblings and their spouses watching. He could tell they were scrutinizing everything he and Lily did—talking and drinking champagne, chatting about work, Noah leaning closer to Lily when looking out the window on their approach into Key West. He hated it. They were all in love, they’d all found their soul mates, and they all knew he was faking it.

  The instant Noah stepped off the plane in Florida, the humidity and tropical breezes wrapped around him, and he had the most unexpected response. He relaxed. His spine got a little looser, and as he put on his sunglasses, he warmed his face in the sun. They weren’t in New York anymore. Noah hadn’t realized how much he’d been hating the city until the salt air filled his nose and his view became nothing more than palm trees rustling in the wind. He took Lily’s hand as they walked down the stairs, an action that had already become second nature. The timing was perfect. It was showtime.

  A black stretch SUV emblazoned with the Hannafort Hotels logo was waiting on the tarmac to take them for the hour-long drive to Key Marly, the private island where the newest Hannafort resort was located. Lily and Noah sat next to each other on one of the long cushy black leather seats.

  “I can’t wait to see Key Marly. It’s supposed to be incredible.” Charlotte folded up her sunglasses and placed them in their case. “Private cabanas with plunge pools and everything.”<
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  Sawyer eagerly nodded in agreement. “This wedding is a prime example of why we need to be working with Lyle. The man is a marketing genius. He rolls out his brand-new resort with a private sneak preview weekend for his closest friends and business associates.”

  “All while his daughter gets married on the company dime, I’m guessing.” Michael put his arm around Charlotte and tugged her closer.

  “Exactly,” Sawyer added.

  All Noah could think as he looked over his shoulder at an outside landscape of funky shops and restaurants, with peeks of pristine ocean stretches, was that Lyle might be a genius for an entirely different reason. This was paradise.

  When they arrived on Little Torch Key, they were taken to a gated dock where a gleaming white cabin cruiser was waiting. Luggage and passengers transferred, they skimmed through the calm crystal-blue water inside a luxury cabin with 360-degree views. The air-conditioning was a nice break from the heat and they were offered all manner of drinks and snacks by the attentive staff, but Noah was itching for a less contained experience.

  “Do you want to go stand out on the deck and look at the ocean?” he asked Lily.

  She nearly sprang out of her seat. “Yes.”

  As soon as they walked through the cabin doors, the sights, sounds and smells of untamed ocean took over, and Noah couldn’t have been any happier. “It was driving me crazy in there.”

  “Me, too. It’s way too beautiful to be sitting inside. I don’t know how anyone could stand to sit in there and listen to that horrible elevator music they were playing anyway.”

  “Yes. The music. Terrible.” Lyle might be a genius, but some aspects of his operation could stand some refining.

  Noah and Lily both leaned against the railing, wind and sun in their faces as the boat approached Key Marly, a dot of an island straight ahead, a thick stand of tropical trees and foliage atop a sliver of silvery sand. Noah couldn’t help but fantasize about Locke and Locke moving away from high-rises and into resorts. He could imagine an office on the beach, where he could take his laptop outside whenever he wanted, curl his toes into the sand and set up shop on a lounge chair. The best of both worlds. Of course, if he was working, he could only imagine it with Lily there, perhaps sitting right next to him, where they could discuss work and they could enjoy each other’s company as much as they did now.

  But could there be more between them? Could that dream scenario include things like love and romance? In his head, he wasn’t sure. He wanted to see himself like that, but his mind refused to make the leap. The whole thing seemed like nothing more than a fantasy. The risk of their romantic involvement was too great. Forget that his own brother and sister didn’t trust him not to break her heart, Noah didn’t trust himself. He knew that panicky feeling he got when things started to get serious. He had no idea how to ever ward it off and Lily deserved better.

  “It’s so ridiculously beautiful.” Lily peered down at the water as it rushed by.

  Noah watched her instead, unable to keep from noticing how sexy it was when she tucked her hair behind her ear to tame it. You’re so beautiful. He wanted to say it. He should say it. But he couldn’t toy with her heart. He couldn’t explain later that yes, he’d meant it, but he wasn’t capable of following through. “It really is, isn’t it?”

  “I can’t wait until we get there and I can take off these shoes and run around in my bare feet and stick my toes in the water.”

  “We’re supposed to have our own plunge pool if you want to cool off.” He suspected how ill equipped he was for the moment when he’d first see Lily in a bathing suit, but he couldn’t take the suggestion back now.

  “I vote for both ocean and pool if we can.”

  “I couldn’t agree more.”

  A few minutes later, the boat pulled up to the Key Marly Resort dock. A line of uniformed bellmen were on hand to take their bags. At the end of the gangway, Mr. and Mrs. Hannafort were waiting. Even from a distance, Lyle Hannafort was an imposing man. He was about as tall as Noah, who was six feet three inches, but Lyle’s broad frame was nearly twice as wide. He had a bowling ball bald head and a dark mustache. Lyle’s wife, Marcy, was hardly five feet tall, and slim. With a thick mane of raven hair and her signature bright red lipstick, in many ways Marcy made just as much of an impression as her husband.

