Accidental Proposal (A Year Agreement Book 1) (13 page)

I wasn’t this busy at work in the beginning, but now my father was slowly giving me more duties before he passed the head CEO position to me. Work just kept piling higher and higher every day. There were other CEOs and workers that helped with some of it, but sometimes it wasn’t enough. You wouldn’t think running and owning hotels would be so hard, but it was.

“Liam, my boy,” a familiar voice said, making me turn toward the door. In walked one of my father’s most trusted partners, Brian Mathews. He and my father have been by each other’s side for many years. Brian was always the one to make sure everything was going smoothly and things got done correctly. I’d known him practically my whole life and considered him my second father. He had salt and pepper-colored hair and a pair of kind brown eyes. He was my father’s age, fifty-seven.

“Brian,” I greeted him, standing up and coming around my desk. He shook my hand and pulled me into a hug. “What are you doing here? I just saw you three weeks ago,” I said, gesturing for him to take a seat.

“This isn’t a business call. I heard from your parents that you are engaged. How the hell did that happen?” he asked, smirking at me. “Last I heard, you were off serious relationships and were going to live the bachelor lifestyle for a while.”

“It’s fairly recent.”

“I didn’t know you were dating anyone this seriously.”

“I kept her a secret. I wanted to see where we were going and didn’t want anything to get in the way of it. You know the press and everyone else would have made a big deal out of nothing. It would have made her run away,” I lied.

“If your face didn’t run her away, then I don’t know what would.” He laughed, grinning at me. I shook my head at him but smiled. “When will I be able to meet your lovely fiancé?”
Lovely? More like weird and complicated.
“If I had known you were introducing her to your parents, I would have come over.”

“Soon, I think.”

“From what I hear, she is a looker and very nice. I hope you will have her by your side at the Annual Benefit this Friday. I bet everyone will be dying to meet her.” I had forgotten about the Benefit completely. The idea of taking Jenna and having everyone stare at her was not all that appealing. I knew the people who attended those events. They would tear Jenna apart immediately. Everything about her screamed lower class and that she didn’t belong at an event like that.

“I don’t know. We haven’t even told anyone else besides my parents yet,” I said.

“Liam, everyone will find out eventually, whether you want them to or not. It’s better to do it yourself, before others do it for you.”

“You are right.” It was true. The moment anyone got wind of my engagement to Jenna, they would be on us like vultures. They would try to find out where Jenna had been, what she did for a living, who her parents where, and, of course, rumors would fly faster than the fall of Rome. People would make up the worst things about Jenna marrying me for money or fame, how she was some spoiled little rich girl who wanted to take over my business, or even that she was pregnant with my child. Whatever people wanted to say, they would. It was better to be on top of it before anything like that could happen. Jenna and I needed to announce it ourselves and in a big way.

“I better get going, son. I have a meeting at noon to take care of. Tell that fiancé of yours I can’t wait to meet her.” Brian stood up, interrupting my thoughts. Smiling at him, I hugged him goodbye before he left my office. I sat back down heavily in my seat, rubbing my forehead. This deal was a lot harder than I originally thought.
Jenna and I have a lot of work to do to before the Benefit on Friday.

As it was nearing noon, I figured I’d better go home and warn Jenna and talk to her sooner rather than later. With practically all my work done, I told my receptionist to take any of my calls for the next two hours, as I would be out. I’d been at work since early that morning, so I’d gotten everything completed early. Ever since Jenna moved in, I had been staying at the office later, or all day for that matter. I didn’t want to go home and have to deal with her questions and silent stares. I didn’t know what was sadder: that I didn’t want to be home with my fake fiancé or that I’d rather be at work.

Getting in my car, I drove home thinking about how angry Jenna would get at my news and at the idea of Lennon teaching her how to act. Lennon knew just as well as I did that you had to act a certain way around snotty rich people. If you didn’t, then you were immediately picked on until you couldn’t take anymore and had to leave. A girl like Jenna would be picked apart in minutes. Pulling into the garage, I slid out of my Audi
and headed inside. The moment I stepped through the door, I heard a loud voice down the hallway.

