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Lexi shook her head. “There’s no chance. He wasn’t the man I thought he was.”
“Well, he still has rights.”
“I know,” she said, feeling more confused than she ever had in her life. “I don’t know what to do.”
“Maybe what you need is some time away to think this through. You’ve been telling me for months that you’d like to take a vacation. Didn’t you mention a trip to Cabo San Lucas?”
The place where she had hoped to spend her honeymoon in marital bliss with Mitch? She couldn’t bear the thought of it.
“Too hot,” she told Tara.
“Okay, how about an Alaskan cruise?”
She blanched. “As if I’m not nauseous enough.”
“I didn’t think about that.” Tara gnawed her lower lip for a moment, then she brightened. “I know! What about that villa in the Greek Isles that Senator Richardson mentioned? That would be perfect.”
Actually, that was an excellent idea. She wanted quiet and seclusion, and no one in Greece was likely to know, or even care, who her father happened to be. But there was still a problem. “What if my father won’t allow it?”
“Tell him the humiliation of Lance’s rejection is just too much to bear, and you need some time alone.”
It was the humiliation of Mitch’s rejection that was really killing her, but still, it wasn’t a bad idea.
“Make him feel guilty for putting you in this position,” Tara said. “It is ultimately his fault that you’re going through all this.”
Tara had a point. If her father hadn’t insisted she marry Lance, Lexi never would have met Mitch. So, in a roundabout way he was responsible, although she doubted he would agree. He would lay the blame solely on her. As always. No matter how hard she tried, she never seemed to do anything right. And though she had never been one to play the pity card, if the circumstance demanded it…
She smiled at her friend, thankful she had someone so supportive to lean on at a time like this, even if she was getting paid handsomely to do so. “How soon can you make the reservation?”
Chapter Three (#ulink_ed641f43-0cd4-5b27-9985-074c92e96571)
As soon as he left the senator’s office, Mitch called his brother.
Lance answered on the first ring. “What did he say?”
“He agreed.”
Lance released a breath.
“You’re sure you’re ready to deal with the backlash?” Mitch asked. “This isn’t going to look great for you.”
“After the way I humiliated her, I would say I probably deserve it. I’m just sorry that you have to go through this.”
“Sorry for what? You were going to make the same sacrifice.”
“But I didn’t. I went with my heart.”
“I’m sure Lexi and I will eventually grow fond of one another,” he lied. It was probably more likely they would live completely separate lives. If they didn’t kill each other first.
“I just feel guilty as hell making you do this. Now that I know what it feels like to be with someone I love and trust, I want the same for you. I want you to be happy.”
“When our company is thriving and we’re leaving our competitors in the dust, I will be. Besides, you know I don’t believe in love. Life doesn’t work that way. Not for me, anyhow.” Nor did he want it to. It was tough to betray a man who refused to leave himself vulnerable. No woman would hurt him the way his mother had.
His brother could see right through him. “Not all women abandon their families,” he said. “And when Mom did, I’m sure she had her reasons.”
Of course she did. Their father was a bastard, emotionally, and at times physically, abusive. But if she loved Mitch and Lance, why leave them behind to suffer in her place? Why not take them with her?
He had no doubt that Lexi was self-centered and spoiled enough to do the same. If she did agree to marry him, he would insist they remain childless. It would be cruel to bring a baby into a loveless shell of a marriage. Sometimes he wished his parents would have spared him the burden of ever being born.
“There is a catch,” Mitch told him. “Alexis has to willingly accept my proposal.”
Lance let out a low whistle. “Maybe it was my imagination, but there didn’t seem to be any love lost between the two of you when I broke the engagement.”
Lance had no idea. “He also warned me that if I hurt her, he’ll crush us.”
Lance chuckled. “The old goat doesn’t pull any punches, does he?”
“You’re not concerned?”
“Why should I be? I have total faith in you.”
Mitch hoped that faith wasn’t misplaced. He’d already let his brother down once, betraying him by sleeping with his soon-to-be fiancée. Although it wasn’t as if Lance loved Lexi, or thought of the marriage as anything more than a business arrangement. Mitch, on the other hand, had honestly believed there had been a connection between Lexi and him. If he had known that Lance loved Kate the night that he slept with Lexi, he might have asked Lexi to marry him, instead. But she had only been using him.
Ironic that he would be stuck marrying her regardless.
“You can still back out,” Lance said.
No, he couldn’t. This marriage was imperative. “I’ve already made my decision. I’m going to call her right now and set up a meeting.”
“Suppose you ask, and she says no.”
A very likely scenario. But every woman had a weakness. He would find hers and use it to his advantage. “I’ll just have to make her an offer she can’t refuse.”
Though she hadn’t yet sought her father’s approval, Lexi laid out her clothes for the maid to pack. Her plane departed the day after tomorrow and nothing short of the apocalypse would stop her from being on it. The way she figured it, an emotional meltdown during supper and tearful pleading should bend him to her will.
Her cell phone rang and she checked the display. It was a Houston number that she didn’t recognize. Curious, she answered.
“Lexi, it’s Mitchell Brody.”
