Ted MacTaggart's overbearing father is still trying to control his life, even from the grave. His will insists that, in order to inherit the family company, MAC Superior, Ted must be married by his twenty-fifth birthday -- and the marriage has to be "real." As in the board of MAC has to sign off on it.<br><br>Ted could fight the will, but then the handsome, artistic Ryan Costa, an old friend from school days walks back into his life, offering to be his groom-of-convenience. Ted draws up the contracts and Ryan, who has family medical bill problems, agrees gladly to the terms. Ted, emotionally walled off and afraid of his attraction to Ryan, also suggests they should keep their relationship strictly professional. Caring for people has always proven a weakness for him. Now isn't the time to start.<br><br>It's not long before Ryan's charm breaks through Ted's walls, but Ted isn't his own worst enemy in this case. Other forces are vying for MAC Superior, and even when their relationship is becoming the real deal, its shaky foundations land Ryan and Ted in trouble.

Poor Little Rich Boy

He wasn’t about to ask if Dinessa Costa had. He patently did not want to know or hear another goddamn thing about it. 7


“Hey, Ted?” Wally elbowed him in the side.


“What?” Ted sighed and tried to get comfortable. It might’ve been a first-class lounge, but it was goddamn boring, and Ted would rather have been at home organizing his new bedroom or…anything but sitting in the Dayton airport waiting on a late flight.


“We’d already be in Vegas if you hadn’t sold the fucking jet,” said Wally.


Wally’s best friends and Columbus cronies, Tory and Miles, cackled gleefully. Echo rolled their eyes but it was unconvincing; they were always amused by Wally’s nonsense. Why Wally had dragged poor Echo along, Ted didn’t want to know. He had a feeling it was because Ted had no real friends to ask. Somehow, Wally had even found a good college friend of Ryan’s named Izzy, and the two of them were off getting drinks.


Chapter 24