The Tycoon's Misunderstood Bride (4 page)

“Now you have me intrigued.  Go ahead,” he encouraged.
  What could this slender
, timid woman want to say to him that would embarrass her so much?  He considered reaching out and holding her hand but thought that might scare her even more.  If his instincts were correct, Emma Mason was a sweet, innocent woman who would run at the first touch of a man. 

Emma looked down at the file in her hands and set it out flat on the coffee table, smoothing the folds so it would stay flat.  “You see, my father….” Emma searched for the right words to describe her request.  “Well, he didn’t really trust…
wome
n,” she finished.  “So all of his money is to be held in a trust for his grandson.”

He saw the wariness in her eyes and wished he could do something to reassu
re her
.  It was completely against his nature to think like
that
but something about Emma just brought
out a previously unrecognized protective instinct in him. 
“That doesn’t sound very politically correct.  But I’m sure a good lawyer could break the terms of the will eventually.”

Emma nodded.  “Yes, but that might take years,” she explained.  “And that isn’t really all of it.”  Looking into his kind, sympathetic eyes, she decided to just plunge into the whole, messy details and let him make the decision after she’d explained her plan.  “You see, my father’s will stipulates that I must marry, conceive a child, a son specifically, and then I am to get something…important to me.”

Jason’s eyebrows went down, not liking the way the will was sounding.  “That sounds archaic,” he said.

“Well, there’s more.  He was specific about the person I am to marry and who is to father his grandson.”

Jason already knew the answer before she said it.  “He wants me to marry you,” she said, looking down, her face flaming red in embarrassment.  “Before y
ou say no, please let me state my
case and maybe I could tempt you into agreeing.  If you’ll do this for me, it can be just between the two of us.  We don’t even need to see each other except to marry quietly and privately somewhere, then we can donate the appropriate….parts,” she struggled, “in a doctor’s office where the…parts can be put together to form a child.”

Jason stared at her.
O
ddly his mind was more occupied with her luscious lips and the elegant line of her neck which was revealed to him because her fiery red hair was so primly pinned to her head. 

She continued on, despite her flaming face but unable to look at him, staring down at her hands instead. 
“In return for doing this, I’ll transfer all the money
from my father’s estate
to you after the birth of a baby boy,” she explained awkwardly. 
“All that I’m allowed to transfer that is.  Which I don’t know the whole amount.”

Jason leaned back in the chair, astounded by the proposal.  “Let me get this straight,” he said slowly.  “You want me to marry you without anyone knowing about it, conceive a child with you and then you’ll pay me,” he stopped to think
what he’d read about her fathers wealth
, “approximately twenty million
p
ound
s?”

Emma shrugged, not sure of her father’s total net worth but assumed that twenty million might be correct.  “Yes,” she said, nodding her head for emphasis.

The cynic in him started to take over but he smothered that feeling.  He still wanted to protect her, but there was no way he was going to give in to Edward Mason and marry his daughter. 
“What’s in it for you?” he asked. 

Emma wiped her palms on her brown jumper nervously.  She smiled wryly.  “I get the location of my mother,” she finally said. 

It was starting to make sense.  “You’re father’s a real bastard, isn’t he?” Jason finally said into the silence that followed her announcement.

Emma nodded, unable to look at him. 

“Why don’t you just
start a search for your mother on your own?”

Emma stood up and walked over to the windows, unable to sit still any longer.  She crossed her arms over her chest and looked back at his face, daring to look him in the eye.  “Because it will take too long,” she whispered, desperately trying to keep the pain out of her voice but knew she was failing.  “You see, my mother ran away when I was five.  She apparently had to escape from my father.  He was rather….
tyrannical
.” 

Jason thought back to what he knew of her father’s business practices and agreed. 
“I can imagine.”

Emma smiled grimly.  “I
bet you can’t,” she countered.  “Anyway, I found out yesterday that she’s still alive and,” Emma had to swallow before continuing, “she’s been fighting for me for years.  My father has somehow managed to keep her from contacting me.  As soon as I marry, I’ll get access to her things.  Then once I conceive,” she almost stumbled on that word, “I get her diary, which is apparently how my father found her.”

Jason nodded his head.  Being an orphan himself, he knew how important it could be to find one’s parents. 
He never knew who his father was and his mother died in the hospital after giving birth to him.  For the past ten years, he’d been searching for the identity of his father but the leads were now dry and not even the best private detective could come up with a new one to follow.  But he could sympathize with her quandary since he was in the same position. 
“I could lend you the money to find your mother without having to go through the trouble of marrying and getting pregnant,” he suggested. 

Emma smiled, feeling her heart sink with his words.  “Thank you.  That’s very generous of you but it apparently took my father seven years to find her the first time.”  She knew a brush off when she heard one.  Standing up, she offered her hand.  “Thank you for your time,” she whispered, wishing she could hide the disappointment, but she was crushed. 

“Wait, Emma. 
What are you going to do?
”
  She looked so devastated, his cynical heart cracked slightly. 

