I see.” Finally she was beginning to understand. Victoria was an actress. She wasn’t really Trey’s girlfriend, but she played the role as part of an agreement between them. In a strange sort of way it made sense. It certainly explained why they had so often asked Jane to get Victoria on the phone at the last minute when an event came up. It also explained why he usually had Jane arrange for a car to pick Victoria up and take her wherever it was they were going, rather than picking her up himself.
How ironic that Trey had asked someone else to play the role of girlfriend for him when Jane wanted the job so desperately herself. But he couldn’t see that. And she couldn’t show it.
“Don’t look at me like that.”
“Like what?” she asked, instinctively raising a hand to her face.
“Like I’m the devil himself.”
“I wasn’t.”
“You know, I do have the company’s best interest at heart here.” He shrugged. “It was a harmless lie, good for my father, good for me and good for the company.”
“Everyone wins?”
“Exactly. You do realize that if we keep going the way we are, with no solid leadership, we’re going to have to do some downsizing? That means people will lose their jobs. I could prevent that, if I had control.”
“Can’t you just buy more shares yourself?”
He shook his head. “I’ve done everything I could to get more shares, and our other investors, at least the ones I can identify, just aren’t budging.”
Jane began to calculate the worth of her own shares, then stopped. It wasn’t even close to what he would need. She was saving for her eventual retirement, so her interest was based on the forty-year savings plan, not controlling shares. “But if your father is willing to sign over his shares—”
“That’s just it. If he’s willing. But now…” He made a gesture of futility. “Unless Victoria shows up, he’s going to go back to Europe and leave me here with my piddly eighteen percent. I mean, telling him I’m serious about a relationship and then losing the girl looks worse than never having been serious in the first place.”
“I see.”
“Though it wouldn’t necessarily have to be Victoria…” He tapped his fingers on the desk. “It could be anyone.”
Jane’s mouth suddenly felt dry. “Doesn’t your father know who Victoria is?”
He shrugged. “Actually, no. I never said her name. He lives in Tuscany—”
“The south of France,” Jane corrected automatically, still thinking about the fact that Victoria wasn’t really a contender after all.
“What’s that?”
She returned her attention to the conversation. “It’s the south of France, not Tuscany.” She’d heard the stories of how the elder Terrence Breckenridge had suddenly abandoned the business he’d founded to move to a quiet life near Provence. It was Jane’s fantasy that someday she, too, would have that kind of nerve, so his destination had stuck in her mind.
“South of France, that’s right.” Trey looked impressed. “When we spoke, it was a bad phone connection, I just told him we’d talk about it when he got here.” Optimism was lighting his eyes. “And now that he’s here, I need a girl. Fast.”
Jane sensed disaster in that plan. “Can’t you just tell your father the truth?”
“No way.” He gave a spike of humorless laughter and leaned back in his chair. “This is harmless enough and—you’re looking at me that way again. What’s wrong?”
She shook her head. “It’s none of my business.”
“But?”
She shrugged. How could she tell him all the things that were running through her mind, about him and marriage and love? “I just take the idea of marriage seriously.”
“So do I. That’s why I don’t want anything to do with it.” He leaned forward. “I have a theory that nothing kills all hope for future happiness like getting married.”
Her heart sank. “That’s a depressing thought.”
“I know it is, but it’s true. I don’t know of one lasting union that’s turned out happy.” He paused. “Do you?”
“Many,” she answered quickly. Immediately she questioned herself. Could she say her parents? Her father had died when she was eleven, but until then they had seemed happy together. Her mother had certainly been unhappy once he was gone.
“Name one.”
“I could name several, but no one you know.”
“Hmm.” He obviously didn’t believe her.
“Can’t you think of even one?”
“Not one.”
“How about your parents?” It was a mistake, she realized immediately.
Trey’s expression froze. His mouth was still turned up in the suggestion of a smile but the humor had left his eyes. “In my opinion, marriage is an institution that doesn’t work.”
Very bad subject. She made a mental note of it. “Okay, so does your father know you feel that way about marriage?”
He shook his head. “Nope. Unfortunately, I’ve got to play his little game if I want to win.”
“All to get the company?”
His eyes hardened. “I’ve worked damn hard to build this business, and if you get right down to it, the old man’s not exactly playing fair by ransoming it for a promise of marriage.”
“Do you really feel marriage is such a bad thing?” She gathered her courage. “Or do you think you just haven’t met the right girl yet?”
He considered her for a moment. “Let me put it this way, my relationship with you is the longest relationship I’ve ever had with a woman.” He gave a half smile. “I don’t think that’s going to change. But if I create the impression that I’m involved and heading toward the altar to make the old man happy, it’s not so bad, is it?”
“I guess not.” But she wasn’t sure.
He straightened up. “Then you understand.”
“I think I do.” She wasn’t sure at all.
He heaved a breath. “Victoria was perfect for the job.”
Meaning, Jane supposed, that not only was she an actress, but she was gorgeous. Looks were almost all that were required. She looked down, privately wishing, for the thousandth time, that she could have just a week of being perfect in the way that blond, petite curvaceous Victoria Benson was. Just to see what it felt like.
At five feet eleven and skinny as a
