Negotiation Tactics (Sutton Capital Series Contemporary Romance) Read online

Jack was confused but waited as his wife came to a decision. He guessed she was struggling to disclose something Jennie didn’t want other people to know. It was a few minutes before she spoke.

  “Jennie was married before, Jack. She’s a widow.”

  “What? How could we not know that? How is that possible? In fact, I know it’s not possible. We do background checks on employees. We would have seen it.” Jack was shaking his head but Kelly looked so certain.

  “Do you see all the background checks?” Kelly asked him.

  “No. I guess not. Chad checks them and he usually gives me a quick okay or tells me if there’s an issue.” Understanding swept slowly over Jack. “Chad must know. It must have shown up in her report, but Chad would have respected her privacy. He’d keep that a secret, even from me, since she never volunteered the information herself. I can’t believe she’s a widow. She’s so young. What happened? When?” Jack’s mind ran over everything he knew about the seemingly happy woman who had started out as his temporary secretary but who was now their friend.

  “They grew up together. Fell in love in high school and somehow managed to stay together even through college.” Kelly smiled. “It was a fairytale love. They were married for a year when he died from cancer. That was four years ago, but she hasn’t gotten over it. She dates men from time to time, but honestly, they’re more like friends that take her to dinner. I think she doesn’t truly want to find someone else. I have a feeling Chad challenges that reluctance for her. I think she feels a hell of a lot more for Chad than she wants to. If she looked upset, my guess is it had to do with feelings she’s not ready to have.”

  Jack scrubbed his hands down his face. He was trying to rub away the confusion and figure out how to tell his wife what he’d done.

  “I think Andrew and I screwed up, Honey,” Jack began, feeling more out of his element than he had in a long time.

  Kelly was watching him apprehensively. “What did you do?”

  “A friend of mine called me recently and wanted my opinion on a resort property in the Florida Keys that he wants to buy. It’s a high-end place that caters mostly to young couples, honeymooners, that type of thing. I told Peter I’d send someone to check it out, see if anything comes up. Andrew and I arranged for Chad and Jennie to go in as honeymooners on Monday. They, uh… They don’t know yet. We’re planning to tell them it came up suddenly. We thought it would be a good way to give them a little push, you know?”

  “Can you cancel it?” Kelly sat up further, looking more alert.

  “Absolutely. I can look over the numbers for my friend, and do an assessment for him without sending anyone out there. If you think that’s what I should do, I’ll do it in a heartbeat,” Jack assured her.

  Jack watched Kelly as she seemed to struggle with the decision.

  “It’s all right, Kels. I’ll go cancel it. I shouldn’t have done it in the first place.” Jack started to stand, but Kelly put a hand on his arm to stop him.

  “No,” Kelly said slowly. “I’ll probably go to hell for this, but maybe you should send them. I think Jennie’s been sad lately, watching all of us getting married, seeing us start a family. I know something’s got her stuck in the past, but maybe it would be good to see if we can nudge her out of it.”

  Jack’s eyebrows just about shot through the roof. “Really? You think I should send them?”

  Kelly nodded. “If it was anyone other than Chad, I’d say no. But, we can trust him with her. If Jennie doesn’t want anything to happen, nothing will. We can be sure of that with Chad. He won’t pressure her. But, if I’m right about her feelings for him, maybe he can help her get past whatever’s been holding her back.”

  “You’re sure?” Jack asked.

  “No. Not at all.” Kelly looked positively miserable at the idea that she might be doing the wrong thing for Jennie.

  Jack laughed and wrapped his arms around Kelly. “You’re right about one thing, though. We can trust Chad with her. If Jennie doesn’t want anything to happen, nothing will.”

  Kelly was quiet for a few more minutes.

  “Text me when you tell them Monday and I’ll call Jennie and see how she’s doing. If she’s totally freaked, you can make an excuse and say it’s cancelled. If she’s okay, we let them go. Sound good?”

  Jack nodded and then began to rain kisses down his wife’s jaw line, across her neck, to her shoulder. Before he could get much further, Kelly gasped and sat straight up – well, as straight up as her pregnant belly would allow.

