Love and Chaos (2 page)

“Momma
will be back soon, sweetie. I’ve gotta go break a man’s heart for your Auntie
Jen. Sorry about the crate,” she added remorsefully. “But until you stop
chewing like a puppy, you’re grounded.”

Chaos
looked up at her disdainfully, then resumed chewing on his toy. Emma let
herself out. Plugging the address Jen gave her into her GPS, she noted that she
was headed for the
other
side of town. The part of town where a
one-bedroom efficiency apartment cost more than her 2-bedroom house. And while
Emma made decent money and could have afforded something small in the other
neighborhood, she had different priorities. Plus, she didn’t want to have to
worry about Chaos doing his business on the perfectly manicured lawns that made
up the ritzy area. No, she and her dog were better off where they were.
Besides, she liked living with her sister. And she liked being close to her
parents and her grandmother. She always knew where she could get a good
martini.

Pulling
up in front of the address that Jen had given her, Emma looked up in a
combination of awe and chagrin. It was a beautiful home. Correction. It was a
beautiful mansion. But it looked cold and imposing. No flowers, no decorative
pots, no steel dog made of engine parts sitting on the front stoop…. it just
looked cold.

Well,
it didn’t matter. She was here for one thing, and by God she was going to do
it. Climbing out of the driver’s seat, she smoothed down her short black skirt
and pulled her dark purple cardigan tighter around her middle. Fluffing her
curly brown hair, she caught a quick glimpse of her reflection in the car
window and sighed. She was intimidated, she realized. And it quite honestly
took a lot to intimidate her. She was a lawyer, for crying out loud. OK, so she
wasn’t tall, blonde and gorgeous like her sister, but she looked pretty good.
And though she no longer practiced criminal law, she used to deal with bad guys
in court all the time. So why could she do that, banter with the cops and even
some of the repeat offenders that she saw all the time, but she couldn’t go
face some obviously crazy man who was paying her sister to marry him?

Taking
a deep breath, she opened the gate, strolled up the front walk, and rang the
doorbell. She heard it reverberating through the house, and fought the urge to
turn around and run for the hills. Instead, she forced herself to stay in
place. She heard footsteps approaching the door. For some reason, she had been
expecting a butler or a servant to answer her ring, but the moment the door
opened, Emma knew that she was face to face with her sister’s ‘fiancé’, Mason
Parker. A very tall, very imposing, and oh dear Lord in heaven, a
very
sexy Mason Parker.

The
man stood in the doorway, looking down at her. “Yes?” he asked.

Emma
took a deep breath. “Mr. Parker? My name is Emma Jameson.”

For
whatever reason, her last name didn’t seem to register with the man, since he
just repeated himself. “Yes?”

She
fought the urge to roll her eyes. “I’m Jen’s sister. She asked me to come see
you.”

His
grey eyes narrowed as he finally connected her name to his fiancée. He stepped
back. “Then you'd better come in.”

As
Emma stepped into the house, she shivered. The inside was much the same as the
outside. Modern. Austere. Probably symbolic of something that made no sense to
her. Surreptitiously checking her skirt for dog fur, she turned around and
waited for Mason to lead the way.

“You
have a lovely home,” she lied.

Mason
seemed accustomed to compliments about his home, and brushed it aside. “Thank
you. I didn’t know Jen had a sister. You don’t look much alike,” he said,
apparently going straight for the jugular.

Emma
was used to it. “You're not kidding.”

Mason
looked back at her as he led the way down the hallway and into a large room
that he obviously used as his study. “I don’t suppose this is good news you’re
bringing me,” he said dryly.

“I
guess it depends on your perspective,” Emma answered. “But perhaps not.”

In
the study, Mason pointed to a couch, then sat down in a chair opposite her,
leaning back and crossing one leg over the other. “Where is she?” he asked,
almost casually.

Emma
sighed. “I honestly don’t know. I would suspect on a plane somewhere, but she
deliberately didn’t tell me.”

“So
she's not coming back,” Mason clarified.

Shaking
her head as she set her purse down next to her and straightened her skirt over
her legs, Emma said quietly, “I don’t think so. You never know with Jen - she
could change her mind at any moment. But I don’t think she will.”

"Why?"

Emma
knew what he was asking, and had been thinking of the best way to tell him. It
wasn’t that Jen’s leaving was going to break his heart, but she knew that men
could… well… become attached to Jen rather quickly. Given her tall, blonde,
kind of buxom beauty and all. So she wanted to let this guy down easy, even
though he did not seem the type to believe in love at first sight or anything.
Oh hell. Maybe he had a sentimental streak. Stranger things had happened.

Mason
raised his eyebrows, indicating that he was still waiting for an answer.

“I
don’t think she meant for this to happen, but she... well...” Emma sighed.

“She
met someone else,” Mason hazarded a guess.

Emma
was ready to spin it a million different ways, but when she looked up into
Mason’s hard, but wow so incredibly sexy eyes, she just simply said, “Yes.”

“Damnit,”
Mason clipped out. Closing his eyes momentarily, he opened them and stared up
at the ceiling.

Emma
was unprepared for the harshness of his response. She had expected and prepared
for a few different reactions, including anger, arrogance, irrational
thinking…. But not this level of obvious frustration. “You care?” she asked in
surprise.

“Of
course I care,” he snapped.

“But,
I thought...”

“That
we had a relationship based on a business agreement? Yes. That’s true. And
you’re right, of course. I don’t particularly mourn the loss of Jen as a person
- but I needed her.” He looked at Emma shrewdly. “How much did she tell you?” he
asked.