Emma sniffed back tears.  “I need to go,” she said.  “I’ve left a copy of the will and a letter from my father to you.  I don’t know what is in the letter but I’ve read the will.  I can’t think of anything else to do but this isn’t your problem.  It’s my mother.  I’ll figure out a way to find her,” she said. 

Emma rushed from the office, barreling as fast as she could to the elevators. 

Jason w
atched her run and called out for
her to stop.  Gritting his teeth, he snatched up the letter and tore it open.  With a grimace, he read through the short letter, swearing under his breath as he crumpled it in his fist. 

Hello Montenegro
,

             
Long time no see.  Did you think you could ever get around my retribution?  Even in my death, I’ve defeated you, you bastard.  And it is nice to know that I can say that quite literally. 

             
If you are reading this, then I consider that I have won the war you started when you
walked out on my company all those
years ago.  The terms of my will are absolute.  You either marry my slut of a daughter and impregnate her or the identity of your father is buried with me.  And let me be clear, I don’t just have another clue for your team of investigators to follow.  I have his identity as well as evidence of paternity. 

             
You see, in the end, my slut of a daughter will never get my money but I will eventually get all of your money through my grandson.  Because you’re such a sentimental fool, you’ll leave all of your wealth to your offspring, which will also be mine.  So all of those
b
illions you cheat
ed me out of will still be mine!
 

             
Choose well, you bastard.  Sully your perfect world with the whore of a daughter I’ve accidentally brought into this world, and don’t let her silly image fool you since she’s been with just about every man that crossed her path, or you forget about ever knowing the identity of your father.  You have less than one week to marry the stupid tramp before my lawyer destroys the information
about your father
.  But you won’t get the information until you produce a grandson.

             
Choose well you son of a bitch.  And welcome to hell!

With decisive movements, he called security and five minutes later, Emma was coming back to his office, her head bowed and he could see the tears and anger in her eyes.  Jason didn’t mind the anger.  In fact, he was startled at how bright her green eyes appeared when she was angry.  But as soon as he looked at her, she lowered her eyes and Jason simply nodded to the security guard who quickly left, closing the door behind her.

Jason stood there, considering all the possible ramifications of what he was about to say.  Edward really was a bastard
but Jason
looked on his daughter with new eyes.  He would have bet every one of his billions that Emma Mason was innocent of men.  But apparently he wasn’t the first fool to fall into that trap. 

Jason watched her face and his own twisted with cynical irony.  “Well, it looks like we need to plan a wedding, don’t we?” he snapped. 

Emma’s head snapped up and she looked into his dark, intimidating face.  “I’m sorry, what do you mean?”

“Come sit down, ple
ase.”

Emma obeyed but held herself stiffly, sitting on the edge of the sofa she’d
recently
vacated. 
This was not the same man she had just left, she thought to herself.  What had her father said in the letter that had so enraged him?  And what information could her father hold over Jason Montenegro?  He seemed so confident, so overwhelmingly powerful. 

“If I remember correctly, your father died four days ago.  Is that correct?” he asked, tamping down on his temper that was flaring out of control.  He wasn’t sure if he was angrier that Edward Mason held something over him or because his instincts on his daughter were so wrong.  Either way, he would get what he wanted.  And looking at her full, sensuous lips, he knew that he wanted this woman.  He had no idea why she was dressed so ridiculously but he wanted the façade over with. 

Emma
twisted her hands in her lap and counted the days.  Had it only been four days?  It seemed like months.  “Yes.  That’s correct.”

“Then we have three days left,” he said crisply and walked over to his desk.  “How is the sixteenth for you?” he asked, not bothering to look up at her.  “That is in two days but I have to fly to
German
y
on the seventeenth.”

“I’m sorry, is the sixteenth good for what?” Emma asked.

“Getting married, of course.  Keep up, Emma.”

Emma looked at the man who had gone from being
the ultimate gentleman to a sur
ly beast, all within ten minutes.  “I’m trying to keep up, Mr.
Montenegro
but you’re not making any sense.” 

Emma
could not believe her ears.  Was this the woman who had huddled in closets when her father walked by?  Who had scurried around the servants halls in an effort to be invisible in the hopes of avoiding her father’s wrath? 
She was now standing up, strong and firmly against a man who was being rude to her! 

Jason’s eyes flashed up to hers and he bore down on the small, fragile looking beauty.  “Since we’re about to get married and produce a child, Emma,” he said, emphasizing the use of her first name, “perhaps it would be more appropriate for you to call me Jason.”

She stared at the angry stranger in front of her, stunned and hurt by his turnabout. 
Emma was finished with this conversation.  She raised her chin and lifted herself up to her full five feet, five inches and glared right back at him, her green eyes firing the anger
, giving as good as she got.
“I’m not sure what my father said in that horrid letter but I’m not going to stand here and take this.  I took it…” she had been about to say she’d taken it from her father but stopped herself before she looked pathetic in front of this man.  She’d had enough abuse to last her a lifetime.  She was damned if she was going to
endure
it one second more.  “I’m not going to take it from you,” she finished and turned on her heel to leave.