Mitch.e.l.l sneezed three more times as she talked.

"Maybe..." He sneezed again. "What about..." Another sneeze. "d.a.m.n it," he muttered, standing up and mopping at his face.

He'd turned his back toward them and was inadvertently facing the closed curtain across the Pride's gallery. "What the h.e.l.l is wrong..." he muttered, after another sneeze.

"What about six months?" Deanna asked, feeling a little stab of pity, since he seemed so incredibly uncomfortable, suffering from the violence of the allergy attack.

He nodded as he sneezed again. "Good." Then he sneezed two times in a row, bent over double now, tears streaming from his eyes.

No matter how obnoxious he was, she couldn't actually let him get ill from this.

"I'm sorry," she said, standing up and going over to the cord that pulled the curtain. "I just realized what might have triggered the sneezing, if you're allergic to cats."

He'd adjusted to face the women, obviously trying to finish the conversation so he could escape, but he turned back around as she pulled the curtain.

Slowly, the row of dead Siamese cats were revealed with their gla.s.sy eyes and lifelike expressions.

Mitch.e.l.l had barely recovered from another sneeze, and he was so taken aback by the unexpected sight that he stumbled backwards, away from the uncanny figures.

He stumbled into a side table and knocked four lamps to the floor, the stained gla.s.s shade of one of them shattering at the impact with the hardwood floor.

"Oh dear," her grandmother murmured, shaking her head and tsking her tongue. "Oh dear."

Still sneezing, Mitch.e.l.l gasped, "What...what are those things?"

Kelly choked on a burst of hilarity at his reaction and had to run out of the room to keep from laughing in his face.

Deanna was given no such grace. Desperately trying to keep her amus.e.m.e.nt hidden, she handed Mitch.e.l.l another napkin. "I'm so sorry," she lied, afraid her eyes might be laughing even as her mouth was perfectly sober. "What a mess. Those are my grandmother's deceased cats. I should have thought of them before and saved you the allergy attack."

Mitch.e.l.l's eyes were streaming, and he was wiping his face, but she couldn't mistake the cold glare he aimed at her.

He obviously knew she hadn't forgotten about the Pride. He obviously knew she was laughing at him.

And he didn't appreciate it at all.

That evening, Deanna sat alone on her bed, staring at her phone.

She and Kelly had had a good laugh over poor Mitch.e.l.l's response to the Pride earlier that afternoon, but the amus.e.m.e.nt was only temporary. This was a serious situation. She was willing to go to a certain extent to help her family, and she wasn't entirely opposed to a marriage-of-convenience if it could be treated like a business arrangement, but she had to be very careful.

The upcoming meeting on Monday about the contract with Mitch.e.l.l's lawyers terrified her.

She knew nothing about contracts. Even if she asked for an explanation of every single clause, she could so easily miss things that would later come back and hurt her or her family.

But there was no way they could afford a lawyer of their own-certainly not one that was good enough to be a match for Mitch.e.l.l's.

So she'd thought through who she knew and who she could call on for help. They had to keep the real situation of this marriage secret, so she couldn't ask for help from anyone in Savannah. But she'd had a thought.

She was uncomfortable asking for help like this. She'd always resisted doing so. She'd managed to take care of things on her own.

This was too important, though, so she swallowed her pride and dialed the number.

When a gruff male voice answered, she said, "Hi, Benjamin. Ben. It's Deanna Beaufort."

"Hey," Benjamin Damon said, a smile in his voice. "How are you?"

"I'm fine. How are you? How's Mandy?"

"We're both good. How about you?"

"I'm okay. I heard you got engaged."

"I did. But I don't think you called me to catch up on the news."

He'd always been like that-even when they'd dated in high school. He could always cut through to the heart of a conversation.

"No. It is good to talk to you, but I actually called for a favor. I hate to ask, but...but I'm kind of desperate."

"Sure. What do you need?"

"I need a lawyer."

There was a pause as he processed this. "Okay. That shouldn't be a problem. What kind of lawyer? Criminal-"

"No, no. Nothing like that. I need someone who can help me negotiate a really important contract."

"What kind of contract?"

"I...I don't think I can tell you that. I'm really sorry. I'm in the strangest sort of situation, and I don't know what to do. But I'm worried that I'll be pressured to sign a contract that isn't good for me, and I need some good legal advice. Do you know someone like that?"

There was now a different sort of smile in Ben's voice. "Absolutely. Actually, I know someone who's great at that. He's in Atlanta this week, if I'm remembering correctly. I can ask if he'll stop by. When is the meeting?"

"Monday. I know it's short notice. I don't want anyone to go out of their way-"

"No, it's totally fine. I'm sure he'll do it. He does contract negotiations better than anyone I've ever met. He'll help you."

Deanna swallowed, touched and overwhelmed and incredibly nervous. "I don't have much money-"

"That won't be a problem. He'll do it as a favor to me."

"Are you sure, Ben? I hate to take advantage of-"

"You're the last person in the world I'd suspect of taking advantage of me. Seriously, Deanna. I spent a lot of years with no one daring to ask me any favors at all. Except Mandy, of course. To tell you the truth, it's nice that you thought I might be willing to help."

