Surprise Seduction (34 page)

“I’ve been known to do some damn fool things in my life,” Chase muttered, willing her to read his thoughts, his emotions, as she’d seemed to do moments before.
 
“But, I’m a quick learner and don’t make the same mistake twice.”

George Weston cleared his throat when the room fell silent and stayed that way for longer than propriety called for.

However, Chase didn’t look away from Adrienne.
 
Hope had flickered in her gaze.
 
Hope mingled with love.

Without a doubt, Chase knew he would do whatever it took to keep her from marrying someone else, to keep her from ever looking at another man the way she looked at him.

Even if it meant marriage.

Adrienne was worth any risk.

He’d take any risk, face any danger to be with her.

Without wavering his gaze, he spoke.
 
“George, maybe you could show Mr. Hillington around Westons.
 
I imagine he wants to see more of one of Morrigans major holdings.”

The man had the gall to chuckle.
 
He knew exactly what Chase was doing.
 
How was he going to get rid of him and George when his motives were as transparent as glass?

Then Roger Hillington surprised him.

“Yes, George.
 
Show me how you run this grand business from the bottom floor.”
 
The man leaned down and kissed Adrienne on the neck, right below her ear, whispering something, then raised, saying more loudly,
 
“I’ll see you later,
darling
.”

With those words, the confident, and very foolish to leave his fiancée alone with a tomcat like Chase, man left the room.

“Don’t blow it twice, son.”
 
George Weston gave Chase a pointed look, then followed the younger man’s exit.
 
George closed the office door soundly behind him.

Adrienne’s gaze lowered.
 
“I’m sorry you had to find out about Roger that way.”

“You’ve been engaged the entire time I’ve known you?”
 
He hadn’t meant to ask that.
 
At least, not until he’d kissed her senseless, but she’d thwarted that plan with her quick apology.

“No,” she answered immediately.
 
“Not really.”

He arched his eyebrow in question.

“I tried to give Roger his ring back the night I left Chicago.
 
He refused to take it.
 
I haven’t worn it since.”
 
She glanced down at the ring on her hand.
 
“Not until he put it back on me before his meeting with George this morning.”

“And just how is it that you know Roger Hillington?”

“He runs my family’s business.”

Her words didn’t register at first.

“Morrigans?”

She nodded.

Oh God.
 
She wasn’t, she couldn’t be, she was.

Adrienne was Ted Morrigan’s daughter.

She was Adrianna Morrigan.

Oh damn.

“My name is Adrianna Morrigan.
 
Until I came to work here, I’d never worked a day in my life.
  
After my father’s death, my stepfather,” she paused.
 
“Bothered me.”

Chase’s gut twisted in hate for the man he already didn’t like.
 
He might kill Drew Steinberg before the day ended.

“I went to Roger, hoping he’d play knight in shining armor only to be disappointed by his lack of response.
 
He was so caught up in trying to figure out a way to save Morrigan’s that what I said barely even registered.
 
I told him I wouldn’t marry him, and made the decision I was going to stop Drew myself.
 
I knew Westons played a crucial role in whatever Drew had planned, so I came to Boston.”
 
Adrienne winced.
 
“I convinced Sheila to arrange those horrid interviewees and myself.
 
I knew I could do the job and you desperately needed an immune assistant.
 
Only problem, I wasn’t supposed to fall in love with you, Chase.
 
But I didn’t stand a chance under constant exposure to you.”

She twisted the ring on her finger as she told him about her father’s will and the trust he’d set up.
 
“So you see, I have to convince the board to appoint me to fill my father’s shoes, marry, or allow Drew to take over my father’s company.
 
I won’t ever allow that to happen.”

Chase swallowed the bitter fact that
everything
she’d told him during her interview had been a lie.
 
He’d meant to take her in his arms and kiss her senseless after the other two men had left the room.
 
He should be angry.
 
He should feel different about her.
 
He didn’t feel anything but sheer joy at her comment about falling in love with him.
 
“Anything else you need to tell me, Adrienne?
 
Any more secrets?”

She looked up at him, wincing.
 
She nodded.

“Tell me everything.”

“I love you, Chase.
 
And, even though I’m going to marry Roger, I don’t know how I’m going to live the rest of my life married to him loving you the way I do.
 
After today, I’ll never be able to allow myself to see you again, because I can’t bear seeing you knowing I’ll never know your touch again.
 
It’s almost more than my heart can take.”

