An Heiress for His Empire (Ruthless Russians 1)
Which she could understand, in light of recent events. She wouldn’t call the emotion she was feeling right now unfettered joy, either.
“A couple of times.”
Vik’s jaw hardened.
“Most events, Romi and I go together. Perry isn’t all that interested in helping others.” Maddie felt disloyal admitting that truth, but Romi had always said it.
Perry had never been as interested in the causes Maddie supported as the A-listers and potential business contacts he could meet at certain events.
“You’ve been at most of them, yourself,” she offered to Vik.
He frequently represented AIH at that sort of thing, being an expert at making connections Perry only aspired to. Maddie knew that Vik also supported the causes in very tangible ways, both on behalf of the corporation and personally.
The gorgeous, corporate white knight nodded.
“That could work in our favor, unless you were photographed with your date for the evening,” Conrad mused. “Even then, we could make it work.”
“Vik hasn’t had a date with him at one of these events in over a year.” Knowledge that revealed how much attention Maddie paid to Vik.
A fact she’d done her best to hide even from herself, darn it.
His raised brow and knowing look said he realized that, too.
“That’s good. We can back-engineer a budding relationship you’ve taken pains to keep out of the media spotlight.” Conrad took more notes on his tablet. “This works.”
Maddie turned toward Vik. “We’re really getting married?”
“You tell me.”
“Only it doesn’t seem possible.” Everything since her nearly spilled cup of coffee that morning felt like a dream, at times odd, unpleasant and bordering unbelievable.
“Believe it,” Vik said, unconsciously answering her silent thoughts.
She narrowed her eyes, trying to read him. “How can you take this so calmly?”
“What am I supposed to be upset about?”
“Yesterday you were a free agent. Today you are engaged.” Didn’t that bother him, even a little?
Or was it something Vik had planned all along? Somehow, she couldn’t quite dismiss that possibility.
“We are not engaged yet.”
Something went tight in her chest. “But—”
“We will finish this discussion after you meet with the lawyer.”
What did that mean? Did he think they were engaged, or not? Were they engaged? Had she said yes? She was pretty sure she hadn’t. And she might know her choices were very limited, but did Vik? Really?
He returned his attention to his phone and sent a text.
This time she had no doubts it was to her.
Sure enough a few seconds later, her phone chimed. Trust me.
Trust him. Right. He thought it was that easy? “You aren’t going to try to talk me out of signing the paperwork?”
“I told Jeremy threatening Romi could boomerang on him.”
“He didn’t believe you.”
“He has a hard time backing off once he’s set a thing in motion.”
“Are you saying he’s already started the wheels of destruction for Mr. Grayson’s company? They used to be good friends.”
Vik shrugged noncommittally. “He’s done the research on how to make it happen.”
“And he didn’t want to waste his efforts?” Her dad could be so cold, but then that wasn’t breaking news.
“You and I have agreed Jeremy could have no idea how spectacularly it would come back to bite him on the ass.”
“But you aren’t trying to change my mind.”
Conrad stopped typing and listened as if he, too, was curious about what was motivating Vik’s behavior.
Vik ignored the other man, his focus entirely on Maddie. “Those shares ultimately belong to you.”
“My father doesn’t see it that way.”
“It never occurred to Jeremy that any child of his would consider AIH as a means to an end rather than the end itself.”
What did he know? Did Vik realize she had always intended to use her income from the shares to run the school?
It wouldn’t be a long stretch from what she’d told him that morning.
What he couldn’t know was that Romi would do the same. She wanted the school as much as Maddie.
Vik’s dream was something quite different, but obviously just as important to him. “You want the company.”
“Like your father, I want to leave a legacy for my children.” Some might think the lack of emotion in Vik’s deep tones belied his words.
Maddie knew better.
His dark brown eyes burned with certainty. “Archer International Holdings will be that legacy.”
“But we’re not engaged.” She couldn’t help the small bit of sarcasm.
Maddie was unsurprised by Vik’s lack of response.
CHAPTER FIVE
MADDIE’S TIME IN the lawyer’s office went quickly, though the elderly man did ask if she was sure she knew what she was doing.
Maddie had no doubts.
Vik stood when she came back into the anteroom, no sign he was in any way upset about what she’d been doing. “All finished?”
“Yes.”
“Do you have any plans for the rest of today?”
“No.”
Vik put his hand on the small of her back and walked with her out of the law office. “Good.”
“Why?”
“We have a photo shoot with the magazine photographer this evening. He’ll join us for dinner at your father’s mansion. My grandparents will be there.”
“Playing happy famili
es? Is that really necessary?”
“Yes.”
When they reached the parking garage, he led her to his car, the limo and SUV full of bodyguards nowhere in evidence.
“Conrad is in the limo with a redheaded decoy.” Vik opened the passenger door of the black amethyst Jaguar XJL for Maddie.
She settled into the luxury car. “Better her than me. I would have made a lousy celebrity.”
“You think?” he asked. “Your father thinks you’ve been doing your best to become the next reality TV star.”
“Just Madcap Madison, version two-point-oh.”
Vik’s expression went from smile to grimace, reflecting Maddie’s own conflicting feelings about her mom’s escapades in the light of adulthood. “In many ways Helene Madison Archer was an amazing woman and she raised a strong and impressive daughter, but the way she chose to cope with the things she didn’t like in her life wasn’t healthy. You must see that.”
“I do.” It had taken some time, but Maddie had come to that conclusion a while ago. The Madcap was something Maddie was doing her best to drop from her name. “Believe it, or not, I’ve always been very careful what part of my life I allow the media into.”
“Perry isn’t so choosy.”
Vik was in the driver’s seat, their identity obscured behind the Jaguar’s tinted windows, when she replied. “Perry is an idiot who relied on our friendship to protect him from the consequences of his lies.”
“It is.”
“You think so?” She indulged in an old favorite secret pastime as he drove out of the financial district and through Chinatown toward Van Ness.
Watching Viktor Beck.
Memories of their recent kiss played over in her mind, a mental movie she could not seem to turn off and that caused a visceral reaction in her body. A reaction she wasn’t sure if she should try to suppress, or not.
If they were getting married, reacting to his kiss was a good thing, right?
Thankfully, she didn’t have to answer the disturbing question of whether she would marry him for the sake of her dreams if she wasn’t attracted to him. How much of her father’s ruthlessness colored Maddie’s spirit?
She was sure Jeremy Archer would say the papers she’d just signed answered that question, but that wasn’t how she saw it.