A Merger by Marriage (3 page)

“Since he knew we’d never get married, it probably never crossed his mind.”

She cocked her head and regarded him solemnly. “And how did he know something like that?”

“I told him I had no intention of starting anything up with you.”

Violet sat up very straight. Her eyes narrowed. “You two talked about me?”

JT nodded. “When I first arrived in town. Tiberius had heard about my activities in Miami and was worried that if I pursued you, you might get hurt. I agreed to keep my distance.”

“How noble.” Her tone dripped with scorn.

“Not that noble,” he retorted, deciding if they were going to consider her wild scheme, she might as well hear the whole truth. “It was an easy promise to make. You really aren’t my type.”

Mouth tight, she stared at him for several seconds. But then her hand stole across his leg, mid-thigh, and lingered.

“You aren’t my type either.” But her husky tone and the come-get-me-big-boy look in her eyes said the exact opposite. “So that should make a marriage in-name-only a snap.”

JT kept his expression bland. No need for her to learn the truth. He’d promised himself that nothing would happen between them. He needed her in his corner far more than he needed her naked in his bed. He wasn’t about to ruin their fledgling connection over something as fleeting as lust.

“It should.” But he didn’t feel as confident as he sounded. “And it isn’t forever.”

“Right. We only need to be married long enough for me to vote my shares at the annual meeting. It’s at the end of August, right?”

“August twenty-fifth.”

“That’s only six weeks away.”

JT had another thought. “Your family isn’t going to be happy if you marry me without some sort of a prenup.”

“At the moment I’m not worth more than the stock I inherited from Tiberius and what I’ve saved towards retirement. We can sign a simple agreement that states we leave the marriage with what we arrived with.”

She made everything sound so reasonable. So why was he resisting?

Sure, marriage wasn’t on his to-do list. He enjoyed playing the part of confirmed bachelor. Las Vegas was the perfect place to find attractive, single women looking for a little fun. They came in for a weekend and he gave them the royal treatment. Then they were gone. No fuss. No muss.

Violet was a whole different package. She was in Vegas to stay. Getting involved with her would be complicated and undoubtedly end in heartbreak. His.

But it wasn’t as if they were getting married for real. He just needed to remember that.

“So are we going to do this?” She’d plucked her palm from his thigh, leaving behind a distracting tingle.

“You’re sure you want to marry me?” His heart thumped hard against his ribs as he reminded himself this was a business deal.

“Want to marry you? Absolutely not.” Her lighthearted laugh had a slightly wicked edge. “But I feel like I owe it to Tiberius to finish what he started. And I’d like to see you take back your family’s company.”

He scrutinized her lovely features, finding only altruism in her expression. Her self-sacrifice made him uncomfortable.

“I get that you feel an obligation to Tiberius, but I’m not sure this is the best idea.”

“I don’t feel obligated.”

From her earnest expression he could tell she didn’t. And that’s what worried JT the most.

“Okay, but you’re also looking for a way to make your shares pay off too, right?”

She cocked her head and regarded him in silence for several seconds. “You yourself said the company isn’t doing well with your father at the helm. If he continues, the shares will lose value. Maybe even become worthless. I know you’ll make a much better CEO. I’m protecting myself the best way I can.”

Her answer rang with conviction. JT’s resistance eased minutely. Still, he should refuse. The only way this wasn’t going to backfire on them both was if he turned down her help. But the idea of getting that much closer to Violet was a temptation of the hard-to-resist variety.

But marriage? Was the opportunity to rescue Stone Properties from his father’s clutches worth the danger of getting too attached to Violet? He already liked her far too much for his own good. Watching her walk into the lounge was enough to make his day. What if he started to rely on spending lots of time with her? He knew himself well enough to know that just being friends wouldn’t cut it. He wanted her. Badly. It was only a matter of time before he did something about it.

After a fast and furious debate, JT kicked self-preservation to the curb.

“Then I’m in.” He was on the verge of getting on one knee and proposing to her properly when she spoke up.

“I think we should do this sooner rather than later. Before either one of us comes to our senses.”

“How soon?” She’d saved him from going all romantic—even if it was just for show—and making an ass out of himself. “Like Saturday?”

“What about now?” Seeing his shock, she rushed on. “Too fast?”

“A little.” But what the hell. If they waited, the anticipation might prompt him to do something stupid. Like let her see how badly he needed her. “But it’s doable. Your chapel or mine?”

“How about someplace neutral. The Tunnel of Love Chapel?”

