From Fake to Forever (16 page)

Letting her into his space was going to be a trick and a half. He’d never lived with a woman and had spent the past six months working through the idea of sharing his condo with Meiling. She would have respected his personal territory. She would never have barged into the bathroom with him, curling iron in one hand and a raspberry-filled donut in the other, wearing nothing but a loosely-tied robe.

When Meredith had done that, he’d ended up licking the raspberry filling from the tips of her breasts. Of course, he’d been the one to swirl it there, much to her dark-eyed delight and moans of pleasure.

Maybe she’d let him do it again.

“Isn’t that right, Jason?” his mother prompted.

What had he missed during his donut-induced fantasy? “Uh... What?”

“She was telling me about the innovative partnership you spearheaded with the Style Channel.” Meredith’s eyebrows rose as she silently shot him get-your-crap-together vibes. “Clearly you get your fashion and business sense from your mother. And your ability to pay attention from your father.”

His mother dissolved into a good, long laugh. Jason couldn’t remember the last time he’d heard her laugh like that. An answering smile tugged at his mouth.

“Sweetie, we’re going to get along fine,” Bettina told Meredith. “And you,” she said to Jason, “are back on my Christmas list for having the foresight to marry such a great woman.”

Mission accomplished
, he thought sourly and decided to keep his mouth shut the rest of the evening. Which he almost succeeded in doing, at least until he and Meredith slid into the car to go back to her hotel.

“Let me check you out and then I’ll help you pack,” he said. “You can take the weekend to get settled in.”

She crossed her white-cropped-pants-clad legs and grinned. “You sure you know what you’re signing up for? I am a girl. With lots of girl stuff.”

“It’s the least I can do.” He tore his gaze from her shapely legs, but it didn’t erase the sharp desire to feel them wrapped around his waist. “Thanks, by the way. For wearing the outfit I picked out and for being nice to my mother. You were great.”

“You say that like your mom is a witch and I had to suffer through dinner. She’s amazing. Such an inspiration. I had a hard time keeping my inner fangirl in check.”

News to him. But then, they never really talked about Meredith’s interests. It never occurred to him until that moment that she’d yet to share thought one about her long-term plans after buying into the wedding-dress business.

And now he was intrigued anew by this woman he’d married. “I thought you were just being nice.”

She twirled a lock of mahogany hair and batted her eyes. “In that case, I expect to be well compensated for my time.”

“What, a divorce and a hundred grand isn’t enough for you?” he teased.

“It’s a start.” Her wicked smile said the compensation should also include several orgasms in a row.

Despite that, he couldn’t help but ask, “Seriously, what would be enough? If you could have anything in my power to give you, what would you ask for?”

The car had almost reached her hotel, but oddly, he didn’t want to end the conversation. She was a woman of deep passion and convictions and he had the strangest urge to know her better. Not because of any paranoid need to pretend their marriage was real; ten minutes into dinner with his mother, it was obvious there was no danger of anyone questioning the authenticity of it.

But because after a long day of strategy and worrying about all the angles, he just wanted to be with Meredith. Connecting. She relaxed him and he liked it. Probably too much.

“You mean besides sex?” Her gaze softened as she glanced at him. “Oh, so we’re done flirting. You don’t have to give me anything. This has been fun. I’m working for a top-notch designer and I’m learning a lot. Allo’s horrible, but he’s as much a legend as your mom. Sometimes, I feel like I was dropped into the middle of a fairy tale.”

“Really?” He glanced at her, but she seemed sincere. “You never said anything about wanting to be a designer. Is that part of your dream alongside wedding dresses?”

Her brow furrowed and she hesitated.

The sign for her hotel popped into his peripheral vision and he motioned to the driver to circle the block. There was no way they were cutting this conversation short, not when he’d just realized Meredith had a hidden layer he’d yet to discover. In all their many conversations, how had this never come up? The mystery fascinated him.

“Come on,” he prompted. “You know all about my stuff with my father and the split. And that was all pre-Vegas anyway, so you heard about it back then. Wedding dresses are new. Tell me what’s going to happen when you get back to Houston.”

