Regency Romance: The Rake's Fake Marriage (Historical Arranged Marriage Romance) (19th Century Victorian Romance)

by Sarah Thorn

  “Lela, Aiden is a good guy, but can’t you understand that this isn’t something he can do so easily?”

  I nodded.

  “He has worked his entire life to get to the top, and he gets there by being the single and attractive man that he is. Men want to be him, and women want to be with him.

  “If you take away his image, then you’re stuck with something that he can’t be, and that’s a normal person.”

  She was right, and I knew it as well, Aiden couldn’t say anything because it could cost him the love of many of his fans. I didn’t want to hear it, but I really wanted to be special.

  “I don’t know if I can do this anymore,” I said.

  Liddy came over and sat down beside me.

  “You can’t force something to happen; the best you can do is sit by and wait.”

  I looked her back in the eye, and she could see how sad I really was.

  “I’m tired of waiting, Liddy.”

  She knew I was going to do something that I might regret, but there was no way she was stopping it.

  I picked up my phone and dialed Aiden. It had taken a while before he picked up.

  “Hey, Lela, just finished our show tonight, good to hear from you.”

  I was silent for a moment, trying not to give in to emotion as best I could.

  “Aiden, I can’t do this anymore. I really do love you. But, I can’t do this. I want more than to be a backstage booty call before a show. I want to feel like your girlfriend and tell people that you mean a lot to me.”

  I could already feel some tears starting to flow.

  “I won’t hold this baby over your head; you don’t have to worry about us. But, I need to find someone that isn’t ashamed to have their arm around me.”

  I was about to hang up, but he jumped in.

  “Lela, wait! You can’t leave, not yet. I just can’t let people know about you right now. Come on, Hun, I love you too. I want to talk about this with the band, but I don’t think they want to hear it.”

  “Aiden, do what you need to do. I’ll always be here to talk, but it’s pointless for me to sit around and wait for you to be ready. Goodbye, Aiden.”

  The other end of the line was silent as I hung up. Liddy sat nearby; a bit flustered from having listened to me break off any real connection I had with Aiden.

  “It hasn’t been that long, Hun. Maybe something will change.”

  7.

  The weeks flew by in almost no time, Aiden and I barely talked, and before long I got word that Aiden was playing at a venue nearby. I received a couple of tickets in the mail, but I wasn’t incredibly interested in going.

  “Lela, you better not blow that boy off. He sent you tickets to his most recent show and you better, at least, make an appearance.”

  I sighed.

  “Liddy, I know you still want to see Aiden and me together again, but it’s just not going to happen, not as long as he wants to keep me stuck under the rug.”

  “You can’t deny that this is going to be the show of the year. The stadium is packed, and these tickets are front row!”

  She was right, again, I might not be incredibly interested in seeing Aiden, but his band was really good, and these were excellent seats.

  “Alright, I’ll go. But, for obvious reason, I can’t drink.”

  Liddy nodded and spent the rest of the afternoon trying to put together an outfit for me. I was surprised when the outfit she liked most was a little less revealing than usual. I guess I didn’t have any reason to show off anymore.

  Liddy was more ready than usual; she was wearing the least amount of clothing I had ever seen.

  “Bruce has kept in touch. I thought I’d give him something good to look at tonight while he’s on stage,” she said while beaming a smile.

  I hadn’t ever really thought about Liddy and Bruce. She was spending an awful lot of time on her phone with him lately. At least one of us was happy, and I felt happy for her.

  Once we got to the show, I found myself wondering what Aiden was up to before the show. I hadn’t seen him nervous before, and I doubted I ever really would.

  The doors opened, and we pushed our way to the front of the crowd. While we walked up, I could tell we were getting a lot of foul looks from people further back.

  I had never seen the stadium this packed. It must have been around 35,000 seats all filled up and I was in the best seats in the house. I stood up and screamed along with the crowd for the band.

  I really was hoping that everything was okay.

  Then, the lights went down, and the cheering grew louder. Glow sticks and cell phones illuminated the arena. Then a single spotlight hit center stage.

