Billionaire's Bride

by Eden Proctor

  The most sexy too.

  That was the real surprise to him.

  Mindy was gorgeous. He couldn’t quite put his finger on why, but he didn’t think she thought so. He did, though. She had a strong prettiness, a tough, no-nonsense vibe that Nate liked. And that came in a package that had pleasures all its own.

  He immediately envisioned her, her sweetly curved body, the wide, intense eyes, her succulent mouth.

  Yeah, Mindy was pretty much a knockout in his book, and he’d thought so the first time he’d met her. But he didn’t often think about that, or hadn’t until today. He respected her for what she did and knew that she was completely off-limits because she’d never given him a hint that she did more than tolerate him.

  But tonight had been something of a revelation.

  Even after she had turned him down, he had been intrigued by her, wanted to spend more time with her. He couldn’t think of many people he could say that about, certainly not the first woman he’d planned to propose to today.

  Maybe it was the surprise emotions of the day, but whatever it had been, Mindy had gotten under his skin, and he couldn’t shake his thoughts of her.

  She’d be a good companion, would make the fake marriage at least tolerable.

  More than tolerable.

  Today had given him a chance to see the chemistry he and Mindy shared in a different light. He’d promised not to raise the topic again, but maybe he hadn’t had the right approach. Maybe if he painted a picture of the intangible benefits, ones that involved him and Mindy naked and getting to know each other much, much better, he’d have a chance to change her mind.

  His cock thought that was a good idea, and had his brain more than halfway convinced before he talked himself out of it. Mindy had made her position clear, and he would respect that.

  Too bad, he thought as he drifted off to sleep. They could have had a hell of a time.

  Chapter 8

  “Have you reconsidered?” Nate asked the next morning.

  Gordon’s laugh was more informative than actual words would have been. Nathaniel heaved a sigh of frustration and then stood, needing to do something with the excess energy that was flowing through his body.

  So he started to pace, but kept his eyes on his grandfather, who seemed far too amused for Nathaniel’s comfort.

  “I guess that means you haven’t,” Nate said.

  “I told you my concerns yesterday. Has anything happened in the last twenty-four hours that would change them?” Gordon replied.

  “No,” Nate shook his head, “nothing’s changed. I just hoped you’d see reason.”

  While it wasn’t entirely true that nothing had changed, Nate kept that to himself. He didn’t think his grandfather would appreciate his newfound affection for Mindy, and he knew the old man wouldn’t appreciate Nate looking for a way around his ultimatum.

  But since Mindy had turned him down, he’d had few other options. Yesterday he had dismissed the idea of trying to change Gordon’s mind, but today, he had gone to see the man first thing, convinced he could make some headway.

  And had gotten exactly nowhere.

  “Grandfather, I don’t understand why you’re doing this,” Nate said, his exasperation clear in his voice.

  He was annoyed by his grandfather’s meddling, but he was also hurt by how little the old man respected him.

  Always perceptive, Gordon seemed to sense that hurt, and his stony expression softened.

  “I’ll admit, it might be a little…extreme. But I don’t know of any other way to make you see reason,” his grandfather said.

  “See reason? What have I done that’s so terrible?”

  “Nothing. Not yet. I overlooked your dalliances because, believe it or not, I was a young man once.”

  Nate choked out a laugh and sputtered, not necessarily wanting to think back to Gordon’s hell-raiser days, but remembering the stories his grandmother had told him.

  “So I heard. Which means you should understand that just because I have an active life doesn’t mean I don’t care about the business.”

  “I do understand. But time is short,” Gordon said, his voice softening.

  Nate frowned, then looked at his grandfather, alarmed. “What happened? Have you been to the doctor recently?”

  The old man shook his head, seeming to dismiss the topic at hand. “What would I go to the doctor for? So they can tell me I’m old?”

  Nathaniel didn’t laugh at Gordon’s obvious attempt at humor that was certainly designed to change the subject. “Grandfather, if you’re not feeling well…”

  “I feel fine. But when I was referring to time, I was talking about you,” his grandfather said.

  Nate frowned. “Why?”

  “I lost your grandmother far too soon,” Gordon said.

  Nate could see the regret and sadness that came over the other man as he thought about her. His grandfather was not overly affectionate, didn’t very often show his feelings, but there had never been any doubt as to his love for his wife, or hers for him. She had gone far too soon, and though it had been almost twenty years now, Nate knew his grandfather had never gotten over her loss.

  “We didn’t start out as a love match,” his grandfather said.

  Nathaniel frowned deeper and then went back to sit next to the old man. “I didn’t know that,” he said.

  The connection between his grandparents, the unwavering affection that had flowed between them had always been clear to Nate.

  “By the time you got here, that was long past, but our marriage wasn’t one of love. It wasn’t exactly arranged, but it was…expedient.” Gordon nodded. “Yes, expedient. But it became so much more.”

  He processed the information and tried to reconcile what his grandfather said with what he’d seen of them. Then he looked at his grandfather, still confused by what this all meant.

  “What does this have to do with me?” he asked.