On Monday morning, Deanna sat in the lobby of the Claremont Inn, waiting for her lawyer to arrive. They'd said she could wait in the conference room, but she wanted to have a few words with her lawyer before she went in to face Mitch.e.l.l and his no-doubt powerful team of attorneys.

She was praying this lawyer Ben knew would be nice. And good at his job.

Surely Ben wouldn't have recommended a loser.

She'd told her grandmother that she was going to do this alone, since having the old woman there with her would only be a distraction and might bog down negotiations unnecessarily.

Deanna knew what her grandmother wanted. And she knew what she wanted. And she was pretty sure she knew what Mitch.e.l.l wanted. Hopefully they could work this out without a lot of fuss.

Her lawyer was already seven minutes late. She was holding her breath now, suddenly afraid he couldn't make it.

She'd be woefully unprepared to negotiate a legal doc.u.ment like this on her own.

When she heard the bellboy greet a newcomer, she turned to look, hoping desperately it was the person she was waiting for.

Then she gasped when she saw who it was.

She'd never seen him in person, but she recognized him from pictures and the news. Of course, she recognized him.

He just wasn't at all the lawyer she'd expected.

Harrison Damon, Ben's cousin, was well-known in the business world across two continents. He had a J.D. and an MBA and was the powerhouse negotiator for Damon Enterprises.

He was tall, dark, and as handsome as a movie star in an expensive dark suit. He smiled as he came over to her, obviously knowing who she was.

"Deanna," he said, reaching to shake her hand. "I'm Harrison. Benjamin's cousin."

"I didn't know he was going to send you. I'm sorry to waste your time on something like this."

He shrugged off her apology. "I was in Atlanta anyway. We're opening a new tea house there. This is only a few hours out of my way. It's no trouble at all."

"Thank you so much."

He looked slightly uncomfortable at her profuse grat.i.tude. "No trouble at all. Benjamin never asks for favors, so I'm really pleased I can do it. Now what kind of cash do you have on you?"

She blinked in surprise, but was too rattled to ask for an explanation. She reached into her purse. "Not much. I always use my debit card-oh, here, I have a ten."

"Give it to me."

She handed him the bill, her eyes wide with confusion.

"Okay." His expression was purely professional, but there was the slightest twitch of amus.e.m.e.nt at the corner of his fine mouth. "You've now paid for my legal services. I'm your lawyer. Tell me what kind of a mess you've gotten yourself into. It's all protected, so I won't tell anyone."

Ridiculously relieved, Deanna told him the situation as succinctly as she could.

He was impressively cool through her explanation. His eyebrows only lifted slightly.

"I know it's crazy," she concluded.

He studied her closely with lovely chocolate brown eyes. "You really want to do this?"

She nodded. "I get that you might not understand, but I want to do this...for my grandmother."

He nodded, no amus.e.m.e.nt at all in his face. "I do understand. I've done crazy things to-out of family loyalty. Just..."

"Just what?"

"You just want to make sure that you're not being pressured to do the wrong thing. That's happened to me before, and not even family loyalty is worth it."

Deanna saw he was serious, and she took a minute to reflect honestly with herself. This was strange. It was awkward. But it didn't feel like the wrong thing. "I don't think it's wrong. Just...weird."

He nodded. "Okay then. Weird, I understand too. No need to justify your choices to me. We'll just make sure the contract is as good for you as it is for him."

She smiled up at him, almost in tears of relief and a surge of hope that they could make this contract work for her and her family.

"Oh, you and your wife had a baby recently, didn't you?" she said, suddenly remembering a detail she'd heard in some gossip column.

He almost smiled. "We did. After we finish up here, I'll show you pictures. For now, let's just get this done."

Three.

Mitch.e.l.l wasn't expecting to see Harrison Damon at the contract meeting, and he wasn't pleased about it.

At all.

He was fine with Deanna bringing an attorney to the proceedings-it made sense, and it wasn't like he wanted her to be taken advantage of-but Damon was different. Damon was a master.

Mitch.e.l.l had a great business mind, and he had two excellent attorneys with him, but he was going to have to be very careful now that he didn't end up getting the short end of the stick.

This was his idea. He wasn't going to let Damon twist it around to disadvantage him.

He was brewing with attention and adrenalin as Damon and Deanna sat down across the conference table from him. He was so distracted that he barely noticed how pretty and guarded Deanna looked in her slightly old-fashioned skirt and gray top.

He introduced himself to Damon, although they'd met briefly a couple of years ago through a mutual business a.s.sociate.

Damon seemed to remember him, which was a relief. Mitch.e.l.l's business was peanuts compared to the multi-billionaire dollar Damon Enterprises, but Mitch.e.l.l didn't like to think about himself as forgettable.

He gave them both a casual smile that he knew put people off-guard. "This should be pretty simple and straightforward. We just need to iron out a few details."

"Of course," Deanna said with a smile of her own, although hers looked rather nervous-as if he was a big bad monster about to devour her.

Mitch.e.l.l didn't think about himself as a monster, and he didn't appreciate the fact that she clearly believed he was out to get her.