The Hot Lawyer (A Romance Love Story) (Hargrave Brothers - Book #4)

by Alexa Davis

  "Um, okay, I'll put these out and you can bring me the rest," I repeated dumbly as I backed out of the room and headed for the display case. I silently cursed myself for being so awkward and stupid as I arranged the boxes in the displays. Max brought out the rest of the boxes and set them on the end of the counter before turning and heading to the office. He didn't say a word.

  The awkwardness lingered until a man in a very expensive Isaia suit rang the doorbell and was buzzed in. He crossed the floor and approached me. "Good morning, young lady. I want to buy some jewelry for my wife and I need something that will apologize for forty-five years of being her forgetful husband."

  I stared at him for a moment before I burst out laughing. A smile spread across his wide face as I tried to contain my mirth.

  "And what kind of piece do you think would best represent your heartfelt apology, sir?" I asked before I began laughing again.

  "Well, I don't know. That's why I came to the experts. I thought you could tell me what was required of me," he said, sending me back into a fit of laughter that brought Max out of the backroom to see what was going on.

  "I'm Max Malin and this is my-" Max began, firmly shaking the other man's hand.

  "Yes, yes, yes, you and your wife have a beautiful shop here, Mr. Malin, quiet beautiful indeed," interrupted the man as he kept shaking Max's hand. "Sergei Petrov, that's me, and I have been watching your store with great interest. I wanted to be the first to stop in and do business with you this morning."

  "Mr. Petrov, we're not…" Max tried to correct the man's error, but Petrov wouldn't stop talking long enough for him to get a word in edgewise, and over the next thirty minutes as I pulled out piece after piece, Mr. Petrov told us his story about making a fortune in the tech industry, but wanting to invest in something more stable. I listened to what he was saying and was skeptical at first, but the more he talked and the more pieces he looked at, the more I realized that this man was interested in backing the store as a silent partner and that the amount of money he was offering meant that Max would be able to buy the best quality pieces and not have to worry about the expense.

  "I've got a lot of connections in the shipping industry," Petrov said as he pointed to the amber ring I was holding and a matching necklace in the case next to it. "I'll take both of those, Mrs. Malin. And, could you wrap them up nice and pretty so that I can surprise her?"

  "It would be my pleasure, Mr. Petrov," I smiled as I pulled out two of our signature black boxes with gold writing on the top and proceeded to wrap them at the front counter. It was a good thing I did because Max seemed intent on killing our sale and our deal.

  "Where's your ring, Mrs. Malin?" Petrov asked as I wrapped the boxes.

  "Oh, she's not-" Max began.

  "I'm not wearing them because Mr. Malin bought me such a beautiful ring that I don't dare wear it in the store," I smiled, then dropped my voice to a conspiratorial whisper and added, "He's got exquisite taste, but sometimes he goes a little overboard."

  "Well, if that's the case, then you've got to use that taste to bulk up the exquisite collection here in the store, Malin," Petrov bellowed. "Only the best, no expense spared is my motto!"

  I shot Max a look that told him that if he knew what was good for him, he would shut up and not say another word. Max nodded and listened to Petrov talk about the ups and downs of the tech industry and his frustration with the way in which he couldn't find good people to run the factories he had bought in Moscow and China.

  "I need old school guys, you know? The ones who knew what it meant to work for a union! The loyal guys who knew how to work a full day," he sighed as I placed the wrapped boxes in a black bag and handed them over. Mr. Petrov gave me his heavy, black American Express card and I ran it, knowing that there would be no issue with it going through. After he'd signed the receipt, Petrov shook Max's hand and told him that a lawyer would be around in the morning with all of the paperwork, and that Max should have his own lawyer read it before signing anything.

  "Never sign anything without reading it, Mr. Malin," he warned. "I learned that as a child in Moscow. A beginner's mistake."

  "Very well, sir," Max said as Petrov headed toward the door.

  "Good day, Mr. and Mrs. Malin!" Petrov called over his shoulder. "It's been a pleasure doing business with you both!"

  And then, he was gone.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  Max

  After Sergei Petrov had left the store, I turned to Lexi and asked, "What in the hell was that?"

