AN HEIRESS FOR HIS EMPIRE

by Lucy Monroe

His grin was knowing. “I saw little point in an exotic location when we are likely to spend most of our time in the bedroom.”

  Blushing, she ignored his assertion and shrugged into the burgundy-and-black color-blocked jacket someone had left out for her to wear. “I like Palm Springs.”

  In fact, the small resort city nestled in the California desert was one of Maddie’s all-time favorite places. She used to visit with her mother every winter. There were enough celebrities that vacationed there, the Archers of the world were barely a blip on the media’s radar.

  Maddie had continued to travel to the desert when she needed to get away from being Madison Archer, notorious heiress.

  Somehow, she thought Vik knew that.

  He smiled. “It is a good thing you are as intelligent as you are, or the amount of school you missed traveling with your mother would have been a real problem.”

  “She always brought a tutor along and got my assignments.”

  Vik’s expression turned heated. “I’ll be the only tutor you’ll need this week.”

  “After the last five weeks, and particularly last night, I’m pretty sure there isn’t much for you to teach me.”

  “You’ll be surprised.”

  Not “you could be” or “you might be,” but “you will be” surprised. The man had no shortage of confidence.

  And the following eight days proved how justified he was in that regard.

  True to his word, they spent a lot of time in the bedroom of their suite at an oasis-style resort outside of the city. However, Vik also insisted on visiting Maddie’s favorite spots, taking her to dine at some of the best restaurants in and around the city as well as shopping in the exclusive boutiques of top designers.

  Maddie, who had always considered her socialite side something of a necessary evil, enjoyed herself in ways she hadn’t in Palm Springs since Helene’s death.

  Vik was flatteringly enthusiastic about almost every article of clothing Maddie tried on, and even the growls that particularly revealing pieces elicited were flattering in their own way.

  They returned to San Francisco to a list of possible properties for the charter school that Vik had his real estate agent compile.

  Vik had too many things on his desk no one else could handle after a week’s absence to accompany Maddie and Romi when they toured the properties. But he asked detailed questions each evening about what Maddie had seen, proving the sincerity of his interest in the project.

  * * *

  Friday morning, Maddie got a text from her father’s assistant requesting she come to a meeting in his office that afternoon.

  She was supposed to do another tour of the property she and Romi had pretty much decided was the one for the school. Feeling magnanimous toward the world in general, even her father, Maddie called and rescheduled the tour before texting the PA that she would be at the meeting.

  Maddie was shown into her father’s office by his secretary, who surprisingly did not stay to take notes. So, it was a personal meeting?

  Only, why at his office?

  Her dad stood and came around from behind his desk. “Madison. I would like you to meet Dr. Wilson, the director for...” Jeremy named a well-known institution that specialized in psychiatric studies.

  It was then she noticed the other man in the room.

  Gray-haired and distinguished-looking in a suit of good quality, if not an Italian designer label, Dr. Wilson was sitting in one of the armchairs that sat opposite a matching leather sofa on the other side of her father’s office.

  He rose now and walked to Maddie, putting his hand out for Maddie to shake. “Madison. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

  “Thank you. I hope I can say the same.” Though she did not have a good feeling about this.

  Why did her father have a psychiatrist in his office for their meeting?

  “Let’s all sit down and get comfortable,” Dr. Wilson said, indicating he considered himself a key player in the meeting to come.

  The fact that her father followed the doctor’s lead without comment indicated he agreed.

  Maddie wasn’t feeling quite so acquiescent. She remained standing as her father took a position at one end of the sofa and the doctor returned to his leather armchair. “What is this about?”

  “Sit down, Madison, so we can discuss this like civilized people.”

  “Tell me what we are discussing first,” she demanded in a chilly tone she hadn’t used in weeks.

  Her father frowned. “You are being rude.”

  “And you are being cagey.” When it came to her father?

  Cagey was way worse than rude.

  “Do you see what I mean?” Jeremy asked the doctor. “Unreasonably intractable.”

  “You’ve asked Dr. Wilson here to evaluate me?” Maddie demanded, emotion cracking through the facade of cool before she reined it in.

  Surprisingly, her dad winced, but he nodded. “It has come to my attention that you’ve been seeing a therapist.”

  “I did for a few weeks, yes. Half of America has at one time or another.” And her choice to do so was a good thing, not a weakness.

  “That is actually a bit of an exaggeration,” Dr. Wilson said, like he was making note of Maddie’s tendency to overstate things. “The number is closer to twenty percent.”

  “Who told you I was seeing someone?” she asked Jeremy, ignoring the doctor.

  Vik wouldn’t have told him. He might not love Maddie, but he was her white knight. Vik would never sacrifice her to the king.

  “Does Vik know about this meeting?” she demanded.

  Her father gave her his game face. “What do you think?”

  “That you don’t want to answer my question.” She pulled out her phone.

  “Who are you calling?” Dr. Wilson asked, his tone overly patient.

  “My husband.”

  “You see? Shades of codependency and paranoia,” her father said.

  Maddie wanted to throw her phone at his head, but didn’t want to know what the psychiatrist would make of that. Vik’s phone sent her to voice mail.

