Dalton, Tymber - Contractual Obligation (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (5 page)

That was another worry. Eileen, a junior in high school, got good grades. By all rights she should be able to get scholarships to cover her tuition, or at the very least pick up a few grants or low-interest loans for school. She wanted to be a nurse and had already applied to USF there in Tampa. Living at home would save her money.

His job would insure he could pay for her education even if everything else fell through. And he could help Tina pay off her student loans.

This is for my family
, he insisted. At the end of the first year, he’d see if Harper would let him tell Tate the truth. If Tate was even still single.

And if Tate would ever forgive him for selling out like this.

* * * *

After his sisters and mother had gone to bed, Doug sat at the kitchen table with his father. It was nearly ten o’clock, and he’d taken the chicken route and called Tate earlier, when he knew his lover wouldn’t be able to hear his phone in the noisy sports pub. With his own phone on silent, he could claim he didn’t hear it. Tate was an early riser, so not calling him late would be believable. All he’d told Tate was that he’d gotten a job, his mom was home and doing well, and that he missed him.

And that he loved him. Although he was sure Tate would hate him pretty soon.

His dad smiled at him. “I’m so proud of you, son. You have no idea.”

Doug felt a little sick inside. If his parents knew the truth, they’d never let him do it. He also imagined they would most likely be ashamed of him for selling out the way he had.

“Thanks, Dad.” He took a deep breath. “Um, about me and Tate living here—”

His dad nodded. “No problem, as long as you like. Seriously.”

“It’s not that, Dad.” He studied his hands, unable to look his father in the eye. “Tate’s not going to be moving in.”

“Why not?”

“I just…” He tried another approach. He wasn’t ready to break it to them that he’d be moving out, too. “It’s not going to be fair to uproot him. I’m literally going to be on the road weeks at a time, sometimes a month or more,” he fibbed. “I’m hardly going to be home.”

“So? He’s family. We’ll take care of him.”

His dad wasn’t making this any easier on him. “I think the only fair thing to do is to take a break from our relationship for a while, at least until life settles down a little. Besides, he’s got a decent job for now, has health benefits and everything.”

“What are you saying, son? Are you breaking up with him?”

“I don’t want to—”

“Then don’t!”

“Dad, please.” He stood. “This is my life,” he said, even though it really felt like a fib now. He was beholden to Harper Wells for a year. “I don’t want to discuss this anymore.”

His dad slowly nodded. “Okay,” he quietly said. “You’re right. I respect your wishes.”

* * * *

Doug walked into the lobby at ten minutes till ten the next morning. He passed the bank of elevators just as the doors to one car slid open and Harper and Gorden stepped out.

Her expression brightened when she spotted him. “Perfect timing!” She held out her hand with a cheery smile. He forced a smile of his own as he shook with her. “Glad to see you didn’t decide to chicken out overnight,” she joked.

“No, I know a darn good deal when I see one,” he said.

He held the coffee shop door open for her and Gorden and followed them inside. She picked a quiet corner booth. After a waitress came over to take their order, Harper opened a folder she’d had in her hand and pushed a stack of papers and a pen across the table to him.

He glanced through them and started to pick up the pen. Gorden laid a hand over Doug’s, stopping him. “Son, read through them, first. In fact, if you want a few hours to take them to an attorney, we’ll understand.”

He shook his head. “That’s not necessary.” He did read them, though. It took him twenty minutes, and Harper and Gorden didn’t speak or interrupt him while he did. When he finished, he signed everywhere indicated and pushed the papers back across the table to her.

She now owned his ass for a year. He supposed he shouldn’t think of it as pimping himself out, because she’d clearly said she wasn’t expecting sex from him, but it all boiled down to the same thing, didn’t it?

He still hated himself for what he had to do to Tate.

He’d even been so chickenshit as to call Tate this morning at nine o’clock, when he knew Tate was working and couldn’t take personal calls.

He studied Harper’s face as she leafed through the folder and removed another sheaf of papers. He’d found out from Gorden she was only twenty-eight, just three years older than him. She’d come to be the CEO of her father’s company because the man literally lost a bet to her. Ever since she’d graduated Magna Cum Laude from USF in Tampa, she’d bugged her father to give her a larger role in the company. She’d been working part-time as Gorden’s intern since she graduated from high school, and to shut her up more than anything, her father had made a bet with her one night in front of Gorden and several of his friends.

Harper had twelve months to turn around their newest acquisition, a struggling Miami company they’d purchased in a hostile takeover. If she did it, he’d make her CEO of their entire organization.

Her father had never expected her to be successful.

In less than eight months, the new company was not only in the black, it was turning the highest profit it had in years.

And Harrison Wells was never one to welsh on a bet.

She smiled as she handed the papers over. Doug realized that she was genuinely happy over this arrangement. She wasn’t trying to use him unfairly. He’d agreed to this crazy, albeit generous and highly profitable, deal.

Her smile made her look a little less careworn. “These are for you,” she said. “Some basics about the company. If you’re not busy today, I’d like to send you out with Gorden to get some stuff. It’s going to take us a week or so to get you a corporate credit card. My father is going to be here later today, and I want to introduce you to him.”

