Emily's Affair (36 page)

He tilted her chin up. "Why are you crying?"

She swallowed hard and said, "Oh, I don't know. Maybe because the man I love won't marry me and…." She trailed off with a watery sniffle.

A car pulled up to the curb and Ben ignored it. "And what?"

Her eyes slid to him as she started to speak, then darted away. "And I'm… nothing."

A car door opened and closed.

"You're what? Tell me, Lexi."

She licked her lips, then opened her mouth and Ben had a sinking feeling that he knew exactly what she was going to tell him. But she never got the chance.

"Alexandra," a female voice called from behind them. Ben didn't need to look over his shoulder to know who it was. He'd recognize Kim Dawson and her gossip spreading voice anywhere in this town. "So what was the result of the test? Yay or nay?"

Lexi looked up at him and, staring him dead in the eyes, said, "Yay."

* * *

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Disbursal of the monies shall occur upon execution of a legal marriage between the borrower and a suitable female as defined herein.

"What the hell…?" Lucien Masters scowled and read aloud the next line from the contract. "
The legal marriage shall last for a term of no less than five years
?"

His grandfather chuckled. "My lawyer added that line. He's a pessimist."

Luc lowered the loan contract and glanced across the massive mahogany desk at his grandfather and namesake, Lucas Masters. It was just like his mother always said, looking at his grandfather was like looking at himself in fifty years. Bright green eyes similar to his own blue-green ones gazed back at him with stubborn determination. "This is a joke, right? Another attempt at getting back at me for not coming to work for you."

"No joke."

"Sure as hell could have fooled me." Luc flipped to the second page of the contract and scanned down to the middle of the page where the closing paragraph of the contract called for his signature.

"Son, I understand why you declined to come work for me. And now that I've had time to think about it, I've decided that you were right. We would have killed each other within the first week. We're just too much alike, you and me."

Luc thumped the page with his finger. "This… is absurd."

"You don't like it? Aw, I could have sworn that you would have—"

"Are you crazy?" Luc shook his head in disbelief. "Mom was right. You're losing it."

His grandfather laughed again and eased back in his leather chair. "I'm not senile yet, son. I assure you that everything in that contract is legal and binding."

"It doesn't matter what it is, because I'm not signing it." Luc tossed the contract onto the desk and glared at his grandfather. He would have to find another source for the capital he needed for his next investment, a little company named Intrinsic Inc., because he refused to sacrifice his personal freedom to appease his grandfather's twisted terms.

The only problem was… finding another source that would give him the money within two weeks and not ask a lot of questions.

"Aw, that's too bad." His grandfather picked up the contract and waved it in the air. "And here I thought you really wanted the money."

Damn. Luc was staring at the only source he knew of for a quick, generous, no questions asked loan. "Do you get some sort of perverse pleasure out of thwarting my every move?" His voice was thick with bitterness, twisted with sarcasm.

"No, but you do." His grandfather's smile disappeared. "You knew I wanted to take over Andersen Corporation and you deliberately interfered."

"I did not deliberately interfere. I agreed to restructure Andersen Corporation before you decided you wanted it. Besides, it isn't the company you want. It's the building."

"Dammit. That was before you reorganized it. Now I want all of it, but I'll have to pay more."

Luc rolled his eyes and struggled to control his temper. This was an old argument. Six months old to be exact. When he spoke, he did so deliberately, enunciating each word with clear, cold precision. "What you do to or with Andersen Corporation after I finish reorganizing the place is your business. I could not care less what you do to that company."

His grandfather drummed his fingers on the desk. "You could not care less, because… you've got something bigger and better lined up."

"If I do, it's no business of yours."

"I beg to differ. You're asking me for a hefty loan and I'm making it my business."

Luc met his grandfather's shrewd, green gaze. "Why? You've never made it your business in the past. Every loan I've ever taken from you has been repaid in full and ahead of schedule."

His grandfather waved aside Luc's comment. "I know you'll pay me back. That's not the point. What I want to know is why you need the loan."

"So that's what this is about. I get it now. If I tell you why I need the loan, you'll strike the marriage clause from the contract."

"I might decide to give you the money. If you tell me why you need it and give me a cut of whatever deal you're working."

Luc had heard that particular catch in his grandfather's voice before. "Forget it, Gramps. I'm not telling you."

"Now, why am I not surprised." His grandfather spread the contract on the desk and turned to the second page. "Do you or do you not want the loan?"

"Not like this." Luc pushed himself up from the leather chair, turned on his heel, and headed for the door.

Luc knew his grandfather well enough to know that if he told him why he wanted the loan that the old man would change his mind about offering it and step in to buy Intrinsic Inc. himself. And the whole point of getting the loan was so that Luc could buy the company and not have to depend on the family for anything.

Luc made a good living as a management consultant for companies all over the country, but he didn't want to make 'just' a good living.