  "I believe you just landed yourself a new business partner," she replied with a smile. The smile quickly faded as she added, "And, if I'm not mistaken, a wife."

  "I'm not even sure who I am right now," I said as I stared at her, shocked by the turn of events and overwhelmed by the amount of confusion I was feeling. She looked at me and then burst out laughing.

  "Apparently you are my husband, Mr. Malin," she laughed and then kept laughing until she was holding her sides as tears ran down her cheeks. "Max, we've been open for exactly two hours and this shop is going to go down in history as one where the most money, mergers, and marriages took place all at the same time!" She dissolved into laughter again and had to lean against the wall to keep from sinking to the floor.

  "I have no idea what just happened," I said as I started chuckling. Soon, I was laughing as hard as Lexi was, and from the outside of the store we must have looked absolutely insane. "He just offered to bankroll this business, didn't he?"

  "Yes, he certainly did!" she replied, wiping her eyes and checking her makeup in the mirror. She looked even lovelier than she had when she'd walked through the door this morning. The green dress hugged her curves and laughter had made her beautiful amber eyes sparkle. I'd had the urge to reach around and undo the pins that held her hair in the twist at the nape of her neck this morning in the storeroom, but I'd stopped myself just in time. Now as I looked at her, the urge was even stronger and I was afraid of what I wanted to do – of what I might do if she gave me even the smallest sign of encouragement.

  "Well, we're going to have to figure something out for Mr. Petrov," I said as I ran one hand through my hair and looked out the front window. "He thinks we're married, and I don't know if that's a deal breaker, but I'm not so sure I want to find out."

  "Yes, that would be a bad way to lose out on something that could be so profitable for your business," she nodded. I watched her as she carefully reset the displays from which she had taken the ring and the necklace that Petrov had bought. Her sense of space and design were impeccable, and I got lost in the movement of her hands as she slid the other pieces around to make a new arrangement that gave no hint of the missing merchandise.

  "I've got an idea," I said suddenly. It was an absolutely insane idea, but it was the only one I could think of in the moment. "What if we acted like we were married? Until the deal is closed and I've got the money?"

  "Acted like we're married?" she repeated as she looked up at me expectantly. "What do you mean? Like, wear wedding bands while we're in the store? Sure, why not?"

  "No, I mean all the way," I said. I was pretty sure that if Sergei Petrov was going to invest millions of dollars in my jewelry business, he was going to also have me checked out thoroughly, and it dawned on me that if he was going to check me out, he'd realize Lexi and I weren't married. "We'll plan a wedding, our wedding, and we'll broadcast it on social media and show Petrov what kind of a high end event we can produce."

  "We're going to plan our own wedding?" she asked, dumbfounded by my outlandish plan. "What are you going to do when he discovers that we're two complete strangers who have duped him?"

  "Well, I didn't think that far ahead," I sheepishly admitted. I'd thought ahead all right, and a part of me wondered what could happen if we went ahead with it.

  "I did," she said. "And, I'm looking at a bad ending for this little fairy tale, Mr. Malin. A very bad ending."

  "It could also end up being really, really good," I smiled.
"Are you afraid of that?"

  "What are you talking about?" she said. "Okay, look, here's how it looks on paper. Two complete strangers, one of whom has been hired to work for the other in an acting sales position, decide to plan their own wedding in order to bamboozle a potential investor into putting money into a brand-new business. Oh, and they do this soon after they first met! Oh, nothing could go wrong there! Nothing at all!"

  I looked at her and smiled as she stared back at me, waiting for a response.

  "You are completely out of your cotton-picking mind, Mr. Malin," she said.

  "I'll pay you an extra thousand dollars a week for planning and another thousand if you'll move into my place while we do the planning," I said, deciding to go for broke. I had very little to lose in this situation and everything to gain. Lexi had no idea the kind of timeline we were on in order to bring in our first million, and I knew that if Petrov backed us, we'd up our chances of making the money, and maybe even exceeding it, by the deadline Papa had set.

