An Offer He Can't Refuse (13 page)

Chapter Eight

After tossing and turning for most of the night, Madison finally gave up trying to get any sleep. She pushed off the covers and slid her legs over the side of the bed. She gazed down at the ring on her finger and couldn’t help but feel sort of silly for coming on to Jackson only to be turned down flat. He’d sobered her right up.

She wanted nothing more than to call a cab and go home. It was Sunday, and she hoped he’d gone to the office for the day. The wedding had been a disaster, not to mention her attempt at seducing her husband. How was she ever going to face him again?

Her gaze fell to her suitcase by the closet door, making her wonder when he’d managed to slip it into the room without disturbing her. Head throbbing, she forced herself to her feet. Her room, she noticed, was tastefully decorated in light creams and lavender.

After grabbing her nightshirt, slippers and toiletries from her case, she went into the bathroom and brushed her hair and then her teeth. She splashed cold water on her face, but that hardly helped the puffiness under her eyes. She needed Tylenol.

She opened the door and was instantly greeted by high ceilings and wide open spaces. The house was enormous. Long, open hallways lined with custom-made iron railings made for a sweeping view of the grand entrance below. Burgundy draperies and a plush carpet contrasted nicely with cream-colored walls. Rich colorful paintings adorned the walls, giving the house warmth, although a pervasive stillness did make her wonder how one man could live all alone in such a large house.

She held onto the decorative iron rail as she made her way downstairs. The kitchen was equally large and nicely decorated with never-ending granite counters and sprawling slate floors. Massive windows provided plenty of natural light as she searched through a few cupboards and finally the pantry. It didn’t take her long to find a bottle of Tylenol. She stepped out of the pantry and opened the lid.

“Looking for something?”

Startled, she jumped and the bottle of pills flew from her hand, the plastic bottle hitting Jackson square on the chin. Pills scattered and rolled across the floor; a few tablets circled around Jackson’s bare feet.

“You’re not working today?”

He shook his head. “Should I be?”

“Yes. No. I mean, you should do whatever you want.”

After she picked up most of the pills, her gaze traveled from his feet to strongly muscled calves covered with dark hair, and then upward to the hem of his terrycloth robe. They both bent over to retrieve the pills at the same time, bumping their heads in the process.

“Ow!” Madison held one hand to the top of her head as she straightened.

He gathered the pills and the bottle and handed it to her. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” She noticed him looking at her slippers.

“A gift from Jen,” she confessed.

“Nice.”

She smiled, determined to act natural, show him she could handle this living arrangement without turning into a complete idiot every time he said two words to her. Although, it wasn’t easy considering he looked ruggedly sexy. “I want to apologize for last night,” she told him as she slid the pills into the bottle. “I don’t know what got into me.”

“No need,” he said, his voice terse. “Was there something else?”

She shuddered at seeing her reflection on the aluminum paneling of the refrigerator behind him. Seeing her tangled hair and cartoon slippers, knowing she had tried to seduce him last night, made her stomach roil. “I was hoping you could give me a ride to my house this morning so I could get my car. I think I’ll go to the center today. If that’s a problem, though, I could give Jen a call.”

He walked past her, making his way to the other side of the kitchen where he retrieved a set of keys from a desk in the corner. “Here. Feel free to drive the Lexus while you’re living here.”

“Are you sure?”

“Not at all.” He gestured toward the kitchen door that led to the garage. “There’s a garage door opener inside the glove box.”

“This is very generous of you, especially since loaning me your car was not part of our deal. I plan to get the rest of my belongings after work and then it should be smooth sailing from here on out. The worst is over. Not that marrying you was ‘the worst,’ I just meant—”

“It’s okay.” He held up a hand. “You don’t have to explain. Jamie invited us to his place for dinner tonight. Does seven o’clock work for you?”

She nodded. They both turned toward the sound of somebody entering the house.

“Well, hello,” Chris said as he swept into the kitchen and set a grocery bag on the counter. His girlfriend, Pam, followed close behind with another bag filled with fresh produce.

