Married For Their Miracle Baby

He reached for his coffee and drained it. Real marriage wasn’t something he wanted, hadn’t been on his agenda since the day his first love had walked away from him as though what they’d had meant nothing. He could still feel the cool sting of betrayal as if it was yesterday. But if he could package a marriage of convenience into something that could work for both him and Saffron? Now that was something he’d be willing to do.

CHAPTER THREE

BLAKE CONTINUED TO sip his coffee, watching Saffron. She was beautiful. She was talented and accomplished. She was interesting. If he had to pick a wife on paper, she was it.

“So come on, spill,” she said, setting her knife and fork down, surprising him by the fact she’d actually finished her entire breakfast. “The more you tell me you don’t want to talk about yourself, the more I want to know.”

He shook his head. “No.”

Saffron’s laughter made him smile. “What do I have to do then? To make you tell me?”

Now it was Blake’s laughter filling the space between them. “Marry me.”

Her smile died faster than it had ignited, falling from her mouth. She stared back at him, eyebrows drawing slightly closer together. “I think I misheard you.”

Blake smiled, knew he had to tell her his plan carefully, to sell the idea to her instead of having her run for the door and get a restraining order against him. She was probably thinking he was a nut job, some kind of stalker who was obsessed with her after one night together.

“Look,” he said, spreading his hands wide as he watched her. “If you married someone like me, you would have access to the best medical treatments, and you could stay in New York without any worries.”

She did a slow nod. “Funnily enough, I’ve been joking about that with my friends for weeks—that I need to find a wealthy husband. But I’m used to having a successful career and standing on my own two feet.”

Blake shrugged. “What if we did it? If we got married so you could stay in New York and get back on your feet, so to speak? I could pay for any specialist treatment you need to get you dancing again.”

Her gaze was uncertain, maybe even cool. He couldn’t figure out exactly what she thought now that her smile had disappeared. “I know why it would be good for me, I just don’t get why you’d want to do it. What’s in it for you? Why would you want to help me?”

“Marriage to a beautiful ballerina?” he suggested.

“Blake, I’m serious. Why would you marry me unless there’s something in it for you? A hidden catch?”

“Look, plenty of people marry for convenience. Gay men marry women all the time to hide their sexuality if they think it’s going to help their career or please their family.”

She sighed. “Well, I know you’re not gay. Unless you put on the performance of your life last night, that is. And anyway, I know plenty of gay people, and it hasn’t hurt their careers at all, to be honest.”

“Well, you’re a dancer. Corporate America isn’t always so accepting, even if they pretend to be.”

“Back to you,” Saffron said, studying him intensely, her eyes roving over his face. “Tell me now, or I’m walking out that door.”

Blake wasn’t about to call her bluff. Just because she needed a boost in finances didn’t mean she was automatically going to say yes to marrying a stranger.

“Running my father’s company was never part of my plan,” he told her. “Now I’m CEO of a company that I’m proud of, but not a natural fit for. It’s not the role I want to be in, but there’s also no way I’m about to let that company fall into the wrong hands. I need to keep growing it, and I’m working on two of the biggest deals in the company’s history.”

“I hear you, and I’m sorry you don’t like what you do, but it doesn’t explain why you need a wife. Why you need to marry me?”

Blake didn’t want to tell her everything, didn’t like talking about his past and what he’d lost to anyone, why he didn’t want a real wife, to open himself up to someone again. Eventually he’d have to tell her, otherwise she’d end up blindsided and their marriage would be uncovered as a sham, but not right now. Not until he knew he could trust her.

“I’m sick of the whole tabloid thing, the paps following me because some stupid magazine announced that I was one of New York’s most eligible men.” They’d called him the Billion Dollar Bachelor, the headlines had screamed out that women should be fighting over the former soldier back in the city as a corporate CEO and he hated it. Hated the attention and being known for his family’s money after doing everything in his power to prove his own worth, make his own way in the world. But most of all he hated that people he most needed to impress right now read the rubbish being written, viewed him as a playboy, were unsettled by the fact that he wasn’t settled.

“My dad built up the company as a family business, and our clients like that, especially a large-scale investor I’ve been working on for months. I don’t want them to start thinking the company isn’t going to continue to succeed because some loser rich-kid playboy is at the helm, and if I can set the right image now, it won’t matter if I’m not married in a few years’ time because the deals will be done.”

Saffron didn’t say anything when he paused, just stared at him.

Blake laughed. “Plus I’d like to get my mother and two sisters off my back. They’re driving me crazy, trying to set me up all the time.” He stood, pushing his hands into his pockets, watching, waiting for a reaction. He probably shouldn’t have added the joke about getting them off his back. “So what do you think?”

“What do I think?” she muttered. “I think you’re crazy!”

“We can talk through the details later, but please just think about it.”

