Surprise Seduction (33 page)

“He said no.”
 
She kept her voice level.

No more tears for what could have been.
 
She’d face her future with strength and pride.
 
After all, she was Adrianna Morrigan, daughter of the great Ted Morrigan.
 
She’d tried and failed to grab hold of what she wanted.

Now, she’d do the right thing.

She took a deep breath.
 
“I’ll marry you as soon as it can be arranged.
 
Can you be here tomorrow?”

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Chase had never considered himself a coward, but no other label suited him better on Tuesday morning.
 
He’d hidden in his office all morning for fear of bumping into Adrienne.

Had she even come to work?

It had been all he could do to keep from calling to make sure she’d made it home okay last night.
 
He hadn’t returned to his apartment until late.
 
He’d wanted to be sure she’d left.

Yellow-bellied, chicken-feathered, low-life crawling snake
.
 
That’s what he was.

She’d caught him off guard with her proposal.
 
What had happened to ‘not proposing’ to him?

Had she mistaken their weekend together as being more than lust?

Hell, how could he hold that against her?
 
With her inexperience, surely it was only natural for her to mistake such phenomenal sex for something more?
 
Even he’d questioned deep-rooted beliefs.

He shouldn’t have high-tailed it out of his apartment.
 
But he’d felt trapped.
 
Like a rat in a cage, he’d had to escape.

Not just from shock at her question, but from shock at the longing within him to say yes.
 
To take that chance.
 
With her.

But it wasn’t just him involved.
 
If he married her and couldn’t be faithful, Adrienne would be the one hurt most.
 
Never did he want to cause her pain.

Sure he’d hurt her feelings by his stunned reaction, but much better that than a husband’s betrayal.
 
He wouldn’t be able to live with the knowledge he’d cheated on a woman he’d committed to, that he’d been disloyal.

What was a man to do?
 
He wanted her.
 
Despite every desire not to, he cared about her.
 
Cared enough not to risk betraying her.
 
Cared too damn much.

He had to make her understand.
 
Understand why marriage wouldn’t work between them.
 
But hell if he’d give her up.
 
He wasn’t that strong.
 
He’d have to make her forget this crazy marriage notion.

Adrienne sat at her desk, antsy about the meeting between the two men in George’s office.
 
Maybe she should have stayed in the meeting.
 
But her head had been throbbing and she’d finished her part.
 
Mel had been confronted this morning by her, Roger, and Drew.
 
He’d been fired for conspiring with Drew to sell the formula of Weston’s new cancer drug to a competitor.
 
Both men would have pocketed millions from the deal had it gone through.
 
The board had been notified during her trip to Chicago that she intended to marry.
 
Roger had made the motion to appoint her in her father’s spot, and George had seconded the motion via satellite.

Everything was in motion.
 
George and Roger could finalize the details without her.

“Adrienne?”

She looked up totally surprised to see Chase standing in her office doorway.
 
Never in a million years had she expected him to seek her out.
 
Not today.
 
Not in the next millennium.

“Can I come in?”
 
He seemed unsure of whether or not she’d welcome him.

Maybe she should throw his butt out, instead she nodded.
 
How could she refuse when she didn’t know if this might be the last time she’d see him?
 
At least, as a single woman.

Denial ran through her.
 
She sighed.
 
She’d accepted her fate.
 
Time had passed for denying the reality of her legacy as Ted Morrigan’s daughter.

“We need to talk about last night.”
 
He stood next to an almost bare bookshelf along one wall.

“It’s okay, Chase.”
 
Her gaze zeroed in on his cautious one.
 
“I understand marriage isn’t your thing.”
 
She shrugged with a brief smile she didn’t really feel.
 
“Can’t blame a girl for asking her first choice.”

Chase looked at her in skeptical confusion.
 
“First choice?”

“Yes, I,” she began but was interrupted by George Weston’s entrance into her office.
 
A tall, smiling blond man followed closely behind.

Adrienne’s eyes went straight past George to the tall man she’d learned more about in the past twenty-four hours than she had the entire time she’d known him.

