"Yes, it's up and flapping. We can't have Mr. O'Malley thinking there's trouble in paradise, can we?"
"I realize this is asking a lot of you."
No, she thought, he couldn't possibly know. "I think you could secure this deal without lying to this man."
Her confidence in him startled Alex, then made him go warm inside. "I suppose, and I don't like this any more than you do, but Angus doesn't say anything he doesn't mean, and his last words were 'if you were settled I'd feel more confident about selling to you.'" He leaned over to an ice bucket and plucked two flutes and a bottle of champagne.
"You make marriage sound like a prison sentence."
"It is." He popped the already loosened cork and poured.
"Your parents divorced?"
He handed her a flute. "They're dead."
Sympathy shaped her features, and she laid her hand on his arm. "I'm sorry."
"It wasn't your fault."
She jerked back. His response was emotionless, unrepentant, and Madison wondered just how deeply their deaths affected him.
"I'd rather not discuss it," he said when she opened her mouth to speak.
She eyed him. "Fine, but when O'Malley asks, you'd better be prepared to speak up." She gulped champagne, then set the flute in the holder.
"I can handle it."
"Lies come easily to you?"
He gave her a dry glance just as his cell phone rang. He responded, pulling out a computer notepad and tapping an entry. He spoke to the caller, then glanced out the window as the limo rolled to a stop in the heart of Savannah.
Madison looked, frowning. They were in front of a rather expensive jewelry store, and before she could question him, a slender, older man left the shop, heading straight for the limo. Alex leaned out to open the door, and the man ducked inside.
Closing the door, the man didn't spare Madison a glance and addressed Alex. "I hope these will be satisfactory, Mr. Donahue."
Alex waved, ending the call, and the man opened a large thin velvet box.
Madison inhaled. It was filled with diamond rings. Diamond wedding rings.
Tucking the phone inside his jacket, he settled back into the cushions and said, "Choose one."
She arched a brow, his uninvolved attitude driving anger through her. He was creating an image, setting the stage, and it stung that the first time she chose a ring with so much meaning behind it, it was for a game so he could own another company he didn't need.
She stared at the rings, so big she'd need an armed guard.
Alex watched her, surprised when she selected a simple, demure band of diamonds, the least costly and ostentatious of the collection. He didn't know what it was about her choice, for she well knew he could afford any one of them, but that particular ring spoke more about her than anything else.
She didn't put it on and lifted her gaze to his. "You select one."
"I don't need to wear a ring." He waved the man off, and the jeweler closed the box.
Madison bent close to whisper, "Either you select a wedding band and wear it, or I refuse to do this." If anything, tonight he'd understand he couldn't pull her into his ploys without sharing the burdens.
Alex frowned at her, his gaze sketching her face and the tenacity he saw there. "You're going to be a tyrant about this, aren't you?"
"Oh, yes," she said with feeling.
Alex looked at the jeweler, nodding. He opened the tray, indicating the men's rings. With scarcely a glance, Alex pulled the mate of hers from the rows. But before he could put it on, Madison took it from him, slipping it on his finger.
He went still as glass.
A sudden warmth spread through him, her hands soft and delicate against his, her smile Mona-Lisa slight, with mystery, and for the briefest moment he wished this wasn't a lie. He wished he didn't have so much crowding his life, wished he didn't have a well-honed reputation that put her off and made her think less-than-stellar thoughts of him. He wished he was worthy of—
No, he didn't have time for fantasies. He had the deal of his lifetime to secure, and he didn't want a wife, or the heartache that came with loving someone and having them leave. Regardless, he took her hand and watched as he slid her diamond band onto her finger.
His heart wrenched at the sight of it, the circle of water-clear white stones. Possession, it said. A mark for the world to see. His mark. And in the back of him mind, a dark, begging hunger roared to life and taunted him.
"Alexander?"
His head jerked up, his gaze colliding with hers. He swallowed. He'd never heard her say his name. And the whisper of it drove a hard spike of longing through him.
Without pause she touched the side of his face, a stroke of soft fingers, and Alex nearly moaned at the sweet feel of her touch. Her lips curved, as if she understood all he was feeling. Even though he didn't have a clue.