Page 39 of Layne Closure Ahead

Layne jerked her arm away before he could lay a finger on her. “This is fuckin’ ridiculous.” She pulled out her phone and dialed Eric’s number.

As if he had been expecting her, he answered immediately, sounding far too cheerful. “Hello, Layne.”

She glared at the two suits in front of her. “If you had called, I would have been more than happy to tell you I already have plans today.” Her tone did not hide any of her annoyance at the absurdity of the situation.

“If you had bothered to call me back yesterday, we could have discussed this. I’m afraid today’s lunch isn’t optional.”

Great, Eric was going to be pissy about not getting a phone call and Layne didn’t do well handling fragile feelings. She drew in a deep breath trying to weigh her options. “It better be a quick lunch.” She ended the call.

Again, the shorter one reached out to take her arm and she fired a glare at him. “Unless you want to part ways with your damn hand, I would keep it to yourself.”

He paused to consider if she was bluffing or not. It seemed he was a smart man when he extended his arm away from her to indicate for her to follow them both to a sleek black sedan. The engine was still running while being double-parked in front of her house.

After they escorted her to the vehicle, they let her into the back seat while they both took up seats in the front. The entire twenty-minute ride had been in complete silence. Not even the radio had been turned on.

When they parked the car in front of a tall office building and killed the engine, Layne pulled on the handle to let herself out. Nothing happened. The fuckers had the child door locks on, preventing her from getting out on her own accord. Bastards.

If she hadn’t been pissed off about this change in plans already, this was the needle on the bitter Irish girl’s back. The taller man opened the door for her and after she exited the car, they led her inside the building with large glass windows reflecting the damn near blinding sunlight.

After a stroll through the lobby and an elevator ride to the forty-eighth floor in awkward silence, they brought her to a corner office with a picturesque city view. An L-shaped desk on one side of the room, and a leather sofa on the other, with two chairs and a table opposite it.

She noticed a few silver carryout containers on the oval table in the seating area. At least he didn’t plan a six-course meal like she had expected from him.

Layne stepped inside and noticed that she was all alone. The door shut behind her, allowing privacy from any prying eyes of anyone else potentially passing by.

She tossed her coat over the back of one of the chairs and walked over to the massive windows, crossing her arms in front of her chest as her eyes took in the view. Layne didn’t want to admit how she could stare at the beauty of the city she had grown up in all day long.

The office door opened up again, prompting her to glance back over her shoulder to see Eric walking inside with a folder in one hand and a coffee mug in the other.

He was dressed in a grey suit with a black shirt and tie underneath the jacket. Eric offered her a polite smile seeing she had arrived as he set everything down on his desk. “Ah, there you are. Glad to see you came to your senses.”

He walked over to her like he had given her a choice to be here. When he placed his hands on her arms and leaned over to place a kiss on her mouth, Layne turned her head so he got her cheek instead. There was one mouth she wanted on her right now, and it wasn’t his.

Noticing her evasive turn, he seemed surprised. She stepped back from him, keeping her arms crossed in front of her. “I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt that you somehow had a temporary moment of insanity and thought I could be summoned like a pet.”

“Is that what you think that was?” He inquisitively looked at her before shaking his head and immediately moved on. “There are some business items that need to be handled. I thought we could have lunch together while we finalized a few minor items.”

Eric walked back to his desk and grabbed the folder he had walked in with. He brought it back to her and handed it over. “I need you to sign these.”

Opening the folder, she saw page after page of legal documents. Eric circled her until he stopped at her back and looked over her shoulder. He was close enough that she could feel the heat of his body hovering at her backside.

“What are these?” Her eyes skimmed each page looking for the keywords of what each page entailed.

He rubbed his hands over her upper arms while his mouth came up to her ear. “Those, my little harpy, are what is going to save your family’s business.”

As she got to the final page in the batch of documents, Eric’s hands dropped down to her hips. “And that one there is where we make it all official.” Boldly printed across the top of the page was the certified heading for all New York State Government documents and underneath it were the cold black letters spelling out Marriage License.

Immediately, she shut the folder. “I need my attorney to look these over.”

He reached over her to ease the folder out of her hands. “With what money are you going to pay a lawyer? Not only that, but time is going to be of the essence. I’ve heard that Russell Spencer isn’t very happy after a little stunt you pulled. I’m not a miracle worker. These agreements are going to be the only thing that gives enough leverage to avoid a major catastrophe.”

Word got around quickly and she shouldn’t have been surprised that Eric already got wind of it. Coming back to stand in front of her, he traced a finger down her cheek and it dropped under her chin. “Sign the papers, Layne.” The blue of his eyes shone a little brighter from all the natural light pouring in from the windows.

Layne gritted her teeth. The very thing she had been against all her life was staring her in the face. She had never wanted to marry a man for strategic financial and business purposes. “This is happening really fast, I don’t feel comfortable with this.”

Eric pushed the matter without hesitation. “My little harpy, I can’t promise the second you leave here that someone won’t try to erase the O’Reilly name from the map. I don’t want to wake up to the front page running an article that the Upper East Side lost a young woman to a horrific random act of violence.” The strength of his hand shifted to latch onto her chin. “If you give a shit about yourself and your family, sign the papers.”

With her forehead wrinkled up in torment as he made the veiled threat that wasn’t too far off of reality, she understood the looming harshness of reality ready to descend upon her. Her hand pulled the folder back from his possession. “Get me a pen.”

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