Some Like It Charming (A Temporary Engagement) (19 page)

He grinned at her and answered the intercom.

Ethan listened, furrowing his eyebrows at Mackenzie, then said, “The doorman says your father is here. Luke Holden?”

A sick feeling washed over Mackenzie and she blanked her face before Ethan could see. She sat up, shaking her head. “Don’t let him up.”

He raised an eyebrow, watching her closely.

She shook her head again. “Don’t let him up.”

Ethan told the doorman not to let her father up, then leaned against the wall and said, “Well?”

Mackenzie shoved her legs into her pants. She should have foreseen this. But she hadn’t heard from her father in ten years. Wasn’t sure he would recognize her name, even if she was his daughter. Wasn’t sure he would care, if he did recognize it.

Looks like he had and did. And wherever Luke Holden smelled big money, that’s where he went.

She looked up to find Ethan still watching her.

She said on a long sigh, “He’s a con man. With a smile so pure, you’ll think he’s an angel. Or a prophet. He’s done that one before. Started his own religion. Convinced hundreds of people he was a prophet sent from God to take their money.”

“I take it you don’t have a good relationship.”

She smiled slightly. “You could put it that way.” She stopped smiling. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think this would bring you to his attention. I didn’t think of him at all. It’s been a long time since I’ve talked to him.”

Ethan wandered to the wine chiller, taking out a bottle and saying casually, “Ten years?”

She looked down, didn’t say anything.

He brought over two glasses filled with a deep, dark red and said, “Not a charming hopeless crush who didn’t love you back. Your father.”

Ethan held on to the glass when she tried to take it, forcing her to look at him. Forcing her to smile and laugh so she wouldn’t cry.

A father who didn’t love his own daughter.

When Ethan sat down next to her, she stood up and walked towards the window, pretending to look outside.

She said, “He’s handsome and charming. And can make anybody, man or woman, think they are the most important person in the world. He did it to my mother, left her pregnant with me. Did it to me when I tracked him down.”

Mackenzie remembered what it felt like to be her father’s most important person. She remembered what it felt like to be the two of them against the world.

And she remembered what it felt like to realize it had never been the two of them, it had only ever been him against everyone else. She had only been a weapon in his arsenal. Maybe his best weapon, but still only a tool he used to get what he wanted.

She took a sip and said, “He can see inside anybody and know what they want, what they’ll give for it. How much they’ll give for it.”

Ethan said softly, “What did you give up to be loved by him?”

She felt him behind her, his heat warming her back, and she looked at him over her shoulder. His jaw was clenched, a look of pure disgust on his face.

She shook her head. “Not that.”

She turned toward him, taking his hand, looking down at his long fingers. Running her finger along the trimmed nails, the golden hair on his knuckles.

She said, “I wanted to be loved by him. I wanted to be his daughter.”

The first time she’d seen Luke Holden, she’d known he was her father. Honey-golden hair, tawny eyes, and a radiant glow about him. As if he knew something you didn’t. And it was
good
.

She forced herself to look up and meet Ethan’s eyes. “And Luke Holden wanted to see if he could turn me into him. He wanted a little mini-me.” She smiled wryly. “I looked just like him, there wasn’t any doubt I was his. He’d taken one look at me and then just smiled. Like I’d been the gift he’d been waiting for.”

Ethan blinked, a dawning realization covering his face. “He’s why you’re such a good salesman.”

She laughed humorlessly. “I learned at his feet. Trained at his compound every year to see who wanted what we were selling, how much they wanted it. I used everything I had to wring every last penny from them.”

He raised one eyebrow. “Forgive me, but I’ve seen you close a deal. You don’t use anything but the facts. And their greed. You don’t give them anything, sometimes not even a smile.”

He made her laugh and she leaned against him, the knot in her stomach loosening a little.

“I got tired of selling myself. Of giving anything they wanted to get them to fork over a check.” She shook her head. “They don’t get me. They don’t even get to see who I am. I’m not part of the deal.”

“I am constantly surprised that works. All of my other top sellers are quite personable.” He ran a finger along her mouth, tracing the small frown that still lurked there. “You shouldn’t be successful at sales.”

Mackenzie rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. You try taking money for a theoretical promise of heaven. Selling a tangible investment that they can moan or celebrate over every day? Cake.”

He laughed and squeezed her. He murmured, “You said you didn’t still love him.”

She pulled back and looked out the window again. “I don’t.”

“He’s your father.”

“It took a long time for me to realize that he’s not. He’s a sperm donor. Nothing more than that.”

Being a father implied some sort of emotion, some sort of care for his child above his own needs. There was none of that with Luke Holden.

Ethan grunted. “We don’t get to choose who our parents are. We can only choose who we want to be. And I can safely say you’ve learned to use your power for good.”

She turned back to him and let him put his arms around her, let him pull her close. She said, “I can see what you want.”

She could. She could see everything that he wanted.

Ethan said, “Because that’s hard to figure out with me pressed up against you?”

She shook her head. “Not that.” She whispered, “Take me shopping.”

He pulled back and looked at her suspiciously. “You’re just trying to distract me.”

“Maybe. And maybe I need new clothes.”

He looked down at her pajamas, then cursed. “I feel like I can’t miss this opportunity.”

One corner of her mouth kicked up.

He narrowed his eyes. “What about pajama day?”

“We’ll just spend it having sex.”

He nodded. “I was starting to see the point of it.”

Ethan followed her to her bedroom, sitting on her bed and watching her get dressed. “You can distract me for a little while, but we’re not finished discussing your father.”

“Yes, we are. The end. Daddy-daughter issues? So boring. And when we get home from shopping, you can peel all the new clothes off me and forget everything I told you in a blaze of passion.”

