Page 47 of Seduced in Ink
If Madison and Aaron pulled the whole fake engagement off, would her mother truly back off? Madison wanted to think so, but she didn’t know for sure.
“Just this once,” Madison said, hating herself. “If Aaron can take time away from his project, and if I can get Brynn and my staff to work my shifts, I will come.”
“You’re the boss, and he’s an artist. You can both do whatever you need to.”
“I’ll do my best.”
“Your best better be good enough.”
Her mother hung up and didn’t bother to say anything else before she did, not even goodbye. Certainly not anI love you.
Madison sighed and set the phone down, rubbing her temples as the headache worsened.
She could do this. She would go to the retreat, but she wouldn’t do it like her mother wanted. If Aaron wanted to come, she would bring him. If not, maybe she would still go because she needed to do this one last thing. She needed to show them who she was and not back down. Because that was what this fake thing was all about. Giving her time to stand up for herself. And that’s what she was going to do. To her mother’s face. And if it coincided with the fact that her mom would stop her nonsense? Then that’s what she would do.
She wouldn’t roll over ever again.
Even if it broke her.
Chapter 11
“Thank you again. Seriously. I’m honestly surprised you said yes. I owe you so much.”
Aaron looked over at Madison as she continued rambling her thanks. He shook his head, taking the turn up the mountain road to where the lodge was located.
“You really need to stop thanking me,” he said, a smile playing on his lips. “I mean, unless you want to thank me in sexual favors. Then we can make that work.”
He didn’t need to look at her than to know that she was blushing all the way to the tips of her ears.
“Aaron Montgomery.”
“That’s my name. Pretty sure you said that last night.”
She shoved at his knee lightly. He just grinned.
“You don’t have to thank me for this. I get to stay at a fancy lodge, one that I’ve always wanted to stay at since I’ve heard great things about the views. And we never stay at them.”
“Because Liam has his own mountain lodge,” Madison said with a laugh.
“I think it’s more of a cabin in the woods. A cabin-mansion, if you will. He lets some of the other cousins borrow it sometimes. And we stayed up there recently for our guys’ weekend.”
“I remember. I’m still kind of jealous I haven’t stayed there.” She winked, and Aaron smiled anew.
“I’m sure we could make that happen.” He paused. “You know, for a huge family thing or something.”
He said it quickly, immediately feeling awkward. He knew she felt it, too. Because going away for a weekend together, just the two of them? That wouldn’t be very fake, would it? Or were they really seeing each other now?
Having a real conversation about it would’ve been nice, would have made things simple for them. But there was nothing simple about what they were to each other or what they were doing. Because as soon as they talked it over, they would likely walk away. He knew it. And he didn’t want her to walk away from him. He didn’t know what he wanted exactly, but he knew it wasn’t that. So they would play things by ear and hope to hell they did it right.
Even though he knew they weren’t.
“Maybe. Okay, so today is lodge day. It’s going to be a lot of my father’s investors, and even more people he wants to invest in him. Plus, men who just like money and pretty much roll around in it when no one’s looking. Or maybe when people are looking. I don’t really know the rules.”
Aaron snorted and took the next turn. He wasn’t a huge fan of this road. It was narrow, and they could probably fall off the cliff at any moment. He needed to pay attention to what he was doing, rather than driving them off the mountain. However, that might be preferable to what their weekend could hold.
Not that he would ever do anything to harm Madison. That was the whole point of this ruse, wasn’t it?
“So, am I supposed to schmooze people or just hang out with you?” Aaron asked, keeping both hands on the steering wheel, gripping it for dear life.