One More Time(57)

He lit the end of his cigar and puffed a couple of times before taking it out and answering. "You."

"Oh, Donovan. You shouldn't have.” I clutched my hand to my chest for dramatic effect. “I don’t know that we’ve ever said it, but I love you too. Still, I don't think I'm ready for this." I handed the ring back to him with a shake of my head.

Nate hid his smirk by taking a large swig of his imported beer.

"Very funny." Donovan carefully placed the ring back in its box. "I'm not proposing to you, Weston. I’m proposing for you."

"You are, are you?" I chuckled at his attempt at a joke. Inside my jacket pocket my phone buzzed with a text. I pulled it out and quickly skimmed the message.

I need to see you.

Normally I’d be all up for a booty call, but my night belonged to the guys. I deleted the message without reading who it was from, silenced my phone and put it back in my pocket.

I gave my attention back to Donovan, continuing to play along with his hoax. "Just who exactly are you proposing to for me?"

He puffed heavily on his cigar before removing it from his mouth to speak. "Her name is Elizabeth Dyson. She’s the sole inheritor of the Dyson Empire. She's twenty-five, classy though spirited, well-bred—definitely a suitable bride. Your union is going to take our business to the next level. Once you marry her, Reach, Inc. will be the biggest advertising company in Europe."

All humor drained from my face. He was serious. Donovan never joked about business. But marriage? "You've got to be kidding me."

“Not even a little bit."

I was beginning to regret not looking at the name before I deleted that text. I’d have loved to have a reason to bail right about then.

But it was Donovan's first night back in town, I really couldn't leave him now. Not to mention, I knew him. Once he got an idea in his head, it was nearly impossible to get it out. My best chance was to listen, find the weakness in his scheme, and then propose an alternate strategy.

If that failed, I’d tell him fuck, no, and that would be that.

Hopefully.

Saying fuck, no to Donovan Kincaid was often a bit harder in reality than it seemed in theory.

If I was going to stay, I was at least going to need a stiffer drink. I signaled the waiter. "Can you bring me a shot of Fireball?" Nate nudged me. "Two shots of Fireball?"

Then I turned to Donovan. "You’d better explain this from the beginning.”

He took a puff of his cigar. "It's a short explanation. Dell Dyson, founder, CEO, and majority shareholder of Dyson Media—basically France’s version of Time Warner—died about eight months ago, leaving his daughter the sole inheritor to the bulk of his fortune. However, the will states she can’t get her hands on any of it until she’s 29—with one exception.”

"Ah, I think I’m getting the picture," Nate said, taking a pull on his beer.

My brows remained wrinkled, my picture still unclear. “Explain it to me then,” I said, turning to Nate. “Because I’m not following.”

He set his bottle on the table and tilted his head toward me. “Daddy Dell was a traditionalist. The daughter inherits when she puts a ring on it.”

“Oh.” Understanding settled in. I screwed my face up in disgust. “That’s gross.”

“Completely terrible and misogynistic,” Donovan agreed, not sounding terribly upset at all. “But there’s nothing we can do about the unfortunate set-up to her situation, and there is something we can do to get her out of it. Something that works out in our favor. So what we need to do is focus on getting Elizabeth married to our man Weston—”

I started to protest, but Donovan rose a hand to silence me. “Temporarily married—a couple of months is all we need for Elizabeth to claim her inheritance of Dyson Media. Once she does, she can push through the merger of Dyson’s advertising subsidiary with Reach, and we’ll take over as the biggest ad company in the European market.”

“Just like that,” I said, skeptically.

“Just like that.” There was no trace of doubt in Donovan’s voice.

"And what makes you think that she'd be interested in this?" I asked. "I mean why would she be interested in giving someone—giving us—part of the company? Not why would she be interested in me." I wasn’t worried about women being into me. But I certainly wasn’t into discussing it with Donovan.

Of course he had an answer for this as well. "I'm in preliminary talks with her already. And she seemed quite interested in the whole arrangement. I didn’t specify who her groom would be but told her I had an eligible bachelor. She's thinking about it further. Tomorrow afternoon in the office, all four of us will have a meeting to hammer out the details. I’ve already cleared your schedule."

It was a good thing the shots arrived then. "You mean I have to have this all thought through and decided by tomorrow afternoon?"

"Oh, you'll agree," Donovan said, confidently.

I threw back the shot. It didn't burn half as much as Donovan's proposal.

I rolled my neck, easing the muscles in my shoulders. "I need a minute to think about this."

"Take two.”

I wasn't really considering any of it, but it was an excuse to order another drink and make Donovan pay for it.