Free Dream Nights With the CEO by Kathy Lyons Page A

Miss…can I call you Bethany?”
    The woman nodded, her chin dropping in a single dramatic slash.
    “It would help if you could give us an idea of what you’re looking for.” Megan set the woman’s paper aside.
    “Something a little more realistic,” Wyatt inserted.
    Bethany took a long moment. She looked at him coldly, then over to Megan with a little more hope in her expression. She opened her mouth to speak, then abruptly shut it again. Her hand twitched, heading for the drawer with the furred thing, but then she abruptly slapped it back on her desk. A second later she was opening another drawer and pulling out a neat folder.
    “This is what Miranda’s Place is worth. Here are tax statements, assessor documents, the improvements I’ve made.” She swallowed as she all but threw the folder at them. “That’s everything.” Then she looked at Wyatt, her gaze disturbingly pleading. “Can you pay me that?”
    “No,” he said. He’d seen the bottom line. Megan was paging through the documents, double checking everything, but it really wasn’t important. He didn’t have that kind of ready cash. Sure, he could raise it if need be, but why do that on such a long-shot investment?
    Bethany flinched and he feared she was about to burst into tears.
    Megan glanced at him. He knew that she was echoing his own thoughts. This woman was desperate, but she wasn’t evil. He didn’t really have it in his heart to gouge her, and with Megan looking at him like that, he knew all this maneuvering was best saved for someone else. Bethany’s control was fraying by the second. For her sake, he needed to end this right now.
    So he leaned forward and manually slashed at the numbers on his proposal. Earlier, he and Megan had worked out the worst deal he could still live with, and that’s what he wrote out.
    “This is the best I can do, Bethany,” he said softly. “And I mean that sincerely. I’ll get majority control of the property, but I’ll promise these renovations.” Megan pulled out their list and set it on the desk. “We’ll redesign all the marketing. You’ll stay on with a full salary and can continue to live in your third floor apartment—”
    “No!”
    Wyatt recoiled at her terrified word. “What?”
    Bethany swallowed and made an effort to control herself. “I’ve, um, I’m planning on moving out, Mr. Monroe. Living off site. I can…” She shuddered. “I can continue to work here, and I need at least twenty percent ownership. But you can…um, you can rent out the top floor for guests.”
    He frowned. “What’s wrong with the upstairs, Miss Clark?”
    She flinched again. “Nothing’s wrong with it.”
    Now it was Megan’s turn to be cold. “Don’t lie to us, Bethany, or we end this now.”
    Bethany blanched but didn’t speak. Meanwhile, Megan pulled out two more printed pages of spreadsheets.
    “These are the offers that Mr. Monroe and I worked out. This was our middle offer, and this one was bottom line what we could live with.” She pointed to where the file names were indeed exactly that. “As you can see, he’s just made you an offer even better than our bottom line.” Megan gave him a considering look. “I don’t know why; he appears to be feeling generous. But I won’t let him sign anything until we know the truth. Why are you suddenly so anxious to get out of your only home?”
    Bethany shot her a hard look. “I was a lawyer before I inherited Miranda’s place.”
    “And if you still wanted to be a lawyer, you’d never have started washing bed linens for a living,” Megan cut in. “What happened?”
    Bethany bit her lip, then looked away. In the end, the words came out of her in a grudging half whisper. “This place is haunted.”
    Wyatt grunted his disgust. “Yes, we are aware of the local pirate legend. A lovely tale—”
    “It’s true,” she hissed. Then she raised her hand. “Well, actually, I don’t know if that’s really true. The whole pirate bit. And