Marrying Mr. Right. Carolyn Greene

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СКАЧАТЬ style="font-size:15px;">      CHAPTER TWO

      IN AN uncharacteristic response, Donald closed the space between them and grabbed a fistful of Greg’s white shirt and tie. “I’m going to have to ask you to leave now.” He enunciated the words carefully, as if he were Clint Eastwood in a Dirty Harry movie.

      “You’re upsetting my fiancée.”

      When Greg simply stood there and glowered down at him, Donald grabbed him by the arm and attempted to haul him to the door.

      Christina couldn’t believe her eyes. “Donald, what are you doing?”

      To her surprise, Greg disengaged himself from Donald’s grasp. Quickly. In a flash, he had the smaller man pinned against the wall.

      “Greg, stop it now! You’re hurting him.”

      “Oh, you lucky girl!” Trina squealed from behind her. “You have two handsome men fighting over you!”

      Her comment seemed to make Donald squirm harder, which caused Greg to tighten his hold. “Hey, take it easy on my right hand,” Donald protested. “Those are my calculator fingers.”

      Christina looked around for something to use against the man who had crashed back into her life. There was the crystal wine decanter on the counter, but it had been in her family for years and she didn’t want to risk breaking it. Her gaze swept across the kitchen table and fell on the tall wooden pepper mill Trina had been toying with earlier.

      She picked it up and, holding it by the top, stepped closer to the two men. She waved it near Greg’s face, knowing full well she could never bring herself to hit him, no matter how much he infuriated her. “I’m serious about using this.”

      He relaxed his hold slightly on Donald and turned an amused grin on her. “What are you going to do...pepper me with blows?”

      Then, as if to show how unconcerned he was about her supposed threat, he turned his attention back to the man pressed against the flowered wallpaper. “Your calculator fingers? Are you an accountant or something?”

      “A lawyer. But I want to specialize in accounting,” Donald said as casually as if they were having a business lunch. “For now, though, I’m starting out in general practice.”

      Before Christina could work up a steam about being dismissed so offhandedly, Greg released Donald, who rubbed the circulation back into his hand.

      “Really?” said Greg. “I’m getting ready to open a new business here in town, and I could use some help setting up my books. Not only that, I have this problem about the lease for the building...”

      Before she realized what was happening, Greg had hired Donald as his accountant and legal advisor. The two men shook hands to close the deaL

      It was as if they were now the best of friends. Christina doubted she’d ever understand men or their bonding rituals. “Donald, why are you getting involved with him? Have you forgotten what he just suggested to me?”

      “Oh, yeah,” he said, scratching his head. “That’s going to be a problem.”

      “Actually I only need her for a month or so.” Greg straightened his rumpled tie and then shoved his hands into his pockets. “Could be less if the old lady is cooperative.”

      “Excuse me, but this is not just another business deal you two are closing!” She situated herself between the men, placed her hands on her hips and glared up at Greg. “The ‘old lady’ is standing right here, and she’s feeling anything but cooperative at the moment.”

      Trina looked up from the paper napkin she was folding into a tiny triangle. “You tell ’em, sister!”

      Greg actually had the nerve to laugh. “You thought I was referring to you?” He heightened the insult by patronizingly cupping her cheek in the palm of his big hand. “The old lady I spoke of is the ninety-threeyear-old widow who owns the warehouse I want to rent for my new business.”

      Christina turned her face away from his warm hand, trying not to think about the last time he’d touched her like that. She needed to get him out of her house—and out of her life. And the sooner, the better. “I don’t see what that has to do with me.”

      “I have a chain of exercise gyms along the East Coast. When I recently moved back to Morrison Heights, I decided to open one here, too. Mrs. Odell’s warehouse is in the perfect location, and it’s the right size. The only thing holding up the contract is her need for proof that I’m ‘settled’ enough to suit her.” He gave her a charming smile that showed straight, white teeth and a hint of a dimple. “So I told her I was married. Now she wants to meet my wife. That’s you.”

      “You own a chain of exercise gyms, and she wants proof that you’re settled?”

      “Well, I am new back in town, and there’s that matter of my jail time...”

      Donald’s eyes widened. “Hey, buddy, if you were involved in some kind of white collar crime, then you better find someone else to handle your business affairs.”

      “Oh, no, it’s nothing like that,” Trina said, rising from the table and tugging at her jeans. “It was only robbery, and that must have been ten years ago.”

      “I know you’re trying to help, but you’re making it sound worse than it was,” he told Trina. To Donald, he said, “It was a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and with the wrong people.”

      Greg reached into his pocket and pulled out his keys. “All I need you to do,” he said, turning back to Christina, “is come to Mrs. Odell’s town house with me, meet her for tea and look wholesome and settled.” Almost as an afterthought, he added, “That ought not to be hard for you.”

      Christina wasn’t sure whether to take that last part as a compliment or an insult.

      “I’d offer to stand in for you,” Trina interjected, “but it would be hard for me to tone down my natural ‘glam.’ You, on the other hand, absolutely reek of reliability and stability.”

      Greg caught Trina’s eye and made a slicing motion across his throat. She, in turn, mimed a locking gesture beside her mouth, then threw away the imaginary key.

      Turning back to Christina, he added, “Oh, and you’ll have to hold off on the annulment until the lease is signed.”

      “I can’t do that.” She stepped closer to Donald and reiterated what she’d said before. “We’re getting married, and the annulment needs to be finalized right away.”

      “Legal notices are publicized in the newspaper. If word of the annulment gets out before the deal is done, Mrs. Odell will sign the warehouse over to someone else.”

      Christina tilted her chin up. His reappearance had her emotions all topsy-turvy, but she couldn’t let him see the power he held over her. She would not bend to his will. “That’s not my concern.”

      “Fine, then I won’t sign the papers.”

      “Then I’ll just proceed without you. Donald, I can do that, can’t I?”

      “Well, it depends—”

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