Some of JT’s tension faded. She really was approaching this as a business arrangement and he needed to do so as well. But ignoring her effect on him was easier said than done.

“Positively romantic,” he said, his tone dry.

“Good.” She glanced at her phone. “I booked it for midnight.”

“You were feeling pretty confident I’d say yes.”

She shrugged. “It made perfect business sense that you would.”

But business was the furthest thing from his thoughts at the moment. He was contemplating all the delightful things a husband did with his brand-new wife. “Are you going to leave the booking of the honeymoon suite to me?”

She looked positively horrified. “Perhaps I wasn’t very clear. A marriage in name only means no sex.”

“Not even on our wedding night?” he couldn’t resist asking. She was so delightfully earnest. It made teasing her a pleasure.

“I thought I wasn’t your type.” Her voice lacked any trace of amusement.

“Since you’re going to be my wife,” he said, “I figured I should make an exception just this once.”

“It’s a lovely thought but we should really keep this all business between us.”

“Whatever you say.”

“It will make things easier.”

She was oh so wrong about that. Nothing about being married to Violet was going to be easy. In fact, he’d better brace himself because things were about to get a whole lot harder.

Three

O
n her way across Fontaine Chic’s lobby, Violet decided it was okay if a bride felt excited and slightly terrified on her wedding day. Especially if the groom was sexy and enigmatic and the decision to marry was somewhere between logically conceived and wildly impulsive.

Wearing an off-white lace dress she’d bought on impulse that morning from one of the hotel’s shops, Violet’s heart double-timed to each click of her heels on the black marble floor. She clutched an overnight bag and a briefcase filled with Tiberius’s files on the holders of Stone Properties stock. Against her better judgment, she’d let JT talk her into spending their wedding night together at his house. In separate bedrooms, of course.

She wasn’t worried that he’d take advantage of her. He’d already pointed out that she wasn’t his type. That declaration still stung. With his reputation as a player, she hadn’t suspected he had a type beyond female, single and young. She was all those. So what about her didn’t appeal to him?

Was she the wrong height? Too thin? Too fat? Not pretty enough? Not sexy?

Violet slammed the door on curiosity. It didn’t matter if she was his type or not. Their marriage was a business arrangement. She needed to remember that. And to guard against demonstrating the way her body came alive whenever he drew near.

A bright blue BMW convertible stood at the ready in the hotel’s circular driveway. JT leaned against the car’s hood, wearing a dark gray, almost black suit and white shirt with a blush-colored tie that emphasized his potent charisma. He hadn’t spotted her yet so she had a private moment to observe his relaxed posture and utter gorgeousness as he joked with one of her bellhops. Thanks to anxiety, her muscles hadn’t been responding properly to the signals from her brain for the last hour; now they were positively spastic.

He was still laughing when their gazes met. The power of his smile knocked the breath from her lungs. Wanting his eyes to light up with pleasure at seeing her, she was crushed at how fast he sobered.

“Right on time, I see.” He stepped forward to take her bags.

Was he used to waiting for the women he dated? They probably took longer to primp and fuss than she had. In truth, her nerves had prevented her from applying eyeliner with a steady hand so she’d just dusted her lids with neutral eye shadow, buffed her cheekbones with blush and used a little powder to keep down the shine. It didn’t occur to her that she hadn’t applied lipstick until his gaze locked on her mouth.

A bride shouldn’t attend her wedding in such a state. She dug in her purse, but all she found was some lip balm. “Damn,” she muttered. “I don’t have any lipstick.”

“You don’t need any.” He opened the passenger door for her and gave her plenty of room to get by him. It was almost as if he was avoiding her. But why would he need to do that?

“I’m not sure I feel completely dressed without it.”

“I assure you, you’re completely dressed.”

Was that humor she saw in his expression? Oh how she wished she could read his mind. It would be nice to know how the man she was about to marry thought, but it wasn’t likely to happen now, or ever. He would make certain of that.

“I wonder what else I forgot to pack,” she mused, her brain on autopilot. “I had some last-minute things to take care of with my assistant. I was afraid I was going to be late.”

“And that I might change my mind?”

“The thought occurred to me.” She slid into her seat and watched him circle the car. “What about you? Did you think I might chicken out?”

“No. I think you are the most dependable person I know.” His statement made it sound as if he knew more about her than their limited association had led her to believe. He slipped behind the wheel and started the engine.

