Page 14 of Last Chance Seduction (Montgomery Ink Legacy #9)

Chapter Seven

Lexington

Dash:

Are you sure this is a good idea?

Brooklyn:

I think it’s a great idea.

Dash:

I didn’t ask you.

Jamie:

He’s already doing it. And it’s not like we can bring another girlfriend into the game.

Reece:

How did I get invited to the family group chat about the company?

Brooklyn:

Wait. How did you get added? Crap. This is the wrong group chat.

Dash:

Damn it. I knew I needed to name this one. Sorry about that Reece.

Reece:

I’m at the job site and now wondering exactly why you’re talking about a fake relationship. Though I hope the girl is real and the relationship is the fake part.

Me:

You don’t need to worry about it. Just get to work.

Reece:

Oh no. What the hell’s going on?

I pinched the bridge of my nose as the family members that worked at Montgomery Construction proceeded to tell Reece, our fire restoration expert, exactly what the hell I was doing. Not that I knew what I was doing.

The laughing emojis that Reece sent after being told exactly what happened pretty much explained it all.

“The family has decided to butt in on what we’re doing.”

“Oh? What are they saying?” she asked as she leaned into my side.

I sucked in an audible breath, the vanilla scent of her hitting my nostrils.

We were at the JW, hanging out in the open seating bar area of the large resort, waiting on other people to show up that I knew.

For now it was just men in business suits as they strolled about, trying to one-up one another.

I’d had three productive conversations with other estates and committees looking for companies in the future.

The Burson representative had been receptive and while I knew they weren’t looking to add anything to their plate as of yet, I thought they could be a good fit for Montgomery Construction in the future.

I’d make sure Jamie reached out later since she was fantastic at that part of the process.

We had only been here a good thirty minutes, and this was the first time that Mercy had been close enough to me that I could scent her since we’d changed for the event.

The hour drive into the mountains for this resort when Mercy had been far too close to me in an enclosed space, had been long enough.

She smiled up at me and I finally brought myself out of my wandering thoughts. “Wait, do I know Reece?”

I shook my head. “He works for us. Well, the Montgomerys. He’s newer to the company, and I’m glad that we got him.”

“What does he do?”

“He’s a fire expert.”

She blinked up at me, and I slid my phone into my back pocket after ignoring the rest of the messages. It wasn’t as if my family could stop me at this point, nor could they help me figure out what the hell I was doing at this moment.

“He is great at restoration. If there’s fire damage in a house, he’s the one that can help facilitate any issues.

Because restoring an older building to its once grander, or even updating anything, is completely different if there was fire or water damage involved.

You have to deal with the sheetrock, any subflooring, as well as deal with the environmental and health impacts of it. ”

“I never really thought about that. Your job can get a little scary, can’t it?”

“Well there’s risks with any type of job, but we as a company hadn’t fully dived into projects that would entail such difficult circumstances until we brought Reece along.

He’s been at it for about twenty years now.

” I pause, doing the math. “Actually, that number’s right.

Well, I’m going to have to make fun of him for that later. ”

Mercy’s lips twitched. “Ageist.”

“No, if I was an ageist, I wouldn’t have hired your friend Cullen or Reece at all. Instead, I hired the men with experience, who don’t mind working for a company filled with Montgomerys that are far younger.”

Mercy’s brows furrowed, and I had to resist the urge to lean forward and rub the little line away.

What the hell was wrong with me? Yes, I had always found Mercy hot, had always been attracted to her in some shape or form, but she had been my friend’s girlfriend, then fiancée, and now she was my neighbor.

A neighbor who probably saw me and was reminded of the bullshit things my former friend had done.

It was just that damn kiss. That freaking kiss that had only been something to joke about for others, haunted my dreams.

And now, we were standing in a large area surrounded by people, and yet the only person I could focus on was Mercy. And it wasn’t lost on me that we were waiting on our room key, and I’d be forced to share a room with her overnight.

Thankfully we had a room with two beds, so it wasn’t as if I was going to have to sleep on the floor in order to get away from her, and whatever the hell feeling I was dealing with, but still.

“Lex? Where’d you go?”

I shook myself out of that thought. The thought of exactly how the hell I would be sleeping tonight, knowing she was so close.

