The Billionaire’s Bidding

Eleven

“I want to say it,” said Alex, propping himself up on one elbow in their huge four-poster bed.

“You can’t say it,” Emma responded, her sun kissed breasts glowing a golden honey against the stark white sheets.

“But I mean it,” he insisted. He’d realized hours ago that he was madly, passionately, incredibly in love with his wife.

She reached up to place her index finger across his lips. “You promised.”

He drew her fingertip into his mouth, turning the suction into a kiss. “Bet I can make you say it.”

She shook her head in denial, but he knew that he could. The right kiss, the right caress, the right whisper in her ear, and her secrets were his for the taking.

It wasn’t ego. It simply was.

He feathered his fingers up the length of her thigh.

“Don’t,” she gasped.

He smiled. “Say it.”

“Play fair.”

“All’s fair in-”

“Alex.”

He moved his hand and kissed the tip of her nose. “I’m just messin’ with you.”

“Well, I don’t like it,” she said tartly.

“Sure you do. At least give me that.”

Her mouth twitched in a reluctant half smile.

The telephone next to the bed jangled in his ear.

He swore out loud.

“What time is it?” she groaned, covering her ears in time for the second ring.

“Around one,” he said, picking up the receiver before it could vibrate his eardrums a third time. “Yeah?”

“Where the hell were you?” barked Nathaniel.

“Dinner. The beach. Why?”

“Because you’re about to lose half a billion dollars, that’s why.”

Alex sat up straight, his brain shifting gears faster than a Formula One driver. “What happened? Where are you?”

“David happened. And I’m still in New York.”

“David?” asked Alex.

Emma sat bolt upright. “What about David? Is Katie all right?”

Alex held up a finger. He wasn’t trying to be dismissive, but he needed to hear what Nathaniel had to say.

“David, that slimy, underhanded son-of-a-bitch, is attempting to sell the Kayven Island Resort.”

Alex reflexively glanced around. “Huh?”

“Please, cousin, tell me you’re a director of McKinley Inns. Tell me the paperwork is done. Tell me Emma and Katie don’t still have control of that company.”

Alex’s gaze shifted to Emma.

“What?” she asked.

“Alex?” Nathaniel prompted.

“The lawyers are drafting right now.”

“Are you telling me nothing’s been signed?”

“Only the loan to McKinley.”

“Shit.”

Alex’s tone was harsh. “What the hell is going on, Nate?”

“Cranston’s flashing a power of attorney signed by those two women.”

That didn’t make any sense. None at all. “Hang on.” Alex covered the receiver.

Emma was watching him with an impatient look of confusion.

He kept his voice even. It had to be a mistake, or maybe a forgery. “Nathaniel says David Cranston has a power of attorney.”

She drew back on the bed, shifting the covers away. “For what?”

“Did you sign anything for him?”

She shook her head. “No.” Then she stopped shaking and her eyes narrowed. “Wait. There was one thing. An authorization to redecorate a bed-and-breakfast in Knaresborough. It’s a tiny little place. Nothing important.”

Alex returned to the phone. “She says all he can do is redecorate some bed-and-breakfast.”

“It’s not redecorating. And it’s not a bed-and-breakfast. The man is authorized to sell any and all McKinley properties. He’s cutting a deal with Murdoch and DreamLodge. For an obscene commission.”

“How do you know-don’t answer that.” Alex went back to Emma. “Did you read it carefully?”

Her eyes went wide, and her face paled.

“Did you read it at all?”

“We’d already talked about it…” Her features pinched, and her hands fisted around the blanket. “With the wedding and all…I signed so many stacks of paper.”

He let out a pithy swearword.

“Yeah,” said Nathaniel. “Now you’re catching on. You get your ass on a plane.”

Alex glanced to the rain battered window and the pitch black beyond. “Can you stall?”

“I’ve already put his entire legal team on retainer, had them declare a conflict of interest, and forced him to find new attorneys. You don’t want to know what that cost me.”

“Did you talk to Katie.”

“Hell, yes.”

“Can she stop it?”

“Not without Emma.”

Alex closed his eyes and willed the wind and rain to stop. “We’ll be there as soon as humanly possible.”

“Get here now.” The line went dead.

Alex set down the phone.

“Alex?” Emma whispered hoarsely.

He stared at her. There was no easy way to say this. “David is trying to sell the Kayven Island Resort.”

She blinked back in silence. “Why?”

Alex’s stomach clenched to walnut size.

Why?

Because its value is about to rise to half a billion dollars.

Sorry I forgot to mention that before you married me.

Emma understood the words “trying to sell Kayven Island.” It was the meaning that eluded her.

