Marrying the Boss

“Full of deep-brown sin,” Leanne agreed.

“Better and better,” her mother said, wiggling her eyebrows. “He’s certainly handsome enough to be supernatural.”

“Yeah.” Leanne sighed. “More’s the pity.”

“Why?”

“Mother, he’s not only the enemy, he’s my nephew.”

Chapter Two

Mark poured himself a drink, downed it, then poured another. It had been that kind of day. The alcohol burned his throat, and he tried not to wince at the bitterness. He never could stand the taste. Another reason Father and the Lion thought he was too soft.

“I’ll take one of those,” his mother said, entering the sitting room.

“Don’t you want to ask what I’m having?”

“It doesn’t matter. After your news, I’ll drink anything.”

He poured his mother a Scotch on the rocks and took it to where she lay on the couch. Except for her sharp dark-blue eyes, she looked weary, her face wilted. She’d swung her feet onto the couch, black spiked heels and all, and reclined as though the effort to sit upright was beyond her. Not a hair escaped her expensively maintained blond twist.

Taking a seat in the Queen Anne chair across from her, he reviewed what he wanted to ask. He’d have to proceed carefully. If his mother didn’t like his tone, he’d never find out anything.

“What can you tell me about Leanne Fairbanks?”

Gloria opened an eye for a moment, then put the cold glass back against her forehead. “She’s the Lion’s daughter.”

“She’s about my age.”

“Hmm? Oh, she’s thirty.”

“I was four. So, Grandmother was alive.” He hated to state the obvious, but he needed to gently lead his mother into disclosing pertinent details. If he didn’t finesse his way around her, she’d close up. “Did she know?”

His mother snorted. “Your grandmother knew everything, from the moment he first saw the tramp. Helen knew every time they got together, God help her.”

“I don’t understand. Grandmother would never have put up with the Lion having an affair.”

“You think not? This wasn’t his first, although it was his last. I’m sure this girl is the only illegitimate child we’ll have to deal with. The Lion was careful. The tramp must have tricked him.”

Mark clenched his teeth. He couldn’t refer to Jenny as “the tramp,” but he didn’t want to dissuade his mother from talking, no matter what terms she used. He could only be thankful she’d called Leanne illegitimate, not something worse.

“So,” he said, “this woman had an affair with the Lion and got pregnant. Then what?”

She shrugged. “Then nothing. Helen insisted he ‘come home and stop this silliness,’ I believe were her words.”

“And he did.” It wasn’t a question. Mark knew the Lion. If Grandmother said come home, then home he’d come. “Are you sure he had multiple affairs?”

Gloria drained her glass. “You are naive.”

“He seemed very much in love with Grandmother.”

She laughed, the sound grating on Mark’s nerves. He put up with it because she was his mother and she’d had a trying day, but he didn’t have to like it. As soon as he got his facts, he’d head for his own condo in the city.

“Mark, you’re either going to kill me or keep me young. I just don’t know where you get that sentimental streak. Yes, yes.” She rose and went to the drinks cart. “He loved Helen. He adored her, but he cheated on her. I believe it was about power and an illusion of youth. I’ve never understood how she could turn the other cheek, which she did until the tramp got pregnant. That she couldn’t abide.” His mother glowered into her glass. “We thought she’d gotten rid of the kid. Obviously, we were wrong.”

Mark snapped his mouth closed. Who was this person speaking so casually of “getting rid of the kid,” as though the baby weren’t important, as though it weren’t family? Not the mother who’d adopted him to fill a yearning for a child she couldn’t conceive. Not the mother he’d known all these years.

Of course, he thought he’d known the Lion. He’d never have believed the Lion would cheat on his wife. Nor that Grandmother would accept it, as long as no children came from such a union. So maybe he didn’t know his mother. Or his father, either.

“Did Father ever…step out?”

Gloria chuckled. “Darling,” she said, dropping ice cubes as punctuation, “I am not—click—the type to turn the other cheek. Click Your father never strayed. Click, click.

Mark let go the breath he’d been holding. His world had changed that afternoon, but some truths still held. “Did the Lion know Leanne hadn’t been…? Of course, he must have known she existed to have named her in the will.”

“I’ve been thinking about that.” His mother fell back on the couch, not spilling a drop.

Practice? Mark reproached himself for the thought. The revelations of the day had his head spinning.

“I think,” she continued, “the Lion must have kept in touch. Not while Helen lived. He’d never dishonor her wishes that way.”

But he’d sleep around on her? Mark began to feel as though he’d grown up in a madhouse.

“Perhaps he got in contact after Helen died,” Gloria said.

“What matters is that Leanne’s here.”

“We’ll talk to the company’s lawyer. If we can’t have the will overturned due to its unusual nature—which reflects on the Lion’s mental stability at the time of writing it—”

“Benton will testify Lionel had full possession of his faculties.”

Gloria waved a hand in dismissal. “Of course he will. He’ll be protecting his hide. Our lawyer will make sure the judge understands that.”

Mark could only marvel at his mother’s keen mind. Devious and a little scary, but since she acted from love for him, he couldn’t complain. “And if that doesn’t work?”

“We’ll buy her off.”

“No, Mother, we won’t.”

“I’ll get millions from the Lion.”

“Whatever money you get should be yours.”

Gloria leaned forward and grasped his hand, her scarlet nails biting. “What better thing to spend it on? You deserve control of the company, Mark. The Lion had to have been crazy even to think of handing it over to anyone else.”

“She’s not just anyone. She’s his daughter. His blood.”

“Is that what’s bothering you?” She leaned back. “The Lion loved you, Mark, as much as he loved his own son.”