Sudden Pleasures by Bertrice Small Read Free Book Online

face on the screen. She had given it a quick passing glance to ascertain whether he was normal-looking, and then she had moved on to his biography. He had gone to Catholic school first, done his undergrad work at one of the state universities, then gotten a second degree from the Wharton School of Business. Smart , Ashley thought. The state school was cheap, and good for a bachelor’s. It was the grad school that had to be the best, and it was.
    “Will you look at that face!” Tiffany enthused.
    “He’s nice-looking,” Ashley said, “but I’m more interested in his background.”
    “Nice-looking?” Tiffany said, surprised. “He’s a god.”
    “Look at how fast he brought his father’s business from just a restoration house making a nice bottom line to a restoration and reproduction business with an incredible bottom line. Boy, I would love to do that myself for Lacy Nothings. Think he would give me some advice, Tiff?”
    “I don’t believe you,” Tiffany said, exasperated. “Here is this gorgeous man whom you will probably marry, and all you’re interested in is his business acumen?”
    “Tiff, if —and it’s a big if—Mr. Mulcahy and I decide to marry, it’s just a business arrangement. We’ve both been the recipients of bequests that will screw us out of our inheritance unless we get married. I’ve got lousy luck picking men, and he’s too busy to properly look for a wife. And time is running out on both of us.”
    “Marriage isn’t a business,” Tiffany said, not certain whether she should be shocked.
    “Sure it is,” Ashley told her.
    “What about love?” Tiffany asked.
    “What about it? Three times I thought I was in love. I obviously don’t know what love is, and any man willing to marry to keep his money doesn’t know either. Love will not be part of the equation here.”
    “Sex?” Tiffany said weakly.
    “I’ve got all the sex I can handle on the Channel with Quinn and Rurik,” Ashley said. “Tiff, this isn’t happily ever after. It isn’t personal. It’s business. If he wants to have a girlfriend it’s fine with me, as long as it’s discreet.”
    “My God!” Tiffany said. “What have I done?”
    Ashley laughed and patted Tiffany’s hand. “You’ve probably saved me from a fate worse than death—poverty! Now, I’ve gotta go. Nina has a dental appointment at one fifteen, and I’ll need to be in the shop. Brandy doesn’t come in until after school.”
    Tiffany Pietro d’Angelo watched her go, and then walked back into the conference room, where her husband and his partner were just finishing their lunches. “This is terrible,” she said, plunking herself into a chair.
    “What’s terrible?” Joe asked.
    “Ashley said any arrangement made will be business, no sex, and he can have a girlfriend if he’s discreet,” Tiffany said.
    Rick snickered.
    “Good,” Joe replied. “I’m glad Ashley understands, and doesn’t have any silly romantic ideas in her head about Mulcahy.”
    Tiffany looked at her husband as if he had just returned from the moon.
    “Is the guy hot?” Rick wanted to know with a grin.
    “Yes, he’s hot,” Tiffany snapped. “Joseph Anthony Pietro d’Angelo, where has your heart gotten to, and don’t you see how awful this will be for Ashley if she isn’t loved by her husband? And what about kids? What the hell good is all that money going to do either of them without kids to share it with or help out?”
    Joe reached across the table, took his wife’s hand, and kissed it. “My own little romantic,” he said with a smile. “Listen, honey, Ashley and Mulcahy have a problem, and getting married will solve that problem for them. If they like each other, maybe something good will come of it. But for now it’s just business. An arrangement like this can’t be anything else but business.”
    “I think this is so sad. When I suggested it I wasn’t considering the reality of it all,” Tiffany responded with a deep sigh.
    “What would