relaxed infinitesimally. “Good.”
“Regardless of the reason for our meeting, I would like to get to know you, Miss Archer.” Maxwell, damn his hide, smiled charmingly at Madison. “You seem like an interesting person.”
She inclined her head. “Thank you, but—”
“Don’t dismiss the possibility of our compatibility out of hand,” Maxwell interrupted her with another of his lady-killer smiles. “I bet I could teach you to like some of the things you’ve been accused of needing.”
Madison’s gasp said she was shocked by Maxwell’s words.
Whether the words themselves or where he chose to speak them, Viktor didn’t know and it didn’t matter. He wasn’t surprised. Maxwell played to his strengths and exploited the weakness of others.
Turning the lurid headlines into something forbidden but potentially exciting was a solid tactic for handling the current situation and the humiliation Madison had to be experiencing. Though she’d done nothing to let it show.
Unfortunately for Maxwell, Viktor wasn’t going to let the ploy succeed.
Nothing was standing between Viktor and control of AIH. Not even Madison herself, but particularly not Maxwell Black.
Clearly upset with Maxwell’s words, Jeremy made a sound of protest.
Before the older man could say anything Viktor was in front of Black, blocking his line of sight with Madison. “That is not something you are going to discuss here, or with Madison at all.”
“You think not?” Black challenged back.
“I know not.”
“I don’t need your protection, Viktor,” Madison said quietly from behind him.
He turned to face her, but didn’t move so Black would have to stand and sidestep to see her. “Nevertheless, you have it.”
She shook her head, whether in denial, or frustration, he didn’t know.
“I’m nowhere near taking him up on his offer. I’m pretty sure even the mildest form of that kind of relationship requires trust and I don’t have any. Not for men, particularly men with the same priorities as Jeremy Archer. Businessmen.”
She made the word sound like a slur.
Viktor didn’t believe her regardless. Madison trusted him. She always had; even if she no longer realized it.
And while Maxwell’s words hadn’t surprised him, Madison’s willingness to meet them head-on did. But then maybe it shouldn’t have. She’d already shown her willingness to stand against her father.
Maxwell got up, his pose too damned relaxed for Viktor’s liking. Even less did he like the way the other man moved around him to face Madison. “I see.”
“Good.”
“Nothing in the contract states we must share a bedroom.”
Madison’s eyes flared with...was it interest?
Viktor cursed under his breath. “In order to receive the shares stipulated, Madison and her husband must provide an heir for Archer International Holdings.”
Madison gasped, anger shimmering around her like electric currents.
Before she could say anything, Maxwell shrugged. “There is always artificial insemination.”
“While we live two entirely separate lives?” Madison asked in a tone Viktor recognized, but from the reaction of both Maxwell and her father, they did not.
Jeremy puffed up with renewed anger while the other Russian-American nodded with smug complacency. “Exactly.”
“We would be married in name only?” she asked, the disgust levels rising enough that the others should have recognized them.
They didn’t.
“No.” Viktor was done with the verbal games.
Madison gave him a look like she was questioning his right to make the pronouncement.
“That sort of relationship would be too uncertain for the health of Archer International Holdings,” Viktor pointed out.
Disappointment dulled the blue of Madison’s azure gaze, but she masked the emotion almost immediately. Viktor cursed silently.
Her father, however, nodded vigorously. “Precisely.”
“I think your daughter has already proven she is more than capable of her own decisions.” Maxwell’s admiration was annoyingly apparent.
“I won’t sign the contract,” Jeremy said in implacable tones.
The BIT CEO didn’t look worried.
Madison’s features had gone smooth with a lack of emotion once again as she stared at her father. “You believe I would agree to that kind of marriage?”
For once Jeremy seemed incapable of speech, perhaps realizing finally how little interest Madison would ever have in such a cold-blooded bargain.
“But then you believed the lies Perry spewed, didn’t you?”
“I never said that.” Jeremy’s voice had an alien quality.
Realization of his colossal error in judgment in the handling of his daughter must be settling in, but being who he was, Viktor’s boss wasn’t going to back down, either.
Madison pulled her copy of the contract from the stack of papers in front of her and stood. “I assume you aren’t going to do anything to mitigate Perry’s lies.”
“I have done it. Do you think this agreement is only about AIH? This is as important for you as it is the reputation of my company.” Jeremy clearly believed what he said, but then Viktor had made sure his company’s president saw things exactly that way. “Once you are married to a powerful man with an impeccable reputation, you can begin to live down your youthful excesses.”
“My life has nothing to do with your company.”
Viktor wasn’t about to let the conversation degenerate further and there was only one direction it was headed if the two kept talking. Down.
“Conrad will put out a press release categorically denying all of Timwater’s allegations,” Viktor inserted before another word could be said.
The media fixer looked up from his tablet. “I will?”
Severely unimpressed with the man’s lack of dedication to the protection of the company president’s daughter, Viktor let Conrad see his displeasure. “You will do a hell of a lot more than that. If you’d been doing your job properly to begin with, this situation would not have happened.”
“Protecting Miss Archer from her own excessive behaviors has never been in my job’s purview,” Conrad