  “Wait! If you’re sending Jennie away for two weeks, she might not be here when the baby’s born. We can’t do that. She needs to be here, Jack.”

  Jack smiled at his wife, pushing her back on the pillows and continuing the slow caressing of the body he loved.

  “The doctor said most women don’t go into labor early their first time.” Jack smiled at Kelly as she whimpered in response to his statement. He knew she was dying to have the baby on time, not wanting to be pregnant a moment past her due date.

  “Commercial flight time is only about two and half hours but I promise to have a jet on standby. She won’t wait at the airport or anything. We’ll whisk her out of there and get her home in an hour, an hour and a half, tops. She won’t miss the delivery. I promise.”

  Kelly laid back down and grinned at him, wrapping her arms around him as he went back to worshiping the woman who was about to make him the happiest daddy in the world.

  Chapter Seven

  Jennie sat in the comfortable seat in first class but she was anything but comfortable. Her head had been spinning since that morning when Jack gave her and Chad a new assignment. She’d barely had time to go home and pack for the two-week-long trip, let alone think about what it would mean to be pretending to be Chad’s wife in a tropical resort set up for romance and seduction.

  When Jack had first explained the assignment to them, she’d had a flash of panic, but there was no way she’d refuse an assignment from Jack. She loved her work at Sutton Capital and wouldn’t jeopardize it even though the thought of going through with it terrified her. After Kyle died, Jennie had floundered for quite some time, bouncing from one temporary job to the next. The truth was, she hadn’t had much interest in ‘finding her way’ as her parents had encouraged her to. She had just wanted to get by.

  That had changed when Jack took her on as a permanent member of his security and investigations staff. She had no idea why Jack took a chance on her the way he did. As his temporary assistant she had overstepped her job description and could have been fired for listening in on Jack’s private conversations. But, Jack Sutton never did anything conventional and it turned out that Jennie was damn good at what she did there and she liked the work. She really liked it. The only downside had been her insane attraction to Chad, but she’d managed to keep her walls up there. She made sure she kept him at arm’s length at all times and didn’t let their interactions get past superficial conversation and impertinent jokes.

  And yet, somehow, they did get closer. Despite her best efforts, she knew Chad saw through her. And there was the one time she’d made a mistake and let him get too close. He’d kissed her and nearly brought her to her knees. For one sweet incredible moment, she’d forgotten about Kyle. Forgot the hurt. The pain. The loss. The guilt.

  And then the kiss broke and the realization had hit. She had forgotten about Kyle. And that discovery hurt more than anything. How could she let another man make her forget? How could she do that to Kyle? Hadn’t she done enough to him already?

  Jennie chanced a glance at Chad. He’d been even more quiet than usual through the whole morning. He hadn’t said much of anything in Jack’s office, though she’d felt his eyes on her, assessing her reaction. He’d picked her up at her house and carried her bags to the car, all without a word. He’d spoken as little as possible as they drove Zeke over to Jill and Andrew’s house, where he would stay for the two weeks she was gone.

  And now, Chad sat silent, by her side. Usually
she hated it when he was this quiet. It made her want to fill the silence and when she did, she ended up babbling, spewing verbal diarrhea all over the damn place.

  But, Jennie didn’t feel much like talking right now.

  Two weeks pretending to be in love with Chad. How will I do this? Never mind ‘do this’ – how will I survive it?

  Jennie bit down on her lip and looked out the plane’s window. She felt like crying. Then Chad took her hand and squeezed. He leaned in to whisper in her ear.

  “Don’t worry, Jennie. We can do this.”

  That was it. That’s all he said and then he leaned back and fell asleep in his chair. But he didn’t let go of her hand. And she didn’t let go either.

  ***

  Chad began to relax as he listened to Jennie babble to the driver on their way from the airport to the resort. She didn’t let the driver’s limited ability with the English language stop her. She chatted on and on like a little songbird. This was Jennie in her undercover persona and Chad was happy to see her there. He felt a grin crack his face for the first time since he’d walked into Jack’s office this morning. Watching Jennie in work mode always made him laugh because no one ever saw her coming. She would have made a brilliant actress.