“You want me to look my best.”

She laughed. “Exactly.” He realized there was nothing mean or hurtful in her laugh. Even her hazel eyes had faint smile lines around them. “Believe me, you deserve it,” she added. “I’m more than happy to spring for a shopping spree.”

For a moment, it looked like her demeanor slipped before she strengthened her smile. She lowered her voice. “Doug, you have no idea how much I appreciate what you’re doing. I realize, yes, you benefit from this, but I cannot begin to tell you how much this means to me.”

Now he felt like a double shit. Here was a nice woman in a tough situation of her own. Gorden had told him her father wouldn’t hesitate to follow through on his threat to remove her from the company if she kept pushing herself as hard as she had. He suspected there was more to the story, but Gorden either wouldn’t or couldn’t elaborate further.

* * * *

Harper tried not to stare at Doug from across the table. He was definitely easy on the eyes. And single.
How lucky am I?
Maybe she could eventually talk him into her bed.

She wouldn’t mind that in the least. Yes, she wouldn’t deny it’d be nice to have a real boyfriend instead of a vibrator or shower massager.

If she could even convince him to stay. Someone as cute as him surely couldn’t have any problems getting dates if he wanted them.

Quit thinking like that
, she chided herself.
This is business.

“Well, I’ll leave you two to it,” she said. She grabbed her folder and stood, shaking hands with him before turning to Gorden. “When is Dad due in?”

“Three o’clock.”

“I’ll be in my office and waiting for you.”

Gorden smiled. “You’re not wasting a second of time, are you?”

She patted him on the shoulder. “What? Even my father said I needed to get on the ball and find your replacement.”

The sound of his laughter followed her out of the coffee shop. She had the elevator to herself as she rode up to her floor. She paged through the folder. Douglas Allen Holt. Had turned twenty-five only four weeks earlier. She closed the folder, leaned against the elevator wall, and tapped the folder against her thigh. She smiled.

Dad will never know what hit him.

Chapter Five

Gorden led Doug from the coffee shop to the private parking garage that took up the third through fifth floors of the building. He showed him to a black Mercedes CLS550 sedan. Doug was almost afraid to get inside it.

Gorden looked at him. “What’s wrong?”

“Is this yours?”

“Company car. But Harper promised it to me when I retire.” He grinned. “I heard her on the phone ordering yours this morning.” Gorden slid behind the wheel, leaving Doug standing there, gawking at him.

When Doug finally got into the passenger seat he said, “She ordered me a Mercedes? You’re kidding, right?”

“Nope.” He started the car. It purred to life. Doug never knew cars really could purr, but this one did. “Harper believes in treating employees right. In return, they almost always, without fail, take on personal ownership and pride in the company. Someone believes in them, they believe in themselves, and it inspires them to keep the cycle going. She doesn’t keep employees who won’t take personal pride and ownership in the company.” He slipped on a pair of mirrored sunglasses that, for some reason, made him look twenty years younger and thirty years cooler. “She believes in you.”

Gorden drove them over to International Plaza, near the airport. Doug had never shopped here, even though he’d passed it frequently on his way to Target or Walmart. Most of the shops in the mall weren’t even in the same country as his bank balance, much less the same zip code.

“I hope you brought your credit card,” Doug quipped as they headed inside, “because I can’t even afford to window-shop here.”

Gorden laughed. “Don’t worry. Pretty soon, this will feel like slumming it.”

* * * *

Three hours later, they left the mall with their arms full of shopping bags and Doug completely refitted in high-dollar office wear. As they stowed everything in the trunk of Gorden’s car, Doug stared down at his new clothes, including a pair of leather Burberry brogues, which cost almost as much as a month’s rent on their Gainesville apartment.

“I can’t believe this,” he said.

Gorden closed the trunk lid. “Believe it. And enjoy it while you can.”

“What do you mean?”

“She wasn’t kidding when she told you she can be a bitch to work for.” They got back in the car and Gorden continued. “I love her like a daughter. Hell, I’ve known her since she was born, before her mother died. My wife and I stood in plenty of times when Harrison had to go out of town on business. I can’t tell you how many Christmases she woke up in our guest room to find Santa had remembered to bring her gifts to our house. After a while, we just went ahead and decorated the guest room for her so she would feel like she had a home. She spent more time with us than she did her own father.”

Doug didn’t know what to say to that, so he thought it wise to keep his mouth shut. He’d always had his family’s love and support. He didn’t know what it was like not to have that.

He was worried he might find out if they ever knew the truth of why he had to break up with Tate.

Gorden wasn’t finished speaking his piece. “You’re going to go to bed some nights cursing her name. Until you return to work the next morning to find out her mood has shifted and she’s back to the same lovable woman you were glad to go to work for. What you have to remember is that, no matter what, you must stay calm. I’m not at liberty to discuss some things. But there are reasons for her mercurial moods sometimes that have nothing to do with you or with the quality of your work. Maybe one day she’ll be able to open up to you as her confidant. You will become her anchor, her rock. She will rely upon you to do your job and be there for her.”