“You little bitch, you are supposed to be helping me!” I heard Jenna saying.
Who is she talking to?
“You have to move! Ugh!” Confused, I headed toward the sound. Grunts reached my ears, and the sound of huffing.
Sounds like she’s having sex.

Coming to a stop in front of my spare room, my eyebrows flew up. Pushing and pulling the desk I put in there a while ago was Jenna. The room was scattered with tarp, with a few paint cans and brushes, and a ladder off in the corner. Jenna was dressed in a pair of worn pale blue skinny jeans that did very well for her ass, and they had a few rips in them by the knees. She was wearing a tight black tank top that had a few splatters of red paint on it. Her blonde hair was pulled onto the top of her head with a few strands falling out and sticking to her sweat-covered neck and forehead. She grunted, pushing what looked to be all her weight against the desk, trying to move it.

The walls were outlined with blue masking tape, and a few spots had red paint. Turning my head to my right, outside by the door was the mattress leaning against the wall. When I looked back at Jenna, I watched her as she grunted and huffed, not making any progress.
What the hell is she doing?
I stared at my fake fiancé, wondering why I really did choose her.

Chapter Thirteen

Jenna

After pushing and pulling that stupid desk, I finally gave up when it only moved an inch. Panting, I leaned against it and wiped my forehead.
I really need to get in shape.
A clearing of a throat made me look over toward the door. Standing there was Liam, staring at me like I had lost my mind. His eyebrows were raised, and his arms were folded across his chest. I looked around the messy room and bit my bottom lip, looking back at him. I gulped, anxious to see if he was going to yell at me.

“What are you doing?” he asked, pushing off the wall and walking into the room. He turned to me, waiting for my answer.

“Uh, redecorating?” I supplied, watching him move.

“Why this room and not your own?”

“I liked all the colored walls in the other rooms but not this one, so I decided to repaint this one. That’s okay, right?” I asked.

“Sure. It’s too late now anyways to say no.” He shrugged at me. Even though that wasn’t much of a yes or a no, I felt relieved.

“What are you doing home?” I wiped my sweaty hands on my jeans, looking at him. Seeing him dressed all fancy, then me standing there sweaty in a pair of old torn jeans and a tank, made me feel dirty and small.

“I need to discuss some things with you.”

“Okay, um, can I get a glass of water first?” With just a nod from him as a response, I squeezed past his big frame and headed toward the kitchen. I already knew whatever Liam wanted to discuss with me wasn’t something I was going to like. Come to think of it, whenever Liam wanted to “talk” to me, I didn’t like it. Or it got me deeper into the hole I’d dug for myself.

Getting a glass of water and gulping the whole thing down in minutes, I turned around and almost crashed into Liam. He had been standing right behind me, watching me drink. I had already come to terms with the fact that I had to do whatever was asked of me, whether I wanted to or not. I was going to take everything in stride and go along with what Liam wanted to discuss.

“What did you need to talk about?” I asked, leaning against the counter.

“You have to listen to everything I say before getting mad, okay?” Liam asked, looking at me weirdly.

“Okay…” I was starting to actually get nervous.

“This Friday is my company’s Annual Benefit, and you are coming along with me.”
Okay, that isn’t so bad.

“Okay, I can do that,” I started to say, but Liam stopped me.

“That’s not all. I am going to need Lennon to teach you some of the basics before we go.”

“The basics?” Did Liam think I didn’t know how to act properly or something?

“How to eat, talk, and walk.”

“You think I don’t know how to eat, walk, or talk properly?” I asked, feeling myself getting angry. “You think of me as some poor girl who practically doesn’t know the basics of life.”

“Jenna, no, I didn’t say that,” he protested, taking a step toward me, but I took one back.

“Just because I grew up in a home with no parents doesn’t mean I don’t know how to act, Liam,” I bit out angrily.

“I am not saying you don’t know how, Jenna. I know these people. They will find anything to pick on so they can tear you apart! I am trying to help you get ready to face these people, because if you’re not, they will get their claws in you and not let go.” He glared down at me, his face hard. “I know you know how to act civil and proper. I am just trying to help. I told you before to not get angry until I was done.”

