Billion Dollar Mistake by K.C. Crowne

Chapter 16

SAWYER

Iwasn’t normally the worrying type, but when the weekend came and went without word from Jolene one way or another, nightmare scenarios of her going to the gossip blogs with all the dirty details of the arrangement filled my head. Part of me was furious with myself for not getting her to sign an NDA before I’d told her about the plan.

I was in my office Monday morning pacing back and forth, wishing she were there on my couch so that I could pin her down and get some answers.

While she was on my couch, I considered, I could pin her down and do some other things with her too.

A smile formed on my face at the idea of having some daytime fun with her in the office. But I pushed it out of my head as best I could – I needed to be thinking about things other than how hot it had been to be between the sheets with her.

“Fuck it.” I said the words out loud as I slipped my phone out of my pocket and called her. Maybe it was a mistake to put pressure on her, but I’d never been the sort of man to be comfortable with ambiguity. If she was going to tell me to screw off, I preferred to know sooner than later.

The phone rang once, then twice, then three times. By the time it hit ring number four, I was pretty certain that she wasn’t going to answer.

“Hey.”

“Hey, Jolene,” I did my best to sound casual, and to not sound like I’d called just to hear either ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ “How’re things in the meat locker?”

She let out a snort of mild amusement.

“People tend to find out pretty quickly with me that ‘how’re things going at work?’ isn’t the best thing to ask. So, I’ll save you the trouble.”

I let out a dry chuckle, feeling off my game.

“Fair enough. So…I wanted to see if you’d had a chance to look over those documents.”

“I did, as a matter of fact. I had some legal counsel walk me through them.”

“Your sister?”

“How did you know that?”

I cursed myself for letting my good guess out.

“Your background check – I saw that your sister’s an assistant DA.”

“Oh yeah – I forgot that you snooped around in my personal life.”

“Just, uh, doing my due diligence, you know?”

“Hm. Well, to get to the point, I looked over the documents and I want to talk about them with you.”

“Perfect. How about tonight over dinner?” I winced as soon as I said the words, knowing they were a misstep. What the hell was wrong with me?

“Dinner’s not a good idea. I’d prefer we did this in as businesslike a way as possible.”

“Sure. Totally reasonable. How about tomorrow at my office? We can make a business lunch out of it.”

Silence followed, and I could sense she was weighing the pros and cons in those long seconds.

“Yeah. I think we can do that.”

I pumped my fist. Thankfully, I showed enough restraint not to say Yes! out loud while still on the phone with her.

“Perfect.” It took some effort to sound warm, yet professional instead of out-of-my-mind excited. “How about 11:30? Come by here, we can do lunch in one of the conference rooms and talk over the potential arrangement.”

She sighed. “Sure, I’ll be there.”

“Talk to you then, Jolene.”

“Yep.”

I was all smiles when I hung up the phone. Sure, the deal was far from done, but the phone call was a step in the right direction.

With any luck, in a week’s time I’d be introducing my father to his very beautiful, but very fake, future daughter-in-law.

* * *

“Sawyer, your, uh, girlfriend is here.” Andrea’s voice, dripping with sarcasm, piped into my office through the intercom.

Thing about having a sharp as hell secretary like Andrea was that nothing got by her. I’d told her earlier that morning of my lunch meeting with Jolene only to find out that she’d already put together what was happening – she did have access to all my correspondence with my lawyer, after all. I’d planned for this, having an NDA written up for her as well.

“This is a bad, bad idea,” she’d said, leaning back against my office door with her arms crossed over her chest. “What if your father finds out?”

“He won’t find out,” I said, my feet up on my desk. “That’s the beauty of it.”

Andrea shook her head. “But is that really how you want to get the reins on this company, kid? By tricking your dad?”

“That’s not how I’m getting the reins on the company. I’ve alreadyearned it by being the right man for the job. Now, all I have to do is jump through this one last hoop that the old man laid out for me.”

Another headshake. “And that’s the only reason why I’m keeping my mouth shut about this – because you are the right person for the job. But if your father finds out about this plan…”

I grinned broadly. “He won’t. Trust me. And go ahead and send the sushi in when it gets here. Take some for yourself, too.”

She gave me a tight-lipped smile as I headed off.

Back in the present moment, I made my way toward the conference room. When I laid eyes on Jolene sitting outside the door, I nearly had a heart attack. She was as beautiful as ever, dressed in gray slacks and a light pink button-up shirt, her hair pulled back into a messy bun.

I stopped short at the sight of her, giving myself a minute to regain my composure – not to mention trying to ignore how hard I was becoming. I was there to talk business, but all I could think about was getting her in that conference room, locking the doors behind us, then giving her the orgasm of a lifetime right on top of the table.