“Wow,” Saffron said, holding up her hand. “I need time to think, to process how absurd this is.”

“It’s not that absurd,” he disagreed.

“This is only-in-the-movies absurd,” she fired back. “I’m not saying no, but I can’t say yes right now, either.”

Blake nodded. “I need to head in to the office. Why don’t you stay here a bit, take your time and meet me back here tonight if you decide to say yes. I can get the paperwork and everything sorted out pretty quick, and we can go choose a ring together tomorrow.”

Saffron shook her head, smiling then bursting into laughter. “I can’t believe you’re actually serious, that I’m not just being punked right now.”

“Sweetheart, I’m deadly serious.”

Blake took a few steps forward, touched her chin gently and tipped her face up, his thumb against her smooth skin. He slowly lowered his head and dropped his lips over hers, plucking softly at her lips.

“So we’d actually be married?” she asked, breathless, when she pulled back, mouth still parted as if she was waiting for more.

“Yes,” he said, thinking how cute she looked in his hoodie. “You can set the boundaries, but we need it to look real.”

He bent and kissed her again, softly.

* * *

Saffron could hardly breathe. She’d been outside for at least ten minutes, but her lungs still felt as though they couldn’t pull in enough air. Marry him? How could he have asked her to marry him? They’d spent one night together—but marriage? Did she need rescuing that bad?

She pushed through a crowd of people passing on the street to reach a bench seat, dropping the second she found one. Could she actually marry a man she didn’t even know, just to stay in New York? Just to get her career back on track, if that was even possible? She wished she could laugh it off and tell him there was no way she’d accept his proposal, but the truth was that it was the perfect solution for her. If it was the only way to give her recovery one last, real shot... Saffron gulped and turned her attention to the people walking past. Tried to lift her thoughts from Blake and failed.

What she needed was a piece of paper and her laptop. She would do what she always did—make a list of all the pros and cons, just like when she’d been offered the scholarship to dance with the New York Ballet in the first place. When she was sixteen, the list had been heavy on the pros and low on the cons, the only drawbacks coming from her parents, who wanted her to stay and didn’t understand how desperately she wanted it. This time her list might be more balanced.

Marriage had always seemed so sacred to her, so special, but... She held her breath then slowly blew it out. Dancing was all she had. It was her life. If getting that back, having the one thing in the world back that meant so much to her, meant having to get married, then she had to consider it. Dancing had been her salvation. Could Blake really help her get that back?

Her phone buzzed and she picked it up, seeing it was Claire. She’d been out of touch with most of her dancing friends for the past couple of months, finding it too hard to hear about ballet and what they were training, the pain like a knife to her heart. But Claire had been there for her, been different and she’d enjoyed being part of her arty world.

“Hey,” Saffy said when she answered.

“You’re not still there, are you?” Claire giggled. “I still can’t believe you did it. You’re usually such a prude!”

Saffy laughed. “I am not a prude! Just because you have loose morals.”

Now it was Claire in fits of laughter. “I’m not loose, I just don’t see the point in saying no to a good time. Obviously my amazing personality has rubbed off on you.”

Saffron felt better already after talking to Claire. “He...” Saffy changed her mind, not wanting to tell her. Claire was pretty open-minded, but even she might think it was crazy to consider the proposal.

“What? Tell me what you were going to say! He was amazing, wasn’t he? Tell me more!” her friend begged.

Saffy sighed, the weight of her decision hanging heavy. “He was amazing, incredible, but...” Her voice trailed off again. “He wants to meet again tonight.”

“Awesome! He’s seriously hot stuff. Not to mention he paid up big-time for my painting. I’ve already had phone calls from buyers asking about my commissions and existing work.”

If there hadn’t been the whole marriage thing to consider, she would have been more excited. Giddy over being with a man like Blake, a man who’d made her pulse race and her mind forget all about what she’d lost while she’d been with him. She’d have liked the idea of getting to know him better, dating him, not marrying him.

“Good, you deserve it. And he was lovely. I’m just not sure about everything.”

Silence stretched out between them, just long enough for it to be noticeable. “You’re thinking about having to go back home?”

“Yeah.” Saffy wasn’t lying; she just wasn’t telling her everything. Besides, Claire would be the one person to know the truth if it did happen, that she’d only met Blake the night before. She trusted her not to say anything, to keep her secret, but she just wasn’t ready to open up about it yet, not when she was still trying to process it herself.

“Do you have any more doctors to see? Any other specialists you could visit or anything?” Claire asked. “Can you afford to keep going for a bit longer?”

Saffy shook her head, even though she knew Claire couldn’t see her. This was why she was considering the marriage—this was why she had to. “No,” she murmured. “I’ve done everything. There’s no one left to see, or at least no one I can afford now, and I’m like damaged goods on the dance scene. If I dance again, there’s only one company I want to be with, and that’s a firm no right now.”