“Yeah, ’cause that’s easy to do when someone insults you,” I shot back sarcastically.

“Don’t push my patience, Jenna,” he growled at me. Rolling my eyes at him, I put my hands on my hips.

“Anything else you want to insult me with, or can I get back to what I was doing?” I asked.

“Jenna.”

“Fine. Anything else you would like to talk about, my dear fiancé?” I asked in a sweet voice. He rolled his eyes at me but responded.

“Since you will be attending the Benefit with me, this week we will have to come out that we are engaged.”

“As in, we take pictures and post them on Facebook or something?”

“Yes, but instead of Facebook we send it into the newspaper.” He nodded. I ran my hand down my face, thinking of all this new information.

Okay, this isn’t so bad. I just have to do those stupid lessons with Lennon about etiquette and then take engagement photos with Liam. No big deal. I can do this.
The “I can do this” mantra was starting to be my life quote or something lately.
Take it all in stride, Jenna.
Taking a deep breath, I nodded at Liam.

“Okay, that sounds good. Are you going to hire a photographer soon so we can take the photos sometime this week?” I asked once I had my feelings under lock and key. He seemed taken aback by my sudden change of mood and my willingness.

“Uh, yeah, I’ll call today,” he said, looking at me weirdly.

“Sounds good. Let me know when we will be taking them and when I need to meet with Lennon.” As I spoke, I almost didn’t even recognize my voice, for how calm it was.
You know what? Maybe I should consider being an actor. I could be very good at it.

“Okay, I—”

“I’d better get back to redecorating.” Without waiting for a response, I moved past Liam and headed back to the room.
I handled that pretty well, I must say.
Mentally patting myself on the back, I looked around the room. I needed something to do for a little bit to get my mind off of Liam.

Even though I couldn’t move the desk, I grabbed a paintbrush and worked on opening the paint can. Squatting down, I dipped the tip of the brush in the red paint and headed to the wall. Having no idea what to do, I just started painting up and down in the middle of the wall. I formed a little square, and I smiled, glad at the color. It easily covered the light purple on the walls. Once I ran out of paint on my brush, I grabbed my cell phone. I put it in the corner and scrolled through my music. Last week, during my boring days, I’d bought music from iTunes. I now had about forty songs and I wanted more, but I wouldn’t believe how much money music actually was. Clicking on a Taylor Swift song, I turned up the volume and got back to painting. “Bad Blood” played throughout the room, and I hummed along with it.

With the music playing, I didn’t hear Liam come into the room until I felt a hand brush against my forearm. Jumping, I whirled around and saw him standing next to me, now clad in a pair of blue jeans that had holes in it like mine and a light grey shirt that hugged his upper body. He had the other paintbrush in his hand, swiping up and down along with me. Surprised, I stood there, staring at him helping me paint. I never would have thought he would.

“Are you going to paint or just stare at me?” he asked, still facing the wall. Blushing, I turned back around, moving my brush. Even though there was music playing, things between us were awkward. We were silent for a few minutes, the only sounds being the music and the sound of our paintbrushes against the wall.

“Aren’t you supposed to be at work?” I asked.

“I took the day off,” he said simply.

“Wow that was quite the answer. I don’t know if I’ll ever get you to shut up,” I replied sarcastically. “Can’t you say more than one-word sentences?”

“I could, but I don’t want to. See? That wasn’t one word,” he retorted.

“Six whole words! Is the world ending?” I looked at him with widened eyes.

“Haha, aren’t you the joker?” He fake laughed at me.

“Look at you, being almost sarcastic. Who knew you had it in you?” I grinned at him, dipping my brush back in the paint.

“Well, there are a lot of things you don’t know about me.”
And
whose
fault
is
that?
I clamped my lips shut, not wanting to say anything I shouldn’t.

“So, this Benefit thingy. It happens every year?” I asked.

“Yes. It is usually held at one of our hotels, and basically everyone is invited.”

“What is it for?”

“The children’s hospital. We auction off a few things, make some speeches, everyone talks and hopefully donates,” Liam said. He made it seem like it wasn’t a big deal, but it was, or at least it was to me. Having a benefit to raise money for the children’s hospital was really sweet and caring. I thought it would be some benefit where all the rich people just stood around and donated to some fake fund.

