Christmas Present

by Lauren Wood

  “I just have one question to ask you Ronald.”

  “Okay, go ahead. I will answer if I can.”

  “Why me?”

  Ronald wasn’t expecting that question and for a moment I had to wonder if he knew why. Maybe it had been something that just popped into his head and he blurted it out, but I didn’t think that was it. It was like he knew I was going to be there at the charity event. Did he know that I was going to be the one that he would propose this all to? It just didn’t make sense to me and I wasn’t comfortable in a situation where I couldn’t see all of the angles. Everyone wanted something and I couldn’t clearly see why I had been chosen to marry his daughter.

  “Many reasons. You have been trying to get to me for years. The shenanigans at the charity event told me that you were desperate enough to entertain such an idea. You are accomplished, very accomplished in your own rights and that alleviates anxiety that you are in it to get my money. You want to make more of your own and there is nothing wrong with that. Darryl Jameson took me under his wing a little before I turned forty. That’s when everything started to happen for me. So, you have a good family line, your own money and a brain in your head. What more could I ask for in a son in law?”

  It was a lot to process, but it was clear that he had read up on me and at least thought it through to some degree. Though I had to wonder why if so much thought was put into this idea of his, why he hadn’t come up with something better than an arranged marriage.

  “But why would you do it this way?”

  Ronald scoffed. “Why not? Parents have been picking their children’s partners a lot longer than marriage for love. Love is fleeting, but money, obligations and family ties last a life time.”

  I felt a shiver run up my spine with his words. How could I have not known that this was going to be more than a marriage? It wasn’t just a piece of paper. It was going to be more, so much more. Insane as it sounds, I was just now starting to realize that this was going to be a lifetime thing that I needed to really think about. Didn’t I have enough money? Did I really need to do all of this just to make more and pick up some prestige?

  “You are right. This is a big commitment.”

  Ronald chuckled. “You need to make the decision. Are you jumping in or backing off?”

  It was a now or never type of situation. I could tell that right from the bat and I wanted to tell him that I couldn’t, there was no way that I would go with such a crazy scheme, but Ronald had been right on all accounts. I was just a little bit desperate. Desperate enough to reach another height that I couldn’t on my own, just to get off of the plateau I was on.

  “Yes Ronald. I will marry your daughter. You have a deal.”

  The older man exclaimed and I pulled my ear back. I had a bad feeling in my stomach. Most people listened to theirs and let it guide them through their life. I ignored mine every chance I got. The larger the leap, the more uncertainty there was, the more yelling from my gut to stop. This was one of those times and I was just going to see where it took me. Out of all of the deals I had made though, this one seemed to be the biggest.

  “Hot damn son. Well good. I have my wife putting something together for this weekend. That will suit you, won’t it?”

  “This weekend?” My voice was hoarse and the last bit came out as a croak. This was happening far faster than I would have liked. How was I going to explain this to my own parents? I sighed when I really thought about it. My father would be happy because it was Ronald’s daughter. He wouldn’t care how we met or anything other than attaching ourselves to his family.

  My mother on the other hand would want to know everything else. I didn’t have an answer for her and I was already trying to formulate something in my head. Giving me just a few days to figure it out was pushing it in my mind. Why did it have to be so suddenly?”

  “Yes, do you have plans? Because if you do, you might want to cancel them.”

  “No, no plans that can’t be rescheduled. That is just rather soon. Isn’t a lengthy engagement period considered the right way?”

  Ronald told me that he didn’t care. “It doesn’t matter how it looks. Not in this century anyways. I just want it done and everything moving in the right direction.”

  There was an urgency I didn’t understand, but I was just going to chalk it up to a hidden health scare or something like that to make him want to put his affairs in order. I tried to remember if I had seen any signs of sickness when I had seen him last. I didn’t remember thinking of anything more than he was sharp and healthy for his age.

  I agreed to his mad scheme and got off of the phone not really sure how to feel about it all. I wanted to think of this as the changing point. I was already rich beyond all means, but I was still hungry for more. Now it was power and respect, the kind that I had seen first-hand when I was around Ronald. That is what I wanted and I was on the way to getting it.

  The idea that I was going to be married and it all hinged on that was just a thought way off in the back of my mind. It didn’t matter to me anything about her. I would marry his daughter in a few days and I hadn’t even asked to see her first because it was the power and money that I wanted. I had enough women on the side that none of my needs were unsatisfied. Why would any of that change?

  I sat back and closed my eyes, trying to imagine what this change was going to be like. I tried to imagine myself as a husband and I just couldn’t. It had never crossed my mind before, but here it was, about to happen. All I had to do was meet my new bride and convince the world that we were happily married and in love.

  That didn’t sound that hard. I made a call to the investigator Mike to keep looking. There was no rush on it now, but I wanted to know all that I could about my wife to be.