  He must have been in a meeting.

  She left a message. “It’s me. Jeremy called me in for a meeting with a psychiatrist. I need to talk to you. Call me.”

  Dr. Wilson was watching her with an indecipherable expression. Her dad’s eyes were narrowed, but she wasn’t sure if it was with worry or annoyance.

  “So, you know I saw a therapist and you’ve brought Dr. Wilson here to observe me. Why?”

  “No one said I was here to observe you,” the doctor said.

  “No one said you weren’t.”

  Neither the doctor nor her father answered that.

  Finally, Jeremy said, “I’ve told Dr. Wilson my concerns about your increasingly erratic behavior over the years.”

  “And while I applaud your positive action in seeking help,” Dr. Wilson said, as if speaking to a child, or an adult whose reasoning ability was compromised, “I must concur with your father that your actions since your mother’s death indicate a spiraling condition.”

  “I do not have a condition.” What she did have was a brain and it was starting to work. “You aren’t going to prove me mentally incompetent to sign the paperwork giving Romi half of my shares in AIH. It’s not going to work.”

  Her father’s expression said he disagreed.

  Even more ominously, the doctor shook his head. “Signing such a document as the one your father described to me in and of itself is hardly a rational action.”

  “You think not?”

  “You think it is?”

  “I know it is and I also know what I do with my money and assets is not your business, Dr. Wilson, or for that matter, Jeremy Archer’s.”

  “You call your father by his first name. That indicates a level of dissociation to those closest to you.”

  Who was this guy? Popping off with psychobabble on the basis of nothing but her father’s obviously biased assertions and a few seconds conversation
was not in any way professional.

  “I’m closer to my cleaning lady than my father. In fact, I’m closer to his housekeeper than I am to him.” And that might have been an exaggeration, but she defied either of them to prove differently.

  The psychiatrist gave her a concerned look. “Your lack of emotional intimacy with your one remaining parent is certainly something we can explore together.”

  “Dr. Wilson, you are not and never will be my doctor. Now, if you two will excuse me.” She turned to leave the office.

  “Madison!” her father barked.

  She didn’t stop. He could leave whatever threat he wanted to make on her voice mail.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  MADDIE WAS IN the parking garage when her phone rang. Vik’s ringtone.

  She answered. “My father found out I was seeing a therapist.”

  “I didn’t tell him.”

  “I didn’t think you did.”

  “Good.”

  “I’m just...” Frustrated. Confused. Upset. “He wants to prove me incompetent to sign the papers giving Romi half my AIH shares.”

  “I had n—”

  “There’s something he didn’t think of, I bet,” she interrupted, not really hearing Vik.

  “What is that?” Vik asked, sounding both cautious and concerned.

  “If he gets a judge to say I wasn’t competent to sign those papers. I wasn’t competent to say my vows, either, and we aren’t married. What will that do his precious plans to marry me off to his heir?” she demanded.

  Vik made a sound like a growl. “That is not going to happen.”

  “I thought things were getting better with him.”

  “They are.”

  “If anyone has lost their mind it is him.”

  “I agree.”

  She nodded.

  “Madison?”

  “You’re on my side, right?” Vik wouldn’t support his mentor and friend in this, would he?

  “Of course. You are my wife and you are staying that way.”

  Because he wanted control of AIH. Because he wanted the future he planned with her. Right that second, Maddie wished desperately there was another, more emotionally compelling reason for Vik to insist their marriage stood in validity.

  Love.

  She needed her husband’s love. More than she wanted her father’s acceptance. A lot more.

  She couldn’t really care less about Jeremy sliding back into old habits. However, suddenly the knowledge that the man she loved more than her own life appreciated her feelings but didn’t share them hurt in a way she couldn’t ignore.

  “I need some time to think.”

  “What? Madison, where are you? I will come to you.”

  “No. I just...give me some time, Vik.” She ended the call and then turned off her phone.

  She didn’t want to talk to anyone. Not even Romi.

  Maddie got into her hybrid car—not exactly what an heiress might be expected to drive, but it was environmentally responsible—and drove to her favorite coffee shop/bookstore.

  How was she going to live the rest of her life in love with her husband and knowing he didn’t reciprocate her feelings. She didn’t know if it was couldn’t or wouldn’t, but it didn’t matter.

  Maddie hadn’t been to the coffee shop since before Perrygate, but she needed time to think and a place to do it in that Vik wouldn’t think to look.

  She got her usual order and took it to her favorite table positioned between a book stack and the window. Since the lower half of the window was painted with a mural that looked like old leather volumes on bookshelves, no one would see her from the outside.

  Not unless they got right up to the window and looked down.

  Her thoughts whirled in a mass of contradicting voices and images as her coffee cooled in its cup, but one idea rose to the surface again and again.

  Vik acted like a man in love.

  He couldn’t get enough of her sexually. Maddie’s happiness was very important to him. Given a choice, he always opted to spend time with her rather than away from her. He wanted her to be the mother of his children.

  Did the words really matter?

  She’d been doing fine without them to this point. But being thrown back into Ruthlessville by her father had undercut Maddie’s sense of emotional security.

