“Good to see you, Tag,” William offers when the silence becomes uncomfortable. “What brings you here tonight?”
“Dinner. If that’s all right,” I say, glancing at Weatherly.
“Why wouldn’t Weatherly’s fiancé be welcome at the dinner table?” Michael interjects, one dark brow jerking up in challenge. I nod my head in a mute touché.
William’s face starts to redden the instant he processes what was just said. “Weatherly, what’s the meaning of this?”
“Um, well, I wanted to tell you about it in private, but we’ve been on the go since you got here.”
“Tell me what?”
“Tag and I ar-are engaged.”
To William’s credit, he doesn’t freak like I half expected him to. He just gets quiet. Very quiet. But it’s easy to see by his rigid posture and the vein standing out in the center of his forehead that he’s livid.
Finally, he glances to Michael and offers a tight yet pleasant, “Excuse us, please.”
Then William gets up, tosses his napkin on the table and stalks out of the room, giving me an “eat shit” look as he passes.
I stop Weatherly with a hand to her arm when she reaches the doorway. “Will you be okay by yourself? I can come if . . .”
“I’ll be fine,” she says, impulsively rising up on her toes to give me a quick kiss. I’m sure that pisses both men the hell off, but I don’t give a damn.
William stalks on ahead and when Weatherly would pull away to follow him, I reach up to hold her to me for a few seconds longer. I don’t know why, but I want her to know she isn’t alone in this. And I want her asshole father and his bag-of-dicks friend to know that Weatherly isn’t alone, too.
When I let her go, she leans back and stares into my face, her violet eyes sparkling up at me like twin amethysts. In them, I see caution and dread, but a ferocious determination, too. That makes me smile.
I bend to whisper in her ear. “Maybe you should stop thinking about our shower for a few minutes. You might need all your concentration for this.”
Two pink spots infuse her cheeks and it’s all I can do not to drag her back upstairs and make her forget that there’s anyone in the house besides us.
“You are a wicked, wicked man, Tag Barton,” she scolds softly, licking her bottom lip when she moves her glance down to my mouth. “Your face cleaned up nicely by the way.”
She moves to walk past me and I turn to watch her go. When she looks back over her shoulder and grins, I think to myself that this woman might be more of a problem for me than I ever would’ve guessed.
FIFTEEN
Weatherly
“You’d better have an excellent explanation for this prank, young lady,” my father says the moment I shut the door to his study.
“Dad, I’ve told you all along that I want to marry for love, not for business or convenience.”
“And I have told you— Wait, so you’re telling me that you’re in love with this person? Just how gullible do you think I am, Weatherly?”
“Why is that so unbelievable? What do you know about my life other than what you choose to fill it with?”
“So you’re going to stand there and tell me that you’re in love with the help?”
“Oh, so that’s what this is about. You’re not nearly as upset that I’m engaged to someone else and didn’t tell you as you are about the fact that he’s not up to your high standards. Is that it?”
“Don’t make me out to be the bad guy here. I’m just trying to do what’s best for you, for our family. Like I always have. I’ve never been selfish and I didn’t raise you to be selfish.”
“God!” I say in exasperation. “Why is it so horrible, so unthinkable, so incredibly selfish to want to marry for love? This is America, right? Arranged marriages did go out with the cavemen, right?”
“It’s not like Michael is some kind of barbarian who will treat you poorly, Weatherly. For chrissake, he’s worth four hundred million dollars and he’d see to every comfort you could ever even dream of.”
“But that’s not all there is to it, is it, Dad? This isn’t about what Michael can do for me.”
His eyes narrow on me. “I’ve worked my whole life, made sacrifices you’ll never know anything about to build this business into what it is today. And the instant someone threatens it, threatens the very foundation of who we are as a family, and you can do something to help, this is how you respond.”
“Don’t be so dramatic! This isn’t about our safety or our freedom. This is about money. And power. Plain and simple. If Randolph Consolidated takes over, you’ll be out and that’s eating you alive.”