  Noah and Lily were so excited to get to their cabana that they were first off the boat. He took her hand as they traversed the wood-planked surface, but her enthusiasm had turned to trembling. He leaned closer and whispered in her ear, inhaling a heady mix of her sweet perfume and ocean air. “We’re in this together. It’ll be okay.”

  She smiled up at him, sunglasses glinting in the sunshine, and squeezed his hand a little harder. “The dynamic duo.”

  Lyle Hannafort held out his hand to shake Noah’s. “Nice to see you, Noah. Is this the young lady I’ve heard about?”

  Noah didn’t particularly like the idea of presenting Lily as if she were some sort of prize, but that seemed to be what was warranted. “Yes, Lyle, I’d like you to meet Lily Foster, my fiancée.”

  “Good to meet you, Lily. This is my wife, Marcy.”

  Marcy glommed right on to Lily, grabbing both of her hands and craning her neck to make eye contact. “Lily, darling, I am so happy to meet you. Let me see that ring. I heard about it in the newspapers, you know. Lyle showed me the picture. We were so glad to hear your happy news. I told Lyle that I really hoped that awful tabloid story about Noah wasn’t true. I’m so glad to know they were just spreading rumors.”

  Noah wanted to hate that this had all started over a misunderstanding, but the truth was that if it hadn’t happened, Lily would be home right now and he’d be attending this wedding stag while he watched his siblings carry on with their happy coupled lives. Every time he looked at Sawyer and Charlotte, he wanted to think that it meant he could find that kind of partner someday, too, but it felt too much like confirmation that two of the three Locke kids had cheated their family’s marital curse and he’d better not press his luck.

  “Mrs. Hannafort, that was not the real Noah. I hope you know that.”

  Lily’s voice was as emphatic as could be, but Noah was stuck on her words. He was the guy in that video. They hadn’t said a single untrue thing. And maybe he was like his father, which he didn’t want to be. That left him even more convinced that he must be an absolute gentleman with Lily this weekend. They would put on the show of doting couple when they were in public, but in private? He would keep his hands to himself. He would sleep on the couch. On the floor, if needed. Lily would know exactly how much he respected her as a partner in Locke and Locke. She would know he revered her as a businessperson and a friend. He would suppress his more lustful feelings. He wouldn’t think about what it was like to kiss those petal-soft lips. He would try very hard to erase all memory of his hand on her thigh and his thumb rubbing across the lacy top of her stockings.

  Marcy patted Lily’s hand. “Of course that’s not the real Noah. And it doesn’t even matter, does it? You’re getting married. That’s all you need to think about right now.”

  Lily smiled thinly. “Yes. I know.”

  Married. Funny, but Noah had only thought about their arrangement in terms of being engaged. After this weekend and the deal was done, they’d quietly call it off.

  “I want you both to know that we’ve taken extra good care of our newly engaged couple for this weekend,” Marcy said.

  “Indeed we have,” Lyle added. “The staff knows to give you two the royal treatment. We don’t want you to miss out on a single romantic moment.”

  “That really isn’t necessary.” Noah cleared his throat when he realized how quickly he’d blurted his response. “I mean, thank you, but don’t go out of your way.”

  Lily elbowed him in the stomach. “It sounds truly lovely. Thank you so much.”

  Sawyer and Kendall wal
ked up behind them and Noah took the chance to get away. They followed a bellman along a circular wood-planked walkway, which had paths spoking off to the individual thatch-roofed bungalows. Off in the distance, in a clearing, was the larger main building of the resort, which was presumably where much of the wedding would take place.

  Noah and Lily were in bungalow eight. They entered a stone-tiled foyer that opened up into an expansive sitting room with high wood-beamed ceilings and a fan whirring overhead. On the coffee table in front of the sofa was a bottle of champagne on ice and a beautiful arrangement of tropical flowers in purple, orange and pink. There was even a note.

  Don’t forgot to put out the Do Not Disturb sign!

  Love, Marcy.

  “What does it say?” Lily plucked the card from his hand.

  It says that I’m in deep trouble. He only wished that he could put out the Do Not Disturb sign and leave it there for days. That would be a vacation.

  She smiled and put it next to the champagne bucket. “That was very thoughtful of her.”

  “Yes.”

  “Let’s check out the rest.” Lily led the way into the master bedroom. They both gasped when they stepped inside—through a full wall of accordion doors open to the ocean air was a small black-bottomed plunge pool surrounded by a lush garden. Beyond it was a full view of the stunning turquoise sea. The bedroom had a sprawling king bed with crisp white linens and mosquito netting draped overhead. “It looks like something out of a magazine or a movie. We can sleep with the windows open.”

  Noah nearly laughed. This place was perfect. If he were to take Lily somewhere to seduce her, this would be the ideal place. They wouldn’t even still be wearing clothes right now. The special allure of hotel sex was too great and in a setting like this? It would be impossible to not be in the mood. Too bad that wasn’t going to happen.

  “I can sleep on the couch out in the living room.” He stared at the bed, trying not to imagine Lily lying on it, waiting for him.