  Aiden walked out; he looked a little nervous as he did so. Even though he wasn’t looking my direction I could feel his gaze.

  “Hey everyone,” he said as the crowd erupted, “Before we start tonight, I need to do something special.”

  I had a feeling I knew what he was about to do, and I felt both nervous and embarrassed.

  “There’s someone here tonight that means a lot to me. I’ve been doing a lot of soul-searching and I need to get this off my chest.”

  He looked right at me.

  “Lela, would you come up on stage for just a second.”

  The crowd cheered, still. I looked around, and all the fans around me kept pointing me towards the staircase to go up on stage. I wearily took step after step, pushed on by Liddy standing behind me.

  Aiden came over and helped me up the stairs. My heart was beating strongly in my chest. I stepped up on the stage and looked out into the blinding light and the ocean of fans screaming. This truly was intimidating.

  “This is Lela. Would you like to say hello, Lela?” he asked.

  I shook my head and pushed the mic away.

  “She’s a bit shy, so I’ll do the talking.”

  He leaned in and whispered in my ear.

  “Please don’t hate me after this.”

  Then he turned back to the crowd.

  “I’m in love with this beautiful woman, right here. Not a day has gone by that she hasn’t been in my thoughts and not a day goes by that I don’t think about our baby.”

  The crowd seemed especially surprised, as was I. I was trying my best not to faint under the scrutiny of so many people. But, after only a moment of silent chatter, they started yelling again.

  “Lela is my heart and my soul, and I hope that she’ll be able to forgive me for being such a terrible person. I tried to hide this wonderful woman from the world, but I couldn’t keep doing it. I wanted you all to know the truth.”

  I couldn’t hold back my tears anymore. I kept trying to leave the stage, but I wanted to be close to Aiden. I didn’t want to leave his side.

  Aiden pulled me in close again to whisper in my ear.

  “Lela, I want you to stay out here for the show, but I think you’d be more comfortable sitting in the box upstairs.”

  I nodded.

  “I’m going to be right back, but in the meantime here’s the opening act!”

  Another band came out and took the stage, but I didn’t pay them much attention. As soon as we were off stage and out of earshot of many people Aiden pulled me aside.

  “Lela, I didn’t believe in love at first sight before. I think things need to be tested and worked through. Then I met you. I couldn’t keep my eyes off you while you were standing on the balcony when we first met. I didn’t want to say anything because I didn’t want to sound like some sort of creep.

  “After you decided to break it off, I felt something leave me. It was like losing a part of me, and I couldn’t bear it. The shows I did, between then and now, were terrible, and I just haven’t really been myself.

  “I want you and this baby in my life. It means a lot to me, Lela. Please stay with me.”

  I couldn’t say no to his face, I just nodded.

  He smiled and gave me the roughest hug I had ever felt.

  “Aiden, you’re on in ten, get rea
dy,” I heard Greg say from behind while sneering at me.

  “Liddy should be here to take you backstage in a moment or two.”

  He was right, Liddy was already waiting nearby, and she snapped a photo of the two of us mid-kiss.

  “I guess I have my first news story,” I said.

  “Surely not your last,” he replied.

  Then he left, to get made up for the show. Liddy and I walked slowly up the stairs and through the back halls of the stadium.

  “I talked to Bruce about the whole thing. He said that Aiden was in a slump. Then I told Bruce what you had said to Aiden and Bruce took it upon himself to talk to the rest of the group. They all wanted him to be happy.”

  I wiped a tear off my cheek.

  “You’re a good friend, Liddy.”

  “Hey, you set me up with the greatest bassist in history. A girl’s gotta watch out for her own.”

  I laughed, as did Liddy. I was lucky to have such a great friend.

  *****

  THE END

  The Billionaire’s Secret Love Child – Aisha’s Story – A BWWM Billionaire Romance

  1

  Aisha had been working for Mr. Conner for a week when she first met Sandy. Of course, she had no way of knowing just how Sandy would affect her life then, but there was something about the woman that made Aisha take notice.

