His Marriage Bonus

Not that his mother had let the catastrophe get her down—her short and fluffy blond hair was as youthfully and impeccably arranged as always, her blue eyes lively, her trim figure clothed in a stylish silk pantsuit.

Mitch smiled, glad to see his mother looking so well. The idiots who had pronounced her “too old” to do her job might not know it yet, but Grace would land on her feet yet. And Mitch and the rest of the Deveraux clan would be there to applaud her when it happened.

Mitch accepted a glass of wine from his dad. “Lauren called and said she was running a little behind schedule and would just meet me here.” Mitch hadn’t been pleased to get the message from his secretary. He had the feeling it was just one of many excuses Lauren would offer up over the coming week to avoid spending even one more second than she absolutely had to with him. But since he hadn’t known where Lauren was when she called, and she hadn’t been answering her cell phone, he’d had no choice but to do as she had asked, and arrive without her.

“Lauren who?” his father asked as he sat down kitty-corner from Grace and Mitch.

Mitch figured now was as good a time as any to lay the bomb on his parents. “Lauren Heyward.”

Tom Deveraux frowned. Mitch wondered if it was his imagination or had the gray at his father’s temples recently become more pronounced?

“You know the rule about climbing into bed with the competition,” Tom said.

“Tom!” Grace chided, a flush coming into her pretty cheeks.

“Mitch knows what I mean,” Tom said, raking a hand through his closely cropped dark brown hair. “I wasn’t speaking literally. Although now that we’ve brought it up, that better not be the case, either.” Tom leveled a warning look at Mitch, his brown eyes darkening all the more. “There’s nothing more potentially damaging than pillow talk, when it comes to industrial espionage.”

The last thing Mitch wanted to be imagining was his head next to Lauren’s as they exchanged teasing quips and soft words of love and lust after making love. He didn’t want to think about her lying naked beneath him, either, her slender arms and long sexy legs wrapped around him. His relationship with her was too potentially beneficial to both of them to risk ruining with casual sex. If things went his way, he could make his mark with this deal with Payton Heyward, and Lauren would own the historical home of her dreams. And that was as far as Mitch was prepared to take it at this time, despite Payton Heyward’s very interesting offer. Or his own desire for Lauren.

“Lauren doesn’t work for her father,” Mitch said, putting his own uneasiness about Payton Heyward’s unprecedented actions aside. “Furthermore, she has zero interest in his company.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Tom said gruffly. “She’s still an heiress to our biggest rival. And could inadvertently end up passing information to her father about what we’re doing at Deveraux Shipping Company.”

Mitch had no intention of letting Lauren know anything she shouldn’t. He would also keep a very close eye on her. “The competition between Payton Heyward’s company and ours isn’t the biggest threat to our continued prosperity, Dad. The Web-based exchanges on the Internet are.”

“Those companies are a fad.”

Mitch knew a lot of top businessmen thought so, given all the dot-com firms that had already gone under. He didn’t agree. He felt it was one of the fastest growing markets and would continue to be for some time. “They also offer faster bookings at cheaper prices.” And that was a problem, Mitch thought.

“Most big deals are made over a meal and closed with a handshake. That’s always been the case and always will be.” It was the really big deals, not the unpredictable little shipments, Tom Deveraux was interested in locking up.

In the past, those big deals had kept the Deveraux and Heyward shipping companies on top. But Mitch knew there was more money to be made by pursuing lots of smaller customers, too. They just needed a cost-effective way to do it. “I still want to use this year’s expansion money to put up our own Web site and start doing business that way as well,” he said.

Tom gave him a look that reminded Mitch just who was CEO of the Deveraux Shipping Company. “And I want to invest in more container ships.”

They would have more ships at their disposal if they merged with Heyward Shipping, Mitch thought. Because Payton Heyward had just added two new state-of-the-art vessels to his fleet. And then they could still add an e-commerce component to their business, too, without over-mortgaging the firm, without worrying whether Payton was going to edge out Tom on an upcoming deal with a customer or vice versa. But he sensed he was going to have a hard time convincing his father to put his own uneasiness and suspicion aside and merge companies with Payton Heyward.

“When did the two of you start dating?” Tom asked.

“Tonight’s our first date,” Mitch said. “And you might as well know there are going to be six others this week as well.”

Grace looked over with a raised eyebrow. “Cleared your calendars, did you, dear?”

Briefly, Mitch laid out the deal that had been offered to Lauren and him by Payton Heyward, while Lauren was present. He did not tell them about the dowry Payton had promised after she left in a huff. As he had expected, his parents were as shocked as he had been.

“Forget for a moment the fact that I would never agree to a merger between our two companies,” Tom said when Mitch had finished. “This whole idea of an arranged courtship is crazy! I’m surprised you even agreed to hear Payton out, never mind agreed to follow this cockeyed plan of his.”

Grace nodded her agreement as she swiftly took Tom’s side in this. “Are you sure you know what you’re doing here, Mitch?”

