Chapter 1

Chapter One

Madeline

"Why do you have to be such a dick about it?" I shout.

Firefighter Lucas Adams says quietly, "My tone hasn't changed once, Miss Charles. You're asking me to change something that isn't going to change."

"You just don't give a damn that all these single parents and their kids have nowhere to stay and nowhere to grow until they're self-sufficient. You just don't care!"

He looks at me and sighs, which is a whole hell of a lot more maddening than if he'd yelled at me. "I'll let you calm down before I respond to that," he says. He turns and starts for the door. It pisses me off that he dismisses me like that, of course. It pisses me off more at the moment, though, that when he turns, the fact that he has a perfect upper body on top of a perfect lower body is very obvious.

Damn it, why couldn't he have a boring, flabby, flat butt?

But he doesn't. He has a perfect butt. Damn it.

"Hey!" I shout. He turns around and looks at me with a rage-inducing look of longsuffering patience. "Why don't you say what you're going to fucking say, you jerk?"

His eyes narrow and for the first time I see anger behind them. "I didn't ask to fill in for the fire inspector. I'm used to fighting fires, not inspecting buildings."

I scoff at that. "Well, I can tell."

"So, when a spoiled little brat says that I don't care about single parents and their kids having nowhere to stay, I have a response. Until you've seen what it's like to find the body of a mother who died trying and failing to protect her baby from the fire, shut your mouth. Just shut your mouth and build the place in a way that protects the single parents and kids who will live here."

I feel slapped in the face.

No. I feel punched in the gut.

I feel stunned. That's for sure.

I stare at him in shock and I can't come up with words to speak. He turns around and walks out. I just stare. What he said is kind of a perfect drop the mic moment, isn't it? Maybe that's why I'm so stunned. I mean, I'm stunned and I'm also about as pissed off as a girl can be! Obviously, I don't want to make the place unsafe! Obviously, I don't want to risk the lives of the people I'm trying to help.

How dare he suggest otherwise?

How dare he?

I rush out and see him about ten yards from his fire truck. I run to him and grab his arm, whirling him around. "I don't know who you think…" My voice falters. It's not because his face is handsome although you better believe his face is handsome. It's because I recognize Norman Brannock walking toward us. Norman Brannock and Harold King.

The estate lawyers.

"Please pretend that we're engaged, Lucas," I whisper desperately.

"What?"

"Please. I know you hate me and I know that you think I'm a horrible person but please pretend…"

"I don't hate you and I don't…"

"Please, Lucas. Just pretend we're engaged."

It's too late. They're here. I keep myself from breaking down into tears. I don't want to do it in front of those men and most definitely not in front of Lucas. "Maddy," Norman says, "We're here to?—"

I whirl around and point at him. "It's Miss Charles, Mr. Brannock. I'm your client. You and Mr. King work for my family. I'm not a child for you to call by her childhood nickname."

"I'm sorry, Miss Charles," he says. There's no way on Earth he could possibly be less sorry. "But we're here to make sure that you still will be our client. Next month is the deadline and you haven't returned our calls."

"I told you I'm engaged."

"We need more than you telling us, Miss Charles."

"Can't you take a hint, Poindexter?" Lucas growls. "Leave my fiancé alone." I turn my head and look at him and for the first time, I think I look at him with worship in my eyes. He looks at me and says sweetly, "I need to get back to work, Babe."

Then he kisses me!

He takes advantage of the situation and kisses me!

I can't deny that it's an amazing, powerful kiss. His mouth presses against mine and the feeling of it travels through my entire body. His tongue slips easily into my mouth and slides over mine. My lips part and I grow weak. This kiss!

I relax into it for a moment, before I recall where I am and that the guy kissing me is the same guy just minutes earlier suggesting that I didn't care for the people I want to help.

I pull away from him and manage to make myself smile. "Okay, Honey, I guess it's better anyway. This will just be some boring and annoying clerical stuff anyway." I stare pointedly at the two desk jockeys as I say that. "I'll give you a call later and update you on the shelter work."

"Okay, you better." Lucas gets in his truck and drives away, waving to me as he disappears from view.

Holy hell! The guy was being such an asshole and then he does this.

My thoughts are interrupted by the two lawyers going nowhere. "What do you need me to do? What will be enough?"

"Well, there needs to be some form of documentation for the inheritance to stay in your name."

"Documentation? Well, we've only just gotten engaged. I tell you what, when my ring is ready, I'll come by your offices with it."

There's more bickering over details and then, they agree to check in in a few weeks. I still don't know what will keep them at bay. I can't keep having Lucas come to the rescue. That would drive both of us crazy.

So, here's the deal. I have a very, very nice inheritance coming my way from my great grandmother, but the catch is that I have to be married by my twenty-third birthday. That is not exactly years away. In fact, it's only a few weeks away. However, a small bonus is that I can get another year if I'm engaged. In that case, I don't have to legally tie the knot until I'm twenty-four.

Then, the deal absolutely has to be sealed.

It's old-fashioned and fucking ridiculous, but my great granny was a very old-fashioned gal. She got her fortune the good old-fashioned way, through marriage. So, she never saw it as an issue that her heir should also ensure the family holds on to the money by marrying.I get it, you know, and then again, I don't. All I know, is that I've been taking the estate assets and putting them into charity organizations.

Of course, my activity awakened the great dragon of a law office. They noticed what I was doing and decided to check in on me.Here's the thing, I didn't create all these charity groups to hide money. I really want to help people in a way I never could on my own power. Now, I have to live with the total panic of what could happen to all the people being helped by the organizations I've put together.

Okay, so this is a lot of ridiculous exposition to say that I'm worried that I fucked up. I act with a lot of bravado with these idiots just now, but once they're gone, I feel the full force of my panic hit me like a gut punch.

My God, I really can't handle anyone else randomly showing up and making me feel like my world is about to be shattered.

Even if the person who shows up kisses like a fucking gorgeous god of romance.