  Aisha was just out of college, and it had been her dream to become a sports agent. She had moved to New York after graduating from Boston, though she had been born and raised in Michigan, twenty miles outside of Detroit. Boston had been something of a culture shock, but nothing had prepared her for New York. The massive buildings themselves seemed overpowering at first, oppressive even. Going out on the street, the throngs of people on the sidewalks, the unending stream of yellow cabs in the streets. It was all too much at first. But if she wanted to make it as a sports agent, she needed to be there. The Big City, practically trademarked.

  When Anthony Conner was younger, he had been a hot shot agent with the largest sports agency in the world. A decade ago he had left to open his own agency, CSA. Now it was the largest sports agency in the world, and Aisha’s top marks in her classes at Boston had been enough to land her a job as his assistant. Of course, getting coffee and making copies wasn’t exactly what she wanted to do, but she knew you had to start somewhere.

  And so she had been sitting at a small desk outside of Mr. Conner’s large corner office when someone approached her. She had been typing up a contract Anthony had needed quickly, and she only glanced up, at first, to see if she knew who it was who was tapping their foot impatiently in front of her desk. She hadn’t recognized the woman, so Aisha had gone on typing as the spoke.

  “What can I do for you?” she asked.

  “I need to see Anthony,” the woman said.

  “I’m sorry, do you have an appointment?”

  “I don’t need an appointment,” the woman snapped, and Aisha stifled a sigh and looked up. The woman was Aisha’s opposite it just about every way. Aisha was black, her skin dark, like coffee with just a splash of milk mixed in. The woman in front of her was pale, with high cheekbones and strawberry blonde hair while Aisha had a round face and hair as black as coal. The woman was tall, almost as tall as Mr. Connor himself, and Aisha had always been short, but it worked for her, and added to her feminine qualities, like a curvaceous hourglass figure made up of wide hips and an ample bosom, she looked like something straight out of most men's fantasies. The white woman was angular and sharp, beautiful to be sure, but simply in a different way than Aisha was.

  “I’m sorry,” Aisha went on. “He’s booked completely today.”

  “Shut up,” the woman snapped, and then she marched past Aisha’s desk and into Mr. Conner’s office.

  Aisha was up on her feet in a flash, but she was too slow to stop the white woman, so all she could do was march in after her, and call to Mr. Conner over the woman’s shoulder.

  The man sat at his richly lacquered mahogany desk, typing on his laptop. She was glad he wasn’t on his phone, she knew he would be annoyed to be interrupted, but he would have been furious to be pulled off of a call with one of his clients.

  “This woman just barged in,” Aisha said, feeling foolish. Of course, she had, and she knew Mr. Conner would be able to tell that since the woman was in the process of barging in. Her boss looked up, and his eyes widened a bit when he saw the white woman.

  “It’s fine,” Mr. Conner said to Aisha, holding his hand up, indicating she should leave. Aisha felt anger swell inside of her for a moment, an anger that confused her, and she left silently, thinking about it. Why had she gotten angry? A woman barged in, and her boss was letting her stay. So what? Why would that make Aisha angry?

  As she sat at her desk once more, she realized it had not been anger, not exactly, but more so jealous. Mr. Conner was a powerful man, and one that Aisha was simultaneously attracted to, and respectful of. She had wanted him to send the lady out, to get mad, to rise from his chair and point to the door, and tell her to leave. Instead, he had held up his hand to her, and Aisha had been the one sent away.

  Mr. Conner was a nice man and a great boss. Aisha was sure he was attracted to her, the same way she was attracted to him, and he paid her the same attention most men did. She was gorgeous, and she knew it, and she wasn’t the type of woman to be ashamed by that. Nor did she have a problem flaunting some aspects of her body. To put it simply, it made life easier sometimes. The job with Mr. Conner was an important first step to a career in her field, and it had been sought after by quite a few applicants. Men and women alike. So she had interviewed in professional but somewhat sexual clothes. Low cut tops, short skirts. She knew some women would balk at such tactics, but Aisha thought it was foolish not to use whatever you could to get ahead, and she knew thinking like that would only help her in her chosen field, one that was filled with backstabbing and people looking to do nothing but further themselves.