Her heart plummeted to her toes at the sound of his voice. “Hello, Mr. Brody,” she said in her coolest tone.
“I was wondering if we can arrange a meeting. This afternoon, if possible.”
A meeting? What could they possibly have to say to each other?
Fear slithered down her spine. He couldn’t know about the baby, could he? Only Tara knew, and she swore not to breathe a word to anyone.
She was being paranoid. Of course he didn’t know. Anything he could possibly have to say to her at this point was irrelevant.
“I’m afraid I don’t have time,” she told him. “I’m packing for a trip. Perhaps we could schedule a meeting in a few weeks, after I return.” Maybe by then she would know what she planned to do.
“I’m afraid this can’t wait,” he said. “It’s urgent that I speak with you today. I can be there in twenty minutes.”
Though he was the last man on earth that she wanted to see right now, her curiosity had been piqued. Maybe he wanted to beg her forgiveness, tell her that calling their night together a mistake had been a gross error in judgment.
Maybe he was coming to tell her that he loved her. She could at least hear him out, let him grovel a little before she told him to go to hell.
“Fine,” she said.
“I’ll see you in twenty minutes.”
Mitch was at her door in fifteen. When the bell rang, she waved the butler away and answered it herself.
She’d almost forgotten how beautiful he was, how tall and dark and imposing. How delicious he smelled. Some small part of her ached to be close to him, to touch him again, to vault herself into his arms. Probably thanks to the pregnancy hormones that had been wreaking havoc with her emotions the past few weeks.
The easy smile Mitch usually wore was absent. His jaw was set and his expression serious. In fact, he looked almost…nervous. She didn’t think men like Mitch ever got nervous.
“Thank you for agreeing to see me,” he said.
She folded her arms across her chest. “What was so important that it couldn’t wait?”
“Is there somewhere we can speak privately?”
She nodded, and he followed her across the foyer to the study. When they were inside, she shut the door. “Well?”
“First, I want to apologize again for my brother’s behavior.”
“Don’t bother. He did me a favor. We would have been miserable together.” She paused, then asked, “How is Lance?”
“Great. Very happy.”
“I’m glad. But that isn’t what you came here to talk about.”
“No, it isn’t,” he said, looking troubled. “As you probably know, Lance and I are still in need of your father’s support.”
“Good luck with that.” Her father had been furious with the Brody brothers, and still was, as far as she could tell.
“I had a meeting with him today.”
Her eyes widened. “He actually agreed to meet with you?”
“I can be very persuasive.”
He didn’t have to tell her that. Had he not been so persuasive, she wouldn’t be in her current dilemma.
“The senator and I have reached an…understanding.”
Why did she get the feeling that she wasn’t going to like this?
“What kind of understanding?”
“Your father has promised his support if you marry me, instead.”
Marry him? After what had happened with Lance, would her father honestly force her to marry the other Brody brother? And why hadn’t he said anything to her? Why hadn’t he warned her?
“Another business arrangement?” she asked, and Mitch nodded. “Do I have a choice in the matter?”
“In fact, you do. The stipulation was that I have to convince you to marry me.”
Her mouth fell open. “He actually said that?”
“Essentially, yes.”
She could see that the prospect of having to beg Lexi to marry him made Mitch uncomfortable. As it should, after the way he’d used her. Score one for good ol’ Dad. And she knew exactly why the senator had agreed to this arrangement. He’d mentioned more than once that he believed Mitch possessed presidential-size political potential. Social status meant everything to him and he would love nothing more than to see his precious daughter serve as first lady to the nation.
Whether or not Mitch was the least bit interested in a political career, Lexi didn’t have a clue, and the idea of spending the rest of her life married to someone so coldhearted and manipulative—too much like her father—turned her already questionable stomach.
Yet she couldn’t deny that this could be the answer to all of her problems. Marrying Mitch would give her child legitimacy. Although people—her father in particular—might get suspicious when she gave birth to a full-term-size baby two months early. But she could figure that out later.
The real question was, could she stand to be married to Mitch for the rest of her life?
Even if she did decide to marry him, she wouldn’t let Mitch off the hook too easily. She was going to make him work for it.
“After the way your brother humiliated me, what makes you believe I would even consider marrying you?” she asked.
“Because I have a plan that will leave my brother looking like the humiliated one.”
She narrowed her eyes at him, unable to resist taking the bait. “How will you manage that?”
“It will be leaked that you and I have been secretly seeing each other, and that I seduced you away from my brother that week in D.C. People will be led to believe that you were planning to break the engagement, only Lance did it first, before you had the chance.”
“And what will make them believe that? What if they think it’s just gossip?”
“My brother and I will have a very public argument to drive the point home.”
Reputation was everything to men like Lance and Mitch, so she couldn’t help but feel the slightest bit touched. “Lance would do that for me?”
“We’ll do anything for the sake of our business.”
So, they weren’t doing this for her. They were doing it for their business. Her vindication was just a convenient side effect. She should have known.
Ironically, their so-called plan wasn’t that far from the truth. Mitch had seduced her, and for a short time she had seriously considered choosing him over his brother.
“Does Lance know what happened?” she asked.
“You mean that night at the hotel?”
She nodded.
