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

Ryan nodded. “Thanks. For telling me all that.”


Ted shrugged, ignoring the sick feeling in his stomach. Did he sound like a sociopath, when he said things like that? Ryan would tell him, right?


“Mom won’t bug you about it,” Ryan said after a silent beat. “She mostly just wants to mother the shit out of you, and she would regardless of where your own parents were.”


“Yes, so I gathered,” Ted replied. He tried to look as if he didn’t love that about Dinessa. He suspected he failed. Which made more sense, in light of Ryan’s earlier implication, too, as a matter of fact.


“She should come with us sometime. She never gets to travel,” Ryan leaned back again, turning his face upward to soak up the Proven?al sun.


“She should,” Ted agreed. And then he bounced an olive off Ryan’s forehead, much to the delight of Idamine, who finally got to eat one.


Chapter 43