She opened the door to Luke’s office, and the four men seated around the small conference table got to their feet.
“Claire,” said Mason Jeffries, Luke’s attorney. “It’s a pleasure to see you again.”
He took her hand in both of his and leaned in to kiss her cheek. The attorney was a charming flirt, but he’d been so reassuring when first Mike and then she had been dealing with the police; she’d grown to like him.
“It’s nice to see you, too, Mason.”
Claire glanced at the other men in the room. Luke was watching her with a combination of tenderness and heat, and she was a little off guard, not sure how to greet him in front of the pair of strangers. As if he could sense her uncertainty, he took her hand and guided her to the empty seat next to his, pausing to introduce her to the two men she didn’t recognize.
“Claire, this is Jake Mansfield, the owner of the Chestnut Street property, and his realtor, Adam James.”
The men nodded and offered their hands, but Claire was having trouble concentrating. If everyone was here that must mean they’d agreed on an offer, and she and Luke were about to become joint property owners. She shook hands and made her greetings, counting the seconds until she could turn to look at Luke. When she did, she found him grinning at her, all cat – or more accurately, tiger – who’d eaten the canary.
“Sit, please,” he said, motioning around the table.
Claire took the seat beside him, and the other men sank back into their chairs. As soon as her hand was under the table, Luke reached for it, giving it a squeeze before running his thumb over the center of her palm. His touch turned up the heat between them, but it was the magnitude of what they were doing that had her stomach turning flips. She and Luke Masters were buying property together.
Or rather,hewas buying property. After she’d paid the outstanding bills for the last house she flipped and paid Luke back for her dad’s nursing home care, there hadn’t been any capitol left to sink into anything knew. So what was she doing here? They hadn’t worked out the details of how they were going to handle ownership or the money or anything else for that matter. She’d made an offhand comment about flipping a house together, and they’d made a bet. They hadn’t sorted anything else out.
The bet, she thought, stealing a side-long glance at Luke. With the master of the universe grin Luke was wearing, she had a bad feeling about who’d won the bet.
“Mason, could you explain the basics of the contract to Ms. English, please?” he said, somehow managing to make the more formal version of her name sound more intimate than if he’d just called her Claire.
“My pleasure,” said Mason and then in front of her eyes he morphed from charming flirt into all-business attorney.
By the time he’d finished going over the details of ownership, her head was spinning. Luke was putting up the cash to buy the property, which would be deeded in both of their names. She could tell something about that made Mason uncomfortable, but he and Luke had obviously already been over it because he held his tongue. Upon the resale of the property, the proceeds minus expenses would be divided between the two of them, and Claire would be liable for half of the initial purchase price. That was only the case if they sold the property for a profit. If not, she didn’t owe Luke anything, and the liability was all his.
She opened her mouth to tell him that it wasn’t fair, and she should assume an equal amount of the risk. Before she could speak Luke put a hand on her arm and stopped her.
“I know what you’re going to say, and it’s not going to happen. I didn’t want to put the part in about you paying me back for the initial investment, but I knew I wouldn’t get you to sign it otherwise. There is no way I’m legally putting you on the hook for half the purchase price if for some reason we can’t sell. Don’t even try,” he said, the warning clear in his voice. “It’s a non-negotiable.”
“Okay,” she said, smiling because he knew her so well and had made accommodations for her and what she’d want.
Mason passed the partnership agreement and a silver pen to Claire. She read over the details Mason had already outlined, and then taking a deep breath, she signed the line above her name. She passed the papers to Luke, who signed without glancing at them. When he slid them back to Mason, Mr. Adams, the realtor, passed Luke what looked like a deed in joint tenancy along with the bill of sale and several other documents.
Luke immediately passed the papers to Mason, who went over them one at time, passing them back to Luke to sign when he was finished. Luke signed and then handed the papers to her. Feeling a bit overwhelmed, she took extra time reading the documents before turning to the last page. When she saw the line for her signature next to Luke’s strong confident one, her heart caught in her throat. They were buying property together. For at least this part, they were going to be legally bound together. For someone who’d been so averse to any kind of commitment, Luke seemed completely comfortable with the arrangement. She wasn’t about to be the one who had a problem with it, then she saw the bill of sale with the agreed upon price, and for just a moment, she couldn’t breathe.
He’d won. He’d gotten the seller to agree to a price within three thousand dollars of his original offer. She looked over at Luke, not sure what she was feeling but certain it was all too much. Surely he didn’t actually expect her to move in with him. What if he expected her to move in with him? Fear and sweet anticipation warred in her, and she honestly couldn’t say which one she wanted to win. Things between them had changed so fast again. She felt unmoored and out of her depth.
She thought about asking the seller if he was sure that was enough, but she couldn’t do it without embarrassing herself, and she wouldn’t risk the deal Luke had made. She looked from the paper in front of her to the man beside her. He smiled at her, and there was triumph in his expression, which made sense. She knew how important winning was to him, but there was something else. Something under all the bravado. He looked hopeful, almost eager, and that vulnerability was the thing that sealed things for Claire.
With a hand that barely shook, she signed the paper that would make them more than just partners in an investment.
LUKE HAD WAITED all day to see the expression on Claire’s face when she realized he’d won the bet. It had been so much better than he’d imagined. He knew she was a smart, savvy business woman, but she’d never been able to hide what she was thinking – at least not from him. He saw her go from worry to something that looked like anticipation. By the time she’d finally signed the papers, he knew as crazy as it seemed, she was as ready for the next step as he was.
And he was so ready. If anyone had asked him six or even three months ago, if he could have imagined wanting Claire to move in with him, he would have said they were crazy. Now, there wasn’t anything he wanted more. He wanted to come home to her every night and wake up next to her every morning, and if he’d had to play a little fast and loose with real estate to make it happen, he was okay with that. He’d make sure she was too. He had every intention of doing whatever it took to make sure she was comfortable with their new living arrangement.
He had no intention of waiting. He wanted her back in his house and back in his bed starting that night, and this time he wouldn’t do anything to screw it up.
“It’s late to ask,” said Mason after the seller and his agent left. “But would you like to have your attorney go over the partnership agreement? I’m pretty sure, Masters would do anything you want, unless it’s to his benefit and not yours.” The attorney smirked, but there wasn’t any sting in the comment.
“That’s okay, Mason,” she said, looking touched that he’d think to look out for her. “I trust you.”
“Well that’s your second mistake. Never trust an attorney unless you’re paying him and then only with caution.”
“Point taken,” she said, laughing. “What was my first mistake?”
“Falling for this asshole instead of me,” he said, standing to press a chaste kiss to her cheek. “If you change your mind about him, give me a call.”