They were married and he wanted to know his wife’s every last secret.

* * *

Meredith curled her hands into a tight knot high in her lap and thought seriously about blowing off Jason’s question with a flip comment. But she’d never talked to anyone about her plan except Cara, and her sister hadn’t asked any questions. She’d hugged her and murmured something about welcoming her with open arms.

It wasn’t exactly the same as a glowing endorsement of her skill set or as if she’d earned a spot because she’d busted her butt. She’d actually never even interviewed for a job in her life. How could anyone take her seriously?

Was it so wrong to want validation? To ask someone who got what she was trying to do to acknowledge her plan and say it didn’t suck?

She glanced at Jason sideways. This man she’d married had design and business expertise bred into his genes. He’d grown up immersed in the world of couture. And he’d seen her naked. Who better to bare her soul to? She’d done the same in Vegas and it had been a part of their connection.

“I’ll become a partner in a successful business,” she stated firmly. “Like a real grown-up.”

“What are you now?” Jason’s blue eyes glinted with amusement. “A fake one?”

Yeah, so that was why she should have kept her mouth shut. For a moment, she’d forgotten all the soul-baring in Vegas had centered on their mutual lack of direction. He’d found his and apparently thought it was funny that she hadn’t.

She glared at him. “I’m not anything right now. Former beauty queen. Allo’s lackey. Wife to Jason Lynhurst. Soon-to-be wedding-dress-business owner. That’s the extent of my identity.”

He sobered and took her hand to kiss the knuckles. “That’s a pretty good list of things to be proud of. How many other wives do I have? You’re one of a kind.”

She rolled her eyes.
Men.
Or maybe it was just Jason who was that full of himself. “So, I’m supposed to think it’s some honor that we’re still married? Marriage is one of the many weapons in your arsenal, right?”

“Yeah, and I don’t wield my rocket launcher indiscriminately,” he pointed out quietly. “If you weren’t valuable to me, I’d have signed the papers on day one and found another strategic marriage. Why do you think I’ve fought so hard to keep you?”

That set her back. How had he managed to make that sound so romantic? Her stomach fluttered and she rubbed the spot as she flailed for something to say.

“Because I rock your socks, obviously. That’s the only reason I can think of,” she mumbled.

“Don’t sell yourself short, Meredith.” He stroked her hand until she glanced at him. “You’d be an amazing asset to anyone. Your sister is lucky to have you as a partner, especially if you’re as good at designing wedding dresses as you are at understanding the business angles.”

“Now you’re just humoring me.” She smiled to dispel the contradiction. “And I’m probably equally good at both, which is not very. Honestly, I don’t know the first thing about designing wedding dresses. I can sew and cut patterns, which is why Cara keeps me around.”

The thought sent a frisson of fear up her spine. Actually, she hadn’t gotten as far in the plan as to what would happen once she returned to Houston and handed over money to her sister. She’d kind of thought that would be it and then she’d magically feel like an adult.

But what would happen the next day? Would Cara expect Meredith to start doing
her
job and design something? Was that part of the partnership deal?

Seemed like a phone call to her sister was in order, pronto. All this needed to be ironed out or she would fail.

“You can learn design if that’s your goal,” Jason said mildly. “Or you can work the business side. Make it what you want.”

“You say that like I have all this flexibility.” In reality, she was doing the one thing available to her. It wasn’t like she could start her
own
business.

Or could she?

Her brain turned that over from all angles. If Jason gave her the money and she didn’t have a loan, the possibilities were endless. When she’d left Houston, Cara Chandler-Harris Designs had been the be-all and end-all. But Jason had expanded her worldview enormously. Maybe wedding dresses wasn’t the only thing she could do. Or the only thing that would work to get her where she wanted to be.

“Don’t you have flexibility? This is your dream, sweetheart.” He tipped her chin up and sucked her into his gaze, holding her attention like a hypnotist. “Don’t spend your life doing something that doesn’t speak to you. Lynhurst Enterprises is my heritage, built from the ground up by people who gave me life and share my blood. I’d do anything, sacrifice everything, to keep it afloat. What are you that passionate about?”