Violet regarded his strong profile, admiring the precise cut of his jaw and his ridiculously long eyelashes. “What makes you say that?”

“From your reputation around town. Whenever you make a commitment to a cause or a promise to a friend you come through. No matter what.”

As the car rolled toward South Las Vegas Boulevard, Violet put her hands to her cheeks and found them hot with embarrassment. “I don’t do more than anyone else.”

“And then you rarely take credit for all the good things you do.” The light turned green as they approached it and JT was able to turn onto the strip without stopping. “It causes people to take advantage of your generosity.”

Was he trying to warn her that this is what he was doing? If he was, it was too late. She was already committed to their goal.

“You make me sound like a sap.”

“I was trying to pay you a compliment.”

“A backhanded one, maybe.
You’re a dependable doormat
.” She made a face. “That’s a fine way to talk about your bride-to-be.”

An impatient sound erupted from him. “In the future I’ll remember that flattery makes you prickly.”

“See that you do. I prefer honesty to sweet talk.” She stared at him in silence until he’d stopped at a light and looked her way. “Are you going to have a problem with that?”

“Not at all.”

“Good. Just think of me as a fellow businessperson and we’ll get along just fine.”

JT merely nodded his agreement.

Ten minutes later, they swung into the Tunnel of Love Chapel. It wasn’t Violet’s first trip through the tunnel. Her best friend from high school had tied the knot here the day after graduation and two short months before baby Cory was born. JT, however, looked like he’d never seen anything like the blue ceiling adorned with cupids and stars.

He stopped the car before a booth with a sign that read “The Little White Wedding Chapel Drive Thru Window,” and they filled out the paperwork for the marriage license. Getting married in Las Vegas was a simple matter. Maybe too simple? Time for second thoughts came and went in the blink of an eye. As the opening words of the wedding ceremony began, a strange buzzing filled her ears.

Was she really marrying JT Stone? Violet glanced from the man framed by the booth window to JT. Her lips twitched uncontrollably. As first JT then she repeated the vows spoken by the minister, Violet was overwhelmed by the dreamlike aspect of her wedding. She didn’t feel attached to the body sitting in the car beside JT. And she didn’t recognize her voice promising to love and honor him. It wasn’t until JT pulled out two platinum rings and she felt the cold metal slide onto her finger that she crashed back to earth.

She had only a second to scrutinize her ring’s antique setting. The setting was square, the diamond round, the corners filled in with ornate filigree. Violet guessed the stone to be over two and a half carats. Smaller round diamonds flanked the center stone. He slipped the ring on her left hand. The instant she realized it fit, all her agitation disappeared and she was struck by the rightness of what she was doing.

The minister interrupted her thoughts. “Now the bride.”

JT handed her the other ring, this one embossed with waves and swirls. Repeating the vows that symbolized love and commitment, Violet slipped the ring onto JT’s finger. She couldn’t look him in the eye. Her wild idea to marry JT so she could use her stock to put him in charge of his family’s company was on the verge of becoming legally and morally binding.

“I now pronounce you man and wife,” the minister proclaimed.

Violet’s heart had been erratic since JT had agreed to marry her. Now it was positively aflutter. They’d done it. For good or for bad, there was no going back.

“You may kiss the bride.”

Mouth dry, Violet waited for her first kiss from JT. Her stomach had been in knots for the last several hours since they’d agreed to get married. How would he kiss her? Would it be passionate? Romantic? Would he sweep her into his arms and steal her breath or would he woo her with slow, sensual kisses? Either way, she knew it would be perfect.

She’d never dreamed he’d catch her chin in his fingers and plant a quick kiss at the corner of her lips. Lost in a fog of disappointment, she automatically went through the formalities that followed and accepted the congratulations of the witnesses with a heavy heart.

And then the car was rolling out of the Tunnel of Love Chapel and emerging into the noise and lights of Las Vegas once more. While JT negotiated the traffic on his way to the freeway, Violet stared at the ring on her hand. How had he gotten a set of wedding rings on such short notice? And such unique ones at that.

“It’s my grandmother’s,” JT said as if reading her mind. “And this is my grandfather’s.” He held up his left hand. “I drove to the ranch before picking you up.”

Rendered speechless at the significance of wearing a family heirloom, Violet gaped at him. Harper would laugh at her for believing that jewelry held the energy of the wearer, but what else could explain the tranquility that came over her the instant she’d put on his grandmother’s ring? They’d married without love. She didn’t deserve to be wearing something so dear.