  When Jennie went undercover, she acted like a complete airhead. It was what made her so good at their work. She was able to befriend everyone and most people assumed she was a total idiot, the way she prattled on about anything and everything. And, because they assumed she was the ditzy girl she portrayed, they spoke freely to her and in front of her. Jennie, who was anything but an airhead, soaked it all in, remembered every detail. She knew when to prod further and when to back off. She was brilliant.

  When they teamed up together, the effect was even better. With his size, most people assumed he was a giant meathead. As long as Chad stayed quiet and let them think that, people had the same habit of speaking freely in front of him. When he and Jennie worked together, it was usually just a matter of putting themselves in the right places to overhear conversations and observe a business’s day-to-day operations. If there were any weaknesses in a company, they found them.

  The driver pulled into the circular drive of the sprawling main building of the resort. A smiling doorman came forward to open their doors and load luggage onto a brass, rolling cart. Chad took Jennie’s hand to help her out of the car and watched her face as she took in the gorgeous white stone building with its terra cotta roof and ornate open-air entryway.

  She still took his breath away. He saw her almost every damn day at work or out on the weekends with his friends, but it didn’t seem to lessen the impact she had on him. Every time Chad looked at Jennie’s peaches and cream skin with the dusting of light freckles across her nose and the tops of her cheeks, he felt like he’d been punched in the gut. He wanted to lose himself in the long strands of her wild hair, its crazy strawberry-blond curls tangling in his fingers as he pulled her in to taste her mouth. The mouth he couldn’t forget after just one kiss.

  Jennie looked at him and grinned, snapping him back to reality. A reality where Jennie Evans would never be his.

  “Remind me to thank Jack.” Then she leaned in close so only he would hear, the proximity sending him back into fantasy land. “I can’t believe we’re getting paid for this. Two weeks in heaven.”

  Heaven? Nah. This is going to be two weeks in hell, Jennie girl. Two weeks in fucking hell.

  Chad put his hand on Jennie’s waist, pulling her close and walked with her into the lobby. There, they were greeted by another staff member who offered fluted glasses of champagne. Jack had apparently booked a very high-end package for them because they never even made it to the front desk. They were greeted by name and shown immediately to a secluded villa on the beach.

  Chad would have preferred to be a little less obtrusive. He’d learned it pays to blend in with the masses and not stand out like a sore thumb when you’re trying to gather information. If he’d planned this trip, he would have chosen a room that was in the middle of the price range with the right number of amenities to allow them to conform to those of most people there.

  But, Jack had planned this job without a word to Chad before this morning. And that seemed damn suspicious to Chad. He had a feeling his cousin was up to something, but he tried to put that thought aside. Jack certainly wouldn’t be stupid enough to send Chad and Jennie here for anything other than innocent, work-related reasons. Not after what Chad had told Jack and Andrew over the weekend.

  Would he?

  Chapter Eight

  Thankfully, once they began moving, Chad released his hold on her waist. Jennie needed the space to salvage the remaining bits of her wits.

  She lost herself in work mode as they walked to the private villa on the beach. She couldn’t believe she would share this private retreat with Chad for the next two weeks.

  The resort was hot and tropical, with the sounds of birds and the ocean and a light breeze. Even the air smelled different here. They followed the woman who’d introduced herself as Maria when she’d greeted them in the lobby. They went past the common areas and crossed into an area of dense shrubs and trees, following a small sandy path. When they emerged moments later, their private villa stood in front of them, on its own. It was surrounded by the finest white sand Jennie had ever walked on. She took off her sandals and held onto Chad’s arm as they crossed the warm sand to the porch at the front of the villa.

  If touching the smooth, hard muscles of Chad’s arm hadn’t stolen Jennie’s breath already, the view certainly would have. They faced the ocean with its crystal-blue water. There was a teak double chaise lounge on the front porch filled with soft pillows and there was a hammock off to one side.

