Some Like It Charming (A Temporary Engagement) (4 page)

Ethan slung a sweaty, dusty arm around her. “You do realize this is your fault. You could have won, but you chose to leave the shorts at home and wear these instead.” He pinched her yoga pants and pulled.

“If I’d have known you were susceptible to that sort of thing, I would have worn a thong. But I was sure you were immune after all those models.”

He choked and stopped, his arm falling off her shoulders. She grinned and kept walking. His grandmother was waiting for her behind the dugout and they nodded to each other.

“I don’t blame you, girlie. I think you were the only one on that team who really wanted to win.”

Mackenzie said, “Ethan could make the pope play for Allah. I think half the people who work for him came from a competitor.”

“Did you?”

“No. I was hired right out of college.” She swung her bag up. “And if I could find anyone who paid as well, I’d switch.”

Ellen glanced toward the other dugout. “I’m sure he knows that.”

Mackenzie smiled. “That’s why I can’t find anyone who will pay as much. Ethan gets what he wants and he usually doesn’t care what it costs as long as it’s worth it.”

“He gets that from his father. . . Join us for dinner tonight.”

Mackenzie’s eyebrows shot up and she shook her head. “Thank you, but I can only take so much of him a day.”

His grandmother chuckled. “I think you could take a lot more than you’re willing to admit. But I’m asking you to join Christine and me. And before you say no again, remember that I just lost a bet because of you.”

Mackenzie shook her head again, amused. “You forget I’m immune to O’Connor ploys. You lost that bet because of your grandson. I didn’t think any O’Connor would bet against their own.”

“I didn’t bet against him. It would have done the boy good to get walloped by you. We’ll be at
Melisse
at seven. I’ll make the reservation for three.”

Mackenzie glanced behind her, catching the gaze of his mother. She was talking to Ethan but looking at her. Christine O’Connor didn’t look like she would enjoy sharing a meal with the woman who’d threatened her son.

“It was very interesting meeting you, Mrs. O’Connor–”

“Ellen.”

“Ellen. But I won’t be able to make dinner tonight. I’m sure you can thank Ethan for me for such an enjoyable afternoon.”

Ellen smiled at her, looking like Ethan at his most winning. “I sure can. If you change your mind, we’ll save a seat for you.”

Mackenzie walked away, thinking of a cool shower and an O’Connor free night. No need to tell Ellen that only one person could get her to change her mind with any kind of regularity, and he’d used up that power for a good long while. She wasn’t going to forget today’s game anytime soon.

His grandmother called after her. “Mackenzie? It was very interesting meeting you, too.”

Mackenzie arrived at the office Thursday morning expecting the jokes and ribbing to continue. For three days now, she’d had to endure a near constant barrage of jokes, puns, and gags. It helped immensely to think of a cash-register ringing every time the word ball left someone’s mouth. She hadn’t been kidding about charging Ethan– he’d said it, he could pay for it. And it would probably cost him less than a sexual harassment suit. Just barely.

But this morning everyone was eerily quiet as she made her way to her office. There were no jokes, no exaggerated winks. She smiled at one of the interns, who blushed and looked away.

Mackenzie didn’t ever remember losing her temper over something Ethan had done but maybe he’d felt bad and told everyone to leave her alone.

That didn’t sound like him at all.

Ethan was waiting for her in her office, sitting in her chair again, and her confusion disappeared.

“Oh. Now I know why everyone looks so afraid of me. Come to rub it in?”

He looked up from the paper he was reading, his eyes hard, his mouth pulled together so tight his lips looked white.

She stopped in her tracks. “Are you okay?”

He threw the paper down on her desk. “I guess you don’t read the tabloids.”

“I try not to when I know you’re going to be in it.”

He didn’t laugh, didn’t chuckle, and she reached for the paper. Her eyebrows rose when she saw it was the National Enquirer, but her comment died on her lips when she saw the headline. And then sat down hard when she saw the pictures.

Her mouth fell open.

“I’m sorry, Mackenzie.”

She tried to tell him this was going to cost a lot more than a thousand dollars but she couldn’t get it past her lips.

She cleared her throat. “They just aren’t letting up on you, are they?”

One side of the cover in bold headline,
He made me abort my baby!

And the other side was a picture of them facing each other, their bodies almost touching. There was no mistaking his grin and her smirk, and Mackenzie was sure that anybody who saw it would think they were getting ready to jump into each others’ arms. She was fairly certain they’d been threatening each other at the time.

She flipped open the paper, read the abortion article first, and then looked at all the damning pictures of them together. Him holding her in the air, his hand on her butt, his arm around her shoulders, him wiping her down after the slide.

She said, “At least these pictures all seem one sided. Maybe I can pretend you were annoying me. Oh, wait. You were.”

And then she flipped the page. “Oh, God.”

Just in case anybody had missed it, there were arrows pointing at his enlarged crotch and her pebbled nipples as they faced off.

Mackenzie closed her eyes and whispered, “Please tell me everyone thinks these were computer generated.”

“I’m sure the Enquirer would do that but I doubt they needed to. I thought I’d hid it better than that, though.”

Her eyes popped open. His lopsided grin was self-deprecating and she looked down at the paper. “Well, just let me pretend it was computer generated, okay?”

