Her Indecent Proposal (The BAD BOY BILLIONAIRES Collection) (2 page)

“Join us,” Marc moaned, zombie-like.  “Become one of us.” 

Michel laughed but then he turned earnest eyes on Sloane.  “Seriously,
Sloane, when are you going to take the plunge?  You’re thirty-six, for God’s
sake.  You want to wait until you’re gray to start a family?”

“Who?  This guy?” Marc looked amused.  “He’ll never settle down. 
Every few months he’s got a new lady on his arm.  This is definitely not a one-woman
man.”

“Yeah,” Patrick chimed in.  “Just like his motto, 'Love 'em and
leave 'em'.

“Hey, who said that was my motto?”  Sloane glared at Patrick whose
eyes immediately went to Michel.

“I didn’t have to say a thing,” Michel said, putting a hand up. 
“It’s pretty obvious, isn’t it?”

Sloane frowned.  “Obvious that what?”

“That you’re one of those rolling stones that gather no moss,” Marc
said with a sardonic smile.

“I’ve got corporations to run.  I’m a busy man.”  Sloane scowled. 
What the hell?  He hadn’t come here for his friends to gang up on him.

“Yes,” Michel said, giving the other two a stern look then turning
back to Sloane.  “You’re a busy guy but so are we.  And we still found the time
to focus on what’s important.  Family.”  He paused, giving Sloane a pointed
look.  “Just something to think about.”

Marc barked out a laugh.  “You’re telling that to  'Mister love 'em
and leave 'em’?  It will never happen.”

Sloane gave him a baleful stare.  But then, how could he deny it? 
He’d gotten that reputation because it was like he’d done his best to live up
to a certain image – the typical ‘bad boy’. 

But Michel’s question was like the shock of ice-cold water.  At his
age, how long could he keep that up?

                                               CHAPTER
TWO

“I thought my schedule was free for the rest of the afternoon?”  Sloane
frowned as he listened to the voice of his personal assistant on the phone.  “I
was planning to leave early for a round of golf.”

Megan Frawley killed that dream real fast with her next words. 
She’d seen his schedule open and had slipped in a last minute appointment.  He
bit back a sigh.  “All right.  I’ll stay.”  She was about to hang up when he
stopped her.  “Hang on.  Who’s it with?”

“Melanie Parker,” she said, “of Parker Broadcasting.”

That made Sloane sit back in his chair. 
The
Melanie Parker?
His biggest competitor in the media business? Talk about an unexpected guest.

But what would she want with him? The competition between their two
conglomerates had always been fierce, his a legacy of four generations and hers
a company that had been started by her father forty years earlier before either
one of them, the current rivals, had been born.  And the rivalry between Quest
Media and Parker Broadcasting had started from day one.

Quest Media was founded almost a century earlier by Sloane’s great
grandfather who launched with a newspaper, The Observer.  A radio station was
added twenty years later then that was followed by television.  By the time
Sloane took over Quest Media Group was a multi-billion dollar business serving
markets all across North America and parts of Latin America.  Under Sloane’s
leadership, the internet became a large part of their portfolio, garnering a
worldwide audience and accounting for almost thirty percent of revenue within
three years of launch.  And it was a good thing, too.  With the increased usage
of the internet and the growing popularity of e-readers, sales of print
newspapers began to hemorrhage, but the growth of Quest Media’s electronic
business was perfectly timed and business boomed.

That is, until a certain company appointed a new CEO who revamped
that company’s structure and core strategy and aggressively went after the
market share of the leader in the business.  The market leader and target of Parker
Broadcasting’s attack was Quest Media, and that CEO was the very woman who
would be in his office in less than an hour.

A woman who had always intrigued him…

He hadn't had any personal dealings with her but they weren’t total
strangers.  On the contrary, decades earlier both their fathers had been
members of the same country club.  And although Melanie Parker might not even
remember it, they had actually gone to the same exclusive high school.