“Fight till the bitter end, Saffy. Don’t go quitting until you have no other options left.”

Saffron had no intention of giving up until the last; it had been her attitude all her life. But even she had to admit that when it was over, it was over.

“There’s one last thing I have to consider,” she told Claire. “One last option.”

“Give it a go—you owe it to yourself.”

“I’m going to go, I have a few jobs to get done,” Saffy said, wanting to end the call so she could think some more. She started to walk, the familiar twinge in her knee bearable at a walk when she was wearing heels. Barefoot it was almost unnoticeable. It was when she tried to push herself harder or dance that it really hurt. “Enjoy the weekend.”

“You, too. Give me a call tomorrow so I can hear all the juicy details from tonight.”

Saffy said goodbye and kept walking, suddenly realizing how terrible she must look. She was wearing her blue satin dress, her hair was tangled, and her heels weren’t exactly daytime wear. Thank goodness there had been no cameras flashing when she’d exited out the back of Blake’s building, through the café. Her career being over was bad enough—the last thing she needed was for the public to see pictures of her looking like she was right now.

Marriage. No matter how hard she tried to clear her head, Blake’s proposal was the only thing on her mind. And she was pretty certain that, like it or not, she was going to have to say yes.

* * *

Blake sat in his office, staring out the huge windows that bordered two sides. It was a stunning corner office—luxurious and extravagant—but it didn’t feel like his. For two decades it had been his father’s office, and he’d been in it numerous times, often when his father was trying to convince him that the company was where he should be. That it should be his dream, as if he should grow up to be a carbon copy of the man who’d raised him. But Blake had never wanted to be his father, had had dreams of his own, dreams that were still with him that he’d been forced to leave behind.

He stood and walked to the window, restless being inside and having to stare at paperwork and sign contracts. The city was alive below him, people milling everywhere, and he wished he could just disappear in the crowd and leave his responsibilities behind. But he’d made the decision to come back, and he wasn’t a quitter.

“This is your life, son. You’re my eldest, and I expect you to take over the business. To look after your family.”

The words had echoed in his mind long before his father had died, but now they were never ending. Every time he wanted to walk away, they haunted him, kept him awake at night. He was the eldest, and he’d always had a sense of responsibility that his younger brother and sisters had never had. But it hadn’t stopped his brother from wanting to run the company, to absorb everything their father had to share and teach.

Everything had been going to plan—Blake was doing what he loved, and his brother was shadowing their dad, learning the ropes, prepared to take over the company one day. Until everything had gone horribly wrong.

Blake clenched his teeth together and crossed the room, reaching for the whiskey his father had always kept in the office, filling one of the crystal tumblers he’d seen his father drink from so many times. He poured a small amount into the glass and downed it, liking the burn. Needing the burn.

The chill he’d felt when they’d died, when his mother had phoned him and he’d heard the choke in her voice, knowing the helicopter had gone down. He’d gotten there as fast as he could, been with the rescue team on the ground, seen the wreckage with his own eyes. At that moment, he’d known he had no other choice—he had to step up and take over the business just like his father had always wanted him to do. He’d lost so many good people in his life, but losing his father had never been something he’d thought about until it had happened.

Blake set the glass down again and went back to his desk. There were things he couldn’t change, memories that would be with him forever, but the only thing that mattered right now was doing the best, given what life had served him. And Saffron would go a long way to helping make his life easier, making sure he secured the deals and the financial backing he needed to take the company to the next level. He needed a wife at his side, and she was the perfect match to him, could be the perfect, capable woman at his side...because they could enter into the relationship with a contract that gave them both exactly what they wanted.

He checked his phone. He’d half expected her to text or phone him after thinking about it, but then he’d also seen the determined look in her eyes, known that she was a fighter from the moment he’d heard about how she’d risen to the top. A ballerina who’d defied all odds and risen through the ranks to become one of New York’s most respected dancers. It wasn’t an easy path, and he doubted she would like having to do something she didn’t want to do.

It was easy for him because it was a win-win situation. He would have a wife, a beautiful woman by his side who intrigued him, and they’d be divorced within the year. He didn’t want a family, didn’t want children, and he certainly didn’t want an actual wife. They were things he’d dreamed of a decade ago, before the only person in his life he’d ever completely opened up to and been himself with had ripped out his heart and torn it to shreds. He wasn’t ever going to put himself in that position again, just like he would never deceive a woman into marrying him without clearly setting out his terms.

Blake smiled and sat back down in the plush leather chair. Usually Saturdays were his favorite day to work, when the office was quiet and no one was around to bother him. But today his mind was wandering, and it was a stunning redhead on his mind that he couldn’t stop thinking about. Whoever said he couldn’t mix a little pleasure with business?

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