Mitch knew he could convince his father a merger between the two powerhouses was the right way to go, once he had Payton Heyward firmly in his corner and all the details worked out. His business case was that strong. But he would have to wait for the right time to do that and, unfortunately, now was not the right time. It was victory enough that he had even been able to broach the topic with his father, given his father’s insistence they keep their firm private and family-owned, despite all business indicators to the contrary. “Look, all Lauren and I agreed to do was spend time with each other every evening for one week so she can get this mansion that she wants and I can talk merger with her father. The way we see it, what we’re doing is not any different than schmoozing a client to close a deal.”

“It’s a heck of a lot different,” Grace interjected firmly. She looked at Mitch as if he had just sold his soul. “It’s always a mistake to date someone for the wrong reasons.”

“It’s only a week,” Mitch said impatiently. Although he hadn’t actually ruled out the idea of eventually marrying Lauren, he hadn’t ruled it in, either. He figured he would just have to wait and see how things developed. But if those kisses they had shared this afternoon were any indication of the fireworks yet to happen between them, he’d definitely be thinking about it by the end of the week.

“You tell yourself it’s only a week, now,” Grace said. “But you’re just marking time until you get what you really want. Peoples’ feelings are involved here, and things have a way of getting complicated when you least expect them to.”

No kidding, Mitch thought, recalling how fast and unexpectedly his previous marriage had gotten ugly and come to an end. He’d thought he’d known Jeannette, too. He’d thought they could make each other happy forever. And look how wrong he had been.

“I agree. You shouldn’t be spending time alone with a woman unless you’re genuinely interested in her,” Tom said. “I don’t care what prize was offered to you in return. To do otherwise usually ends up with someone being hurt. And you’re better than that.”

“Who says I’m not genuinely interested in Lauren?” Mitch stated angrily, resenting the implication that he was in some way cold-bloodedly using Lauren, when that wasn’t the case at all. They hadn’t pursued this deal. Her father had presented them with the arrangement, as well as the prizes. He and Lauren had just opted to take Payton Heyward up on his offer.

“Are you telling us you find her attractive?” Grace asked.

Attractive wasn’t the half of it, Mitch thought, thinking back to the way his senses stirred whenever he was close to her. And the way she kissed! He’d never felt lips as soft or sensual, or wanted anyone so much so fast… Deciding there was no harm in being honest with his parents about that much, especially because it would make him look better in their eyes, Mitch said, “Yes.”

Grace and Tom groaned in unison. “Even worse,” Tom said.

Grace agreed. “Now I know someone is going to get hurt.”

Mitch rolled his eyes. With this family of his, sometimes you just couldn’t win.

The doorbell rang. Theresa Owens, the family’s housekeeper, swept through the foyer to get it and ushered Lauren in. She looked breathtakingly beautiful in a sleeveless black dress that had embroidered flowers along the hem. Her golden-brown hair was loose and tousled, and pink tinged her cheeks. She had a bottle of wine in her hands and fortunately not an inkling about how Mitch’s father felt about Mitch consorting with the “competition.”

“Sorry I’m late,” Lauren said as everyone stood to greet her.

Mitch glanced at his watch and saw it was indeed ten minutes after six o’clock. He grimaced, wondering what Payton’s rules were about that. He’d hate to be disqualified on a technicality before they’d even really started.

“I ran into Daisy Templeton,” Lauren continued breathlessly, and handed the bottle of wine to Grace. “She’s starting a search for her biological parents. And she knows I’ve done a lot with birth records to better understand some of the complicated real estate transactions that have occurred on some of the properties I’ve bought and sold. You know, sometimes a property was supposed to go to an heir, only the heir died, and then it ended up with a second cousin, so what originally started out as a Smith-family holding suddenly became a Donahue property or a Calhoun. Anyway, I got hung up, giving her some advice on the best way to proceed.”

Grace suddenly looked very pale as she handed the wine to Tom and eased her way into a chair.

“Why would she want to do that?” Tom asked calmly, putting the wine on the bar. “I mean, we’ve all known for years that Daisy was adopted, but I always thought Daisy was very happy with the Templeton family.”

“Then you’re the only one,” Mitch murmured.

Tom shot him a reprimanding look.

Mitch shrugged. “You don’t get as wild as Daisy’s been without some reason,” Mitch said. “Frankly, I don’t think she’s ever felt she really belonged with the Templetons.”

“Of course she belongs with the Templetons,” Tom said sharply. He gave Mitch an impatient look. “They adopted her, didn’t they?”

“If you’ll excuse me—I—” Grace stood abruptly and put her hand to the back of her neck as if she had one of her tension headaches coming on. “I forgot I had a previous engagement this evening,” she murmured as everyone turned to her in surprise. “I’m so sorry, Mitch, Lauren. I won’t be able to have dinner with you after all.” She turned on her heel and walked toward the door with all the careful poise of an actress leaving the stage.

“Grace—” Tom started after his ex-wife.

Grace put up a hand to halt him, but did not turn around. Tom stopped in his tracks, and his broad shoulders slumped dejectedly, as he watched her disappear up the stairs.