Free Cross Check (Marriage Contract #1) by Colleen Masters Page A

Cordelia. She’d sell
off the entire operation and buy herself a private island, no doubt. The only way
I can take my rightful place as the leader of this business, make sure that it
continues to thrive, is to convince Jamison to back down. Or else…marry him?
No. That’s too absurd to even consider.
    “I have an old friend from Harvard who’s done quite well as
a lawyer,” I say, drawing myself to my full, if modest, height. “I’ll have her
take a look at all of this and get back to you, Mr. Price. Just fax me all the
relevant documents.”
    “You’re more than welcome to seek other counsel. But I’m
telling you, she’s gonna come back with the same conclusion I did,” Price says.
    “I’ll let her be the judge of that,” I reply. “Jamison, I
suggest you think long and hard about what you want to do here. I’m sure if you
take your ego out of the picture, you’ll see that stepping aside and taking a
more modest role in the company is the best way to go.”
    “Huh,” Jay grins, “Maybe you should take your own advice
Brody. Give that ego of yours a rest.”
    Before I can say something I’ll regret, I turn on my heel
and march out of the conference room. Price leaps out of his chair as I make my
exit, shouting after me.
    “I need an answer in two weeks’ time, both of you!
Otherwise, everything will go directly to Cordelia.”
    I can hear my heart pounding in my ears as I tear across the
marble foyer, wrench open the heavy front doors, and burst out into the warm
June evening. I suck huge, steadying breaths in my lungs as I hurry back toward
the groundskeeper’s cottage in my towering heels. Surely, this is just a
ridiculous misunderstanding. I can’t actually be expected to marry Jamison King, just for the sake of doing business. What was Loudon thinking,
proposing something like this?
    Despite my outrage at this whole situation, I can’t keep my
mind from reeling back to just before the news of Loudon’s will was delivered.
Upstairs in the study, Jay and I had shared a real moment of connection. Just a
second where we felt as close as we did when we were star-crossed teenagers
stealing a night in the gazebo. Even closer. That kiss had been intense. Real.
Or so I had thought. How did we go from lust to animosity in the course of an
hour?
    I guess that’s just Jamison King for you. Love him or hate
him—there’s no in-between. Hopefully there’s more wiggle room than that in his
father’s damned will.

 
     
    Chapter Six
     
    “I gotta tell you dude, this is pretty grim,” says my friend
Alice Phillips on the phone the next morning. Alice, who I met while we were
both at Harvard, is a successful lawyer in her own right, and agreed to go over
the fine print of Loudon and Priscilla’s will right away.
    “Does that mean you can’t find a loophole either?” I ask,
shoving a hand through my hair as I sit in the cottage’s sunny breakfast nook.
Gigi, sensing my distress, has been curled up on my lap all morning.
    “Not really,” Alice replies. She was never one for mincing
words, “Loudon King really fucked you over with this.”
    “I know he was just trying to make sure we were taken care
of,” I groan, letting my head fall back against the window, “I just wish he’d
thought of a less… creative way to do it.”
    “You want my advice?” Alice asks.
    “Please,” I reply earnestly.
    “Find a new job,” she tells me, “I mean it.”
    “I can’t just walk away from King Enterprises,” I tell her
frankly, “No way. Jamison and Cordelia will ruin the company if they get their
hands on it.”
    “First of all, you don’t know that,” Alice replies, “And
second of all, who cares? You’re infinitely employable. You can go work your
way up to the top of another entertainment empire.”
    “But that’s just the thing, Al. I do care about this
business. Probably way too much,” I tell my friend.
    “I’ll say,” she replies. I can practically hear her shaking
her head.