Page 5 of The Alpha's Arrangement
“Hey, Owen.”
“Hey, Izzy. Good to see ya.” He’s so easy going.
“Same. You missed all the fun,” I joke, not missing the tension between the two.
He chuckles. “Place looks good.”
Carter clears his throat.
“Right.” Owen reaches into his pocket and pulls out a manila envelope.
“Everything there?” Carter asks.
“Yes.”
“Go,” he orders rudely.
“You don’t have to leave, Owen. It’s okay.”
Carter’s eyes shoot to mine as he comes back and sits on the couch. “Now,” he growls to Owen, who gives a chuckle and a flip of his hand.
“You really need to be nicer to the people around you. They’re all going to walk away one day if you keep treating them like that.”
“No, they won’t.”
I let out a frustrated sigh, looking at the envelope in his hand. “What’s that?”
“Something that we need to discuss.”
“Since we just met yesterday, I’m not seeing how we’d have anything to discuss, Carter.” Curious, yes. Very much so.
Carter pulls out some papers and hands them over to me.
“Care to explain why and how you got these?” I ask, looking at the front cover of my contract for this house that was signed on the dotted line yesterday. I didn’t even think the lawyers got it yet to file appropriately, let alone for Carter to have a copy.
“Because I got a copy, too.”
I sift through the pages, noting my initials—I.B.—on the bottom of every page. “Why would you get one?”
“Because I’m part of the arrangement.”
Surprise flares in my eyes as my heart picks up a thumping pace. He’s so wrong. My lawyers or my realtor would have caught that. There’s no way.
“Wait, what arrangement?”
“The house and me—package deal.”
“Right, so you want me to believe that these papers”—I hold them up, giving them a shake —“contain a section that says, ‘hot guy comes with the house for free?’ No. Not buying that one bit. One of my people would have caught something like that. Not to mention how crazy that is.”
He leans over and takes my hands in his. There’s still the spark, but the ease from before is a little more difficult to find.
Carter squeezes, getting my attention. “There in black and white. Read it.”
“Where? Show me.”
Only then does he release me and sift through the papers, pulling one out. I look at the bottom first to see if my initials are on it, and they are. Then I take the paper from him.
Upon agreement to reside in said above property, you agree that Carter Masters will reside with you in the home. You will cohabitate for eternity.