  **END OF PREVIEW**

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  ***

  BE MY PRINCESS: SNEAK PEAK

  PREVIEWS

  Be My Princess

  A Billionaire and Virgin Romance

  Blurb

  I needed an assistant like that; hot tempting and willing to please.

  Her innocence was intoxicating and I had to have more.

  I was going to be her first and her last.

  I lived by rules and rule number one was don’t let women get to me. Stacy got to me.

  My life was a dream.

  I had more money than I could ever spend.

  A hot model every night to suck me off.

  My business kept my heart pumping.

  I had everything that a man could ever want.

  Then I saw a college buddy that I hadn’t seen in several months.

  He was married and smiling like an idiot at his new wife.

  I was never going to be like that.

  No woman was ever going to change me.

  Not me.

  Enter Stacy Growler and everything changed.

  She wasn’t like most women I met.

  She told me no.

  Stacy was clear that she wasn’t interested.

  It should have stopped me.

  But it just made me want her more.

  I want her to be the princess of my life.

  Her innocence a drug and I was now an addict.

  I wasn’t going to rest until I had Stacy underneath me.

  Until she was screaming out my name in that sultry little voice of hers.

  Chapter 1

  Chris

  “I am glad you could make it tonight Chris. I know you have been in Europe for a while.”

  “I never miss the Gala. It is the only charity event that I actually like coming to anymore and I didn’t even want to come to this one.”

  Keenan agreed and I could tell that he was talking about all of the beautiful girls that were around. It was the first time I had seen him with his new wife though and I could tell from being around them
that he was smitten with her and not looking too far. He hadn’t given much looks to anyone else and I found that a little different. The man used to be a worse womanizer than I was. What had changed everything so much?

  “My wife wanted to come, though I tried to get out of it. She says that I should do more to help. It’s my duty or something like that.”

  I started to laugh until I realized that he was being serious.

  “Isn’t that Ronald’s daughter?”

  Keenan said that it was. “Yes. We got married and everything changed.”

  “I can see that. I also hear that you aren’t working as much anymore.”

  “No, I would rather stay home. Made enough money for this lifetime I suppose.” He didn’t look so sure of that last statement and it made me wonder.

  I had a feeling that was another bit of wisdom from the new wife. I certainly hadn’t heard him talking about such things before. Keenan was the man that never had enough. How had he changed so much in the last couple of months?

  “I don’t think that is something you will ever hear me say. I was actually going to see if you had any advice of KTT. I know that you aren’t really dealing with stocks anymore, but since your father in law is God of all of that, I thought you might have some information that I don’t have.”

  “You know, I really don’t know. I didn’t realize how far I was out of the loop until you asked me about it. I will ask Ronald or look it up myself. Damn, Chris. I have been in a fog lately.”

  I saw that he was looking at his wife again. I could tell that something had happened to my old friend from college. He was not the same guy that I had seen a couple of months ago at a convention. This time he was scattered brained and it reinforced the fact that love had no business in my life. If that is what the results of love was. I didn’t want to have anything to do with it.

  “Tell you what Keenan, why don’t you come down to the members meeting this weekend? I haven’t seen you there in a couple of years. They are having it in Jamaica. There will be hot women and beautiful weather. Get away for a bit so that you can get back in the game because you are getting rusty my friend.”

  Keenan looked like he was going to say no, but his wife had walked in on the last part and insisted that he goes. “See, there you go dear. I know that you need to get some work done. Sounds like fun and you were just saying how you wanted to get back into it.”

  I was thankful that she hadn’t heard the first part about the women, but it put the man on the spot and he wasn’t going to be able to say no. Not with her standing there. I had a feeling that Keenan couldn’t say no to his wife at all.

  “Fine, I think I will Chris. It will be good to speak to some people that I haven’t seen in a while.”

  I smiled at Keenan and told him that he made the right choice. It would be good to see my old friend again. I don’t know what was going on with him, but his wife seemed to run the show. We exchanged times and I promised that we were going to catch up this weekend.

  Watching Keenan and his wife, I was even surer that I didn’t want to go that route. There was pressure to do so, always pressure to start a family like that would somehow facilitate anything in my life. Like it would fill a void that was there. I didn’t need a family to be fulfilled. I had everything I needed and conquering the world was enough for me.

  Keenan smiled and touched his wife’s arm. There was a gentleness that I don’t think I even possessed. He loved her. I could tell from the silly little grin on his face. He loved her a lot and while others may have thought it was cute and romantic, I just didn’t want it to be me. I hoped I never smiled like such an idiot in my life. What fun would that be? One woman for the rest of my life? It sounded boring if I really thought about it.

  Going to the bar, I tried to wash down all of the feelings that I was having and tried not to get too worked up over it. I felt like something was missing and there were times when I thought maybe it was a partner to share my life and wealth with, but now I was sure that it was something else I was lacking.