David was redecorating in Knaresborough. And, as far as she knew, hadn’t had anything to do with the Kayven Island property.

“Why would he do that?” she repeated into the rain-dotted silence. She got that something was wrong. But she couldn’t get the puzzle pieces to connect inside her head.

“For a big, fat commission from Murdoch.” Alex raked a hand through his hair. “Why didn’t Katie see-”

“Back up,” said Emma, clambering off the bed and shrugging into one of the hotel robes. “Murdoch?”

Alex’s eyes went hard as granite. “Murdoch bribed David to find a way to sell him Kayven Island.”

“He wanted it that bad?” Sure it was a nice resort, but it served a small niche market. It commanded steep rates, so it was often half empty. Nobody was getting rich off Kayven Island anytime soon.

A muscle clenched near Alex’s right eye. He grabbed his boxers and retrieved a pair of slacks from the closet. “We have to get to the airport.”

“In this?”

“It’ll let up eventually. As soon as there’s a break in the ceiling, we’re taking off.”

“But what did Nathaniel say?”

Alex seemed completely serious about heading for the airport, so Emma discarded the robe and pulled on a cotton dress.

“Just what I told you,” said Alex.

“You haven’t told me anything.”

Keeping his back to her, he moved around the room as he spoke. “David duped you and Katie into signing a power of attorney that somehow allowed him to make a deal on Kayven Island. Nathaniel is trying to hold him off, but we need to get back to NewYork.”

Emma watched his furtive packing. “What aren’t you telling me?” Was it a done deal? Had they already lost the resort?

“Nothing.”

“Has the sale gone through?”

“No.”

“Because if it has, it wouldn’t be the end of the world.”

Alex froze.

“It wouldn’t,” she repeated. “As long as David got a decent price.”

Alex pivoted to face her. “Your employee, your sister’s boyfriend, is trying to defraud your company and you’re saying it’ll be okay as long as he got a decent price?”

“If you’re afraid to tell me it already happened, you-”

“I’m not afraid to tell you it already happened. It didn’t already happen.”

“Then why are you acting so weird?”

“I’m not acting weird. I’m acting normal. Acting weird was earlier.”

His words hit Emma like a sledgehammer, and she staggered back. Was that it? Had the kinder, gentler Alex been an illusion? Was he mad now because he thought she’d made a mistake?

She supposed she had made a mistake. But Katie had-

Katie.

Katie would be devastated.

Emma went for the phone.

But as she reached for the receiver, Alex latched on to her wrist.

“What are you doing?”

“Calling Katie.”

“You can’t do that.”

Emma glared up at him. “Yes, I can.” This wasn’t some random whim, this was her sister’s life.

“Emma…”

“Let go of me, Alex.”

“We have to talk.”

She tried to shake him off. “We can talk on the plane.”

“We have to talk before you talk to Katie.”

The look in his eyes sent a shiver of fear through her body. She almost couldn’t bring herself to say the words. “Is she hurt?”

“No. No. She’s not hurt.”

Emma shook her arm, and Alex let her go.

“Then what the hell is going on?” she asked.

Alex squeezed his eyes shut for a second. “There’s something about Kayven Island you don’t know.”

“But Katie’s not hurt?”

“Katie’s fine. I think she’s with Nathaniel. No, I know she’s with Nathaniel. He won’t let her out of his sight until we get back.”

Emma’s fear cranked back up. “Is she in some kind of danger?”

“Emma, listen to me.”

She closed her mouth.

Alex took both her hands in his. “The local government is putting a cruise ship dock on the island.”

“What island?”

“This island.”

“So?”

“So, that’s why Murdoch wants the resort. That’s why he’s willing to bribe David.”

“Because the value will-” Emma stopped.

She got it. In a blinding flash she understood exactly what had happened to her.

“Alex!”

“I wanted it, too,” he confessed.

No kidding. She yanked her hands from his, stumbling back against the bed.

“You kept this from me?”

“Yes.”

“You…You…I could have sold it to Murdoch.”

Alex nodded.

“And then I wouldn’t have had to marry you.”

He nodded again.

She raised her fist, battling a split second temptation to pummel his chest. “And you didn’t tell me?”

“It was business.”

“Business?”

“I knew what I knew, and I did what was best for my company.”

The fight suddenly left her.

Of course he’d done what was best for his company. He’d never pretended to do anything different. He’d even warned her. He’d suggested she do the same.

And she thought she had, she thought she was. But Alex had been working against her all along.

“And you have the nerve to criticize David?” she challenged.

Alex gritted his teeth. “I am nothing like David. David’s a con artist and a criminal.”