  “I want you to find happiness like I did.”

  “You know there’s no guarantee I will, right, Grandfather?” Nate whispered.

  And he meant it, because even though he planned to have a family, he would never try to mirror the marriage between his grandparents, knew that theirs was a rare connection.

  “No, maybe not. But you’ll never find out if you spend all your time running from anything like permanence. I gave you ample time to do it yourself, and now I have to force your hand,” his grandfather said.

  “No, you don’t,” Nate replied.

  Gordon shook his head. “Yes, I do. I want to see you settled, know that you aren’t going to be all by yourself when I’m gone. You don’t seem to be too interested in making that happen, and I’m not going to sit by and let the time pass.”

  “Grandfather, forcing me to marry someone, and within four weeks, no less, makes it more likely that I’m not going to find someone decent.”

  His grandfather laughed. “No, I think it’s exactly the opposite. You’re best under pressure,” he said.

  Nate looked at the old man, marveling. He really did believe what he was saying, and Nate knew there was no changing his mind. Still, he needed final confirmation. “So you’re not going to change your mind?”

  “Not a chance. You have four weeks, and the clock is ticking,” his grandfather said.

  “Grandmother wouldn’t have approved of this, you know?” Nate said.

  “That’s where you’re mistaken, Nathaniel. Your grandmother was a sweet, gentle woman, but she had ice in her veins when it came to getting her way, and she would have wanted you to settle down as much as I do. Compared to her, I’m a softie,” he said.

  They both laughed at the thought, and Nate thought back to his grandmother, more than halfway sure that what Gordon said was right.

  He stood when the old man did, nodded when he patted Nate on the shoulder. He was taller than Gordon, but even though he carried signs of age, the man’s formidable nature was undeniable.

  “You’ll figure it out, Nathan
iel,” his grandfather said.

  Nate watched as the old man walked away, saddened and even more determined.

  He would figure it out.

  Somehow.

  Chapter 9

  Mindy hid out all morning, stalling and hiding and trying to avoid Nate.

  But, by afternoon, she found herself headed toward his office, mostly just to prove to herself that she wasn’t a coward. There was no reason for her to be so on edge anyway. She’d made herself clear, and he wouldn’t raise the topic again, so she had nothing to worry about.

  Still, she had been reluctant to see him and jittery as all hell, which was quite a departure for her. Even when she had realized the depth of her feelings toward Nate, she’d been able to push them aside and not allow them to interfere with her work.

  She would do the same now, but as she walked toward his office on shaky knees, she knew it would be much, much harder this time. It was one thing to secretly harbor feelings that she knew would never go anywhere. It was another altogether to have him propose to her and then pretend like nothing happened.

  The proposal wasn’t real, and she knew it was simply a part of his attempt to stay in his grandfather’s good graces, but that didn’t change the fact that even the very thought of it was one that made her happy, and those feelings were dangerous.

  When she reached his door, she breathed deep and put on her most businesslike facade.

  “Nate, you got a minute?” she said when she stepped into his doorway. She didn’t march right in like she usually did, and she was sure Nate noticed.

  He didn’t say anything, though, and instead nodded. “Sure, Mindy.”

  She walked as she normally would have, kept her eyes on his face as she normally would have, but inside she was a flurry of emotions. And from Nate’s expression, she wasn’t the only one.

  He seemed a little tired, some of his usual energy and cheer muted, and she was instantly concerned. Tried to push that concern down as soon as it came up. This wasn’t her problem. He wasn’t her problem. She needed to keep her concern to herself.

  “I have those documents for you,” she said, her voice strong but stilted.

  He took the file and began flipping through it.

  “You want to talk now, or should I come back later?” she asked.

  He stopped, looked up at her with a grin spreading across his face.

  “What?” she asked.

  “You trying to handle me with kid gloves now, Mindy?” he asked.

  “Kid gloves?” she sputtered.

  “How long have you been working with me?” he asked.

  “Little under seven years,” she responded automatically, not sure what direction he was headed.

  He nodded. “And in that entire seven years, you’ve never asked if I had a moment. You just barge in and plop down with the full expectation that I’ll drop whatever I’m doing.”

  She looked down, then looked up at him, shaking her head. “Nathaniel, I do not plop,” she said.

  He laughed then, the rich sound soothing to her ears, making her think that he might be okay after all.

  “Welcome back, Mindy. But to answer your question, yes I do have time. In fact I was planning to come find you,” he said.

  “And who has the kid gloves now? In the seven years I’ve worked here, you’ve never come to find me,” she said.

  And he hadn’t. It was a part of their pattern, one where Mindy sought him to discuss this matter or that. It had much more significance now, but she tried to ignore that, pretend that she hadn’t even thought of it.

  “Well I’m glad we can both recognize those changes, and will make sure we do our best to avoid them. Wouldn’t want to rock the boat too much,” he said.

  “Agreed,” she replied.

  “So, how do you think we should approach this?” he asked as he began flipping through the documents.

