The Best Thing He Never Knew He Needed (11 page)

Dimitrius nodded silently
while Desmond sat expressionless.

Dante sat in a chair, not
behind his desk, but near his brothers. He took a good look at
Desmond, studying him for a moment. He looked tired as he should’ve
been after back-to-back flights, only to have to come straight to
the office at six in the evening. Dante leaned forward, resting his
elbows on his thighs and interlocking his fingers. “Before I go any
further into that, I have a question for you, Des.”

“
Shoot.”

“
Were you at a park on
Friday evening?”

With a clenched jaw,
Desmond asked, “What does that have to do with the business at
hand, Dante?”

“
It has everything to do
with this business proposition which Victor is pretty much handing
to us.”

“
How so?”

“
Victor thinks he saw you
at a park Friday evening. Now, I told him he must’ve been mistaken
because I knew you were at my house Friday evening watching the
kids, but he claims he saw you, or someone who looks like you, at a
park taking family photos.”

“
I
was
at a park on Friday,” Desmond
admitted, clearing up the matter. “Carrier Park. What that has to
do with Victor is beyond me.”

A look of confusion washed
over Dante’s face. “So you
were
at a park on Friday?” he asked, one eyebrow
raised.

“
Affirmative,” Desmond
said.

Dimitrius scratched his
head with a pen. “But you were supposed to be watching the kids
Friday, right?”

“
I was watching the
kids...”

“
Then what? You took a
break and went to the park?” Dante asked.

Desmond nodded. “Something
like that.”

Furrowing his brows, Dante
asked, “With who?”

“
With…” Desmond paused.
Gosh, he had to say her name again. “Who do you think? I was with
Sherita. She wanted to surprise your wives by taking some pictures
of the Ezra and Grace at the park. Victor must’ve seen us, and the
old, disorientated man just assumed we were a family. I told you we
shouldn’t work with this guy, Dante. Why would he just assume I was
with my family?”

“
If I saw you at the park
with a woman and two kids taking pictures, I would probably assume
same thing,” Dimitrius said.

“
Well nobody asked you,
Dimitrius,” Desmond responded.

“
Nobody had to ask,”
Dimitrius fired back. “I’m making a statement. And what’s gotten
you all bent out of shape anyway? Women problems?”

Desmond glared at
Dimitrius. Then, refocusing, he asked, “Dante, are we done
here?”

Dante stood up. “No, we’re
not done.”

Dimitrius leaned back in
his chair. “Come on, Dante. You’ve kept us in the dark long enough.
Now what is Victor pitching to you?”

Sighing deeply, Dante sat
on the edge of his desk, crossing his arms. “Okay, listen…Victor
wants us for his new project. He’s launching a company called
Service Swap, and yes, it’s exactly what it sounds like. It’ll be a
new website where people can swap services. No money will be
exchanged between them, but the site will charge a yearly
membership fee. He wants us to design the website and a smartphone
application.”

And why am I here
again?
Desmond wasn’t a designer, nor did
he create smartphone applications. He had vast computer knowledge,
even assisted with creating the company’s website. Still, his job
was marketing. He had the ability to make people want things they
really didn’t need. “So what does that have to do with me?” he
finally asked.

“
Victor wants you to lay
out an eight-week marketing campaign,” Dante told him. “But your
little
photo shoot
has us in a bind.”

“
How’s that?” Desmond
asked, feeling his irritation grow deeper.

“
The only reason the old
man wants to work with us is because he thinks we’re all married.
All of us,” Dante said, looking at Desmond. “Marriage is a sign of
stability to people like Victor. Now, he wants to do dinner with us
and our wives to get a feel for our personalities, and therein lies
the problem. If he finds out you’re still single, Desmond, he’s
probably going to back out of the deal altogether.”

“
Then let him back out,”
Desmond said, heated. “It’ll be his loss. My marital status doesn’t
affect my ability to perform my job. I can’t believe you’re
actually worried about it, Dante. If Victor doesn’t want to work
with me because I’m
single
, then he can take his old
money and bounce.”

“
Wait, hold on, Des,”
Dimitrius said. “Old money spends just like new money. We don’t
even know how much Victor is offering. Care to enlighten us,
Dante?”

“
Fifty-million. That’s
double of what I thought his offer might be.”

Desmond sighed and rubbed
his head, knowing that, as a business, they couldn’t turn down
fifty-million dollars. It would be a foolish move to do so. He
buried his face in his hands, thought for a moment and asked, “Now
what?”

“
Now we have to come up
with a plan to present you as a married man,” Dante said. “And I
hate to do this to you, Des, but I’ve been running through all
scenarios in my head and the only thing I can come up with is you
and Sherita somehow getting together—”

“
Not going to
happen.”

“
Listen, Des,” Dante said.
“I realize you don’t like her, but—”

“
You don’t like her?”
Dimitrius asked, cocking his head to the side. “What’s not to like
about Sherita? She’s great.”

Desmond narrowed his eyes
at Dimitrius.

“
Des, we can’t walk away
from fifty-million dollars,” Dante said.

Desmond shook his head.
“Then what are you suggesting I do, Dante? Have dinner with Victor
and have Sherita tag along as my fake wife?”

“
No. I need you to have
dinner with Victor and have Sherita tag along as your
real
wife.”

Desmond flashed stone, cold
eyes at Dante, along with a frown that could frighten a bear.
“What?”

“
A business man like
Victor is very thorough. If he finds out you’re not really married,
he’s liable to walk away from the entire deal. I know this is
asinine, and you’re right…your marital status shouldn’t matter, but
to him it does, and he’s the one with the money.”

