Page 17 of Her Lion Lover

Alicia laughed. "Oh, no, I do need a housekeeper. But my son needs a bride. You can be both, I'm sure. Look at it as a business arrangement. A few extra duties for a lot more pay. Whatever wardrobe you need for the role will be included in your pay, of course, and you can keep the clothes afterwards. Just the wedding and the occasional public appearance on my son's arm, until he's successfully squashed this hostile takeover at work, that's all."

Lily hadn't ever considered getting married – she'd been more focussed on getting her degree, then reviving her parents' company, but this just didn't feel right. "Why do you need to marry me?" She met Leo's eyes and held them. She'd happily scrub floors and toilets all day, but she'd be damned before she'd marry a man who didn't want her. Even if he was an amazing dancer.

Leo sighed. "I'm the CEO of Pride Holdings. My uncle is trying to get me thrown off the board so he can replace me as CEO and cancel the project that was my dad's dream before he died, so he can do some dodgy deals with another developer instead. I have to stop him, and the only way to do that is to demonstrate that I'm not the playboy porn star he says I am, and instead I'm a steady, family man who's looking toward the long term future of the company."

A playboy porn star? Really? Lily tried and failed to stifle a laugh. The man probably looked amazing naked and damn, could he move, but a porn star wouldn't have danced so chivalrously with her at the masquerade ball. It had to be the only time she'd ever danced with a guy who hadn't even tried to grope her.

But there was no recognition in his gaze now. What with the mask then and the maid uniform now, he evidently didn't remember her, so she needn't have worried. But it was one thing to work as his maid, and another entirely to marry the man. What if she had to dress up and dance with him? Surely he'd recognise her then?

If he even remembered her at all from that night. He probably danced with dozens of people at plenty of parties, and remembered none of them. It had just been a good time for him, and nothing more.

It wasn't like there'd been anything between them, either. She'd been there to blow off steam, one night of fun before finishing her project and graduating. The extra money might come in handy, too, especially if it took some time to bring her dad's company back up to full capacity, or if her graduation got delayed.

Leo held out his hand, just as he had the night of the ball. "Please, Lily? Will you marry me and help me save my dad's dream?"

She was seriously considering this. It was crazy, but... "What was this dream project he didn't finish before he died?"

Leo coughed. "Well, he wanted to build a sanctuary. A sort of eco village, where he wanted to retire. He called it Hea Sanctuary and..."

Hea Sanctuary? The eco village she'd done her final project on? The only project still on her dad's company books that was the key to resurrecting the company and building its reputation again? And Leo's uncle was going to shut it down?

Oh fuck that for a bag of bananas. She'd marry the devil himself to stop that shit from happening.

She took Leo's hand and shook it, closing the first business deal of her new career. "Sure, I'll marry you."

TWENTY-ONE

"I move that we shelve this sanctuary project, so that we can redirect all our resources to work with Tremotino on this significantly larger and infinitely more profitable project, which will likely see a return to investors before this year is out, which will continue over a number of years into the future," Uncle Jeremy said.

Leo intended to cross the boardroom to take his seat at the head, but instead he stopped in the doorway and folded his arms. "I propose that we have our HR department investigate Uncle Jeremy here for inappropriate use of company resources. He used a company credit card to buy the entire Andy's Adventures box set, and have it delivered by strippergram. Unfortunately, he gave the delivery address as my office instead of his, and both my assistant and myself were subjected to a performance that was entirely inappropriate for a work environment, before the poor delivery boy, in his enthusiasm, inserted a sex toy a little too far and Cat had to call an ambulance for the poor man. Between his screams of pain, he did say it was a requirement of the order, and he was just doing his job, which is also a clear violation of our company occupational health and safety policy. You'd better hope he doesn't die of an infection, Uncle Jeremy. I'm told a perforated bowel can be quite nasty."

Uncle Jeremy paled, but he still managed to say, "I know nothing of your wild escapades, nephew. Based on your past behaviour, I'm sure this is all your doing, and has nothing to do with me."

"Except that your credit card was on the order, which was sent from your work email address," Leo said.

"Evidently I've been hacked. Call IT and get them to sort it out." Jeremy blustered.

"Still doesn't explain the signed purchase order, with your handwritten signature on it," Leo said.

"Forged, I'm sure." Jeremy insisted.

Daniel, the finance director, coughed. "Perhaps we can investigate this matter later, after the board meeting?" From the way he pressed his lips together, he definitely intended to investigate.

Leo was counting on it.

Jeremy cleared his throat, though he still looked pale, as though he hadn't expected Leo and Cat to be able to trace the incident to him so fast. The man trusted Shenzi far too much...and didn't realise how much she needed this job, even at the cost of Jeremy's own position.

"If we could continue discussing the proposal at hand. The Tremotino project?" Jeremy prompted.

"Oh, no, let's start from the beginning. As I was late, dealing with an incident, I missed the justification behind the reallocation of resources that would allow us to take on the project, when I thought we were currently at capacity," Leo drawled, sinking into his seat.

"As you would know, if you'd read your emails this morning, the electrical engineering contractor on the sanctuary project is about to declare bankruptcy, and this, combined with the delays in council approval, the ongoing negotiations over the land sale, and the technical delays in the power system, will mean additional costs and delays that..."

Leo pulled out his phone, ignoring his uncle, and scrolled through the morning's emails. Nothing from Uncle Jeremy. "You must have forgotten to send me that one. Maybe because it only would have showed your ignorance about a project you have nothing to do with? The power system is constructed and currently in storage at a secret facility, where it will remain until the patents are approved, which will likely be well before we need to fire it up onsite. The sale contracts don't need to be signed until we get council approval, which the council assures me will be as soon as this controversial Tremotino project is squared away. This high risk project, with so many red flags the council want to go through it with a fine tooth comb just in case they've missed anything. I mean, they're planning to build on an important archaeological site, with a high density development on land clearly zoned for rural use, and don't get me started on the hydrogeology assessment...those buildings will sink into the ground like the House of Usher within the first year. And those are just the issues I know about. At this rate, it's the Tremotino project that should be set on a high shelf in a quarantine facility, and isolated like Chernobyl."

Jeremy spluttered. "Have you even seen Tremotino's business plan?"

Leo laughed. "Oh, yes. For both this new project, and the last two that still haven't gotten off the ground. He has a talent for picking land no one else would build on because a development simply isn't feasible, then writing business plans that read like fiction. A return on investment within the first year, before he's even obtained council approval? Really? When every single one of our successful projects has a timeline of two years at least. HEA Sanctuary is possibly the only exception, because it was set up with equity as full or part payment for most of the contractors involved, plus no land or infrastructure sales are final until the council approval comes through. So even if we wait ten years for the sanctuary, which we won't, but if we did...there would be no cost to the company, as we haven't paid for anything yet."

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