He grinned from ear-to-ear.
 
Obviously, the board went for the proposal that she and Roger had come up with during the long hours they’d talked and planned during the night.
 
After she’d left Chase’s by taxi, Roger had called her at home to discuss their plans for their future.

Chase’s eyes narrowed as he turned to see who she looked at.

Roger looked at Chase for the first time.
 
Adrienne gulped.
 
Never would she have imagined Chase and Roger both standing at her desk this morning.
 
Not even five minutes ago.
 
The man she loved and the man she’d marry to save her father’s company.

Roger gave Chase a curious look that told Adrienne he knew exactly who Chase was.
 
The man she’d proposed to.
 
The man she’d wanted to marry instead of him.
 
Not that Roger had been opposed to the idea.
 
He’d been all for her marrying someone else and partnering with him to save Morrigans if that’s what she preferred.
 
Roger’s only concern had been Morrigans.

Adrienne looked from one man to the other.
 
Chase looked like a bulldog ready to attack at any moment, and Roger looked equally ready to tangle if Chase made a false move.

“Hillington?” Chase asked, looking back and forth between George, Roger, and Adrienne.
 
“What the hell are you doing here?” Chase didn’t stick out his hand or greet Roger in any way.

“Here on personal business.
 
Adrianna, are you ready to go to lunch?” Roger asked.
 
He was playing devil’s advocate.
 
She could see it in his mischievous eyes.

“You two know each other?”
 
Chase’s brows drew together in a frown as he glared at Adrienne.

“Know each other?” Roger gave a quick chuckle.
 
“Adrianna and I are—“

“Both from Chicago,” she interrupted, wishing he hadn’t used her real name.
 
She didn’t want Roger to announce their engagement.
 
She preferred to tell Chase in private that she’d be a married woman before the end of the week.

Roger gave a barely perceptible shake of his head.
 
He walked over and took her hand in his. “We go way back.”

“Really?”
 
Adrienne would swear she could hear Chase’s teeth grind following his one word question.

“I—“ Adrienne started, then, stopped as Roger said the words she didn’t want revealed to Chase with an audience.

“She and I are engaged.”
 
Roger’s gaze dropped to her hand in his.
 
Her left hand.

Chase’s gaze followed.

A huge diamond sparkled, mocking him ‘You had your chance and blew it’.
 
But he hadn’t been willing to risk marriage, had he?

“When the hell did that happen?”

Roger bared his teeth in the smile of a business shark.

“Adrienne and I have been engaged for quite some time.
 
Unfortunately because of a misunderstanding, she left Chicago shortly after her father’s death.”
 
Roger shrugged nonchalantly.
 
“Maybe we needed some time apart to mature.
 
Regardless, our wedding will take place this week.”

“This week?”
 
Chase’s voice squeaked.
 
Damn, he hadn’t even known he could hit that high of a pitch.
 
Hadn’t known his insides could hurt so much yet still live.

“Oh, yes.”
 
Roger flashed another smile, then pulled Adrienne’s bejeweled hand to his heart in a gesture of affection.
 
“I lost her recently to some man she fancied herself in love with, but seems the fool didn’t realize what he had.
 
His loss is my gain.
 
I won’t take a chance on losing her again.”
 
Roger’s gaze pinned Chase.
 
“If she was your woman, would you?”

Damn, the man was everything the business rumor mill said, with the exception that Roger Hillington was known for his icy control.
 
The man was pawing Adrienne like a randy seventeen year old.
 

Obviously, Adrienne affected the man’s control the same way she affected his.
 
Sent it straight to hell.

Chase’s gaze fell to Adrienne’s.
 
She stared at Roger with wide-eyes.
 
Filled with love?
 
He couldn’t tell.
 
He willed her to look at him, and that simple, she did.

What he saw in her gaze stopped his heart.

She didn’t love this blond business tycoon.
 
She couldn’t.
 
Love did shine in her eyes.
 
The same as it had all weekend aboard Sinbad and last night.

Love for him
.

His breath swooshed from his chest.