Desmond shook his head in
disappointment. A fifty-million dollar profit was on the line, and
he didn’t want to be the reason why The Champion Corporation
couldn’t get their hands on this money. “So let me make sure I
understand this. You’re asking me to marry Sherita so Victor can
think we’re a real couple.”

“
Not only that, Des, but
you will have to get to know her a little. I know the old man is
going to want to know how you met. He wants to see you interact
with her. He wants to see Dimitrius and I interact with our wives.
He needs to see genuine couples in love.”

“
I don’t care what he
wants. This is beyond ridiculous,” Desmond hissed.

“
I’m aware of that, but
unfortunately, this is where we’re at,” Dante responded.

“
And how long are we
talking here?” Desmond asked.

“
At least five months, and
I think it would be best if Sherita lives with you during that
time.”

Desmond’s jaw tightened.
He’d never allowed a woman inside of his five-bedroom home before,
and the thought of one being there, taking up space in the square
footage he owned irritated him. “No way.”

“
Come on, Des,” Dimitrius
said. “Man, you live in a fifty-five hundred square feet house
alone. You wouldn’t even know Sherita was there. Just give her a
bedroom. Better yet, didn’t you convert your basement into a studio
apartment?”

Incensed, Desmond said,
“Yeah, Dimitrius. I did, but not for a
fake wife
to move in. Look, Dante,
this simply is not going to work. Even if I did agree to this
insidious plan, Sherita won’t agree to it. Our dislike of each
other is mutual.”

Dante hid a
smirk.

“
And why do you not like
her again?” Dimitrius asked. “Did something happen Friday
night?”

“
No. Nothing
happened.”

“
So why’d you leave
early?” Dante inquired again. He’d already asked his brother the
question one time before but had been unsatisfied with his
answer.

“
Had plans,” Desmond said.
“Look, I’m sorry to disappoint you both, and I hate that we have to
miss out on this money, but—”

“
It’ll happen,” Dante told
him. “I’ll get Sherita on board. First, I need to know you’re in,
Desmond.”

Desmond stood up and
interlocked his fingers behind his head. Only he could have this
kind of luck. One minute he’s in New York to get away from Sherita
and the next, he was worried about having to share his home with
her. How would he be able to share the same space with a woman whom
he was trying his best to stay away from? After spending a few
hours with her on Friday and observing how she handled the
children, he’d been impressed. Then there was the matter of him not
being able to take his eyes off of her, and barely his lips after
the ground-shaking kiss they’d shared.

Dropping his hands, Desmond
asked, “Are you sure there’s no way around this. I mean, there has
to be something we can do. Maybe we can all sit down and talk to
Victor together.”

“
Do you really think we
should risk doing something like that, Des?” Dimitrius asked. “This
is an internal matter, and it needs to be handled
internally.”

“
Dimitrius is right,”
Dante added. “There’s no need to involve the client to settle our
issues. Now I need to know if you’re willing to do this or
not?”

Frowning, Desmond said, “I
guess I have to be. Don’t let anything hold you back from getting
what you want…that’s the Champion way, right?” Angrily, he headed
for the door, slamming it after he’d exited the office. He’d seen
the sacrifices his brothers had made for the company and now, it
was his turn to show his loyalty. No matter how bitter the taste in
the back of his throat, he had to swallow it. It’s not like he
couldn’t handle Sherita. She was practically putty in his
hands.

When he was
certain Desmond was gone, Dante looked at
Dimitrius and asked, “You think he bought it?”

Dimitrius looked up at
Dante. “What are you talking about?”

Dante had a good chuckle
then said, “Did you see the look on his face? I don’t think I’ve
ever seen him so angry.”

“
What did you do,
Dante?”

“
I did my little brother a
favor…that’s what I did. Victor doesn’t care about Desmond’s
marital status. He told me he saw Desmond at the park with
his
wife
and kids
and I knew, right away Victor was talking about Sherita and
our
kids. So instead of
clarifying the situation, I left it like it was…left Victor
assuming Desmond was married.”

“
That’s dirty,
Dante.”

“
Dirty but necessary.
Desmond can front all he wants…you and I both know he got a thing
for Sherita. And she’s a good woman. She’s perfect for
him.”

“
Yeah, man, but you heard
him. He said they had a mutual dislike of each other. Why put them
under the same roof?”

“
Because that’s the only
way they will get together. Trust me on this.”

Dimitrius shook his head.
“I don’t know. Something isn’t right about this. Think about it…he
wasn’t even there when we came back from the concert Friday night.
Something must’ve went down between them.”

“
No worries. I’ll find out
exactly what happened when I talk to Sherita.”

“
And you really think
Sherita is going to go along with this plan to go through with a
legal marriage to Desmond?”

“
She will. I’ll convince
her to give it a shot. I have a hunch she likes Desmond as much as
he likes her, and quite frankly, I’m tired of seeing them play
these games. You saw how he was looking at her at your wedding,
remember?”

“
Oh, yeah. I remember
that.”

“
Desmond can pretend he
doesn’t want marriage and kids and all that, but I’m telling
you…it’s an act. He wants those things. You thought you didn’t want
to get married and now, look how happy you and Melanie are. And now
you have little Grace…she’s breathtaking.”

“
And Desmond loves her as
if she was his own daughter. Whenever he comes over, his eyes are
stalking the house, looking for Grace.”

Dante nodded.

Dimitrius continued, “And,
sometimes, he shows up out of the blue to see her. For a man who
doesn’t want children, he sure loves my daughter.” Dimitrius
grinned.

“
Yep. Now it’s time for
him to have one of his own.”

CHAPTER 13