A Merger by Marriage (Las Vegas Nights 2)
“I was perfectly sober.” Violet rushed to answer the question in Harper’s eyes. “So was he.”
“So, you didn’t just spend the night at JT’s house,” Harper clarified. “You spent the night with JT?”
“No. It’s not that kind of marriage.”
Harper regarded her gravely. “What sort of marriage is it?”
“It’s strictly a business arrangement.”
“But not funny business obviously,” Scarlett groused.
Violet ignored her. “Mom and I went to the lawyer a few days ago and it turns out Tiberius had been purchasing Stone Properties stock from other family members.”
“I thought he didn’t want anything to do with the
company after what Preston did to him,” Scarlett said.
“I think it was more a matter of not being able to do anything to get his brother-in-law removed as CEO. Preston controlled the shares he inherited on his wife’s death as well as the ones that were in JT’s trust. Shares that JT took control of on his thirtieth birthday two months ago.”
“How much stock had Tiberius managed to buy?” Harper asked, her keen business mind catching on quickly.
“Eighteen percent.”
“And how much was in JT’s trust?”
“Thirty percent. Preston owns thirty and the other twenty-two percent is split up among the family.”
“So what does this have to do with why you and JT got married?” Scarlett asked, returning the conversation to what she was interested in.
“Obviously Tiberius left her his shares,” Harper said.
Scarlett shot her sister a pained look. “I get that, but why marry JT when she could sell him the shares?”
“Because according to Tiberius’s will, I have to keep the stock until Preston dies.”
“You know you didn’t have to marry JT,” Harper pointed out. “You could have just thrown your support behind him.”
Violet felt her features take on the same injured expression Scarlett had just worn. Once in a while she wished Harper would acknowledge that she wasn’t always the smartest one in the room.
“Only family can vote the shares,” she explained.
Scarlett clapped her hands in delight. “So, now you’re family. That’s brilliant.”
“Thank you.” Violet appreciated having Scarlett’s support because she could see that Harper wasn’t done with her objections.
“But with your eighteen percent and JT’s thirty—”
Violet interrupted. “We still need three percent to control the vote.” She glanced at the clock on her phone and realized JT was probably boarding his flight to Charlotte. “He’s heading out to talk to some of his relatives, hoping he can persuade enough of them to either sell or throw their vote his way so he can take control of Stone Properties and get his father out.”
“And you found out about this a few days ago?” Harper frowned. “Aren’t you moving a little quick? I would think you’d both want to protect yourselves before getting married.”
“You haven’t seen the way JT looks at her,” Scarlett interjected. “I don’t think that man has the patience to last any longer.”
To Violet’s intense dismay, she felt her cheeks heating again. “It’s not like that between us,” she protested. “And we signed an agreement that we’d walk away with what we came into the marriage with. Really, it’s just a business deal. A marriage in name only.”
“How long do think that’s going to last?” Scarlett’s lips wore a lusty smile. “The two of you share the same house night after night. Him just down the hall? I give you a week tops before you crack. JT...” She cocked her head and considered. “Maybe three days.”
“We’re not going to live together,” Violet explained, growing lightheaded as she remembered how hard it had been to fall asleep the previous night after kissing JT. But in the future there would be no more such kisses, passion-drenched or otherwise. They’d both agreed on that.