  Jennie gasped as she stepped inside the villa. The house looked like a tiny grass hut from the outside but it was anything but that. It was smothered in luxury and comfort.

  “It’s beautiful!” Jennie didn’t know what to look at first. The doors and furniture were made of a beautiful dark wood with ornate carvings and patterns. The chairs and couch looked comfortable and inviting. A small fireplace in the corner promised a real honeymooning couple romantic evenings if the temperature dropped at night. Overhead fans turned lazily throughout the room to stir the hot air.

  Jennie walked through the living room to large double doors that opened to an enormous master bedroom. In fact, thinking back to the doors she’d seen as she walked through, and the size of the villa from the outside, Jennie had a sneaking suspicion this was the only bedroom. Their bags had already been placed in the room by the hotel staff and the bed was covered in pastel rose petals and towels intricately folded to look like a bouquet of flowers.

  That’s right. This is the honeymoon…

  Try as she might, Jennie couldn’t keep from imagining Chad laying her on the bed, his strong body coming down over her. His heated hands and mouth…

  Jennie heard Chad approach and felt his presence behind her a minute later. She turned to see him leaning on the door jamb, hands shoved in his pockets, his bad boy grin firmly in place on his face.

  “Big bed,” he said, peering around her.

  Jennie laughed at Chad, but on the inside, she felt her body grow hot in response to his presence in the room, to his suggestive tone.

  “It’s all yours, Boss Man. I’ll be sleeping on the couch.”

  That got Chad’s attention and he stood and stepped toward her. His no nonsense boss tone was back. “You’re not sleeping on the couch, Jen. I was joking about the bed. I’ll be on the couch. You’re in here.”

  “Don’t be silly, Chad. I’m a foot shorter than you. I’ll be fine out on the couch or even on one of the chaise lounge chairs. Hell, any of them look more comfy than my bed at home. Comfy for a person my size, not yours.”

  Chad let out something between a growl and a laugh. “Not happening, Jennie.”

  He crossed the room to grab his bag and headed to the living room.

  “You can’t do that, Chad. We
’re married, remember? You need to keep your clothes in here or the housekeepers will wonder what you did to land yourself in the doghouse when we’ve only been married a couple of days.”

  Chad looked at Jennie for a long minute. She could see the tension in his jaw as he fought against what he wanted and what they had to pretend to be for the next two weeks. Without a word, he crossed to the dresser and closet and began to unpack his clothes. Jennie sat on the bed and watched him, amused. As one might expect from someone who’d spent so many years in the military, everything had its place in Chad’s world. He lined his extra shoes along the bottom of the closet. He folded clothes and organized them in different drawers. Hung dress shirts and pants on hangers and arranged them with precisely one inch between each hanger.

  Jennie followed him into the bathroom and watched him set out his toiletries, lining up toothbrush, toothpaste, brush, and razor just so. He left the same distance between each item on the counter.

  Chad eyed her as he walked back out of the bathroom. He scooped up the flip flops Jennie had kicked off at the foot of the bed and walked out to the front of the villa. Jennie padded after him and stifled a giggle when he lined up her flip flops by the door. He slipped off the sneakers he had on and lined them up next to Jennie’s shoes.

  Apparently satisfied, he began taking extra pillows off the couch.

  Oh, this is too good to resist.

  Jennie went to the small bar in the living room and opened a can of soda for herself.

  “Want one?” she asked Chad, holding up the can.

  “No thanks. I’ll probably go to sleep soon. I wasn’t planning on such a long day of travel and I was up half the night getting some reports ready for Jack.”

  “You didn’t know about this trip ahead of time?” Jennie frowned. She thought Chad had a hand in planning all of Sutton Capital’s projects like this one.

  Chad shook his head. “Not a clue. I found out about it the same time you did.”

  “Isn’t that weird? I mean, don’t you usually plan these things? If you didn’t plan it, who did?” Jennie had been so busy trying to convince herself she could do this job when they’d been in Jack’s office earlier, she hadn’t even looked at Chad to see if he looked surprised. Now she had to wonder if he was as thrown as she was.