might be. “And what does Mitch get out of all this?”
To Lauren’s chagrin, Mitch looked every bit as interested in the prize as she had been. “I’d like to know that myself,” Mitch said.
Payton shot Mitch a man-to-man glance before turning back to Lauren and speaking to both of them. “If he agrees to spend every evening with you for one week, he’ll get what he’s been wanting. A merger between the Heyward and Deveraux shipping companies. The two of you have until 6:00 p.m. this evening to agree to my terms. Or there will be no deal.”
Although Mitch looked quite calm, Lauren had to struggle to keep control of her emotions as she regarded her father. “I can’t believe you are doing this to me!” she fumed, folding her arms in front of her.
“I predicted you would feel that way,” Payton countered as he stood and walked over to the minibar to pour himself a glass of springwater. But to Lauren’s dismay, her outrage didn’t change what her father was doing, or how he was doing it, one iota.
The hurts of the past came slamming back at Lauren. “It’s always business with you, above everyone and everything else, isn’t it?” she said to her father. She was so furious she was shaking.
“That’s not true,” Payton said, abruptly looking just as stricken and upset as Lauren felt.
“Isn’t it?” Lauren challenged bitterly. Tired of keeping her feelings to herself, she plunged on emotionally, “The bottom line is you’ve always paid more attention to your business than you ever have to Mom and me, even when she was dying. Well, I can’t forgive you for always putting your company’s interests ahead of your family, Dad,” she told him, her throat aching with the effort it took to speak at a normal level. “And I sure as hell can’t forgive you for this!”
Ignoring the hurt look on her father’s face, and the stunned look on Mitch’s, she grabbed her handbag, turned on her heel and stormed out.
“SHE’S NOT THE ONLY ONE who is shocked by this proposal of yours,” Mitch said in the silence that fell. He was damn near flabbergasted.
“I want my daughter to marry well,” Payton Heyward said.
“But to a Deveraux?” Mitch countered, filled with the uneasy feeling that Heyward was withholding every bit as much information from Mitch and Lauren as he was telling. “As you pointed out to me six months ago when I first approached you with the idea of a merger, the Deveraux and the Heywards have a history of duking it out in the marketplace—in ever-inventive ways.” Was this just another one of them? Mitch wondered. And if so, was Payton’s daughter, Lauren, not only one hell of an actress but now an active participant in the competition between the two firms, albeit in an unexpectedly inventive way?
“Well, I thought it over, and you are right. Our two shipping businesses’ continued battle for market share was unnecessarily sapping the energy and resources from us both. We should stop trying to outsell each other, agree to go after different areas of the marketplace and focus on simply increasing revenue in our own specifically targeted areas.”
Mitch remembered the meeting—and his own disappointment and disillusionment afterward—well. “Right, and even after I finally managed to convince you that my proposal wasn’t a trick to diminish your various accounts or overall sales, you still didn’t want any part of a formal no-compete agreement, never mind a merger between our two firms.” Nor, unfortunately, had Mitch’s father. Mitch looked Payton straight in the eye. “You said competition was the lifeblood of business and that your ongoing contest with my father and me was what kept you and your sales force on their toes.”
“And that’s still true,” Payton said matter-of-factly. “But so is what you said. Maybe it’s time we both looked at change. And the best way, the surest way, to do that is through you and Lauren. Don’t you see?” Payton returned to his desk and sat down, albeit a bit stiffly. “If you and Lauren marry and join our families and businesses through that marriage, it gives us an incentive to make the situation work fairly for both families and businesses. It’s sort of like an insurance policy that both sides will do their best to see that you and Lauren are happy.”
“With one exception,” Mitch corrected, his uneasiness only increasing as he looked Payton Heyward straight in the eye. “I never brought up the idea of either dating your daughter or marrying her. Furthermore, you just saw what Lauren’s answer to your proposition is. She wasn’t the least bit open to the idea.”
Payton waved a hand and countered confidently, “She’s upset. She’ll calm down once she’s had an opportunity to mull it all over.”
Mitch wasn’t so sure of that. Lauren had looked pretty certain of her feelings to him. “I’m not interested in having a woman forced to marry me for business reasons,” Mitch said firmly. Being married for what he’d thought were all the right reasons, and having that not work out, had been hard enough. He didn’t think he could weather another unhappy liaison, even if his emotions weren’t involved this time because the marriage was strictly a matter of convenience.
“She won’t be coerced into this if you play your cards right and convince her to cooperate,” Payton persuaded softly.
“And why would I want to do that?” Mitch asked.
Payton smiled magnanimously. “Because of the secret bonus in this for you,” he said.
Secrets were trouble. Mitch knew that. And yet the more curious side of him couldn’t keep from biting as he rose from his chair and began to pace. “I’m listening,” he said impatiently after a moment.
“If you can get Lauren to marry you, I will give you fifty-one percent of Heyward Shipping as dowry as well as the position of CEO during the transition period. I will control the other forty-nine percent until my death, and then that percentage will go to Lauren.”
“Which would leave me in control of the company,” Mitch said. And a huge chunk of the Deveraux-Heyward empire on his own. The idea of that, of having his own shipping company to run even before his father retired and turned over the Deveraux empire to him, appealed to him immensely.
“Naturally I’d want to give you every incentive to make this arranged courtship and marriage of yours work,” Payton continued, “so if the marriage dissolves, your fifty-one percent of the company will revert to me, and eventually, Lauren’s control.”
Mitch forced his attention to the problem at hand. “Unfortunately,” Mitch told Payton frankly, “Lauren won’t even go for the idea of us dating for one week. She’ll never agree to the two of us marrying.” Even if he wanted that, Mitch added silently to himself, and he didn’t think that he did.
Payton eyed Mitch thoughtfully. “That’s why this part of our agreement must remain secret,” Payton explained even more pragmatically. “Lauren doesn’t understand the shipping business and the enormous responsibility of running a huge company. She would not comprehend that I am only doing this to make sure that she and her financial interests are taken care of for the rest of her life. You, on the other hand, have already weathered a messy, ugly divorce. And no doubt know that passion is a poor basis for a marriage meant to last a lifetime.”
Mitch had already come to the same conclusion, and in fact, had been looking for a wife who would enhance rather than complicate his life. However, he wasn’t sure an overemotional woman like Lauren was what he was looking for. He’d had in mind someone a lot more sedate and willing to follow his directions. On the other hand, a deal like this—with such a lucrative payoff—did
