A Virgin for His Prize(21)
Which she was on the verge of being. So, okay. Yeah. Really irritated. He was talking about marriage like it was a business deal and that was just a really raw wound right now, after everything Maddie had been through lately.
“No, you are the woman I intend to marry.”
“You aren’t making any sense. You do know that, right?” Seriously. He had to know it.
“I am speaking English.”
“Mostly. You did curse in Russian.”
He shrugged and she didn’t belabor the point. She was getting side-tracked again and even she knew she needed to rein in her wayward thoughts.
“You don’t love me.” That was something she was very sure of.
He almost looked regretful. “Love is not in my emotional repertoire.”
“Tell your mom that.”
“Familial love is not the same as romantic love as you are well aware.”
This man! He would test the patience of Santa Claus and Romi was no children’s benevolent holiday trope. “They come from the same place.”
“So you say.”
She rolled her eyes. “Pretty much everyone agrees that love—all kinds of love—comes from the heart.”
“My heart beats blood, not bloody-minded emotion.” Spoken with his typical certainty, the claim focused on the concrete rather than the concept.
“You’re being obtuse on purpose.”
“No.” Oh, he just oozed sincerity and certainty. “We simply do not agree on this point.”
“When I marry it will be to a man who loves me as much as my father loved my mother.” Of that she was very sure.
She settled her once cold, now shaking, hands in her lap, unwilling to admit how much she’d hoped that might be him at one time.
Max looked supremely unconvinced. “I have no desire to be a carbon copy of your father.”
“He’s not weak.” That’s not what Max had said, but she knew what he meant.
“He is, but he is also intelligent, loyal and willing to dig for the inner strength he has not utilized in too long.”
“Wow, I don’t know what to say to that.” She was all set to just be mad at this man and then he showed so much humanity, she couldn’t ignore it.
“Say you will hear me out, with an open mind.”
She sighed, wishing this conversation could actually go somewhere meaningful. “Some things are not negotiable, Max.”
Leaning toward her, he cupped her cheeks with gentle firmness. “And sometimes we are surprised by the compromises we are willing to make.”
She wanted to say his touch made her weak, but what it really did was make her feel things that made her doubt her own convictions. Was that just another definition of weakness? Or something more?
“This marriage idea is a compromise for you.” He desired her enough to offer it and that blew her mind really, but that kind of physical passion without love was just lust.
And lust made a lousy basis for a marriage. The divorce rate and tabloid headlines made that reality clear pretty much every day.
“My dad did not offer you part of Grayson Enterprises to marry me.” She knew that without a doubt.
“No, but his company is involved.”
She moved her head away from that too-inspiring touch and he let her go.
“How?” she asked.
“Did Madison tell you her father threatened your father’s company in order to try to force her into Jeremy’s plans for her marriage?”
“Maddie married Viktor to save my dad’s company?” Romi asked, feeling like all the air was slowly being sucked from the room.
“Oh, no. Your sister-by-choice is a formidable opponent.” Max’s admiration was clear.
Regardless of the very unfamiliar sting of jealousy, particularly directed at her SBC, Romi said, “Maddie is amazing.”
“She gave your father a very limited opportunity to take the threat off the table.”
“But he didn’t.” Romi knew Jeremy Archer well enough to guess that.
“No.”
“What did Maddie do?” If she hadn’t given in to her dad’s bullying, she’d done something big to make him back off.
“Madison told Archer that if your father’s company was under threat on her twenty-fifth birthday, all of the shares to AIH in her trust fund would be transferred to your father personally.”
“What? No. She can’t do that!”
“I assure you it has been done. She signed the paperwork that afternoon.”
“How do you know?”
“Do you really need to ask?”
No. If this man wanted information, he would get it. “But you’re going into business with my father. Even AIH can’t touch him.”
“Our contract is written in such a way that his company will be under threat by me if certain conditions are not met.” He didn’t sound triumphant or guilty. Just matter-of-fact.