I needed to stop letting my mind go down paths that weren’t good for anybody.

Mercy was a friend. A neighbor, and someone I hadn’t been able to stop dreaming about.

Just the memory of the dream I’d had the night before, knowing I’d have to pull off this farce this evening, had kept me up after I’d woken in a deep sweat at three a.m.

Memories of her hands on my skin, her lips covering my own. The way she would feel as I sank into her.

I tilted away from her slightly, knowing that if she saw the quickly rising hard-on I was about to get, she’d call me a menace. Or run away screaming. Probably the latter.

“Lex? What’s wrong?” The urgency in Mercy’s voice brought me back to the present once again, and I forced a smile and tried not to think about that kiss once again.

“Sorry. Just drifting. Trying to think about exactly how I got into this situation.” A pretty blush covered Mercy’s face, and I held back a curse. “Sorry.”

“No, it is my fault that we’re in this situation. I still can’t believe I did that.”

I snorted. “Honestly same. It’s so unlike us.”

“Well, I want you to win, and I wanted to kick her. And here we are. In a ridiculous situation that could only happen to me.”

“Why do you say that?” I asked, intrigued.

“I have my head in books all day, imagining odd situations that could possibly never happen in real life, so therefore I apparently made one of my own.”

I tilted my head, studying her face. She’d put on full glam makeup—in her words—and wore a dress that went nearly to her knees, knee boots, and thick tights.

The dress was long sleeved and cut straight across her collarbone, but she also wore this jacket thing with odd angles, and it just looked damn good on her.

“Well, we’re here now. And I guess we should continue to get our stories straight?” I asked as I looked around the lower lobby area and hoped nobody was truly listening.

“What can I say, boyfriend of mine, I just couldn’t say no.”

A grin covered my face. “Oh yeah? Why is that exactly?”

“Are you searching for compliments?”

I rolled my eyes. “Always. I’m a Montgomery. And a middle child at that.”

“I thought you were the eldest of two. I know Silas.”

“It’s the middle child syndrome of the Montgomerys. All of us were raised as siblings rather than a big group of cousins, second cousins, and third cousins, and I’m in the middle.”

“Aw, poor baby.”

My lips twitched. “You should feel bad for me.”

“Well, don’t look now, but I’m not going to feel bad for you in this moment.” And with that, she slid her arm into mine and leaned against me.

I swallowed hard, my mouth going dry, then I realized it was all for show.

A damn good show.

“Lex, Mercy! You’re here.” Gia ran forward, her husband Samuel at her side. “I was wondering when you guys would show up.”

“We’re just waiting on our room. I know there’s two presentations that we’re going to head to before dinner as well.”

This conference was a large retreat that brought different construction companies, different contractors, and other types of people in the business together with large estate managers that were looking for groups to work with.

It was a huge financial tangle, and my parents still didn’t do anything like this in their company.

Neither did the Denver Montgomerys. But we were trying something different.

If this didn’t work, then we wouldn’t do it again.

I was already off to a rocky start considering I had to fake being togethjer with my neighbor that I kept having sex dreams about.

“Samuel,” I said as I cleared my throat. “This is Mercy. My girlfriend.”

“It’s lovely to meet you,” Mercy said as she held out her free hand.

Samuel, a man fifteen years our senior, with silver at his temples and a sharp smile, shook Mercy’s hand. “It’s nice to meet you as well. Congratulations, Lex. She’s a beauty.”

I bit my tongue at that, wondering exactly why he was being such a stereotypical misogynist, and nearly said something. But Mercy pinched my side, and I figured she didn’t want to rock the boat any more than we were already doing just by existing.

“You should sit with us at dinner. It’s open seating, I know that sometimes they make it assigned, but they wanted to do a little free for all this time because it’s the holidays.”

“Oh that sounds fun,” Mercy said, smiling up at me. Though I saw the laughter dancing in her eyes.

“Lexington. It’s good to see you,” Mr. Arnault said as he came forward. I let go of Mercy, reluctantly, and shook the other man’s hand.

“Mr. Arnault. It’s good to see you.”

“And is this the lovely girlfriend I heard about? Mercy Caddel?”

I raised a brow, wondering when he had heard her last name, and Mercy stiffened for a moment.

“Yes, that’s me. It’s good to meet you, sir.”