“Most
of it, I think,” Emma said quietly, shrugging as she did so, but then she
thought for a moment and retracted that. “Actually, not really very much, come
to think of it. Just that you two had agreed to marry for some reason that is
beyond my understanding, and that she wasn’t going to be able to fulfill her
end of the deal. But she really was very sorry, Mr. Parker,” she added, hoping
to wrap up the conversation and head home for a run with Chaos.

Mason
steepled his hands in front of him, resting his elbows on the arms of the chair
he was sitting in. He was quiet for several long moments while Emma fought the
urge to look at her watch. She could bolt, but he deserved a little sympathy in
all of this, so she stayed seated while he worked through his thoughts. She
felt his eyes on her. And while those eyes in another context might have made
her stomach flutter, right now they felt almost predatory. She looked away,
again reminding herself that she’d stared down drug dealers before and come out
the victor.

She
looked back when he spoke again. “I put this whole deception in motion for a
reason, Ms. Jameson. And your sister signed a legally binding contract.”

At
the word ‘contract’, Emma started, her eyes flying back to his. Uh oh. Emma was
the lawyer in the family. She was the one who understood legal ramifications of
deals and what binding contracts meant. And if Jen had signed something without
having her sister look at it, this could be bad. “Contract?” she managed to
ask, her voice steadier than she thought it should be.

Mason
smiled. If she didn’t know any better, she’d swear his smile was the smile of a
crocodile. A very sexy, very handsome, very intriguing crocodile, but a
cold-blooded reptile nonetheless.

“She
didn’t mention that to you?” he asked, almost innocently.

“No,”
Emma stated firmly. Sighing, she added, “I believe I would have remembered
that.”

Mason
just nodded agreeably. “Then you’ll love this next part, Ms. Jameson. The
contract states that if she reneges on her end of the deal, she must find me a
suitable replacement within 24 hours, without breaking the confidentiality
agreement within the contract, or the contract is considered broken. And I can
sue her.”

Emma
blinked. “Suitable replacement?” she echoed.

“Yes,”
Mason said conversationally. “The wedding is in three days. I don’t really care
who the bride is, as long as she meets the qualifications laid out in the
contract.”

Swallowing,
Emma choked out, “Qualifications?” She realized that she was repeating back
everything he was saying to her, but seemed absolutely unable to stop herself.

“Yes.
Educated enough to carry on a conversation. Attractive, between 28 and 38 years
old, and socially well-adjusted. No drugs or other addictions, no major debt,
and, of course, willing to sign a contract that precludes any and all financial
support once the marriage dissolves.”

Emma
leaned back into the couch cushions. Holy crap, she thought. “You have got to
be kidding me,” she said out loud.

Mason
shook his head, watching her closely. “No. You’ll find that I do not kid.”

Emma
busied herself by fidgeting with her purse straps. She needed to end this
conversation and get out of the house.

“Well,
it shouldn’t be too hard to find someone willing to do that, even under such
short notice,” she said, almost half-convincingly. “I'm sure you’ll have no
trouble replacing her. You’re obviously wealthy, good looking, you live in a
nice house, you…” Emma caught herself and blushed. She stopped babbling, even
as Mason looked over at her in some combination of amusement and discomfort.
Taking a deep breath, she counted to ten and then said more calmly, “Look. I’m
very sorry for the inconvenience. But Jen asked me to pick up her things from
your room, so may I do that? And then I’ll be out of your way, and you can go
about your evening.”

But
Mason was just looking at her oddly. “She didn’t leave anything here. She never
stayed here.”

“Excuse
me?”

“And
the contract stipulates that
she
find her replacement. Not that
I
do,” he added.

Emma
nearly screamed in frustration, but she just gritted her teeth and answered.
“But I don’t even know where she is. So it might be hard to contact her and ask
her to do that.”

“Then
you’ll need to do it,” Mason stated firmly.

“Me?”
Emma snorted. “I don’t think so. This is not my problem.”

“Are
any of your finances tied in with your sister?” Mason asked, his eyes shrewdly
assessing her reaction.

Emma
turned white. Of course they were. They were sisters. Best friends. Compadres.
They owned a house together. The house that she and Emma lived in.

Mason
noticed her reaction, but he just shrugged. “Then it is your business. Because
by the time I’m through with your sister, all of her assets will be mine. And
that includes anything that she jointly owns with you. Oh, and in addition,
I’ll press charges against your sister, since she disappeared with quite a
large amount of my cash.”

“But…
“ All of Emma’s amazing lawyer-like skills at rebuttal had disappeared and left
her with nothing. She just stared at him. “You can’t be serious.”

“I
am dead serious,” Mason replied, uncrossing his legs and leaning forward, his
elbows on his knees and his eyes boring into her with that same predatory look
she’d seen earlier.

“This
is ridiculous,” Emma said in response. “I can’t find you a wife in two days!”

“One
day, actually, since I need time to get the paperwork in order,” Mason
corrected her.

“But...”

“Unless
you’re prepared to stand in for Jen? You’re single, I presume?” he asked,
looking pointedly at her ring-less finger.

Emma
shivered. “I am not marrying you,” she asserted.

Mason
stood then.”That’s fine. You and your sister will be hearing from my lawyer,
and I’ll be contacting the authorities tomorrow morning.”

Emma
remained seated. “I want to see the contract,” she demanded, looking straight
at him and remembering that she had a backbone. Somewhere.

“I’ll
have it sent to you,” Mason responded. “Leave me your FAX number or an e-mail
address.”

“Now.
I want to see it now,” she said firmly, standing up from the couch and refusing
to let him intimidate her.

He
looked surprised. “I presumed you’d want a lawyer to look at it.”

She
rolled her eyes. “I
am
a lawyer,” she informed him.

Well
score one for her. She had startled him. His eyebrows went up and he just
looked at her.

“What?”
she asked defensively.

“I’m
just surprised. Jen…”

“We’re
different,” Emma said, crossing her arms in front of her.