“Is something wrong?” he prompted.

“We could have bought rings at the chapel.”

“Why, when these were collecting dust in my safe?”

“But it’s your grandmother’s ring.”

He eyed her. “And I trust that as soon as it’s no longer necessary, you’ll return it.”

“Of course.” It was beginning to annoy her that he wasn’t getting the significance of the jewelry he’d just pledged his troth with. Heaving a sigh, Violet decided to let it drop. In a few months it would be back in his safe where it belonged.

As the car streaked through the Nevada night, the adrenaline rush she’d been riding for the last two days began to fade. Her confidence waned as well. She was now married to a man who was for all intents and purposes a virtual stranger. And with the strength of his deflector shields, he was likely to stay that way no matter how delicately she probed. Which she really shouldn’t do.

What she had to remember was that despite the marriage vows they’d just exchanged, theirs was a union of expediency. Mutual benefit. JT got the chance to reclaim his family’s business. She would finish what Tiberius had started and preserve the stock’s value.

It was a business arrangement. He would resist her efforts to dig around in his private thoughts in an attempt to get to know him better.

“Now what’s bothering you?” JT quizzed.

“Nothing, why?”

For the last half hour they’d been heading north out of town on I-25. His sixty-acre ranch sat just beyond the outskirts of the city. At first she’d resisted being away from the hotel on such short notice, but since Tiberius’s death, she’d been working herself hard and could really use a night off.

“You haven’t said a word in fifteen minutes,” JT said. “It’s not like you.”

“Was it crazy, what we just did?”

“Completely.” He exited the freeway and turned left onto a two-lane highway. “Have you changed your mind?”

“No.” And she was surprised at how strongly she felt about staying the course. “It’s all going to work out. We just need to get the last three percent Tiberius had been working on before the next stockholders’ meeting.”

JT nodded. “One way or another, we can be divorced before fall.”

Her stomach fell at his eagerness to be rid of her and she chided herself for reacting so foolishly. That was the deal they’d made. She had no right to wish for something else.

“Then we’d better get to work immediately,” she said. “I brought all the files from his desk at the house. He was about to approach eight more shareholders. Four of the leads look promising.”

“I’ll look at them first thing in the morning.”

His use of first person singular wasn’t lost on her. Before she returned to Fontaine Chic tomorrow, she was determined to make him understand that this undertaking was going to be a team effort. She’d married him and was determined he would not do battle with his father alone.

“This is going to work, you know.”

He shot her a dour look. “Are you always this optimistic?”

“You make it sound like a bad thing.”

“It’s not bad, but I’m not sure it’s realistic. Don’t you ever worry?”

“Not about the future.” She lifted her face to the wind streaming off the windshield. “Why bother? It’s a blank slate, full of possibilities.”

He didn’t reply and she tried to be comfortable in the silence that filled the space between them once more. But the unfinished conversation itched like a case of hives.

“All the brooding you do in the bar every night. Tell me what good it does you to worry about things that haven’t happened?”

“It’s not the future that concerns me, but the past. Things I’d like to take back, do differently, but can’t.”

Delighted that JT was on the verge of a revelation, she prompted, “Such as?”

“Nothing I feel like talking about.”

And just like that she was shut down. Violet heaved a sigh and lapsed into silence. What a puzzle he was. She knew his childhood hadn’t been one to brag about. His father’s ambition. His mother’s retreat into alcohol and drugs. Emotional injuries he’d suffered at a fragile age had turned him into a wild teenager. When JT had first arrived in Las Vegas, Tiberius had warned her to stay away from him. He was not a bird with a broken wing or a kitten who’d been struck by a car. He was a grown man who only knew how to use people and cast them aside.

Tiberius’s initial opinion of his nephew had been right on, but Violet suspected it wasn’t the whole picture. Curious about the Stone family, she’d conducted an internet search and discovered what sorts of trouble a party boy from Miami could get into. Although her contact with him had been limited these last six years, she didn’t think he was the type to act out without cause. But whatever motivated him was locked deep inside and given the firm set of his jaw, likely to remain so.

“So you have a hard time letting go,” she said. “How can you think that’s good for you?”

“Reliving past events helps me avoid similar situations in my future.”

When Violet considered her life, she decided she could probably spend a little time learning from her experiences. How many men had she dated who’d needed her to be their cheerleader or their psychologist or their financial advisor or their life coach? Too many. And here she was doing it again. Only this time she’d gone too far and had actually married someone.