“You both look awful,” Pam said in a cheerful voice. “Nice slippers,” she told Madison before leaning toward Chris. “I thought you said they weren’t sleeping together.”

Chris gave Jackson an apologetic shrug of his broad shoulders before he turned to Pam and said, “It’s none of our business.”

Madison reached for the Tylenol. “We didn’t—”

“Chris is right,” Jackson interrupted. “It’s nobody’s business.”

“
Somebody
woke up on the wrong side of the bed,” Pam scoffed, looking at Jackson.

Madison located a glass, filled it with water, and swallowed both Tylenol in one gulp.

Pam watched her. “Overdid it a little, huh?”

“You could say that,” Madison agreed.

Pam looked at Jackson. “Your face still looks awful. You’ve got to stop fighting with other men. It’s so barbaric.” She put a hand to her hip. “If you two aren’t even ‘an item’ I really don’t understand why you would have cared who she danced with to begin with.”

Madison busied herself with returning the Tylenol to the pantry. She tried to escape unnoticed, but Chris stopped her. “Why don’t you eat something before you go? I’ll make you and Jackson one of my famous Western omelets.”

“I would love to, but I need to get going.” She looked at Jackson, but he didn’t try to stop her.

Pam came to her side, lifted her hand and admired her ring. “That is some rock. Did you see her ring, Chris?”

“Yes, I did,” Chris answered happily. “Jackson did a great job picking it out.”

“Jamie picked it out,” Jackson said.

Pam rolled her eyes. “You’ve married a winner, haven’t you? Did he get up on the wrong side of the bed again?”

Madison shrugged.

“He always gets up on the wrong side of the bed,” Chris chimed in. “You know that.”

“Are you two here to make breakfast,” Jackson wanted to know, “or are you here to make my life more miserable?”

“I’ll see you all later,” Madison said before heading upstairs.

~~~

“Do you have to be so tough on her?” Chris asked.

Jackson pushed his plate away. “Tough on her? Look at my face. And this ring,” he added, holding up his hand. “I don’t wear jewelry.”

“You don’t do a lot of things. And get your own ring. Collin wants his ring back. Yesterday Madison told me she married you because of some kids at CFC. If this is so difficult for you, why don’t you just write her a check and send her on her way?”

“It’s more complicated than that,” Jackson said, but he wasn’t about to explain. Jamie already knew Heather’s part in all of this. Nobody else needed to know the details. Chris thought Jackson had agreed to marry Madison because of the Bingham contract. He knew nothing of Heather’s involvement in all of this.

Hell, Jackson hadn’t expected everyone to attach themselves to Madison so quickly. Married less than twenty-four hours and she already had Chris rooting for her. If Chris ever found out that Jackson didn’t intend to stay married long enough for her to collect her inheritance, he and Pam probably wouldn’t bother talking to him at all.

“Is making this woman’s life hell really worth signing a contract with Bingham?” Chris asked.

Jackson’s jaw twitched.

“I hardly think it’s fair to compare Jackson’s sour mood with hell,” Pam said as she whisked the eggs.

Jackson tipped his head at Pam in a gesture of thanks and then said to Chris, “You seem to be forgetting that Madison asked me to marry her. She’s the one who made the offer and now she’s going to have to live with her decision.”

“And so are you,” Chris added cheerfully. “So are you.”

~~~

Two hours later, Madison made her way across the marble foyer, each step echoing off the floor as she went. Fifteen minutes ago she’d heard Pam and Chris leave. A long hot shower had helped tremendously. Her headache was gone and she felt refreshed and ready to tackle the day.

Through a partially open door, she saw Jackson sitting behind a large mahogany desk. Her heels sank into the plush carpet when she stepped into his office. “I’m heading off to visit the center,” she said, shaking her keys. “I guess I’ll see you later.”

He looked up and despite the bruised shadow still lining the bottom of his eye, his reading glasses made him look distinguished. “Fine,” he said in a clipped tone. “See you tonight.”

