His Marriage Bonus

“Don’t you dare play innocent with me, Mitch Deveraux!” Lauren Heyward stormed the moment she entered Payton Heyward’s office at Heyward Shipping Company. She leveled a slender, accusing finger Mitch’s way. “I know what you and my father are trying to do! And it’s not going to work!”

“And what, exactly, might that be?” Mitch Deveraux retorted dryly. He didn’t have a clue what she was talking about, but he couldn’t say he minded spending a little time alone with the young and beautiful shipping heiress. She was a sight to behold, in a fitted coral blazer, clinging white silk blouse and slim coral-plaid skirt that ended just an inch above her knees. The low-heeled pumps she wore were sensible but sexy enough to make the most of her trim, spectacular legs. And her beauty didn’t end with a knockout figure. Her golden-brown hair looked soft and touchable as it fell to her shoulders. She had parted it on the side, and tucked it behind her ear. Mitch had never been much of a touchy-feely guy, but as he took in the delicate, aristocratic contours of her oval-shaped face, he found himself wanting to run his fingers through the golden-brown mane and experience the shimmering softness of her hair for himself.

Oblivious to the overwhelmingly sensual nature of his thoughts, Lauren marched closer yet. “The two of you are trying to marry me off by proxy!” she charged as she inundated Mitch with an intoxicating patchouli perfume, and the clean, sexy smell of her skin and hair.

“Why would I want to do that?” Mitch deadpanned as their glances meshed and sexual electricity sizzled between them. He barely had a love life himself these days—he sure wasn’t taking on the task of trying to manage anyone else’s. Even if, up close, Lauren Heyward had the most beautiful dark brown eyes and softest lips he had ever seen, and was a very successful businesswoman in her own right with a professional savvy that reportedly rivaled his. In her personal life, Lauren Heyward’s father had told him, Lauren was a flake who’d already weathered—and ended—two engagements.

Abruptly looking as taken with Mitch as he inexplicably was with her, Lauren looked deep into his eyes and seemed to consider him for a long moment before she said softly, “That’s a very good question.”

“And one I’ll be happy to answer for you both,” Payton Heyward interjected as he walked in and shut the door to the executive suite behind him. A folder of papers in his hand, Payton moved behind his desk. The silver-haired executive was dressed in a black suit, sage-green shirt and tie. Behind his wire-rimmed glasses, his brown eyes were direct, his manner both disciplined and imposing. “Why don’t the two of you have a seat?” Payton directed, gesturing at the two chairs in front of his desk.

Lauren sat down—but only out of respect for her father. She had no patience whatsoever for what he was trying to do.

“I know dowries and arranged marriages have gone out of favor,” Payton continued pragmatically as he also sat. “But I got to thinking the other day that maybe it’s time they made a comeback.”

In your dreams, Lauren thought fiercely, ignoring the oh-so-handsome man seated beside her.

“Especially in cases like yours, where you are both from wealthy families and are both unmarried as you reach your thirties,” Payton continued.

“I’m only twenty-eight,” Lauren said, trying to ignore the delicious scent of sandalwood and spice teasing her senses. Now was not the time for her to be thinking how incredibly virile and sexy Mitch Deveraux looked. Or consider how his solid six-foot-six-inch frame would match up with her slender five-foot-ten-inch body. Sometimes men as tall as Mitch seemed awkward and ill at ease in their own skin. Not Mitch Deveraux. He moved with a calm deliberateness that radiated both strength and control. And probably, Lauren thought recklessly, made love the very same way.

“Mitch is thirty,” Payton retorted, giving Lauren a steady look that insisted she and Mitch would hear Payton out, whether they wanted to or not. “And twenty-eight is close enough,” her father added firmly.

“I’ve also been married and divorced,” Mitch pointed out.

Everyone in Charleston knew that, Lauren thought as she took in Mitch’s short, dark brown hair and arresting deep blue eyes. Mitch’s divorce from Jeannette Wycliffe had been both sudden and mysterious—to the point people were still speculating about the possible reasons for it, two years after it had become final.

