“I love you,” he growled. “I shouldn’t. You know that, right?”
She laughed. “No. You should.” She wanted it more than anything else in the world. His love. His kindness. The way she felt when she caught him looking at her, like she was the best thing that had ever happened to him. It filled her with more of that bright effervescence.
But all bubbles eventually pop.
* * *
Josh had never hadsuch a perfect tan as he did when he returned to work two weeks later. It was indecent. So were his thoughts, consumed with his lovely little wife. Which he needed to lock down, because he knew he would see her father this morning.
He was going to seek Michael Fischer out. Explain that he didn’t want anything from Monica, other than her love, and—
But he didn’t get that far, because the owner of the racing team was waiting for him in the garage. And nobody else was there.
“Did you have a good vacation?”
“Sir—”
“Come on, Josh. You think we’re family now, don’t you? What’s thissirnonsense?”
“I wanted to come and see you today. To talk to you.”
“Great minds think alike. We can talk now.” He kept going, ignoring that Josh had opened his mouth again. “The thing is, Josh, my daughter is a foolish child.”
She wasn’t. She was young, yes, but she was a twenty-one-year-old woman who knew her own mind.
And she was Josh's wife.
This time he didn't saysir. He didn’t try to be polite. He didn't say anything at all, simply set his jaw as cold fear slicked down his spine. So, it would be like this. The most important thing Josh could do now was shut up.
Michael Fischer nodded, the veil of niceties dropping away. They saw each other. “Monica is my only heir. She has a long way to go before she can assume that mantle, however. She stands to come into a trust of a hundred million dollars in a few years, and will eventually inherit the entire business if she proves herself. If she were to marry someone…properly…there would need to be careful negotiation of a pre-nup. You understand, right? This mistake in Vegas needs to be annulled. You will make a sworn affidavit attesting to that, and I will pay you—”
“No.” Josh said it firmly. Quickly. Without hesitation.
He couldn’t be bought.
And he would never say that any part of his relationship with Monica had been a mistake.
“No,” he repeated. “I won’t do it. I won’t accept any offer togo away. I love Monica. That’s what I was going to tell you when I came to see you. I love your daughter, for who she is. Not what she has. Not what you have.”
“Come on, Josh. You’re an ambitious young man. Anyone with eyes can see how you’d have thought it would be beneficial to marry my daughter. But I can’t let this stand. You can’t trick her like this.”
“I didn’t trick her into anything. I don’t want her money. I don’t want your money.”
“Her money is my money, you fucking shit.” Fischer’s temper flared, but as quickly as he lit up, he reined it back in.
But Josh had seen the depth of his misplaced rage. How little this man understood what it was like to live in fear of having one’s job yanked out from under one’s feet. So he held his own violent response in check and said nothing, even as he saw all his dreams crumbling to dust and blowing away. This wasn’t going to end well.
Every single dream he had for himself required that he not fuck up this life he’d built, and here he was, doing just that.
But there was no point in engaging in a debate when the man’s mind was made up. All Josh could do was focus on the fact he got to go home to his bride. Which was all the advantage he needed—it just wouldn’t be one Michael Fischer would ever understand.
Fischer waited.
Josh still said nothing.
Finally, the other man snapped his shoulders up, then squared them away. “You’re fired,” he said casually. “In case that wasn’t clear.”
“I assumed as much,” Josh said evenly. It wasn’t how he wanted today to go, but now, as he saw this scene play out as if from a distance, it had been inevitable.
