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“Right there with ya,” Sean said, tipping his beer bottle at her in salute.
“My point is, if we’re married two months, then Grandfather will think we’ve given it a try and it just didn’t work out. Long enough to soothe him and short enough that neither of us should mind too much.”
“Uh-huh.” He looked at her, wondering how this day had gone from normal into the world of weird. “And you’ve chosen me for the honor of temporary husband … why?”
She sat back in her chair and drummed her fingertips on the table. She might look cool and composed, Sean told himself, but her nerves were showing anyway.
“I did some research into you.”
“What?”
“Well,” she explained, “I’m not about to marry just anybody.”
“Oh yeah,” he said nodding, “I can see that.”
“You were a good student in college, majored in computer sciences. You graduated and went into business with two of your half brothers. You’re the tech guy, but also the one they call on to make the hard sell.” She took a breath and Sean just stared at her. “You live in a rehabbed water tower in Sunset Beach California and you love your sister-in-law’s cookies.”
He frowned and took a long drink of his beer. Sean didn’t much care for being researched. And he really didn’t care for what she had to say next.
“You don’t do commitment,” she said, still tapping her fingers on the tabletop. “You’re a serial monogamist—one woman only until you move on to the next one. Your exes all speak highly of you though, so that tells me you’re a nice enough guy despite the fact that you can’t maintain a relationship.”
“Excuse me?”
“The longest relationship you had was in college. That lasted nearly nine months, though I couldn’t find out what happened to end it—”
And she never would, Sean thought, deciding he’d had enough. Beautiful or not, she was starting to annoy him.
“That’s it. I’m done.” He leaned across the table and stared into those beautiful, sea-blue eyes of hers and said, “I’ll get the land and I’ll do it my way. I’m not interested in your schemes, babe, so try them on somebody else.”
“Wait. Just … wait.” She gave him a wide-eyed look out of those beautiful blue eyes and he felt himself weakening. “This is coming out all wrong and I know it. I’m sorry if I offended you.”
“Not offended,” he assured her. “Just not interested.”
Melinda felt a quick jolt of something like panic. She’d completely messed this up and she didn’t want to risk having him turn her down. So she took a long breath and said, “Just, give me a chance to start over, okay?”
He gave her a wary look, but he didn’t stand up and walk out, so she took that as a good sign.
God, where should she start? Funny, but she’d been planning on ambushing Sean King since she’d first heard about his upcoming visit weeks ago. Hence the research, she thought wryly. But in all that time, she’d never really considered how she was going to explain all of this without sounding like a complete loon.
“Okay, let me back up a little. The thing is, I’ll come into a trust fund once I get married. With that, I can live my own life. Don’t get me wrong here. I love my grandfather. He’s a sweetie. But,” she added with a helpless shake of her head, “he’s really old school. He thinks women need to be married and having babies. Period. And he’s relentless in trying to find a husband for me. I just thought, if I could get one on my own terms …”
“Okay,” he said. “I get that. I guess what I’m wondering is again, why me?”
“Because this benefits both of us,” she said, warming to her subject. At least he was listening. “You get the land. I’ll get the trust fund, and then we’ll both get a divorce.”
He scowled a little, still unconvinced, so Melinda took a wild shot. “I could … pay you for your time.…”
Instantly, anger flared in his eyes. “I’m not going to have you pay me to marry you. I don’t need your money.”
That reaction told her she’d made the right choice. Heaven knew there were millions of men who would have been more than happy to take her money. But Sean King was so wealthy in his own right, her trust fund, though immense to her, was probably nothing more than spending money to him.
Still, it spoke to his character that he was offended at the idea of her buying his services.
“Okay, but you and your cousin do want to build a hotel on Tesoro?”
“Yeah,” he said.
“And to do that, you need the land.”
“Yeah.”
“To get the land, you’ll need me.” When he didn’t look convinced, she said, “I know you don’t believe me, but you should. You’re meeting with Grandfather in the morning, aren’t you?”
He nodded.
“Great. Then why don’t we have dinner tonight? We can talk more about this and maybe I can convince you.”
He gave her a slow smile that was hardly more than a slight curve of his mouth, but she felt the impact of it slam into her. Sean King oozed charm and sex appeal. The man was bristling with testosterone and Melinda felt a shiver of appreciation shoot through her.