  "Are you insane?" she yelled as a woman hit the buzzer and Lexi let her into the store. As the woman approached, Lexi turned to me and quietly said, "Stoya."

  "Oh, Mr. Malin, your wife speaks Russian, does she? How charming!" the woman said. She was in her mid-fifties and had the elegant style of someone who was well cared for and looked after. "I'm Ivana Zakharov, and Sergei Petrov said you have the most beautiful selection of Russian jewelry in the city. I need something special for a party I'm attending this weekend. A statement piece, really."

  For the next hour, Lexi and I ran around the store picking out pieces for Mrs. Zakharov to try on. She bought four of them, and as Lexi was wrapping them up, she smiled and said, "You've got a good husband, Mrs. Malin."

  "Oh, he's not my husband – yet," Lexi smiled. "We're getting married in August, and we're planning a huge event! You'll have to come join us!"

  "Oh dear, that will be an event, now won't it?" she said excited to be included in the wedding plans. "I'm going to have to buy a new dress and I'll need new jewelry as well! Will you have new pieces in by then, Mr. Malin?"

  "Of course," I smiled. "We'll have all the best pieces to choose from – after my bride picks, of course."

  Mrs. Zakharov smiled as she signed the receipt and took the bag from Lexi before calling out, "I'm going to tell all of my friends to come here!"

  As I watched our newest customer leave, it dawned on me that Lexi had agreed to marry me.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  Lexi

  As Mrs. Zakharov left the store, I turned and looked at Max. He was staring at me with a strange look on his face.

  "What?" I asked. "Is there a problem here?"

  "Not at all," he said as a smiled spread across his handsome face. I wanted to run over to him, grab his face, and pull it down so I could kiss him. Instead, I began shifting the merchandise around in the display case making sure there were no holes after we'd sold Mrs. Zakharov her statement pieces. I heard Max move in behind me and quietly ask, "You agreed, right?"

  "If you are asking whether I agreed to participate in the planning of a sham marriage in order to ensure that you could make a deal with Sergei Petrov," I said haughtily. "Then the answer is yes, Mr. Malin. I did."

  Max looked at me, nodded, and then turned and walked toward the office. I called after him, "Hey, fiancé!"

  "Yes?"

  "May I have the afternoon off so I can pack and get moved into your place?" I grinned before adding, "By the way, where will I be living?"

  "I'll have the moving company pack up your things and bring them over," he deadpanned. "And, if you're nice to me, I'll tell you where they brought them once they're done."

  I thought I saw a small smile cross his lips as my peals of laughter rang out through the store. By the time I had regained my composure, a group of women were ringing the front bell and I let them all in. The afternoon passed quickly as I sold piece after piece of the collections we had on display, and by the time closing time rolled around, we'd sold out of most of the more expensive pieces.

  "How much did we sell today?" Max asked as he emerged from the back room with another tray of replacement pieces for the displays. Around lunchtime, he had exited the store and come back whistling, and I'd been dying to ask him where he'd gone, but I didn't dare with all the women in the store gathered around, looking at things.

  "If my math is correct, we sold one-hundred-forty-thousand three-hundred and sixty-six dollars worth of merchandise," I said as casually as I could. That sum was more money that I'd seen in my entire life and more than my brain could imagine right now. "That's a lot of money, Max."

  "That's nothing Mrs. Malin-to-be," he replied as he replenished the collections along the wall. "We're going to pull in money hand over fist as soon as Petrov infuses a little cash for me to pay the suppliers and carriers."

  "It seems like we did pull it in hand over fist today," I said staring at the receipts and wondering who had so much money that they could spend tens of thousands on one trip to a jewelry store. "Where are all these people from?"

  "Moscow, St. Petersburg ," he tossed off as he carefully placed a pendant on a stand and then arranged the chain so that it hung gracefully down behind it. "All over, really, but you need to understand that Russians and Ukrainians, the rich ones, love sparkly shiny things. The women especially love bright colors and flashy jewelry. We're going to be selling a lot of it and I'm going to put in an order to triple our stock tonight. We should have full back stock by the beginning of next week."

