Some Like It Charming (A Temporary Engagement) (5 page)

“You’ll make it up to me?
You’ll make it up to me?
”

Ethan could tell she was a little upset. One thing about Mackenzie, he could always tell when he’d crossed the line into no man’s land.

“If you’ll just listen to me–”

“When have I ever listened to you? Never! And do you know why?
Because this is what comes out of your mouth
!”

He frowned. “You’re making this into too big a deal, Mackenzie.”

She sat down hard in the chair behind her desk, grabbed the stapler and started stapling the air. He could see staples falling out the side, and he decided he’d rather have it empty anyway.

She took a deep breath. “You just announced on national TV that you and I are engaged. And that all the bad press from your ex-girlfriends are jealous tantrums. Did I miss anything?”

“You know, most women would be thrilled to be engaged to me.”

“Really? You really think any other woman in this building would be happy at finding herself unknowingly engaged to you? I’m the only anomaly here?”

He thought about it, then nodded. “Yes.”

She narrowed her eyes but didn’t bother to disagree with him. “Well, perhaps they can be taken in by a pretty face and a charming smile. I, however, know that you are not nearly as wonderful as everyone thinks.”

“And why is that, Mackenzie?” He leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers.

If he was going to be visiting more often, he was going to get this chair replaced.

She said, “Why can I see through your bull? A gift, I guess. Now I want you to go back downstairs, get those reporters to turn their cameras back on, and tell the world you were joking. We’re not engaged.”

He shook his head. “I’m sorry, honey. We are.”

He could see pressure building again and he held up a hand to stop the flow. “Just for a little while. Until I’m back on my feet. It hurts having all these women ganging up on me.”

“My heart bleeds for you. We’re not engaged.”

“I’ll let you dump me. You can say you couldn’t handle all the press and leading a public life.”

She said, “I’m not going to be able to handle it. All the attention is going to jump from you to me!”

“They’ll lose interest. We’ll have a little press conference, tell everyone how happy we are, and it’ll die down.”

She rubbed her temple with one hand, the other setting the stapler down, forgotten.

Ethan stood, moving it out of reach, and walked behind her.

She twisted in her seat, glaring at him. “What are you doing? Get back in your chair.”

He put his hands on her shoulders and started massaging. She tried to stand up but he pushed her back down.

“You’re the only one I can ask to do this–”

“You didn’t ask.”

He ignored her outburst. Of course he hadn’t asked. She would have said no.

“I know this may be hard for you to grasp but most women do love me. They fall in love with me so easily. Any other woman would start out being a friend, doing me a favor, but then she would start secretly hoping, hinting. And then I’d end up breaking her heart, watching her cry, and I’d be in the same place again.”

“Maybe you should try being less lovable. That way they’ll dump you and no one gets hurt.”

“If you and my ex-girlfriends have anything in common, it’s that you have no illusions about how lovable I am. Even if I did break noses and force abortions, my name is synonymous with Prince Charming. Every woman in the world wants her own Prince Charming.”

“I don’t.”

He spun her chair around. “I know. That’s why I can trust you.”

He knelt to one knee and the look of horror on her face made him chuckle.

“Mackenzie Wyatt, will you do me the honor of pretending to marry me?”

“You’re even nuttier than I thought you were.”

“Was that a yes?”

She shook her head. “No.”

He took her hands in his and smiled. “I’ve always wanted my very own no-man.”

When she opened her mouth to yell at him some more, he stood up. “Just think about it. I’ll give you a few minutes.”

He needed to nail this thing down before she could come up with a way to get out of it. And also alert his mother and grandma. He probably should have done that before the press conference but he hadn’t thought of it.

He might just leave a voice message for his mother. Or let his grandmother tell her. Mother had strong feelings about Mackenzie, and he didn’t want to hear them again.

He took out his phone, backing his way out of Mackenzie’s office. She was looking around for the stapler again and he closed the door behind him.

He dialed his grandmother, nodding his head at those passing him as if they were giving him heartfelt congratulations instead of incredulous looks.

When Ellen answered, he didn’t know what to say.

“Er. . .”

She chuckled. “We saw it.”

We. “Is Mother alright?”

“She’s lying down.”

He debated whether or not to tell her this was a temporary arrangement, but decided against it. He would have to get his mother on board and he didn’t think he could do it over the phone. He wouldn’t put it past her to try and end this fake engagement before it had a chance to start. He glanced behind him at Mackenzie’s office. He wouldn’t put it past
her
, either.

“I need to go. I have a few more interviews to give. Tell Mother everything will work out and I’ll see her tonight.”

“Bring Mackenzie.”

Ethan grimaced, imagining Mackenzie and his mother together right now. “I’ll try.” He paused. “You seem okay with this.”

“I knew the minute I saw your grandfather. Sometimes that’s how it happens. And sometimes it takes seven years and countless mistakes before you can see what’s right in front of your nose.”

He shook his head, smiling. Trying to decide if she was going to be upset when she learned it wasn’t real.

He didn’t think so. Grandma rarely did surprised or upset. She left that to Mother.

He said, “I’ll see you tonight. Try to be gentle with Mother.”

Ellen hung up on another chuckle. Ethan was glad somebody was finding this situation amusing.

He commandeered an office on Mackenzie’s floor, giving his rep a quick call to see who wanted interviews. He gave permission to confirm the happy engagement, with no date set yet.

He returned four calls to reporters, giving quick interviews with promises for more later, then sat back and took a deep breath.

When he’d seen those pictures this morning, rage had filled him. He couldn’t ever remembering feeling that kind of white, hot anger before. He’d known from an early age that he was fair game. There would be good written about him, and bad. And that was that. It was up to him to get them to spin it how he wanted it spun.