“That is…that is great,” I finally said. And to hold the event at their own hotel to save costs. I’d never been to any of the Stanford Hotels, but I knew they were huge and nice.

“I’m not heartless like you think I am, Jenna.”

“I never said that you were.”
Or
at
least
not
out loud
. I heard him scoff next to me. “But it wouldn’t hurt to be a little nicer.”

“Nice? What is that? I’ve never heard of it.” Looking to my right, I watched him grin at me. He’d never smiled like that at me before, and I felt my heart swell and my knees weaken. He had a gorgeous smile that I knew he never showed anyone but his family. That was his real smile. The other one I’d seen in magazines and on the internet looked more forced. He would only smile with his lips, not showing his teeth, and his blue eyes didn’t seem to shine the way they did now. I grinned back at him, feeling happy I had finally made him really smile at me, instead of just frowning.

“And here I thought you went to college. Looks like you really are just a pretty face,” I commented, shaking my head at him.

“Who needs smarts when you have a face like mine?” He gestured to his face. A laugh escaped my lips as I grinned at him.

“All you need is a sugar mama now. One who will pay for your plastic surgery later on.” I pointed my paintbrush at him, forgetting I had just re-dipped it. It was like everything went into slow motion. Red paint flew off my brush and hit Liam straight in the face. I stared at the mess, trying to hold back my widening grin. I hadn’t meant to get paint on him, but I was one of those people who talked with their hands a lot.

“I am so sorry,” I said but giggled. His blue eyes narrowed.
Uh
oh
. “Liam, whatever is going on in your head, it needs to stop.” I took a step back. I was smart enough to know that Liam was going to retaliate. “It was an accident.”

“I don’t think so.” He bent over and put more than half of his brush in the paint. As he pulled it out, I watched as paint dripped off of it onto the tarp-covered floor.
I’m in trouble now.

“
Liam,” I warned, putting my hand out. Without any warning, he flicked his wrist and sent red paint flying at me. I didn’t have time to move or to cover up as paint hit my tank top and my face. I felt it on my cheeks, nose, and forehead. Looking down, I saw my black tank top had drops of splattered paint all over it. I turned back to look at Liam, and I found he had a triumphant grin across his face. He’d just started a war.

Acting like I was inspecting my tank top, I stepped closer to him. As I tried to act casual, I looked up at him before shooting my arm out and wiping my brush up his shirt and to his neck. Standing back, I looked him up and down and nodded.

“Red is really your color.” He growled and lunged at me. I didn’t dodge in time, and he swiped his brush along my bare arm, up into my hair. I gasped, looking at him while he smirked at me. I felt my hair and pulled it away to see it covered in red paint. No one messed with my hair. Not caring anymore, I jumped toward the paint can and instead of dipping my brush into it, I dipped my fingers. I whirled around and flicked my fingers at Liam, sending paint toward him. It hit his arms, jeans, and t-shirt.

What happened next came like a tornado. Liam charged toward me, swiping at me with his brush. He then put his hand in the paint, like I had. I turned to run, but a strong arm wrapped itself around my waist, stopping me. I squirmed in his grasp, but it did nothing. A red paint-covered hand came into view, and before I knew it, he was smearing it across my face.

“Now red is your color,” Liam whispered huskily into my ear. I tried not to shiver, but my body failed me. He let me go a second later, taking a step away from me. I could feel the paint all over my face and even on my eyelids. Payback time! Running to the paint tin, I dipped my
entire
hand into it. I chuckled and ran to Liam and aimed the paint at his hair and face. Satisfied that his brown hair was covered, I started flicking the extra at his shirt.

“Payback’s a bitch!” I grinned evilly.

The next few minutes, Liam and I ran away from each other while we threw paint. Most of the time Liam caught up to me, since his legs were longer than mine. I was covered in red paint, but I couldn’t care less. Only a few patches of Liam’s grey shirt could be seen, but the rest were covered as well. Both of our arms were lined with red from each other’s fingerprints, and from our wrists down we were completely covered from sticking our hands into the paint bucket.