The CEO's Accidental Bride / Paper Marriage Proposition: The CEO's Accidental Bride / Paper Marriage Proposition

Oh, this was priceless. “You’re fixating on Dylan Gilby?”

“Wrong. I’m fixating on Caldwell Gilby. I’m proving that smug, superior Dylan does, indeed, owe his wealth to the ill-gotten gains of his pirate ancestor.”

“The Blue Glacier was sunk by pirates,” the clerk offered as she accepted Lindsay’s credit card to pay for the purchase.

“By the Black Fern,” Lindsay confirmed in a knowledgeable and meaningful tone. “Captained by dear ol’ Caldwell Gilby.”

The clerk carefully slid the coin in a velvet pouch embossed with the store’s logo. “The captain of the Blue Glacier tried to scuttle the ship against a reef rather than give up his cargo. But the pirates got most of it anyway. A few of the coins were recovered from the wreck in 1976.” The clerk handed Lindsay the pouch. “You’ve made a good purchase.”

As they turned for the door to exit the pretty little shop, Lindsay held up the pouch in front of Kaitlin’s face. “Exhibit A.”

Kaitlin searched her friend’s expression. “You have got to get back in the courtroom.”

“Weren’t we talking about you?” asked Lindsay. “Kissing your husband?”

“I don’t think so.” Kaitlin was going to wallow through that one in private.

Lindsay dropped the coin into her purse and sobered. “I don’t want you getting hurt in all this.”

Kaitlin refused to accept that. “I’m not about to get hurt. I kissed him. Nothing more.” That was, of course, the understatement of the century.

Still, they’d come to their senses before anything serious had happened. Or maybe Kaitlin was the one who’d come to her senses. Zach hadn’t been emotionally involved on any level. Even now, he was probably biding his time, waiting for the next opportunity to manipulate her all over again.

“He’s only after one thing,” Lindsay declared with authority.

Kaitlin struggled to find the black humor. “And it’s not even the usual thing.”

Lindsay gave Kaitlin’s shoulder another squeeze. “Just don’t let your heart get caught in the crossfire.”

“My heart is perfectly safe. I’m fighting for my career.” Kaitlin wouldn’t get tripped up again. She couldn’t afford it. She was fighting against someone who was even less principled than she’d ever imagined.

Dylan showed his disagreement, backing away from Zach’s office desk. “I am not stealing corporate secrets for you.”

Zach exhaled his frustration. “They’re my corporate secrets. You’re not stealing them, because I own them.”

“That’s the Harper family style,” Dylan sniffed in disdain. “Not the Gilbys’.”

“Will you get off your moral high horse.” It was all well and good for Dylan to protect his family name, but it had gotten completely out of hand the past few weeks.

“I have principles. So, sue me.”

“I give you the key to my car.” Zach ignored Dylan’s protests and began to lay out a simple, straightforward plan.

Dylan folded his arms belligerently across the front of his business suit. “So I can break in to it.”

“So you can unlock it. There is no breaking required.”

“And steal Kaitlin’s laptop.”

“Her briefcase is probably a better bet,” Zach suggested. “I suspect the laptop has a password. You photocopy the drawings. You put them back. You lock my trunk, and you’re done.”

“It’s stealing, Zach. Plain and simple.”

“It’s photocopying, Dylan. Even Kaitlin’s pit bull of a lawyer—”

“Lindsay.”

Zach rapped his knuckles on his desktop. “Even Lindsay would have to admit that intellectual property created by Kaitlin while she was on the Harper Transportation payroll belongs to the company. And the company belongs to me.”

“And to her.”

Zach, exasperated, threw up his hands. “Whose side are you on?”

“This doesn’t feel right.”

Zach glared at his lifelong friend, searching for the argument that would bring Dylan around to logic. He couldn’t help but wish a few of Caldwell’s more disreputable genes had trickled down through the generations.

It wasn’t as if they were knocking over a bank. It was nothing more than a frat prank. And he owned the damn designs. And while they might technically be half hers, they were also half his—morally, they were all his—and he had a corporation to protect. A corporation that employed thousands of people, all of them depending on Zach to make good decisions for Harper Transportation.

“I need to know she won’t ruin me,” he said to Dylan. “We know she’s out for revenge. And think about it, Dylan. If she was only worried we’d disagree on the aesthetics of the renovation, she’d flaunt the drawings in my face. She’s up to something.”

Dylan stared in silence for a long minute, and Zach could almost feel him working through the elements of the situation.

“Up to what?” he finally asked, and Zach knew he had him.

“Up to spending Harper Transportation into a hole we can’t climb out of then walking away and letting me sink.”

“You think she’d—”

“I don’t know what she’d do. That’s my point. I don’t know anything about this woman except that she blames me for everything that’s wrong in her life.”

Even as he said the words to Dylan, Zach was forced to silently acknowledge they weren’t strictly true. He knew more than that about Kaitlin. He knew she was beautiful, feisty and funny. He knew her kisses made him forget they were enemies. And he knew he wanted her more than he’d ever wanted any woman in his life.

But that only meant he had to be tougher, even more determined to win. His feelings for her were a handicap, and he had to get past them.

“If it was you,” Zach told Dylan in complete honesty, “if someone was after you, I’d lie, cheat and steal to save you.”

Dylan hesitated. “That’s not fair.”

“How is it not fair?”

“You’d lie, cheat and steal at the drop of a hat.”

Zach couldn’t help but grin. It was a joke. Dylan had no basis for the accusation, and they both knew it.

Zach rounded the desk, knowing Dylan was on board. “That’s because I’m a pirate at heart.”

“And I am not.”