But right now his mind was on the hot brunette with the impressive ass who’d just left his office. “She seems to think I should be able to find a real date.”
“Did you tell her about your father’s conditions for signing the business over to you and how you have something of an impossible deadline in which to meet them?”
The damn agreement. Leave it to Eldrick to make everything difficult. “You mean selling it to me? For a lot of money he can then spend on my new stepmother? Of course not.”
Jackson winced. “It might help your case.”
“I doubt Ellie would be sympathetic.”
“Not if you keep placing false rumors with the Insider.” Jackson shook his head. “I warned you that could backfire. Women hate stuff like that, and with good reason.”
“Speaking of which, is the photographer waiting outside?” That’s why her tardiness mattered. Much later and she would have blown his plans.
“When Ellie figures out you staged this meeting to get a photo of her coming out of your office she’s—”
“Going to yell.” Derrick knew it. He even felt a twinge of guilt over it—one he could easily ignore. “But we know this is about more than a PR job. This is about saving the company and there’s no way I’m letting her know I need her help for something that big. I’m not giving her that power over me.”
“Very romantic.”
“This is business. According to my father’s stipulations, I have to get my brothers in line and in this office, clean up my image and stop Noah Gold’s public hit job, all while single-handedly running a commercial real estate company.”
After a lifetime of aiming his sons at each other, Derrick’s father wanted them to be one big happy family, all working in the office and getting along. And if they didn’t, Derrick would lose the business that meant everything to him. His father already had a buyer outside the family interested. A rich old friend with liquidity and the ability to move fast on the sale.
Just thinking about the requirements of his father’s stupid business proposal touched off a new wave of fury in Derrick’s gut. He literally could forfeit everything because of his father’s stupid whims.
Derrick was about to launch into an angry rant about Eldrick when his office door pushed open. Ellie stepped inside again, looking a little flushed and not a bit worried or afraid of him.
He liked her attitude but the security lapse was a concern. Then he thought about the photographer and wondered if the guy had moved too soon. “How did you get in here?”
“I walked.”
He guessed he should have expected that answer from her. “You shouldn’t be able to wander around the building without an escort.”
She waved the concern away as she approached the desk and held out her hand. “You can worry about your over-the-top paranoid protocol later. Give me the agreement.”
“What?”
She continued to hold out her hand. “If I’m going to consider this—”
“Are you?” That surprised him when almost nothing did.
“—I want to make sure you didn’t add anything weird in here.”
Whatever he planned to say left his head. He suddenly wanted to know what her definition of “weird” might be. “Like what?”
“With you?” She snorted. “Who knows? I don’t trust you.”
Jackson nodded as he grabbed the folder and gave it to her. “A very solid beginning for a relationship.”
Her eyes narrowed as her gaze moved from Jackson to Derrick. “Your guy knows about this nonsense fake dating and engagement offer of yours?”
“Yes, and that document in your hand is nonnegotiable.” Derrick knew from their combined thirty minutes together so far that she’d be whipping out the red pen and revising if he didn’t put a stop to it now.
She shrugged at him as she opened the file and took a peek inside. “Whatever.”
He fought back a sigh. “I’m serious, Ellie.”
Her head shot up and she glared at him. “You’re not going to win every argument.”
“I think I am.” He rarely lost and had no intention of starting now. “I’ll see you at ten tomorrow.”
She turned and headed for the door. “You’ll get my answer when you get it.”
She was gone before Derrick could respond.
Damn, he liked her. The fire and self-assurance were so sexy. She wasn’t yet thirty but she’d grown up fast when she’d lost her parents. He understood what it was like to take on responsibility early. It was one of the reasons he thought they’d be able to handle this arrangement. She would get what she needed and he’d get his obstinate father off his back.