“You’re free now, and so is Lauren, and that’s what matters,” Payton countered. “Especially given the fact neither of you is getting any younger.”

Lauren set her jaw and glared at her father. She had been under increasing pressure from him to do something about her single state before he did, and she resented it. “I’m not a spinster,” she said. And felt Mitch’s hot gaze slide over her from head to toe before returning with heart-stopping accuracy to her face.

“No, but you very well could be if you don’t settle down and marry and have a family soon,” Payton told her.

“I think we’re jumping the gun here a bit,” Mitch broke in peaceably.

Lauren would have been grateful to Mitch for that, had he not been hand-selected as her beau. Ignoring the unsettling way her senses stirred at his nearness, she said, “I agree.”

Payton frowned. “I had a feeling you wouldn’t have an open mind about this,” he said.

Her father’s feeling had been right. “Look, I’ve no doubt Mitch is a very nice person,” Lauren said.

Reportedly, all the Deveraux were. Although she didn’t know them that well, since she had gone to Charleston’s all-girls schools from kindergarten on up, and they had entered the city’s most renowned coed establishments.

“Not to mention he is very knowledgeable in the shipping business, too, since he is set to one day take over the Deveraux Shipping Company,” Payton interjected.

“Then I’m sure Mitch has a lot in common with you, Dad, since you run our family shipping company,” Lauren said patiently. “But Mitch doesn’t have a lot in common with me. I work in the real estate business.”

“Which makes it even more important that you marry someone capable of running Heyward Shipping when I’m no longer around,” Payton countered.

“That won’t be for years. And if and when it comes to that, I’m sure one of your vice presidents will be able to step into your shoes admirably,” Lauren replied passionately.

“I want family running this company, Lauren. Family protecting your interests. And since there is no one else…” Payton leaned back in his chair and let his voice drift off.

Lauren could see that Mitch Deveraux was beginning to look interested in whatever her father was about to propose, but as far as she was concerned, this travesty had gone far enough. She vaulted out of her chair and began to pace her father’s luxuriously appointed office restlessly. “I don’t care how much sense it makes on paper. Or how the family business might stand to benefit from a relationship between Mitch and me. I’m still not going to date him.” Lauren pointed at Mitch. Not even if you think he’s perfect for me.

“Not even for one week, if at the end of the week you get the historic property you’ve been wanting ever since you were a kid?” Payton asked, smiling magnanimously. Ignoring her look of stunned amazement, her father continued bartering with her smoothly. “I bought 10 Gathering Street this morning, lock, stock and barrel. You do what I want, Lauren, and it’s yours.”

LAUREN’S HEART POUNDED as the news of what her father had done sank in. The two-story redbrick Victorian mansion at 10 Gathering Street had white trim and green shutters. With sixteen thousand square feet and twenty-four rooms, it was one of the largest homes in the historic district. Sadly, it had fallen into disrepair in recent years. Lauren had lamented the neglect, and wanted to take it on and restore it to its former glory for as long as she could recall. Two things had stopped her. It was way out of her price range, and it had not been on the market.

She regarded her father cautiously. “You own that property?” she repeated slowly.

“Yes. And I’m prepared to give it to you outright if you agree to spend every evening for one week dating Mitch Deveraux. Marry him at the end of that time, and I’ll give you an unlimited budget to renovate and furnish it, too. Think of it, Lauren,” Payton continued as he leaned toward her eagerly. “You’ll be able to take that sad, neglected house and turn it into the showplace of your dreams.”

Lauren wanted to do that. She wasn’t prepared to sell her soul, her body and her hand in marriage to accomplish it. She regarded her father grimly, almost afraid to ask for fear of what the answer might be. “And what does Mitch get out of all this?”

To Lauren’s chagrin, Mitch looked every bit as interested in the prize as she had been. “I’d like to know that myself,” Mitch said.

Payton shot Mitch a man-to-man glance before turning back to Lauren and speaking to both of them. “If he agrees to spend every evening with you for one week, he’ll get what he’s been wanting. A merger between the Heyward and Deveraux shipping companies. The two of you have until 6:00 p.m. this evening to agree to my terms. Or there will be no deal.”