And the women he dated were already in the spotlight. They knew the pressure, the unspoken rules. . .

Most of them, anyway.

But Mackenzie didn’t, and seeing her on the front of the National Enquirer had made him seriously think of destroying those who’d put her there.

He’d gone this morning to comfort her. To tell her it would be okay.

And he’d realized after about two minutes that Mackenzie didn’t need him to protect her. Wouldn’t want him to.

And she did a damn fine job of getting him to stop moping, stop dreaming of revenge, and start thinking how to spin it.

He’d known an engagement was what he needed the moment the idea had come to him. It would silence the tabloids. Would silence any other ex-girlfriends who’d started thinking of telling lies to the press.

Would stop the speculation about Mackenzie and him.

A mystery would always tantalize and an engagement announcement would end that mystery. Of course, now there was the mystery of just who this woman was who had captured Ethan Howell O’Connor.

He chuckled, thinking of some reporter getting hold of Mackenzie and what she would say. He’d have to give her a few lessons on how to talk to the press before that happened.

He thought about taking that short walk back to her office and decided he’d give her a few more minutes to cool down. Give her time to empty that stapler, at least.

Mackenzie fumed at her desk after Ethan left.

This was all because of that stupid softball game. She’d known not to mix business and pleasure and sure enough, she was right. In less than a week, she’d gone from being a pain in the butt salesman, to meeting his family, to becoming engaged to him. She didn’t even know how to get out of it. He wasn’t taking no for an answer, and if
she
tried to hold a press conference she’d get laughed off the phone.

Maybe she could submit her own article to the Enquirer–
He forced me to marry him
!

What a nightmare.

Her emergency stash of chocolate was taking a hit today. She couldn’t concentrate. And everyone in the office had found some reason to walk by and stare at her. She knew if she left the dubious sanctuary of her office she’d be accosted, and she had no idea what to say yet. And how to say it without choking, or hyperventilating, or blushing.

The world thought she was engaged to Ethan Howell O’Connor.

How was she to ever hold her head high again? He dated movie stars and debutantes, and now he was engaged to her? No one would have believed it if he hadn’t told the world himself.

Her voicemail was full, had been full almost the minute the press conference had ended. The two most alarming calls had been from his grandmother and mother, the ten reporters following close behind.

This was going to ruin her life, and he thought she could just dump him in the end and everything would go back to normal? Sometimes he could even bullshit himself.

She had two messages from friends, one from her friend Shane.

“Is there more than one Mackenzie Wyatt who works for O’Connor? ‘Cause I swear I just heard he’s engaged to you.”

And Cassandra.

“Mackenzie! I don’t talk to you for one lousy week and the sky starts falling! What is going on? Call me!”

She didn’t know what to tell them, didn’t know what to tell herself.

Fifteen minutes later she’d snuck out to her car. There was one person who might be able to help her. One person who would be even less happy about this than she was. She should have just called but she couldn’t do it at the office. She couldn’t stay there one more minute with all those incredulous, watching eyes staring at her without shouting that there was no way in hell she was marrying Ethan O’Connor.

And that would just make her look like even more of a fool when he came back and told them she was. They’d believe him. They would always believe him.

She stopped at a gas station and used the payphone to call the number his mother had left on her voicemail. Mackenzie was the last person in California without a cellphone and normally she was proud of that. Today she hadn’t wanted to get out of the car.

His mother answered warily and Mackenzie announced herself just as warily.

There was a heartbeat of silence.

“Ms. Wyatt.”

Another silence.

“Why don’t you join us for dinner.”

“I’ll either be drunk or in prison for killing your son by then. Let’s make it lunch.”

“Perhaps this should be a private conversation.”

“I can meet you right now. The sooner you fix whatever is wrong with Ethan, the sooner we can end this pretend engagement.”

Christine O’Connor sounded a little cheerier. “Pretend? Come to the hotel.”

Mackenzie headed back downtown to the hotel. The glass high-rise of the Ritz-Carlton gleamed in the sunlight and when Mackenzie entered the modern lobby, money screamed at her. The new of it didn’t suit either Christine or Ellen O’Connor, but maybe Ethan had picked it. He would look at home here. He would look at home just about anywhere. Mackenzie’s current thinking was that he would look at home in a casket.

Christine O’Connor opened the door before Mackenzie even knocked, and she walked right in. For a moment Mackenzie wondered if it was wise to be alone with his mother and then she heard Ellen O’Connor chuckling.

“I looked like that myself a few times while I was married to Ethan’s grandfather.”

“Like you wanted to kill him?”

“Like killing was too good for him. Now, Christine was always too gentle. She never got angry with Michael like I did Grant.”

Mackenzie glanced at Christine and the frigid look she was currently wearing. Gentle was not the word she would have chosen.

Mackenzie said, “Can’t anybody keep a leash on Ethan? He’s a menace.”

“He needs a wife to do that.” Ellen grinned at her.

Christine cleared her throat. “What were you saying about this being a pretend engagement?”

Mackenzie stalked to the window, staring out at the hazy yellow air.

She said, “Ethan has decided that the best way out of this tabloid hell he’s found himself in is to become engaged to the woman of his dreams. Unfortunately, he’s picked me to be that woman.”

His gentle mother said, “That does seem to be a stretch.”

Ellen came to stand next to her. “I think you’re perfect for him.”

Mackenzie and Christine both glared at her.

Mackenzie said, “He announced it at that stupid press conference before he even told me what he was going to do. Let me tell you, that’s not the way you want to find out you’re engaged to Mr. Charming.”