“It does sound promising.”

“Yeah, it does.”

He smiled. “There will be short skirts and high heels.”

“I didn’t have to read your mind to figure that out.” She walked over to him, grabbing his shirt and leaning into his face. “There is one thing that I want you to know before we go.”

She waited until his eyes widened, until he looked sufficiently nervous, then said, “If you call anybody to meet us, I will hide your body where no one can find it.”

He smiled and said lightly, “You just want me all to yourself.”

Mackenzie let go of his shirt and walked out. “Whatever gets you through the day, O’Connor.”

Ethan followed her, chuckling.

And turned off his phone before they got in the elevator.

Halfway through their shopping expedition, Mackenzie left Ethan to grab two cups of coffee. Ethan had told her someone in the store would happily go get it for them, but Mackenzie needed a break. A break from shopping, a break from the over-solicitous staff, a break from Ethan. He’d been treating her with kid gloves since her father’s unexpected attempt back into her life. Soft touches, whispered words. His every attention focused on her, waiting to lift even the smallest frown into a smile.

It was grating on her.

She didn’t need to be coddled because she had a lousy father. She didn’t want it to affect her at all. And Ethan was making it clear that not only was she upset, he could see it.

She didn’t like either of those situations.

Ethan had finally waived her off to get coffee, apparently realizing she needed a moment to herself, and Mackenzie knew he would take the opportunity to buy something highly inappropriate. She decided if she didn’t know what it was, she couldn’t be embarrassed about it.

Mackenzie waited in line and didn’t notice the man a few people ahead of her until he paid for his coffee. The tattoo peeking out from the cuffs of his expensive suit was what grabbed her attention. By the time he turned around, she had hardened her heart and got a good hold of her wallet.

Her father offered her one of the two cups he’d bought and she thought about ignoring it, thought about throwing it in his face.

His eyes glittered. “That’s not how to get what you want from me.”

“I want you to go away.”

“I know it. And throwing a fit isn’t how to get it.”

She took the cup, following him to a table and sitting stiffly.

Luke looked at her, his eyes memorizing the new lines on her face, the firmness to her mouth, her blond hair. He quietly valued the new clothes she was wearing and his eyes lingered, just a touch too long, on her engagement ring.

He sat his cup down untouched and said, “You’re not a kid, anymore.”

“Ten years will do that.”

He nodded. She couldn’t help but notice the changes in him. His golden brown hair was peppered with gray, the laugh lines deep in his face.

He picked his cup back up, took a slow sip, and said, “I’m married.”

She blinked but didn’t hide her surprise fast enough. He chuckled. “You’d like her. Thought I was Satan himself when she met me; hasn’t changed her mind much in the five years we’ve been married. She wanted to meet you, damn near broke my jaw when she found out I had a grown daughter I’d never bothered to tell her about.” He looked out the window. “Told her she could meet you next time.”

Mackenzie sipped her coffee, not surprised to find it sweet and rich just like she liked it. Her father remembered the little details just fine. The little details, he always said, was what kept a con man out of jail.

Luke sighed and looked back at her, reading in her eyes that there would be no next time. “Your sister is turning three this November,” he said and her breath whooshed out as if he’d punched her.

She hid her trembling hands under the table. “Cozy. A nice wife, a new child.”

He smiled slightly. “My wife is not nice. I’d call her prickly, with a side of bulldog thrown in for good measure. She got her teeth into me and I haven’t wanted to get them out yet.”

“That’s not the type you normally go for. She must be loaded, and smart enough to keep it out of your hands.”

He chuckled, a low rumble that made the woman sitting at the table next to them spill her coffee. “Oh, I’d taken her inheritance before she ever met me. Tracked me down to get it back.” He shook his head, a smile lifting the corners of his mouth. “She doesn’t believe a word I say. And still just won’t let go.”

“Very different from my mother.”

He handed his napkin to the poor woman at the next table, smiling into her eyes and making her face flush red. Then turned back to Mackenzie. “Your mother was a sweetheart. The biggest mark I’d ever seen, and she believed every word I ever told her. I’m lucky I got a hold of you when I did or you would have turned out just like her.”

It took all her concentration to keep her breathing even. To keep from leaping across the table and tearing off his smug, confident face.

He watched her, then murmured, “You’ve gotten good. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you’d forgiven me about that.”

“I haven’t. You can rest assured.”

He nodded, winking at the woman who was still trying not to stare at him. He said to Mackenzie, “Are you playing this one?”

“No.”

“Good. Because you won’t win.”

She raised her eyebrows. “You don’t know anything about the O’Connors.”

“No. I know you. And you think it’s cheating to use your gifts to steal from someone.”

“Yes, that sounds exactly like cheating to me.”

“And so you take their money ethically?” He shook his head, laughing. “You sell investments.”

“It’s a step up from eternal life.”

He nodded his head graciously. “Of course. And now you’ve moved on to marrying for money.”

Mackenzie said, “You know nothing about it.”

“I know it sounds like a con. So I’ve come to see if my daughter has joined the game.” Luke watched her a moment. “Now I’m wondering about him.”

“It’s not a con.”

“So says the mark.”

“It’s a favor.”

He sighed heavily, shaking his head. “It gets worse and worse.”

She laughed, a bitter edge to it. “What do you think he’s trying to get from me?”

“What does any man want from a woman? Everything.”

“I know exactly what he wants from me. He’s not a con man.” She paused. “Okay, he is. But not one like you.”

Luke’s eyes flicked behind her. “Maybe he’s better than me.”

Mackenzie turned to find Ethan bearing down on them, anger plain on his face. Her shoulders relaxed. Ethan wasn’t better than her father. He wasn’t playing her. She had no doubts where he was concerned.