He wanted to make an
incredible
living.

And if Gramps knew that Intrinsic Inc. was Luc's first stop on his train to billionaire-hood, then the old man wouldn't hesitate to sweep the rug out from underneath Luc's feet. Why? Because Lucas Masters liked to control people and the best way to do that was to manage the purse string. That was why Luc's mother and three older sisters were still living at home and depending on his grandfather for an allowance.

Luc didn't want that. He wanted to be self-sufficient and master of his own world. Intrinsic Inc. would give him all of that, because the little Texas company held a contract which owned all the rights to an ingenious engineer's designs for a better, faster, and revolutionary central processing unit—better known as a computer's CPU.

The current owner of Intrinsic Inc. didn't have a clue as to the potential of the CPU, but Luc and, more importantly, Luc's best friend did. His friend, Benajah Raine, had assured Luc that the CPU was a workable design that—once they had a viable prototype—would make enough money to keep Luc fat and happy for the rest of his life.

That's what Luc wanted.

"Lucien."

Luc paused, his hand on the doorknob, and waited for his grandfather to continue.

"I'll make a deal with you."

"I'm listening."

"Tell me why you need the loan and I'll give you the money."

Luc smirked and glanced over his shoulder. "I fell for that one when I was twelve. It took me a whole summer to buy back the bike which you so generously bought and leased to me. I've had nearly eighteen years to learn from my mistake." He opened the door.

"Son, if you walk through that door, I'll…," his grandfather trailed off with a thinly veiled threat.

Luc stopped. "You'll what?"

"Do what I've been itching to do all along."

Something in his grandfather's voice made Luc turn around. "Damn it all to hell." He slammed the door shut and strode towards the desk. "You know. Don't you?"

His grandfather smiled. "Well, that got your attention."

"Answer me," Luc growled.

The old man chuckled. "Son, this may be my last chance to yank your chain, so I figured… hell, I might as well make it a doozie." He picked up a pen and offered it to his grandson. "Walk out of this office without taking my loan and… well, I'll step in and add that little company, which you want so badly, to my empire."

Luc was seething. He couldn't speak. He needed to speak. Or rather, he had the uncontrollable urge to rant and rave. But he couldn't. The wily old bastard knew.

"I bet you're wondering how I knew, aren't ya?" His grandfather looked immensely pleased with himself.

Luc's fingers twitched and it took an incredible amount of willpower not to strangle the man who had helped his mother raise him after Luc's father had disappeared twenty-eight years ago with a buxom secretary.

"That engineer down at Intrinsic contacted Dwight Cassidy when he couldn't get his boss to pay attention to his idea. You remember Dwight, don't ya, son? He went to school with your friend, Benajah. Well, Dwight took one look at the schematics for that fancy CPU and introduced the engineer to Benny."

Luc dragged a hand through his hair. It was like a nightmare. A hellish nightmare. Any minute now, his assistant at Andersen Corporation, Elise Hamilton, would walk into Luc's office with her pretty blue eyes, perky smile, and take him to task for ruining her lunch hour with a mountain of revisions for his final report to Andersen's board of directors. Luc would give his soul to have Elise walk into his grandfather's high-rise building and take Luc by the hand, then lead him off to the sweet, innocent world she lived in. A world where grandfathers didn't play manipulative mind games. A place which was happy and giddy and… as sweet and innocent as Elise herself.

"You may be wondering why Dwight introduced him to Benny. Well, I'll tell ya." His grandfather was enjoying this too much. "Dwight's a busy man. Hell, he works for me and I pay him a lot of money to stay busy. So when he learned that Intrinsic Inc. owned the rights to that little CPU design, he didn't think twice about sending the engineer over to your friend's office.

"It wasn't until after Benny called Dwight for his opinion on the design that Dwight shuffled on up here for a good ass whippin'. But by the time Dwight confessed his sins to me, you were approaching me for a loan to buy the company." His grandfather's shoulders lifted in a Gaelic shrug as if to say, 'what could I do?'. "And as much as I like to outmaneuver the next guy, you are my grandson and I do love you. Dearly."

Luc nearly choked on his outrage. This was a hell of a way for his grandfather to show his affection.

"You're my pride and joy. I'd do just about anything for you. So, son, sign the contract and take the loan, or I'm gonna walk in and buy that company."

Luc's jaw throbbed with tension. He gave his grandfather a harsh look that Elise probably would have referred to as his patented Lucifer expression. The fierce stare may make his temporary assistant quake in her delicate, size six heels, but it did nothing to his grandfather. Nothing, but amuse the slick geezer.

Luc swallowed hard and forced his jaw to unlock. "There are only two good things which can come from this." He pulled his pen—which should be renamed from his lucky pen to his unlucky one—from his suit pocket, then yanked the cap off and prepared to sign the cursed agreement.