She took a seat across from his and thoughtfully considered. “I agree,” she then said, crossing her legs. “Yes. And when would the wedding be?”
Beautiful slim legs. Damn, what were they talking about? The wedding, right.
“Friday at city hall works for you?”
“Of course,” she said, her teeth white behind her smile.
Landon had to tear his eyes away from her, as he punched the intercom button on his phone. “Donna, are my brothers available? I’d like them to come in.”
“I’ll get them.”
It was important for his fiancée to get better acquainted with his brothers before the press flocked around them tonight. Thankfully, within minutes, his efficient assistant led both men inside. They wore their best, politest smiles.
“Donna,” Landon said as he started toward Beth. “Have the car ready in three minutes.”
“Right away, sir.”
He shot both men a “behave” look past Beth’s shoulders and then grasped her arm to lead her forward. “Bethany, you met Garrett, didn’t you?”
“Yes, he seemed very nice.”
“He’s not.” Landon brought her over to Jules. “Julian John, Bethany Lewis.”
“A pleasure,” drawled Julian as they shook hands.
Landon bent his head to hers. “He’s not nice, either, Bethany.”
She grinned.
And when that white grin reached his eyes, Landon thought: I’m good as dead, just like Halifax.
This isn’t going so bad, Beth thought, relieved as Landon led her through the halls of the executive floor of the San Antonio Daily toward the elevator bank. Not so bad at all.
True, they hadn’t yet discussed their plan in detail, but it didn’t matter. Beth knew a lot of things about Hector. Little rocks to toss in his path. Big boulders, rather.
She couldn’t wait to watch him trip.
“They’re my brothers but they drive me mad. It’s a chemical thing,” Landon said.
As people stared in their direction from their cubicles, Beth frowned. Did they know she was marrying their boss soon? Did they know it was a farce?
“Your clothes are in the car?” Landon asked then.
She spared him a quick nervous glance. Maybe they just thought it odd to see their boss smiling down at a woman. “Yes.”
“Excellent.” His cool nod, combined with that same lingering, totally unexpected curl of his lips, made her return his smile. “There’s apparently much speculation about you around here, Bethany,” he idly commented.
She nodded, already having surmised as much. But now something else troubled her mind. “Where are we going, Landon?”
The elevator doors rolled open, and he guided her inside. “My place.”
“Your place,” she repeated.
“My home. Where you’ll be living with me.”
They stepped off the elevator and crossed the marbled lobby, and Beth was struck with curiosity about what the next couple of months living with him would be like. “It’s a good idea for you to start getting settled in before the wedding. This will make our relationship more plausible.”
Beth could only nod at his logic.
They rode quietly in the back of the Navigator and, twenty minutes later, arrived at the entrance to a gated community. Then passing a sprawling emerald-green golf course and sweeping estates, the car halted at another gated entry.
Beyond the forged iron gates, a two-story, gothic-inspired, gray stone-brick house loomed in view. The lawns surrounding it were perfectly manicured, lush and green.
“Wow. This is it?”
“Yes,” Landon said absently, then seemed to come around from whatever he’d been reading on his phone and met her questioning blue gaze. “You expected different?”
She shrugged. “An apartment, maybe.”
“You forget.” He opened his hand; a beautiful, long-fingered, tanned hand that for some reason made her skin pebble. “I used to have a family.”
A family, yes.
He’d had a family he could not recover no matter what he did.
Her chest gained a thousand pounds at the sad thought. No matter how hopeless her situation had seemed lately, Bethany couldn’t begin to imagine the pain of losing a loved one so abruptly.
“I’m sorry,” she said quietly.
She followed him from the car and up the steps to the arched entrance.
They’d died in an accident—his wife and child. One rainy night.
One rainy night when Hector Halifax had been leaving Bethany with her newborn in her arms to meet with Landon’s wife.
Eyeing his stoic, sculpture-like appearance through the corner of her eye, Beth wondered what else Landon knew. What he didn’t know.