She’d been so brave, holding his gaze as she bared her heart, but with her last sentence she stared at her clasped hands, reminding him of the day he’d interviewed her.
 
He heard the raw emotion in her voice, the honesty, the intensity.

“You don’t have to marry him, Adrienne.”

Her eyes flickered up to his.
 
“You don’t understand.
 
Drew will tear the company apart.
 
Thousands will lose their jobs.
 
Think of the impact on the economy.
 
Think of my father’s memory.
 
I have to marry.”

“Then marry me,” he heard himself say and mean with all his heart.

“Marry you?” Adrienne couldn’t believe her ears.
 
Chase had asked her to marry him.
 
Then it hit her.
 
Why he’d so quickly changed his mind.
 
Like Roger, he wanted the stock, the wealth that came with marriage to Ted Morrigan’s only child.

“For Morrigans?”

“If that’s the only reason you’ll have my sorry hindend, then yes, for Morrigans.
 
But, Adrienne.”
 
He walked over to her and took her hand in his, pulling her to her feet.
 
“I hope you say yes because you want to spend the rest of your life with me.”

“You’re kidding?”

“I’d never kid about marriage, Adrienne.”
 
He sighed.
 
“I need to tell you about my childhood.
 
Not that I want to share the sordid details, but it’ll help you understand why I felt the way I did.”

He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply.
 
“My father was incapable of being faithful.
 
He claims to this day that he loved my mother, but that didn’t stop him from having sex with anything in a skirt.”

Adrienne gasped.

“My mother caught him with his secretary and filed for divorce when he admitted that it wasn’t the first time he’d strayed.”
 
Chase’s head shook.
 
“Hell, he couldn’t have counted the times on his fingers and toes.”

“I’m so sorry, Chase.”

“Me, too.
 
For my mother.
 
She never got over the divorce even though she was the one who initiated it.
 
She loved him until the day she died.
 
I heard her cry at night, and I promised to never marry.
 
I look just like the man.
 
It only makes sense I inherited his wanderlust gene as well.
 
I decided it much better for everyone if I never committed to a relationship.
 
That way I could never do to a woman what my father did to my mother.
 
But Adrienne,” he smiled, “It’s no longer a matter of whether or not I’m willing to commit to a woman.
 
I am committed.
 
To you.”

With a gentle tug he pulled Roger’s ring off her finger.
 
“I know I’m doing this a little backwards, but Adrienne Morris--Morrigan, or whatever the hell your name is, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?
 
I won’t promise perfection, but I give you my word I’ll love you with my last breath.”
 
His dimples deepened.
 
“I’m like my mother on that.”

“Chase.” Adrienne leaned into him, burying her damp face in his chest.
 
“Yes, oh yes.
 
I want to marry you.”

“Thank God.”
 
He lifted her face to him and bent to kiss her.
 
A kiss that assured her of his vow of commitment, his fidelity to her.
 
When their lips parted, she smiled.

“Poor Roger.”

“Poor Roger?”
 
Chase’s brows drew together.

“Yes, this will be the third time I’ve given his ring back.”

“He’ll get over it.”

“Yes, he loves Morrigans, not me.
 
His parting words, when he leaned down, were for me to reel you in, he’d set the hook.”
  
Adrienne smiled.
 
“With my marriage to you, he and I can save the company.”
 
She took the ring from his clenched hand and dropped it onto the table.
 
“We have so many things to discuss, Chase.
 
Not the least of which is that I want to run Morrigans.
 
With Roger.”

Chase’s eyes widened, then he grinned.
 
“Guess I’ll be moving to Chicago.”

“You’d do that?” Adrienne asked, incredulous at his willingness to make their relationship work.

“Adrienne, I love you.
 
There isn’t much I wouldn’t do for you.
 
I doubt I’ll have difficulty finding something in Chicago.”
 
He winked.
 
“I have an inside with a major stock holder at Morrigan’s.”

“You’ll be a major stockholder after we marry,” she reminded.

He shook his head.
 
“No, any stock or material possession I gain from our marriage, I’ll sign over to you.
 
I never want you to question why I’m marrying you.”

“You’re going to give me the stock?”

“Yes, if your father could see you, he’d be proud and want you leading his company.”

Adrienne kissed him.
 
Exuberantly.
 
Ecstatically.
 
Emphatically.
 
When her lips parted she smiled mischievously at him, pulling him down to whisper in his ear.