  “You haven’t said too much tonight Chris and now you look so serious. What is on your mind?”

  I turned to see Ashlyn standing next to me at the bar. She was ordering another glass of wine and peering up at me with those soulful blue eyes.

  “Not much. Have you seen Keenan over there?”

  Ashlyn smiled and shook her head. “He is a mess, isn’t it?” She said the same things that I was saying in my head, but her tone was different and if I didn’t know any better, she thought that it was a good thing. I didn’t see it that way.

  “Yes he is, so why are you smiling about it like that?”

  “What, can I not be happy for a friend?”

  “I thought you two were more than friends?”

  “No more than me and you. Keenan was looking for something else and he found it in Gemma. She is a real sweet girl. Have you talked to her?”

  I had no intentions on talking to the vixen that had turned Keenan to mush. I was afraid that it was some kind of voodoo and I would be as helpless as he was. I couldn’t risk it. “No, but I know her father.”

  “Gemma is so different than Ronald. You should say hi. She is a real nice girl and it changed Keenan around. Look how happy he is?”

  I could see the man smiling from here. “Yeah I see him. I don’t think that they will be together that long. We will see. No one stays happy like that for long. It isn’t real.”

  Ashlyn called me a scrooge and maybe she was right. I just wasn’t that type of guy. I didn’t think Keenan was either, so maybe that was why I found it so hard to stomach.

  “I will take him out this weekend and see how he acts away from his little wife.”

  Ashlyn just shook her head and told me that I was going to find ‘the one’ one day and things would be different.

  “God, I hope not.”

  ***

  Everyone I talked to today, it was all I heard, love and ‘the one’. I wasn’t looking for anyone in particular, but the tall blond from across the room caught my eye. She had a smile on her face that told me she was ‘the one’ for the night. I brought her home with me. It was something that I shouldn’t have done, but now I was stuck with a woman that was close to being teary-eyed for me not wanting her to stay.

  “Was there something that I did wrong?”

  “No Lisa, it isn’t like that at all.”

  “My name is Leslie, not Lisa!”

  The tears turned to anger rather quickly. I was surprised that I had gotten that close to her real name. I had known her a couple of hours and in my defense, almost none of that was talking.

  “I am sorry Leslie. I will have my driver take you home or wherever you want to go.”

  She looked crushed and I was just feeling aggravated about the whole thing. It was fun while it lasted, but it was time for her to go. That didn’t seem that hard to understand.

  “I will get a cab. You rich guys are all alike!”

  There were so many things that came to mind when she said that. I could have asked her why she was with us rich guys if we were all the same, but I knew that it had a lot more to do with the fact that we had money. We could see women like her coming a mile away.

  At the benefit she was dressed rather slutty and then the eyes she gave me when she came up to me in the bar. I was on her radar as soon as I got there. I supposed that Lisa, or Leslie, knew who I was right off the bat. I wasn’t going to feel bad for not falling in love. I wasn’t supposed to.

  “At least let me call for you.”

  She put her hand up like she was disgusted with me. “Really, don’t bother. I will just leave.”

  I agreed, but I still walked her down the stairs so that I could make sure she didn’t take something on her way out. As she looked back at me, I smiled at her and told myself that I was going to have to stop doing this. A hotel was just as easy and then they didn’t know where I lived. I had a feeling that Leslie was going to be a problem. I don’t know why, but a
s she was leaving, something told me that I was going to have to keep an eye on her.

  I shut the door and told Fred to make sure that Leslie left the premise. I called her a cab, just to make sure that she didn’t try to say that they wouldn’t come. I left nothing to chance and this was one of those nights.

  “Did you get a live one Sir?”

  Fred chuckled as I gave him a dirty look.

  “They tend to get mad when you can’t remember their names.”

  Fred just shook his head and looked out the window at the woman we were talking about. I couldn’t believe that she was still on the stairs, but it was a long way down the mountain if you were on foot. My driver could have already been halfway to her house if she wasn’t so stubborn.

  “I will keep an eye on her Sir. You should get some rest. It is already three.”

  The time meant nothing. I never slept anyways, but I agreed with him and went in the direction of my bedroom. I was thinking about the night and no longer about the blonde pouting on my front steps. It was going to be a while before she left, but I trusted Fred to make sure everything went well. He had been with me for years and this wasn’t the first time that he had to get rid of someone for me. I doubted that it would be the last.

  Then I started thinking about Keenan and wondering why I was so against meeting his wife. Was I really that worried about finding what it was in her that was lacking in all of the women that I met? I knew that my choices were not the best, but I wasn’t looking for a wife. I was just looking to have some fun. Life was too short for anything else.

  Sleep finally caught up to me and I didn’t dream about anything. When I woke up the next day, Fred filled me in on how long Leslie hung around and that she did try to come back in, but the cab I called arrived and she finally left an hour later.