  Of course, Aisha drew the line in places too. She would never sleep with anyone for a job. That wasn’t the kind of thing she was comfortable with, and it wasn’t the sort of thing she respected. Of course showing off her tits and her legs, and her ass in a tight skirt was different. She wouldn’t sleep with Mr. Conner for her career, but she didn’t mind if he wanted to fuck her. If he did, that was only good for her. He was a man who had everything. Making him want something he couldn’t have would be good for him as well.

  The hard thing was Aisha wanted to fuck him too. Badly. But she had dealt with crushes before. Having them, being wanted, it was no big deal, and she was going to control herself, and she was going to keep teasing her boss, and make it on her own.

  She got back to typing up the contract Mr. Conner needed, but she couldn’t help but overhear the woman and her boss in his office. Overhear wasn’t the right word, not exactly. She couldn’t tell what was being said; she could only make out that the woman was speaking very loudly, almost yelling. She didn’t hear her boss raise his voice at all, but due to the pauses between the screeching woman’s words, she was sure he was trying to speak to her.

  After ten minutes or so, the door to Mr. Conner’s office swung open and banged loudly against the wall. The tall woman stormed out, her face red and pulled into an angry scowl. “Of course,” she said as she stopped just long enough to look at Aisha, and then she was going again. As she stomped on sky-high heels towards the elevator that would lead down to the lobby, heads turned in cubicles to watch her go.

  Aisha swiveled in her chair to see that her boss was standing in his doorway. She smiled and cracked a joke. “Another satisfied client?”

  Anthony Conner laughed. “Something like that,” he said, and then he wiped his forehead, feigning exasperation. “I need a drink.”

  “It’s only ten in the morning,” Aisha said.

  “Well, tell me when it’s noon. I’ll take you to lunch. As long as you don’t mind if I drink mine.”

  Aisha giggled and shook her head
. “Fine by me,” she said, and Anthony turned into his office and shut the door.

  Mr. Connor had never asked her to lunch, but she had been hoping he would. Any time spent with her boss, so she could impress him with her natural talent when it came to their very specific work, was good. Great in fact. She typed up the contract and took it into his office, and then went back and watched the clock on the corner of her computer screen slowly click upwards towards twelve.

  Right at noon, she went into her boss's office and waited until he got off the phone. She leaned against the wall next to the door, listening as he spoke to a very famous baseball player who was nearing the end of his contract, and who desperately wanted off of the small market team he played for. When the conversation was done, Anthony looked to his gorgeous assistant and let his head tilt to the side.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  “Well, it’s time for-” Aisha started, but Anthony spoke over her, cutting her off. “Do you always listen in on people’s conversations?”

  “Oh, I should have waited out-” Aisha started again, but once more she was cut off, this time by Mr. Conner’s infectious laugh. It was booming and loud, and it made Aisha laugh every time she heard it, but, this time, she fought her own laughter away and remained stone-faced.

  “I’m kidding,” Anthony said. “I like messing with new people,” he said.

  “Well I don’t like it at all,” the young woman snapped.

  “I’m sorry,” Anthony said, holding his hands up, suddenly taken aback.

  “I don’t care if you're sorry,” Aisha said, she then stormed forward and slapped her palms down on his desk, leaning over, so he would surely get a nice view of her supple cleavage. “I quit.”

  “Aisha!” Anthony stammered, trying to keep his eyes on hers, but failing spectacularly in the face of her large, perfect, breasts.

  “Kidding,” Aisha said, standing upright and laughing. “And my eyes are up here,” she added before she laughed harder. Anthony sat wide eyed for a moment, and then he too burst into infectious laughter.

  “Are you busting my chops?” he asked as he stood and grabbed the suit jacket he had draped over the back of his chair and pulled it on over his very expensive shirt and tie.