Page 24 of His Bride Bargain
“You want me not to have a personal reaction to you proposing to me?” I slam my palms on the arms of the chair, the harsh sound echoing around the room as I stand. “You’ve had your fun, Aiden. Now get out until you have a real suggestion for me. Or better yet, don’t even bother coming back.”
He rises too, then opens his bag to pull out a crisp, white envelope. “This is real. Here is the proposal.” I scoff as he places it in front of me. “At least read it. Please?”
Once, those gentle puppy-dog eyes might have worked on me, but I’m too astounded to fall for it now. Marriage! I can’t believe the nerve.
“Get out. Now. I won’t ask again.”
He doesn’t protest further. Instead he picks up his bag and walks away, turning back once to look at me before he leaves. His eyes shine with an emotion I can’t place, something between want and sorrow.
As soon as I’m sure he’s gone, I laugh again, a little too hysterically. I ought to throw the envelope away. Burn it, even. But, as if my hands are possessed, I pick it up and tuck it under my arm.
I shouldn’t even be considering this; it’s utterly stupid. So why can’t I bring myself to toss it away like I know I should?
CHAPTER17
CANDICE
When I get back to my office, I’m surprised to find Kelly still there, sitting in the corner chair, playing on her phone. “Give me a moment,” she says, not looking up. “I’ve nearly finished this level of Jewel Bash.”
Wordlessly, I circle my desk and sit down, letting the noise of her fingers on the screen fill the silence, holding the envelope in my hands, toying with one of the corners of the flap until it starts to peel away.
“What you got there?” Kelly asks when she looks up from her phone.
“It was Aiden,” I say, not really answering her question.
“Fletcher?” She raises both eyebrows high and shoves her phone in her pocket. “What did he want?”
I glare at her, throwing the envelope on the desk. “Don’t act like you’re that surprised; I know you suspected it was him as much as I did.”
She shrugs, throwing up her hands in casual surrender. “Okay, so what if I did? I still want to know what he said.”
“He really,reallywants us to merge with Fletcher Tech.”
“Awesome. But you said he said they couldn’t buy us out?”
I shake my head. “No, and I’m not giving my company away for free.”
Kelly hums in righteous agreement. “So, what’s in the envelope?”
We both stare at it, gleaming white on the desk, the corner dog-eared from where I was fiddling with it. I don’t want to open it. I don’t want its contents to make sense.
I don’t want tomarryAiden Fletcher.
Pretending to be cool and not at all bothered by anything that’s happened in the last half hour, I shrug, adopting what I hope is a casual, unaffected expression. “Oh, I don’t really know. Some boring legal information about mergers, I expect.”
“Because,” says Kelly, grinning like I’ve walked into her trap, “it sounded a lot to me like you were yelling at him aboutmarriage.”
All the blood drains from my face. “You heard that?”
“Sweetie, I think the whole building did.”
Burying my face in my hands, I let out the loudest wail I think I can get away with in public. This is quickly turning into the very worst nightmare I could imagine, or else my own personal hell. But, unlike a dream, this isn’t something I can wake up from. I should have moved as far away from Olympus City as I could. I should have blocked Aiden’s number and got a restraining order against him and laughed as Fletcher Tech fell apart in his hands.
I should never have gotten involved with him in the first place.
Kelly gets up and lays a cool, calming hand on top of my head.
“He’s such an idiot,” I mumble into my palms, not wanting to look up at her smug face. To be honest, if I could curl up under the desk and sleep my embarrassment off for the next six years, I would.