“Jolene,” I said with a smile as I approached. “Good to see you.”

I offered my hand. She regarded it with a skeptical look, as if it were some trick. Finally, she took my hand and shook it, but didn’t offer similar sentiments about whether it was nice to see me.

“You ready?” she asked, a tinge of icy impatience in her voice.

A warm smile still on my face, I opened the door and gestured for her to enter. The conference room was large, and easily accommodated a long, rectangular glass table bordered with ten chairs on both sides. The glass walls looked out over the city. At the far end of the table were the legal documents, already laid out for us.

“Something to drink?” I gestured toward the small fridge that contained bottled water. “There’s coffee, too.”

“I’ll pass.” She sat down in the chair across from the documents. As she did, I couldn’t help but admire how nice her ass looked in those gray slacks.

“Fair enough. I ordered some sushi; it should be here soon.”

She flicked her eyes up at me as I pulled a bottle of water out of the fridge.

“That’s not necessary. This isn’t a date, Sawyer, or a cute little lunch meeting. We’re here to discuss business, and that’s all.”

Ouch. I couldn’t blame her though. Really, I was lucky that she was even there at all to talk about it. As I opened my water bottle and sat down, she reached into her purse and slipped out a small notepad.

“I had my lawyer look over the contract – and it all seems in order. But I have some questions.”

“Fair enough. Shoot.”

Her eyes on the paper, she spoke. “I want to know when you intend to start this thing.”

“As soon as possible. If you want to sign now, we can sign now. But as far as when the, ah, playing pretend part begins, that would also start ASAP. We’d ease into it, like we’re still in the process of figuring out when we’re going to move in with each other – like a real couple. I’m thinking we’d be living together by the end of the month.”

She nodded. Without a word, she glanced down at her next question.

“Where will I be sleeping? What happens if people stay over, and we need to pretend to be sleeping in the same room? What about public displays of affection?”

I had to admit, I was a little upset by just how icy she was being. There was also the matter of her questions all being about how physical we were expected to be with one another. Like before, I told myself that I was lucky she was even there to begin with.

“You’ll be sleeping in the guest room down the hall from the master bedroom. Hell, you can have the master bedroom if you want.”

“I’ll take it.”

Well then.

I chuckled. “OK, you’ll be in the master. I’ll stay in the guest bedroom down the hall. And don’t worry – the apartment’s big enough that we won’t be stepping on one another’s toes. In the event we need to sleep in the same bedroom, there’s a couch in there I can sleep on. As far as PDAs…just what’s expected. We’re going to need to be somewhat warm with each other in public. We’ll be playing the role of a couple who are wildly, madly in love with one another in a whirlwind romance.”

She nodded, as if accepting it.

“Your compensation works for you?” I asked.

“It does. But I want you to take care of my sister’s student loans, too.”

“Done,” I said, not missing a beat. “I’ll need her to sign an NDA too, just to be on the safe side.”

“Fine, I’ll talk about that with her.”

A detail that had almost slipped my mind reappeared in my thoughts. Once it was there, I couldn’t wait to say it.

“So, I spoke with one of my contacts in the state government.”

Her icy exterior melted, if only a little bit.

“Yes?”

“And he put me in touch with one of the officials at the state medical examiner’s office.”

Her eyes had totally lit up by this point. Part of me wanted to savor the moment, to enjoy her not being cold with me.

“I passed your name along. He pulled your application up while on the phone with me, said he’d give a read over and send his thoughts to the hiring committee.”

Her icy exterior melted a little more.

“Thank you,” she said. Then she seemed confused. “Wait, you did that before knowing whether I was going to sign?”

I shrugged. “Consider it a gesture of goodwill. And besides, I know how good you are at your job.”

Her smile spread, and became something warmer, but only lasted for a second before she checked herself, the coldness returning.

“Well, it’s appreciated. But there’s something else I want to make sure you know. There’s not going to be anything physical about what we’re doing other than what’s necessary to maintain appearances. All of this…it’s made me view you in a new light, Sawyer. I’m not even sure I want to be friends with you when all of this is said and done.”

Her words hurt like hell, like she’d opened my heart and poured battery acid right into it. I tried hard to keep my feelings from being too obvious on the outside, pushing past them.

“Fair enough.”

“What’s the next step?”

“We get my secretary to notarize them and send them in. And then we begin.”

Was she about to agree? Had I managed to talk her into a plan that would change both of our lives forever?

She sighed, then shook her head as if she couldn’t believe what she was about to say. Then she brought her eyes up to mine.

“Let’s do it.”