Oh, this could get dangerous, she told herself.
“Dinner, huh?” He set his beer down and nodded. “Okay. I never turn down an opportunity for dinner with a beautiful woman. But I warn you, I’m not interested in being married.”
“I know,” she told him. “That’s why you’re perfect.”
He shook his head and laughed. “I can’t decide if you’re crazy or not.”
“Not crazy,” she assured him. “Just determined.”
“Beautiful and determined,” he murmured. “A dangerous combination.”
Heat flashed through her veins in spite of the fact that she didn’t want to be attracted to him. She ignored the warmth still blossoming inside her and said, “There’s a restaurant in town. Diego’s. I’ll meet you there at seven.”
“I’m agreeing to dinner,” he said with another half smile. “Not marriage.” He stood up and looked down at her. “Diego’s. Seven.”
When he walked away, Melinda watched him. He was tall and lean and moved with a kind of lazy grace that men with lots of confidence seemed to adopt. Sean King was more than she’d expected.
She only hoped he wasn’t more than she could handle.
“Lucas, what do you know about Melinda Stanford?” Sean spoke into his cell phone as he stood out on the end of the pier, watching the fishing boats head into the harbor.
“She’s Walter’s granddaughter.”
“Yeah, I know that much.”
“Well, what else is there?”
Way too much to go into over the phone, Sean thought. “Did you meet her when you were on Tesoro?”
“Briefly,” Lucas said. “But then, my whole trip was brief. Walter said ‘No’ so fast, I didn’t even get to unpack my bag before I was on the launch taking me back to civilization.”
“Right.” Sean nodded thoughtfully and kept his gaze fixed on the ocean.
“So what’s this about?” Lucas asked. “Problem already? The great Sean charm not working?”
“In your dreams.” Sean laughed, turned around and headed back down the dock. “I told you I’d get the land and I will.”
“Yeah … good luck with the old man. I think he got a charm immunization.”
“We’ll see,” Sean said.
Diego’s was small and bright and popular with both locals and tourists. Seafood was the specialty and it was served at small, square tables decorated with brilliantly colored tablecloths that shone like jewels in the candlelit atmosphere. Patio dining offered more privacy, as there were fewer tables and those were spread far apart, but even the customers who stayed inside had a breathtaking view of the ocean and the pristine beach through a wide bank of windows. Moonlight glowed in the night sky and dazzled the water with silver light.
A sigh of a cool breeze slipped in off the ocean and danced around Melinda as she sat on the patio. Fall weather on Tesoro was capricious at best. Warm during the days, the nights could be cold or as it was tonight, almost sultry.
But then, Melinda thought, taking a slow sip of her ice-cold wine, maybe it wasn’t the weather making her feel hot and uncomfortable. Maybe it was Sean King.
No, she told herself immediately. That couldn’t be it. Because she refused to be attracted to him. She wasn’t interested in a man and didn’t think she ever would be again. This was strictly a business proposal and it would really be better for both of them if they could keep sexual heat out of the mix entirely.
Nerves skittered in her stomach. She trailed her fingertips up and down the stem of her wineglass and told herself that she was doing the right thing. The only thing.
She needed a husband.
Now all she had to do was convince Sean King that he was the man for the job.
“No pressure,” she whispered.
She wasn’t sure what caught her attention. The sound of leather soles scraping against the stone floor of the patio? Or was it something more elemental than that? Was it the feel of Sean King’s gaze locked on her?
Whatever the reason, Melinda looked up to see the man walking toward her. His features were carefully blank, but for the half smile curving his mouth. He wore black slacks, a white, button-down shirt, open at the throat and a black jacket—and somehow, he managed to look both casual and dangerous.
Two
“Romantic setting for a business deal,” Sean commented as he sat down opposite her.
Melinda took a long, deep breath and forced a smile she wasn’t quite feeling. The nerves jumping inside her were now racing at a gallop. This was too important for her to make a mistake. Somehow, she had to convince Sean to marry her—temporarily.
“I wasn’t going for romantic,” she told him. “Just quiet.”
“You got both,” he said, nodding to the waiter when he stepped up to the table to pour wine. He waited until the server had moved off again before lifting his glass to take a small sip. Then he set the glass down, leaned his forearms on the tabletop and looked at her. Waiting again.
His gaze was steady and the expression on his face unreadable. Good sign? Bad sign? Melinda didn’t know. But there was one sure way to find out.