He'd been a senior, popular with the ladies even from then, not
necessarily because he was from the wealthiest family in the region – all the
kids at his school were from ‘money’ – but because he was on all the major
sports teams.  Hockey, soccer, football and basketball.  And there was nothing
that attracted hot females like being a sports jock.  Apart from having the
coolest Porsche on campus, of course.

She’d been a freshman that year, a shy-looking little thing with
soft blonde hair and long-lashed brown eyes that she kept downcast most of the
time, it seemed.  The only reason he’d noticed her that first day she walked
into the cafeteria was that Zena, the girl he’d been dating at the time,
pointed her out.

“Hey, isn’t that kid from the Parker family? You know, the people
your dad’s always blustering about.  Parker Broadcasting?”

“Oh, yeah?”  He turned to look, curious to see the spawn of his
father’s sworn enemy but all he saw was a skinny girl with horn-rimmed glasses
perched at the end of her nose, her brown eyes looking huge behind the lenses. 
Then he remembered.  He’d seen her a few times at the country club but she’d
been so tiny then, running around the place with an even smaller girl, both of
them with their hair in pigtails.  Now she was bigger but still just a little
kid, probably thirteen or fourteen.  And she looked totally lost.

“So that’s the next generation of Parkers, is it?” he said, growing
thoughtful.  As far as he knew the Parkers only had the two kids, both girls,
and they looked like they would jump out of their skin if you said, ‘Boo’.  Parker
Broadcasting didn’t look like it had much of a future once the father retired. 
A threat, these girls were definitely not.

“Scrawny, isn’t she?” Zena scoffed.  “With all the money they make
you’d think they’d feed the thing.”

“Okay, Zena.  That’s enough.  Let’s not go there.”  Sloane’s voice
was firm as he cut her off.  The kid might be from the family that was giving
his dad high blood pressure but that was no reason to slam her.  None of that
was her fault.  And even if it were, it was business.  There was no need for
personal attacks.  “Leave the kid alone,” he said as he grabbed his tray and
got up.  “Come on, let’s get outta here.”  He didn’t know why, but Zena’s gibe
had triggered a sudden protective instinct, one that he could not explain.  Why
the hell would he feel protective toward a kid he hardly even knew? From the
family of their biggest rival, at that?  Talk about weird.

After that Sloane saw the girl around campus a few times but with
his busy schedule as a senior and being on so many teams, the incidents were
few and far between.  But each time she’d looked the same – distant and
reserved and shy, her arms full of books.  And she was always alone.

Before he knew it, it was time for graduation and then on to university
and his sightings of the young Parker became a faraway memory.

Until she jumped onto his radar screen almost fifteen years later –
as CEO of Parker Broadcasting Corporation.  

And that was when he realized that he’d totally underestimated the
kid he’d seen so many years before.  Now a grown woman – a tall, slender and
beautiful one at that – she seemed to have hit the ground running, reorganizing
her company and implementing a series of marketing strategies which, for the
first time in Quest Media history, raised a real threat to the corporation's
business.  The girl – no, the woman – had him scrambling to respond to her
attempts to court his cable TV subscribers and then she added a digital
telephone division just like he had when he took over from his father.  Damn!

And now, four years after her appointment as CEO, she wanted to meet
with him?  He could hardly wait to hear what his nemesis would have to say.

Three o’clock came around and, right on time, Mrs. Frawley called
him to say she was bringing the visitor in.  Seconds later there was a rap at
the door and when his personal assistant opened it, an elegantly dressed woman
entered the room.  Mrs. Frawley closed the door quietly behind her.

For a moment the woman paused then she raised her chin and looked
across the room at him.  And there were those big brown eyes he’d seen back in
high school.  But now there were no glass lenses hiding their beauty.  And this
time there was no shyness there.  No, this time those eyes were bold and full
of confidence and they did not waver.

Sloane got up and crossed the room.  “Ms. Parker.”  He held out his
hand.  “Welcome to Quest Media.”