“Yeah,” Emma agreed. “Just look what he did? He romanced Kayven Island out from under Katie.”

Emma had never felt like a bigger fool in her life. She might be stuck with Alex for better or worse, but that didn’t mean she ever had to speak with the man again.

“And wasn’t that reprehensible of him?” she ground out in a parting shot, then turned away and cut him out of her life forever.

Emma forcibly tamped down her troubles with Alex as soon as she saw Katie’s stricken face.

They were in the McKinley offices. It was six in the evening. She wasn’t even sure what day.

“Oh, honey,” she crooned, drawing Katie into an embrace.

Alex and Nathaniel immediately put their heads together and began talking in low tones.

Katie hiccoughed out a sob. “I’ve made such a mess.”

“It’s not your fault.” Emma shook her head, then shot Alex and Nathaniel a look to ensure they kept any stray opinions to themselves. “The only thing you’re guilty of doing is trusting too much. We were coerced and lied to by criminals.”

Katie swallowed. “I should have guessed-”

“Guessed what?” asked Emma, her gaze still boring in on Alex’s profile. “That a man could make love to you one minute then stab you in the back the next?” Emma hadn’t guessed that, either. But she’d know better next time.

Alex spared her a fleeting glance, his expression neutral. She wasn’t even sure her words had registered. Not that her condemnation would mean a thing to him anyway.

“The important thing is to fix it,” she said, switching her attention to Katie, pulling back and striving for a look of reassurance.

Katie gave a shaky nod, her gaze darting nervously to Nathaniel, and Emma worried what the man might have said before they arrived.

“We have to both sign a revocation,” said Katie. “The lawyers…”

Alex stepped forward. “The lawyers have it drafted, and they’re waiting across the hall.”

Emma refused to look at him. “And then what?” she asked Nathaniel.

Alex gave a frustrated sigh.

“Then we make certified copies and have a sheriff waiting to serve it to both Murdoch and Cranston first thing in the morning.”

“And that’s it?” asked Emma.

Nathaniel shrugged. “That’s it.”

She turned to Katie. “See? It’s going to be fine.”

Katie shook her head, mutely blinking back tears, and Emma felt like a heel.

“Hey, I know you’ll miss him.”

Katie’s face crumpled, and Emma pulled her back into her arms. Then she motioned for Alex and Nathaniel to leave. The papers were ready. All it took was their signatures before the start of business tomorrow. She could afford to comfort Katie for a few minutes.

The door snapped shut behind the men.

“I’m such a fool,” said Katie.

“You’re not a fool.”

Emma had made a much bigger mistake. And, while they could recover from Katie’s, Emma’s was permanent. Alex would soon own half of their business, and there wasn’t a single thing they could do about it.

Katie pulled back, a funny expression coming over her face. “If it wasn’t for Nathaniel, we’d have lost millions.”

“If it wasn’t for me, we’d have made millions.”

Katie shook her head. “That was just business.”

“You’re defending Alex?”

“He could have had our loan called and cut us out completely.”

“Or he could have been honest.”

“He was honest. He gave us the choice between a hostile takeover or a merger. We took the merger.”

A merger? That’s all it was to Katie?

Then Emma forced herself to regroup.

Yes, that’s all it was to Katie.

Katie didn’t know about Kayven Island. She didn’t know that Alex had tried to seal the deal by pretending to fall for her. She didn’t know that he’d been willing to coerce some friendly sex out of his bride of convenience before they got down to the business of flipping her resort for half a billion bucks.

Alex Garrison in love with Emma McKinley.

If anyone had told her two months ago she’d have dared to even think that phrase, she’d have laughed them out of the room. But she’d not only thought it. For a moment in time, she’d believed it. On that faraway beach, she’d believed it with all her heart. And he heart was what she’d given to Alex. And her heart is what he’d crushed with his bare hands.

He’d wanted her hotel, and she’d been stupid enough to hand him that and more on a silver platter.

Katie looked aghast. “How will I ever trust my own judgment again?”

It was Emma’s judgment that needed remedial attention.

“I asked…” Katie tapped her fingertips against her mouth. “I asked Alex if he’d host our wedding someday.” Then she have a helpless laugh. “What a fool I was.”

“Katie, please-”

The office door opened. “Emma,” said Alex. “We have to do this.”

Emma looked at Katie. “You ready?”

She gave a shaky nod. “Yeah.”

By 8:30 a.m., ten cups of coffee to the good, Alex was ready to jump out of his skin waiting for the sheriff to show.

“Screw it,” he growled to Ryan who was sitting across the boardroom table, tapping a pen against the polished, inlay pattern.