“I’m really sorry I dumped all of this on you out of the blue this afternoon.”
He shrugged. “No good way to propose to a stranger, I suppose.”
“True.” Shaking her head, Melinda said, “I know this all seems really strange, but you have to understand that my grandfather is very protective of me.”
“So much so he tries to barter you off to business associates?” Sean quipped.
Melinda stiffened. She could complain about her grandfather all she wanted, but she wouldn’t let someone else—especially someone who didn’t even know him—take a shot at him. “He’s trying to see me taken care of.”
Sean leaned back in his chair and scraped one hand across the back of his neck. “And if you were a simpering maiden trapped in the middle ages, that would make sense.”
This wasn’t starting off very well, she told herself and then decided to ignore whatever comments he made. He didn’t understand yet, that was all.
“Okay, yes,” she agreed, “he’s a little old-fashioned.”
Both of his eyebrows arched.
“Fine. More than a little.” She blew out a breath and explained. “I grew up here on Tesoro. My grandfather raised me when my parents died in a small plane crash when I was five.”
He frowned at that, then took a sip of wine. Still not giving anything away. Not letting her get even a hint of what he might be thinking. He was probably an excellent poker player, Melinda told herself. She, on the other hand, was terrible at card games. She couldn’t bluff to save her life. She was much more up-front and honest—well, she admitted silently, she wasn’t exactly being honest with her grandfather in all of this. But then, she had tried to talk him out of this husband hunt he was on. Sadly, she hadn’t been able to change his mind.
At the thought of Walter Stanford, she smiled in spite of her frustration. Her grandfather had been the one constant in her life. The one person who had always loved her no matter what. He was only trying to see her married because to him, that meant she would be protected and loved even when he was gone.
Which she so didn’t want to think about. A world without Walter Stanford in it just didn’t seem possible.
“Anyway,” Melinda said, “he’s getting older now and worrying about leaving me alone. I’ve told him that I’ll be fine, but he comes from a generation that believed in taking care of women. I’m his only family and he wants to protect me.” She gave him a long look. “You come from a big family and you’re very close to your brothers. That’s another reason why I’m coming to you with this plan. You understand family loyalties.”
“I do,” he admitted with a nod. “In fact, that’s the one part of this whole thing that I totally get. I understand your grandfather’s motivations. What I can’t figure out is why you’re willing to play along with his plans.”
She smoothed her palms over the skirt of her cream-colored tank dress and tugged at the hem, but couldn’t get it to reach the tops of her knees. “Because I love him. I don’t want him to be worried …”
“… And?”
He was right, there was more. Quite a bit more.
“And, once I’m married, as I said, I’ll come into my trust fund.”
“Ah,” he said, with a small smile. “And by marrying me, you don’t have to worry about your new hubby making off with your money.”
“Exactly.” She returned that smile and felt a bit of her nerves slide away. He was surprisingly easy to talk to once you got past the weirdness of the conversation.
“And again, how long would this marriage last?”
“I think two months should do it,” she said, warming to her subject now that they were talking specifics. She had been working on this plan for weeks now and in her mind, at least, it all worked out perfectly. And so far so good. Sean King was still sitting opposite her. He hadn’t said yes, yet. But, he hadn’t walked out and he hadn’t said no—precisely. “It’s long enough that my grandfather would be convinced we at least tried to make it work.”
“And once our marriage ‘fails,’ you think he’d stop trying to marry you off?”
“I think so,” she said, chewing at her bottom lip as she considered it. “I hope so,” she corrected after a minute or two. “But basically I’m tired of fending off men trying to buy my grandfather’s goodwill. Besides, this is my only chance to get my trust fund my way. Well, mostly my way. I’ll still be married, like Grandfather wants, but it will be a husband I choose and the kind of marriage I want.”
He shifted in his chair and the breeze ruffled his black hair, lifting it off his forehead. He was still listening, so Melinda hurried on.
“Like I said earlier, if you agree, we’ll get married and stay married for two months. I’ll get my trust fund. You’ll get your land. And then we’ll both get a divorce.”
The waiter showed up just then, so whatever Sean might have said would have to wait. Impatient now, sensing that just maybe he was beginning to come around, it seemed to take forever for them to order their meal. Finally, though, it was done, and they were alone again.