  "So, we're really going to do this, are we?" I asked quietly. I still wasn't sure that Max had meant it when he'd said he'd pay me twice what I was already making to play along with this farce.

  "We are, if you're still willing," he said, turning to face me. As I gazed across the room at him, I noticed something sad in his eyes.

  "Are you okay with it, Max?" I asked. "If you're not, we don't have to do it."

  "Lexi, we need to do this. I need to do this," he said slowly, then shook his head as if to clear it. "Yes, I'm absolutely sure. Are you?"

  "I'm sure," I said. "I need the money, but more than that, I want to help you do whatever it is you need to do to make this business succeed. I'm in."

  "Alright, well, go take care of whatever you need to take care of, and I'll get someone to come move your things this evening," he said as he turned back to the display cases. Then he turned back around, reached into his pocket, and pulled out a key ring with three keys attached to it. He tossed it to me saying, "Here, these are the keys to my – our place. 65 W Goethe Street."

  "Hey! You live right around the corner from me!" I laughed. "Why didn't you tell me?"

  "I didn't want you to think I was some kind of weirdo," he said with a smile.

  "Too late, Mr. Malin; it's already been confirmed," I laughed. He laughed loudly as I ran back to the office, grabbed my bag, and headed out to meet Viv at the Royal Cafe on Michigan Avenue. She was not going to believe what was about to happen.

  #

  "You're what?" Viv screeched so loudly that everyone in the diner turned and looked in our direction.

  "I'm getting married," I repeated.

  "Wally, what the hell is going on over at that store?" she asked breathlessly. "And more importantly, can I get a piece of the action? Does Mr. Money Bags have a brother?"

  "Viv, settle down," I warned. "You're getting ridiculous. But come to think of it, I have no idea whether he has a brother or not. There's a lot I don't yet know about my betrothed."

  "Wait, you guys aren't getting married for real for real, are you?" she asked as she flashed a concerned look that made burst into laughter again.

  "Viv, please! What do you think this is? It's a publicity stunt designed to save this guy's business," I reminded her. "And, it's the easiest three thousand dollars a week I'll ever make!"

  "Holy crap! He's tripling your pay just to get you to go along with this scheme?" she said with admiration and awe. "I am definite
ly going to have to find out if he has a brother!"

  We sat at the café talking until the after work crowd came in and started ordering dinner. Viv offered to come back to the apartment and help me pack, but I told her all I was going to take were a few suitcases of clothes, enough personal items to make it look like I actually lived in Max's place, and Anna. She hugged me and told me to keep her posted and to send lots of pictures of my new digs.

  "I'll invite you over and we'll find out if he does have a brother," I suggested.

  "Oooh, excellent idea!" she cried as she hopped into a taxi and headed back to her place in the West Loop. I decided that it was a nice enough evening to walk. I quickly covered the ground between the diner and my apartment and found a moving crew waiting on the front steps.

  "Mr. Malin hired us to come move your things, ma'am," one of the men said as I opened the front door and led the crew into the lobby.

  "Well, I don't have that much stuff, so you guys are in for a major disappointment," I said. "Oh, and I have a kitten, so do not let her get tucked into one of the boxes by accident!"

  "No, ma'am, we don't pack animals, it's not part of the contract," he said as the elevator doors opened and we walked toward my apartment.

  #

  I was under the impression that I would just be moving enough things in to keep up appearances, but Max had told the movers to pack up everything and bring what I wanted over to his place and store the rest of the things. Max had worked out a deal with my landlord and I'd been released from the lease agreement. I didn't ask how and I didn't ask what would happen once this charade was over. Instead, for once in my life, I just sat back and enjoyed the ride.

  I walked over to Max's apartment with Anna in my arms and a bag of her things over my shoulder. I opened the door and immediately felt intimidated by the opulent surroundings in the lobby. My building had been nice, but this was the kind of building in which incredibly rich people settled down and raised families. I asked the doorman which floor Mr. Malin's condo was on and he led me to the elevator, took my keys from my hand, and slipped the smallest one into a keyhole on the panel labeled Penthouse. He stepped back and nodded as the elevator doors silently slid closed.