There was a problem with that scenario. “I’m worried he doesn’t think anyone can be happy in my family. He thinks my relatives are all toxic. Not me or Mom, but he thinks anyone who marries me will get tainted by the rest of my family.”
It was one more reason he’d stayed away from Sylvie in the beginning.
“That’s harsh.”
Rene shrugged. “And probably accurate since I find myself in the position I’m in. Charles came into the office today. He made a big deal out of requesting some accounting files.”
“Is there an accounting problem?”
“Only in his mind.” His cousin was a constant headache now. “Though the assistant who was retrieving them had some trouble with her password and Charles made a stink about how my office is obviously trying to cover up something.”
“We need to make sure everything is airtight.” Quaid had his keys in hand. “I’m afraid Charles is going to come after you on every front. He knows this is probably his last shot. If the Lowestone project makes as much money as we think it will, no one will question you for the next decade at least.”
Rene agreed with his friend’s assessment. All he had to do was hold on. And maybe if he presented Dre with a fait accompli, he wouldn’t have a choice but to accept the marriage. He was a manipulative bastard, since he’d timed his proposal with Dre being out of touch. Dre was out of the country chasing a big story and wouldn’t be home for a while. By then Rene would have moved Sylvie into his home, gotten a ring on her finger, and hopefully he would be well on the way to seducing his wife.
Was he giving up his best friend? God, he hoped not.
“You know if you showed them our projections, you might not have to do this,” Quaid said softly. “You could likely still keep your seat and the house and court Sylvie properly.”
“I can’t. The deal isn’t done yet, and you know we’ve got a leak.” It was precisely why he was using Quaid instead of one of the corporate attorneys they employed. “We were outbid by pennies twice last month. Someone is trying hard to make me look incompetent.”
“Charles.”
“It’s got to be someone close to me. Charles couldn’t have gotten those bids on his own,” Rene replied with a weariness he’d been feeling a lot lately. He hated the fact that he couldn’t trust his own staff or the majority of his family.
He needed Sylvie in so many ways.
“I’ll revise the prenup,” Quaid promised. “Did you tell her about the stock she’s about to come into?”
He didn’t see why he should go into it. “She doesn’t get that until we’ve been married for at least three years.”
“Yes, but you might mention she’ll be a full voting member of the board if she stays on, and that stock is going to be worth millions,” Quaid pointed out. “You know it’s in the contract.”
“She won’t read it. She’s doing this to help a friend. She doesn’t care about the money or the stock.”
“But that stock ties her to you forever. She can’t sell it unless you choose to buy it back from her.”
“That’s a problem for another time.” He didn’t see that it would be an issue. It wouldn’t take them three years to figure out if they were staying in the marriage. The only reason he hadn’t told her about that clause was he expected pushback. She didn’t want to take a ring from him, much less a good portion of his company.
“You’re saying that a lot lately, brother. I hope it doesn’t come back to bite you in the ass.” Quaid started for his SUV. “And call Dre before he finds out on his own.”
That was a problem for . . . Yes, he was doing that a lot lately. He was shoving things off and hoping for the best, because if he dealt with all his fires right now, he would go up in flames.
Quaid drove off and Rene was left with a quiet yard, the sounds of the bayou around him, but that hum had been the soundtrack of his life. He found it soothing.
What he hadn’t found soothing was that kiss. That kiss had been life-affirming. He’d worried he’d made too much of that night all those years before, but that kiss had shown him he’d forgotten at least half of what that woman could make him feel.
Wanted. Needy. Weak.
Like he was at least ten feet tall.
He supposed the thing that was most surprising was that she made him feel at all.
He was going through the motions and had been for years. He’d done what he needed to do to get through a day and counted himself lucky to simply wake up in the morning.