“I do have to wonder, though. If mine was real, maybe yours was, too.”

She refused to blush. “Whatever gets you through the day, O’Connor.”

She closed the paper and put it down on her desk, sitting back in the uncomfortable chair and resting her head.

She said, “While the pictures are embarrassing, I guess it’s not the first time they’ve splashed your new girlfriend on the cover.”

“Are you my new girlfriend now, Mackenzie?”

“Or someone they could pretend was your new girlfriend.”

He laughed. “I can honestly say that normally it is my new girlfriend.”

“I’m so glad you can keep your sense of humor about this, Ethan.”

He smiled and started opening the drawers to her desk. “You bring out the best in me, Mackenzie. Maybe the Enquirer knows a good thing when it sees it.”

“I’m starting to worry about you. Really, I am.” She watched him rifle through her desk. He held up a box of envelopes with a hopeful look and she shook her head. “That other thing isn’t so easy to ignore though.”

He sighed. “No. Please tell me you have some chocolate hiding somewhere.”

Mackenzie pushed herself to her feet, walked over to her filing cabinet, and took out a box of hanging folders. She took out a Twix and handed the rest to him.

“Sneaky, Wyatt.” He dug through the box, pulling out a Snickers with a satisfied look.

“Desperate measures, O’Connor. I could spend all my bonuses buying chocolate for you. Does your mother know about this obsession you have?”

“I keep my obsessions away from the innocent eyes of my mother.”

He took a big bite, leaning back in his chair. Her chair.

She closed her eyes and took a bite of Twix, crunching into the cookie and letting the smooth caramel roll over her tongue.

She mumbled around the cookie. “Just this once I’m not going to bug you about sitting in my chair. You’re having a bad day.” Her eyes flicked to the cover of the Enquirer again. “You know what, I’m having a bad day, too. I’m going to need my chair now.”

He smiled wide, chocolate smeared across his perfect white teeth. “You can come share it with me.”

“You don’t learn, do you? There’s probably someone in that building over there, taking pictures of us right now.” Mackenzie squinted out the window. “Actually, there really might be. Close the blinds, will you?”

She hurried away from the window and sat back down, slouching to hide from unseen cameras.

Ethan shot up in his chair. “I’ve just had a brilliant idea.”

“I seriously doubt that. It’s just the sugar rush, it’ll go away.”

His eyes sparkled and he laughed. “Mackenzie Wyatt. You trust me, right?”

She frowned and shook her head. “No.”

He leaped to his feet, rounding the desk. He grabbed the arms of her chair and leaned down close. He smiled into her wide eyes. “I swear I will make this up to you, Mackenzie.”

The smell of peanuts and chocolate wafted towards her and she frowned at him. “That sentence never comes after a brilliant idea. Usually it comes after a really, really stupid one.”

“Nope, it’s brilliant. You’ll hate it, but it’s brilliant.”

She grabbed his forearms. “Ethan, what are you thinking? My God, I should never have given you chocolate.”

“I’m thinking you are the answer to all my problems, Mackenzie Wyatt.”

And then he kissed her.
Kissed her
.

A quick peck on the lips that tasted like Snickers, and then he was gone and halfway down the hallway before she could even snap her mouth shut.

She turned in her chair to see two women standing outside her office wearing the same dumbfounded expression she was.

She said, “What just happened there?”

The two women looked at each other and then said, “He kissed you.”

Mackenzie nodded. “That’s what I thought.”

The press conference started at one that afternoon. Ethan looked his most handsome, his most charming, and Mackenzie wanted to find some Tums for the ulcer his smile was causing her. What had he meant when he said he would make it all up to her? Maybe he’d meant the pictures.

But how in the world was she the answer to any problem he had? She’d bet money she was one of his top ten irritants.

She gathered with the rest of the floor and watched the live press conference.

He addressed the accusation of beating, the abortion, and sounded very sincere and believable. He told the world that he hadn’t done any of the things he was accused of, and he could’ve killed someone on primetime and no one would have believed it after listening to him.

He looked into the camera. “I want to apologize to the women I’ve hurt in the past. I know that strong emotion can make an ordinary person a little jealous, a little crazy. What I did to them was unforgivable. I used them to ignore my own breaking heart and can recognize their need for getting back at me through the press.

“These women built hope that I would one day love them enough. That one day I would choose them. And now that I have chosen another, they’re lashing out.

“After five long years, Mackenzie Wyatt has agreed to marry me. She has worked for O’Connor Capital for more than seven years and has repeatedly refused to even acknowledge our mutual feelings. She is a very stubborn, very private woman and my life is anything but private.”

He held up the inside pages of the Enquirer and laughed. “But when even the Enquirer can see the passion between us, it’s time to throw in the towel.”

Laughter from the reporters drowned out the scream Mackenzie was trying to make. All around her, heads were turning to stare in disbelief, and she kept her eyes glued to the television.

“My fiancé is a very private person, and while she will have to get used to the attention my life attracts, I would ask that the press go easy on her for a little while. Don’t scare her off! It’s taken five years to get her to say yes.”

More laughter, a few questions that he smoothly answered, and it was over.

Mackenzie dropped into the nearest chair and put her head between her knees.