Once again, images of her stripping last night, only to have Jackson turn her down, flashed through her mind. She couldn't stand the idea of him thinking she did things like that on a regular basis. Neither could she stand the thought of living with someone she couldn’t talk to without feeling tongue-tied. “So, this is where you work?”

He leaned back in his chair. “On the weekends mostly.”

“What do you do exactly?”

“I look for properties in undeveloped areas. If I think the property has potential, I buy it. After that, I spend most of my time managing labor, establishing time estimates, and hiring appropriate operators and construction crews.”

An awkward bit of silence stretched between them.

“Does that answer your question?”

“Yes, it does.”

“Great. I’ll see you later then.” He leaned forward and that quickly seemed to be focused on his work.

She cleared her throat, prompting him to look at her again.

“Why do I get the feeling you have something on your mind?”

She adjusted her purse strap on her shoulder. “I need to get something off my chest. I know I came on strong last night, and I do regret it, but still, I don’t see any reason to have this, you know, tension between us. I think we should be friends.”

He tapped his pen to his chin. “You want to be friends?”

She nodded. She knew she should probably quit while she was ahead, or behind, depending on whom she asked, especially since Chris had mentioned that Jackson enjoyed his privacy, but she just couldn’t bring herself to leave when things were so strained between them. “I think we should be able to talk about things, anything, like the fact that we’re married now,” she said as if she were commenting on the weather. “I don’t feel married, do you?”

“We’re not supposed to feel married,” he said flatly.

“I realize that,” she said a bit defensively. “I just thought that if we’re going to be living together we should be able to talk to one another without feeling awkward or uncomfortable.”

Jackson closed the manila file in front of him.

For a moment, they just stared at each other. How had she managed once again to make him feel exposed? It was as if she were purposely trying to dig up holes. Holes he’d filled long ago. Deep dark holes he didn’t want disturbed. He had decided last night that he needed to put distance between them, not only because he was attracted to her, but because she was making him feel things he didn’t want to feel.

Hell, he couldn’t bring himself to look into her eyes without feeling as if he were being sucked right into some sort of black hole; only this place didn’t feel like a hypothetical invisible region in space.

It felt much too real.

She must have grown tired of waiting for a response because she looked glum as she turned to leave.

He opened his mouth to speak, but no words would come forth. He didn’t know whether to stop her or not. He’d tried to convince himself that Heather was right and all Madison was after was money. But why then did he still have doubts?

Her small house, her simple clothes, the warmth she brought into a room—none of it fit Heather’s description. But still, here she was, married to him and living in his house. What was she really after?

A knot formed in his gut as he realized she’d managed to get under his skin once again. But what irked him even more than that was what he saw when he looked into those big eyes of hers: white picket fences, baby booties, and forever. She wanted forever.

Friends, my foot. He needed to put a stop to it, right now
.

“Madison,” he called over the clacking of footsteps as she crossed the foyer. Tapping the pads of his thumbs together, he waited for her to return. And she did return, but this time she kept her distance, standing just inside the door.

“I get the feeling,” he began, “that this marriage business is harder for you than you imagined. I don’t know if you envisioned a nice wedding with a loving groom to keep you company afterward, but you sure pretended to know what you were getting yourself into when you asked me to marry you.”

“Your memory doesn’t serve you very well, Jackson. If you recall, I didn’t ask you. I asked your friend.”

He remembered, all right. He kept his gaze level with hers, refused to let his gaze linger overly long on her lips or to drop down to the smooth pale skin of her throat.

She was angry. He wasn’t sure if he’d ever seen her angry before this moment. He removed his reading glasses. “There are some things I think you should know about me,” he stated matter-of-factly.

She crossed her arms and lifted her chin as if to prepare herself for what was coming.

“I’ve had my share of taking care of people,” he told her. “I practically raised my brother myself. I took care of my mother, too.” Heather popped into his mind, since she was his responsibility now, but he decided to leave her out of this. “Now I find myself married to a woman I hardly know.” He paused for a moment, pondering his next words. “I guess what I’m trying to say is that I don’t want to take care of anyone else.”