Ryan’s brow jerked into a furrow. “Screw what?”

Alex slid the manila envelope into his palm. “I’m delivering them myself.”

Ryan stood up, pushing the chair back behind him. “Whoa there, Alex. I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”

“Why not?” He couldn’t stand sitting there another second. And at least he’d know it was done right.

“Because we don’t want to have to waste our lawyer’s time clearing you of assault charges.”

“David won’t even be there.”

“Murdoch will.”

“Murdoch’s too old to defend himself.”

“My point, exactly.”

Alex snorted as he stood. “Right. Like I’m going to assault an old man.” But he did want to see Murdoch’s face when they presented the documents that would undo what he’d done.

The negotiations had moved far enough, with David legally entitled to conduct them, that backing out now could get dicey. Their lawyers had advised the most expedient way out was for Alex’s company to present an outrageous counteroffer so that Murdoch would be forced to withdraw. Quick and neat, and Alex was at the helm. First things first though, they had to deal with that proxy.

“It’s not like there’s anything to negotiate with him,” said Ryan. “You don’t even have to have a conversation.”

“I just want to see his face.” Alex was still doing a slow burn. “I told him I was the contact. He ignored me. That makes it personal.”

“You sure it’s not Emma that makes it personal?”

Alex slid a glance Ryan’s way.

“How was the honeymoon?” Ryan asked mildly.

“Short,” said Alex.

“You didn’t call in yesterday. Not once. Not to anyone.”

Alex retrieved his briefcase and placed the envelope inside. “No cell service.”

“No phones in the hotel.”

“We were busy.”

Ryan grinned. “It went well?”

Alex snapped the case shut. “I guess that’s irrelevant now that she knows about Kayven.”

Ryan sobered. “Yeah. I guess it is.”

“Yeah,” Alex agreed, trying very hard not to care.

Sure, Emma was upset. But she’d get over it. And he had what he wanted. He had what they’d all wanted: a ring on her finger and a fifty-percent share in McKinley Inns.

And…He scooped the briefcase from the table and headed for the door. He was about to rescue the jewel in the McKinley crown and visit revenge on an annoying rival.

“You okay?” Emma whispered, walking up behind Katie and stroking the back of her soft blond hair.

Her sister was sitting on the bench seat in the bay window of the penthouse dining room, staring at the wispy clouds on the eastern horizon. The coffeemaker dripped and hissed on the countertop.

Katie nodded. “What about you?” They’d sat up most of the night talking, so Katie knew all about Alex and the honeymoon.

Emma took the other end of the bench seat, curling her legs under her robe. “My stomach aches, but I think it’s embarrassment more than anything else.”

At least that’s what she was telling herself.

She closed her eyes and sighed. Alex and Ryan and Nathaniel must all be having a good laugh at her expense. She’d fallen for his act hook, line and sinker.

“They must have been afraid I’d back out,” she whispered, leaning one elbow on the white windowsill, supported the weight of her achy, sleep-deprived head.

Thinking about it, she realized her decreasing objections to the marriage correlated to when Alex started acting as though he liked her. He’d obviously figured out really quick that she was a desperate, lonely, plain-Jane woman, ripe to fall for pretty much anybody.

And he’d used that as a way to control her. Who knew if he even wanted sex with her. Maybe he just thought she wanted sex with him. And he was willing to play the gigolo, if it meant sealing the deal.

The pretty one. He’d actually hinted she was prettier than Katie. What’s more, she’d actually started to believe him.

Alex had earned his millions through acting alone.

Katie squeezed her shoulder. “It’s going to be okay.” But her voice was too hollow to be convincing.

“I can’t divorce him,” said Emma. “I’d lose a fortune.”

“Then we’ll go away. We’ll go on a very long vacation.”

Emma nodded. She’d promised to live with Alex and hang on his arm like some kind of accessory. But that part wasn’t in writing. So he’d just have to learn to live with the disappointment.

She only hoped she could learn to live with it. Despite her resistance, she’d started to like the life he’d made up. She’d even started looking forward to that goofy McKinley-Garrison office party. And redecorating his main floor. It would have been fun to redecorate his main floor. Even if it was only temporary.

A tear slipped out of the corner of her eye.

Who was she kidding?

She’d stopped thinking about it as temporary somewhere on the hot beach at Kayven Island, along about the time Alex pretended he loved her, and she realized she loved him right back.

She inhaled a shuddering sob.

Katie wrapped her in a tight embrace. “Oh, Emma. It’s going to be okay.”

But it wasn’t going to be okay. It might never be okay again.