Hired: A Bride for the Boss: The Playboy Boss's Chosen Bride / The Corporate Marriage Campaign / The Boss's Urgent Proposal. SUSAN MEIER
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I did,’ she answered wryly, waving her left hand for him to see the huge flashy diamond. ‘I offered to give Byron back his ring…’
She was still wearing it!
‘I’ve persuaded Merlina to hold on to it,’ his grandfather went on.
‘Why?’ Jake thundered, a mountain of confusion and frustration welling up and crushing all sense of guilt.
‘My boy, I’ve lived long enough to be worldly about these little peccadillos. Just a flash in the pan, so to speak. It will burn out in what? Three months at most? What’s your judgement on this, Merlina?’
She sighed. ‘Maybe three months, Byron.’
‘And what if it isn’t?’ Jake grated.
‘I can wait,’ his grandfather said blithely. ‘When it’s over and she’s feeling sad and sorry, I’ll be happy to cheer her up again.’
‘Don’t count on it being over in a hurry,’ Jake warned, the violence he’d felt earlier raging through him again, spurring him on to say, ‘I might just marry Merlina myself.’
It shocked his grandfather out of his confidence. ‘You don’t mean that.’
Merlina also gaped at him in surprise. ‘And give up your playboy life?’
‘We’ll talk about that if we come to it,’ Jake threw at her, instinctively shying away from such a total commitment. He addressed his grandfather, wanting this irksome confrontation ended. ‘I’m sorry for putting you out but you shouldn’t have rushed into this breach, Pop. Merlina and I had a connection going before you met her and I’m not about to walk away from it.’
‘Seems to me you didn’t appreciate her enough. Don’t forget that I will, Merlina,’ came the swift counter-argument.
‘Just butt out of this, Pop!’ Jake demanded in exasperation. ‘Merlina, I’ve got your things in my car. Let’s go now. Enough has been said.’
No argument, which was some relief. She rose obligingly from her chair, but then he had to suffer through her going to his grandfather, kissing him on the cheek and saying warmly, ‘Thanks for everything, Byron. You’ve been very kind.’
‘You will always be a pleasure to me, my dear,’ came the benevolent reply. ‘Take care. My grandson still has a lot of growing up to do.’
Jake’s jaw clenched. He wasn’t about to stay and argue that point here and now. His primary goal was get Merlina away and obliterate any chance of her reconsidering a marriage to his grandfather, who was still clearly capable of charming birds off trees.
At last he had her arm securely tucked around his for the walk out to his car. She was coming with him willingly enough, but the ostentatious ring on her engagement finger was still glinting provocatively at him. Not for long, he vowed. Before they went to bed together, he would make her take it off.
Then he would make damned sure she would never want to put it on again!
CHAPTER EIGHT
I MIGHT just marry her myself…
He’d said it. He’d actually said it. The big M word. Merlina tried reasoning that the stunning declaration had emerged under extreme provocation, but her mind was dizzy with the possibility that Jake could mean it. He surely wouldn’t say it just to get her back working for him, and it didn’t seem likely that he’d say it to win against his grandfather. It was too big.
With her head whirling and her insides wildly tremulous at being physically connected to Jake again as he walked her out to his car, Merlina couldn’t help feeling thrilled at the forceful purpose in his every step, his determination to carry her along with him. He wanted to be attached to her. He wanted to be intimate with her. And only three days ago she had given up on Jake and his freewheeling world.
Had she been right to play Byron’s game?
In a way, it had been like tricking Jake into rushing down a path he might not have normally taken, and she was still carrying on a deception with Byron’s engagement ring. Yet if she hadn’t done it, would she have ever had a chance of getting this close to Jake Devila? A chance of marrying him? On the other hand, would he make a good husband? Would he be a good father? How could she believe it?
Right now he was helping her into the passenger seat of his red Ferrari. The flashy sports car did not suggest the psyche of a family man. Completely the opposite, in fact. It was probably crazy to think about marrying him. An affair was definitely on the cards and Merlina couldn’t deny she was terribly tempted by the exciting experience of having Jake as a lover. But she was nervous about it, too. He’d had so many women. How would she compare?
He shut the car door and swiftly strode around the bonnet to take the driver’s seat. The tall, athletic maleness of him shot quivers through her stomach. She would soon have the chance to see him naked, feel him naked. So many times she had fantasised such a scene taking place. Now that the hot, hard reality of it was rushing in on her, she was scared of it.
Jake settled beside her and closed his door, filling the space inside the car with a sense of primal urgency. He gunned the powerful engine and they were away, charging into a togetherness they had never had before. The security gates at the end of the driveway were being opened but he had to slow the car briefly and he reached across and took her hand, his fingers tightening around hers in a possessive grasp.
‘Are you okay, Merlina?’ he asked in a surprisingly gentle tone.
His dark eyes scanned hers for some sign that she was with him in spirit as well as physically present.
‘I don’t know,’ she answered shakily. ‘Taking off with you feels like a rash leap in the dark.’
He squeezed her hand reassuringly. ‘Don’t worry. Just let it happen.’
‘Don’t you ever think about what you’re doing, Jake?’
‘I don’t have to think about this. It’s right between us. You know it is.’
His eyes blazed absolute conviction at her, then satisfied that he’d settled that point, he removed his hand to shift gears and turned his gaze to the street they were about to enter.
‘It wasn’t right until I turned into a blonde for the cake act,’ she muttered. Which reminded her… ‘What happened with Vanessa Hall? You were in the middle of a relationship with her.’
‘Vanessa and I called it quits on Saturday.’
‘Because of me?’
‘Yes. Because of you.’ He threw her a quick burning glance. ‘Let it be understood that Vanessa was no more than a social convenience in my life.’
‘And I was a work convenience,’ spilled out in a bitter little burst.
‘No. You were never a convenience,’ he denied emphatically.
‘What was I then?’ she challenged, still needing to probe his feelings for her.
‘The light of my life. How’s that?’ He flashed her a grin, getting back into his playboy stride. ‘And I’m not about to let it go out.’
Was it a bit of flippant charm or did he mean it? ‘When did I become the light of your life?’ she asked, mockingly adding, ‘Suddenly? On Saturday afternoon?’
The grin turned into a grimace of vexation at her reading of the situation. ‘This is no flash in the pan, Merlina. In fact, the chemistry we mixed together stirred to life at your job interview with me, strengthened considerably on your first day at work and has been running on well-charged batteries ever since. And for you to pull the plug on it…’ His dark eyebrows beetled down at her. ‘Why did you?’
She shrugged, feeling more able to cope with this conversation. Silence fed too many doubts and worries. ‘I was sick of being your