Although Mitch looked quite calm, Lauren had to struggle to keep control of her emotions as she regarded her father. “I can’t believe you are doing this to me!” she fumed, folding her arms in front of her.

“I predicted you would feel that way,” Payton countered as he stood and walked over to the minibar to pour himself a glass of springwater. But to Lauren’s dismay, her outrage didn’t change what her father was doing, or how he was doing it, one iota.

The hurts of the past came slamming back at Lauren. “It’s always business with you, above everyone and everything else, isn’t it?” she said to her father. She was so furious she was shaking.

“That’s not true,” Payton said, abruptly looking just as stricken and upset as Lauren felt.

“Isn’t it?” Lauren challenged bitterly. Tired of keeping her feelings to herself, she plunged on emotionally, “The bottom line is you’ve always paid more attention to your business than you ever have to Mom and me, even when she was dying. Well, I can’t forgive you for always putting your company’s interests ahead of your family, Dad,” she told him, her throat aching with the effort it took to speak at a normal level. “And I sure as hell can’t forgive you for this!”

Ignoring the hurt look on her father’s face, and the stunned look on Mitch’s, she grabbed her handbag, turned on her heel and stormed out.

“SHE’S NOT THE ONLY ONE who is shocked by this proposal of yours,” Mitch said in the silence that fell. He was damn near flabbergasted.

“I want my daughter to marry well,” Payton Heyward said.

“But to a Deveraux?” Mitch countered, filled with the uneasy feeling that Heyward was withholding every bit as much information from Mitch and Lauren as he was telling. “As you pointed out to me six months ago when I first approached you with the idea of a merger, the Deveraux and the Heywards have a history of duking it out in the marketplace—in ever-inventive ways.” Was this just another one of them? Mitch wondered. And if so, was Payton’s daughter, Lauren, not only one hell of an actress but now an active participant in the competition between the two firms, albeit in an unexpectedly inventive way?

“Well, I thought it over, and you are right. Our two shipping businesses’ continued battle for market share was unnecessarily sapping the energy and resources from us both. We should stop trying to outsell each other, agree to go after different areas of the marketplace and focus on simply increasing revenue in our own specifically targeted areas.”

Mitch remembered the meeting—and his own disappointment and disillusionment afterward—well. “Right, and even after I finally managed to convince you that my proposal wasn’t a trick to diminish your various accounts or overall sales, you still didn’t want any part of a formal no-compete agreement, never mind a merger between our two firms.” Nor, unfortunately, had Mitch’s father. Mitch looked Payton straight in the eye. “You said competition was the lifeblood of business and that your ongoing contest with my father and me was what kept you and your sales force on their toes.”

“And that’s still true,” Payton said matter-of-factly. “But so is what you said. Maybe it’s time we both looked at change. And the best way, the surest way, to do that is through you and Lauren. Don’t you see?” Payton returned to his desk and sat down, albeit a bit stiffly. “If you and Lauren marry and join our families and businesses through that marriage, it gives us an incentive to make the situation work fairly for both families and businesses. It’s sort of like an insurance policy that both sides will do their best to see that you and Lauren are happy.”

“With one exception,” Mitch corrected, his uneasiness only increasing as he looked Payton Heyward straight in the eye. “I never brought up the idea of either dating your daughter or marrying her. Furthermore, you just saw what Lauren’s answer to your proposition is. She wasn’t the least bit open to the idea.”

Payton waved a hand and countered confidently, “She’s upset. She’ll calm down once she’s had an opportunity to mull it all over.”

Mitch wasn’t so sure of that. Lauren had looked pretty certain of her feelings to him. “I’m not interested in having a woman forced to marry me for business reasons,” Mitch said firmly. Being married for what he’d thought were all the right reasons, and having that not work out, had been hard enough. He didn’t think he could weather another unhappy liaison, even if his emotions weren’t involved this time because the marriage was strictly a matter of convenience.