An Outrageous Proposal by Maureen Child

easy for a
few weeks, no upsets. But yes, she’ll be fine.”
    “Good news.” Georgia’s gaze narrowed on him. “So why do you
look more worried than relieved?”
    “I’ll tell you all. But first, I’ve a need to get away from
this place. Feels like I’ve been here for years instead of hours.” Frowning, he
looked out at the car park. “How did you get here?”
    “Called a cab.” She shrugged. “Laura was going to drive me, but
I told her and Ronan that I’d be fine and you’d bring me home.”
    “As I will,” he said, taking her arm and steering her toward
his car. “But first, we’ll go to my house. We need to talk.”
    “You’ll tell me on the way?”
    “I think not,” he hedged. “I’m a man in desperate need of a
beer, and I’m thinking you’ll be needing wine to hear this.”
    * * *
    There wasn’t enough wine in the world.
    “Are you insane?” Georgia jumped off the comfortable sofa in
Sean’s front room and stared down at him in stunned shock. “I mean, seriously.
Maybe we should have had you examined at the
hospital while we were there.”
    Sean huffed out a breath and took a long drink of the beer he’d
poured for himself as soon as they reached his home. Watching him, Georgia took
a sip of her Chardonnay, to ease the tightness in her own throat.
    Then he leaned forward and set the glass of beer onto the table
in front of him. “I’m not insane, no. Crazy perhaps, but not insane.”
    “Fine line, if you ask me.”
    He pushed one hand through his hair and muttered, “I’m not
explaining this well a’tall.”
    “Oh, I don’t know.” Georgia sipped at her wine, then set her
own glass down beside his. Still standing, she crossed both arms over her chest
and said, “You were pretty clear. You want me to pretend to be engaged to you so you can lie to your mother. That
about cover it?”
    He scowled and stood up, Georgia thought, just so he could loom
over her from his much greater height.
    “Well, when you put it like that,” he muttered, “it
sounds—”
    “Terrible? Is that the word you’re looking for?”
    He winced as he scrubbed one hand across his face. Georgia felt
a pang of sympathy for him even though a part of her wanted to kick him.
    “I thought she was dying.”
    “So you lied to her to give her a good send-off?”
    He glared at her, and for the first time since she’d known him,
she wasn’t seeing the teasing, laughing, charming Sean…but instead the
hard-lined owner of Irish Air. This was the man who’d bought out a struggling
airline and built it into the premier luxury line in the world. The man who had
become a billionaire through sheer strength of will. His eyes flashed with heat,
with temper, and his mouth, the one she knew so well, was now flattened into a
grim line.
    Georgia, who had a temper of her own and just as hard a head,
was unimpressed.
    “If you think I enjoy lying to her, you’re wrong.”
    “Well, good, because I like your
mother.”
    “As do I,” he argued.
    “Then tell her the truth.”
    “I will,” he countered, “as soon as the doctor says she’s well
again. Until then, would it really be so bad to let her believe a small
lie?”
    “Small.” She shook her head and walked toward the wide stone
hearth, where a fire burned against the cold night. On the mantel above the fire
were framed family photos. Sean and Ronan. Sean and his mother. Laura and
Georgia captured forever the day Ronan and Sean had taken them to the Burren—a
lonely, desolate spot just a few miles outside Galway. Family was important to
him, she knew that. Seeing these photos only brought that truth back to her.
    She turned her back to the flames and looked at him, across the
room from her. Sean’s and Ronan’s houses were both huge, sprawling manors, but
Sean’s was more…casual, she supposed was the right word. He’d lived alone here,
but for his housekeeper and any number of people who worked on the estate, so
he’d done as he pleased with the