  Did she really need Vik to admit he loved her for her to feel secure in her happiness with him?

  She still had no answer to that question when she heard her name spoken in a masculine tone she’d never planned to hear again.

  She looked up and frowned. “Go away, Perry.”

  “You don’t take my calls or respond to my texts.”

  He was surprised? “I blocked your number.”

  “I figured that out.”

  “You aren’t supposed to be talking to me.”

  “Nothing in the agreement that bastard you married got me to sign said I couldn’t talk to you, only about you.” Perry sounded really annoyed by that.

  “What did you expect?”

  He put on the wounded expression that had always gotten to her in the past. “I didn’t expect you to dump six years of friendship over one little mistake.”

  “It wasn’t the first time you lied to the media about us.” And that sad look wasn’t tugging at her heartstrings anymore.

  Perry jerked, like he hadn’t expected her to have worked that out. “It was all harmless. I needed the money. We aren’t all born with the silver spoon of Archer International Holdings to feed off of.”

  “Telling people I was a sexual addict who couldn’t be satisfied with a single partner wasn’t harmless. You destroyed my reputation.”

  “For exactly twenty-four hours. Viktor Beck saw to that.”

  “Conrad is good at what he does.”

  “Your dad’s media fixer? Yeah, I kind of expected him to get involved, but he’s a cuddly kitten compared to that vicious shark you married.”

  “Vik protected me when you fed me to the wolves. I’m not sure I’d label him the vicious one.”

  “You know I didn’t mean it.” Perry sounded like he really expected her to believe that.

  What a jerk. And this man had been one of her dearest friends for six years. “I knew you were lying, that’s not the same thing as knowing you didn’t mean it.”

  “I needed the money. You knew I did.”

  “And I refused to give it to you.” Which was what it all came down to, wasn’t it?

  “I asked for a loan. From a friend.”

  “When have you ever paid back even a single dollar of all the money you borrowed from me, Perry?” she demanded, the confrontation with her ex-friend unexpectedly bringing her current situation into clear and certain focus.

  Perry was that guy. The user. The manipulator. The prevaricator.

  Vik was her white knight. Full stop.

  He might never say the three little words she most wanted to hear, but she wasn’t going to spend the rest of her life lamenting that fact. Not when he gave her so much to rejoice about instead.

  “You can’t guarantee business investments.”

  “So now they were business investments.” She narrowed her eyes at Perry. “Where are my contracts showing the percentage ownership I had in those business ventures?”

  “We don’t need contracts between us.”

  She thought of the agreement Vik had forced Perry to sign. “Apparently, we do.”

  “Come on, Maddie. Call off your attack dog.”

  “Vik?”

  “Who else?” Perry did his best to look beseeching.

  “We aren’t friends anymore and we never will be again,” she spelled out very carefully.

  “This is because of Romi, isn’t it? She finally turned you against me.”

  “You turned me against you, Perry. You lied about me and did your best to destroy my reputation.”

  He’d gone back to looking wounded. “No.”

  “Yes. And if you’d succeeded, my dreams of
starting a charter school would have been dust.” At least with her name on any of the paperwork.

  Perry shrugged. “San Francisco doesn’t need another school.”

  His ability to dismiss the dreams of her heart so easily took her breath away. “I don’t agree.”

  “Well, it didn’t happen.”

  “No thanks to you.”

  “Hey, I went public with an apology and a confession that it was all a joke.”

  Did he expect her to thank him? “But it wasn’t a joke. It was a big ugly lie. Nothing even a tiny bit amusing about that.”

  “Come on, Maddie. You have to forgive me.”

  “Yes, for my own sake. I have to let it go.”

  Triumph flashed in Perry’s washed-out blue eyes. “We can be friends again and forget about that agreement Viktor forced me to sign.”

  “No.”

  “But—”

  “No one forced you to sign anything. You signed that agreement of your own volition because you didn’t want to risk being sued by both AIH and the tabloid you sold that story to.”

  Maddie’s head snapped up at Vik’s voice. What was he doing here? How had he found her?

  He stood like an avenging angel over Perry. “You are not my wife’s friend. She’s convinced you were at one time, but that time passed long before this latest incident.”

  “Who do you think you are to—”

  “I am the man who will ruin you if you come near my wife again.” His jaw hewn from granite, Vik’s eyes burned with dark fury.

  Perry put his hands up. “No problem. Look, I just thought we could still be friends, but I can see you’re not comfortable with that.”

  “I’m not comfortable with it,” Maddie inserted. “Stop blaming other people for your screwup, Perry. You destroyed our friendship and Vik is right, that started a long time ago.”

  “But, Maddie...”

  She shook her head. “No. We’re over. If you see me at a function, walk the other way because I don’t want to talk to you anymore.”

  “We aren’t going to be at the same functions,” he said bitterly.

  Maddie didn’t bother to reply. That was Perry’s problem, not hers.

  “Are you going to leave, or will you force me to call the police to enforce the restraining order we have against you?”

  “I’m leaving,” Perry said quickly, backing out of the alcove.