  Mindy threw herself into the discussion, her mind completely focused on the deal. She loved this part of her work, thinking of novel solutions to problems, ways to close transactions that looked hopeless. And it didn’t hurt that her work always managed to absorb her completely, give her an outlet and distraction that little else did.

  “I can see the merits of the plan. But what about regulations?” Nate asked.

  He looked at her, his own eyes more intense than they were previously. He also threw himself into his work, could get absorbed in a deal, and it was the one area where she knew they were equals, one where she knew they both thrived.

  “Well, my thought was—”

  The buzz of his intercom interrupted her.

  “One second,” he said.

  He picked up the phone and answered. He didn’t sound impatient, not exactly, but Mindy knew he hated being interrupted when he was in the middle of a brainstorming session. This was more than that, though. She watched his strong hand grip the phone, his thick fingers squeezing tight before he relaxed them. And by the time he hung up the phone, she could see the annoyance on his face.

  “Can we pick this up later?” he asked.

  He sounded grim, and Mindy looked at him with concern. But she kept her concerns to herself, didn’t ask him any questions.

  “Yeah. I’ll come back in a couple of hours,” she said.

  She stood then, started to leave his office, wondering at the change. Was this about the proposal? Her stomach dropped, reminding her that she couldn’t let herself think about that. Nate was simply a colleague, nothing more.

  As she walked away from his office, she looked at the elevator doors as they pulled open.

  The woman who stepped out of them was gorgeous by any standard, and instantly Mindy knew she was there to see Nate, something that surprised her. Nate’s antics were well-known, but he never brought them to the office, at least not that she could recall.

  Mindy watched as the woman strolled from the elevator toward Nate’s door, moving with confidence that said she knew exactly how to get there.

  Almost instantly, Mindy realized that this was also the woman he had planned to propose to before her. And now that Mindy had turned him down, it made sense that he would go back to his first choice.

  As Mindy watched the woman, she felt her heart drop further.

  She was here for Nate, would take him up on the offer that Mindy had turned down. She told herself that she was prepared for it, that there was no other alternative, but that admonition did nothing to push back the thud of her heart and burn in her chest.

  Mindy was moving before she realized it, and followed the woman to Nate’s office.

  She was above eavesdropping, or at least she had been ten minutes before, but something compelled her to move forward. Maybe it was some perverse masochism, or maybe she needed to see fully, in finality, that she needed to let her feelings go once and for all.

  Whatever the reason, she again moved toward Nate’s door.

  Chapter 10

  Nate stood at his office door, waiting impatiently, ready for this to be over.

  He was angry that Dahlia had shown up unannounced, but he bit that anger back. He had stood her up last night, and he figured he owed her a personal apology.

  So he’d give her that. He’d also make it very clear that she should never come here again.

  Even if he gave in to his grandfather’s ultimatum, Dahlia would never be his wife. He made a mental note to have his assistant send her a bracelet, and once that was done, Nate would never think of her again.

  When Dahlia turned into his office, Nate took her in. Today she was dressed almost demurely, the navy blue dress not revealing as much cleavage as normal. It was a good look for her, but it didn’t move him in the slightest.

  In fact, when he looked at her all he felt was annoyance that she had interrupted his conversation with Mindy, and an eagerness to send her on her way.

  “Dahlia, why are you here?” he asked.

  Not exactly the smoothness that he would have usually employed, but with every second that passed his im
patience increased. And besides, they were beyond the point of niceties.

  She frowned slightly, but recovered. “I missed you last night,” she said.

  Doubtful, but he chose not to point that out to her.

  “Sorry. I was busy,” he said.

  She looked at him, the skepticism clear on her face. And when he looked in her eyes he saw that predatory gleam again, felt a moment’s concern.

  “Busy? Is that all?”

  He nodded. “Yeah. The driver took you home?” he asked.

  “Yes,” she said.

  “Good. I’m busy now, so…”

  She frowned, then stepped a little closer to him.

  “I went back to the restaurant,” she said.

  He took a step back, not wanting to be any closer to her than necessary.

  “What are you talking about?” Nate said.

  “I got into the club, not that I ever doubted I would,” she said. “But when you didn’t show up, I went back to the restaurant. I saw you with her.”

  The way Dahlia’s expression twisted as she said the word “her” left no doubt as to which “her” Dahlia meant, and what exactly she thought of her. Nate wanted to come to Mindy’s defense, but didn’t. Dahlia wasn’t worth the words.

  “Then you saw I was busy—”

  “I heard you, too,” she said.

  Nate again saw the calculation in her eyes, but he ignored it, still anxious for her to be gone.

  “Dahlia, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “You’re going to try to deny it? I heard what you were talking about with her. About having to get married. That’s why you asked me to dinner last night,” she said.

  Nate wanted to curse, but he kept himself calm, direct.

  “I don’t know what you think you overheard, but it’s time for you to leave,” he said.

  “No, we have some things to hash out. Your little friend turned you down cold, but I’m more than happy to take her place,” Dahlia said.

  That would never happen, and again Nate wanted to kick himself for even considering it.

  “Dahlia…”