The fire in his expression and conviction in his voice mesmerized her. She loved it when he forgot to be the mastermind and spilled what was in his soul.

“I...don’t know.” But she wanted to name something in the worst way, especially if it kept them in this place of connection. Random thoughts, snippets of ideas formed on her tongue. “I love clothes, love the feel of fabrics, the art of fit and color. I’ve dabbled in design, but I think I’m better at seeing what doesn’t work than at creating something from scratch.”

“Good. What else? Talk to me more about your impressions of Hurst, like you did with Bettina.”

“Hurst is
interesting
.” The most politically correct word she could use to describe an environment slightly less welcoming than a room full of Miss Texas contenders when they realized you were a Chandler. “But Lyn is something else. Like Disney World for lovers of fashion. I know I was only there for a few minutes, but as soon as I walked through the doors, it hit me here.”

She touched the center of her chest with a finger, but his intent gaze didn’t leave her face.

“Why?” he prompted.

“Because the ambience was, I don’t know, alive.” Bit by bit, his attentiveness and genuine interest spurred her to articulate things she’d hardly recognized prior to this. “Like the creative spirit had soaked into the walls. I had the strangest physical reaction. Giddiness. Expectation. You probably think I’m crazy.”

“No, I think you’re speaking like a woman who has couture in her soul. Keep it up and I might throw in an executive job at Lyn along with the 100K,” he advised with a brow lift.

With a sharp inhale, she searched his expression. “An executive job? At Lyn? Where in the world did that come from? We were talking about me owning half a wedding-dress business. I’m not executive material.”

He shrugged. “I say differently, and I’m pretty sure I qualify as an expert at what it takes since I’ve hired a few executives in my life. Is it really that much of a surprise that I think you’re incredible? You naturally think strategically and you honor your commitments. You show up and work hard. Those are all qualities of successful executives. Your love of fashion is a bonus.”

“I can’t work at Lyn,” she protested and bit her lip as the image of an office with
Meredith Chandler-Harris
on the door materialized in her mind. And wouldn’t dissolve. “I have a job. With my sister. Besides, I live in Houston.”

But in New York, no one knew her. If she made it here, she could say indisputably that she’d done it on her own—without Cara, without her father’s money and influence, without her mother’s social connections, without the title of Former Miss Texas.

She’d never thought that would feel so necessary and important until this conversation with Jason.

“People move for jobs all the time.”

Never in a million years would she have thought she might be in a position to accept...because she’d elected to stay in New York. If she did, she’d see Jason every day.
Every day.

That thought gave her a physical reaction that far eclipsed the one she’d experienced when walking into Lyn. Hope and anticipation uncurled in her chest. And then she had to squash it before it rooted too deeply. “More importantly, we’re about to get divorced.”

“What’s that got to do with anything? Divorced people can work together, if they’re both mature about it.”

“Your parents couldn’t,” she pointed out before she thought about how it would come across.

His gaze darkened. “Yeah, but they were in love once. We won’t have that problem.”

“Right.” That somehow didn’t make it any better. Because all at once, she wanted Jason to be as passionate about her as he was about Lyn.

Once, he had been. And the taste of it had stuck with her for two years.

She was still in New York due to that as much as or more than the opportunity to work at a genuine fashion house, if she was being honest. The divorce wasn’t even a factor. Maybe it hadn’t been for quite some time.

“Think about it. It was a sincere offer.” He glanced away as the car rolled to a stop at the curbside of her hotel. “Let’s get your stuff. It’s been a long day already.”

Meredith took his hand to allow him to help her from the car, her mind in a whirl of confused emotions and trepidation and a strange sense of determination. Because she got it now. At the same time she pulled passion out of Jason, he pulled it out of her. It just revealed itself in different ways.

She wouldn’t be executive material in Houston. She probably wouldn’t even be a good wedding-dress-business partner. And she definitely wouldn’t make that leap from Former Miss Texas to Full-Fledged Adult because only with Jason’s guiding influence and help and support could she truly succeed. She needed him, needed his belief in her, needed him to goad her into stretching and growing her skill set.