“Thank you, Mr. Quest,” she said in a low, almost husky voice and
shook his hand.  And hers was soft and warm, making her firm handshake all the
more surprising.  “Call me Melanie.”

“And you may call me Sloane,” he said, as he directed her to the
chair across from his desk.  As she stepped by him he caught a fleeting whiff
of her perfume – cool, crisp and sophisticated, just like she was.

He walked back to his high-backed leather chair and sat down.  “So,
Ms. Parker…Melanie…how may I help you?”

Demurely, she folded her hands in her lap then tightened her lips. 
Then she gave a slight frown and bit her lip, a gesture that made her look
nervous, which was strange from someone who’d seemed so bold just moments
before.

Then she drew in a breath and raised her eyes to his.  “I have a
proposal to make to you,” she said, her voice slow and steady, “one which I
hope you will consider.  I want you to give me a baby.”

  CHAPTER THREE

What the…

Sloane blinked then his brows fell.  “Did you just say what I
thought you said?” His voice came out hard and taut with disbelief.

“Yes,” she said, her voice stronger this time.  “I would like to
have a baby.  By you.”

“Listen, lady,” Sloane said, his voice rough with irritation, “I
don’t know what kind of game you’re playing but I don’t have time for this.  I
thought you were here to discuss business, not throw down this bull.  Are you
crazy or something?”

She gave a tight smile.  “Or something.”  Then she gave a sigh. 
“Listen, I know this is a shocking proposal but I’m actually quite serious. 
Let me explain.”  She slid forward in her seat.  “I’m thirty-three years old
and I don’t know if you know anything about the workings of the female body but
I’m getting quite close to that age when the chances of having a child start to
grow pretty slim.”

“And what the hell does that have to do with me?”  The more she
spoke, the more convinced Sloane was that the woman was off her rocker.

“Yes, I know that question would be top of your mind,” she said, her
voice calm and agreeable, almost as if she were a teacher explaining something
to a kid who wasn’t particularly bright.  “Of the billions of men in the world
you must be wondering why I would come to you with my problem.”

“Ya think?” Sloane gave her a sarcastic glare.

“Reasonable question,” she said with a nod, “and I have a reasonable
answer.”

Sloane almost laughed.  This, he had to hear.   

“I’m a billionaire and so are you.  We both have operations in the
same city, so we’re in close proximity to each other.”

“Yeah, so?” Where the heck was she going with all this?

“I am looking to be impregnated by a man who is in the same income
bracket as I am and who is close enough where his child can get to see him.” 
She sat back in her chair, looking satisfied with herself like she’d just given
an explanation even a fool would understand.

Well, he must be the biggest fool on earth because he hadn’t heard a
single word that made sense.  “So you mean to tell me, in all of Montreal and
its environs, I’m the only man you saw fit to approach with this cockamamie
scheme?”

“Yes,” she said with a wide smile like he’d finally gotten it. 
“It’s important to me that the man be single, around my age, and a billionaire. 
Not because I want his money, of course, but because I don’t want someone
who’ll later try to cash in on his good luck and blackmail me or something.”

“Or something,” Sloane said in a mocking tone, repeating the words
she’d said earlier.  “Now let me ask you something,” he said, keeping his voice
as calm and even as he could, under the circumstances.  “You’ve never heard of
something called a sperm bank?  This is the twenty-first century, you know. 
You don’t actually need a man.”

“Hell, no.”   Melanie’s voice was surprisingly vehement and her eyes
flashed as she glared at him.  “I will not have a baby for some anonymous donor
and leave my child fatherless.  I want an actual man who my child can see and
spend time with.  I want my child to have roots, both on his mother’s and his
father’s side.”

Sloane shook his head.  “So you’re looking for a relationship? You
want a man?”

Melanie rolled her eyes.  “Where in all of that did you get that I
want a man?” Her voice, so full of exasperation, made it clear that he was too
darned slow.  “I want someone who can give me a baby and be a father to his
child.  No strings attached.  Nothing more, nothing less.”