Bedazzled (The Beguiling Bachelors Book 1)

by Madison Michael

  Do not turn around, Keeli Larsen, whatever you do. Do. Not. Turn. Around.

  She got only about 10 paces before a strong hand on her arm slowed her movement. Wyatt had followed her down the sidewalk, but Sloane was watching them like a hawk and still within hearing distance.

  “Keeli, wait. Please,” Keeli looked at the hand on her arm as if it was a serpent and Wyatt removed it self-consciously.

  “I can explain. Please, let me explain. It’s complicated, but I can explain. Can I call you later?”

  “Nothing has been preventing you from calling me, Wyatt.” The frost in her tone was bone chilling.

  “Yeah, I guess you are right about that. You look fantastic, by the way.”

  Always the charmer, isn’t he? Maybe he just can’t help himself.

  “Thank you. You don’t owe me an explanation, Wyatt. I am a big girl. I knew the lay of the land when I agreed to go out with you. Sloane is waiting. You don’t want to be rude.”

  “I’ll call you in a couple hours,” he said plaintively, but he was speaking to air. Keeli had walked away.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  Four hours later, Keeli was a little tipsy and giggling with her roommates. They have finished a bottle of pretty good champagne and half a bottle of even better Chardonnay. That was in addition to the two glasses of wine Keeli had over lunch, too.

  She had been celebrating her new look, a possible trunk show and the biggest news of all, Dylan and Theo’s engagement.

  “I knew things were getting serious, but I confess you caught me by surprise,” Keeli repeated. She had been telling them this for the last hour, over and over. “I should have seen it coming, huh?”

  “We weren’t completely sure last year when the law changed, but now we know we want to spend the rest of our lives together.”

  “I am just so happy for you both. I had better be a bridesmaid. And no ugly dresses, promise me,” and the three begin giggling again. “I think I might be drunk.”

  “Oh, Keeli, you are definitely drunk,” Theo laughed.

  “We do want to give you a heads up that we want to move after the wedding,” Dylan took the conversation in a more serious direction. “We want to buy something, not rent.”

  “Moving, you guys are moving?” Keeli wailed. “When? Where?”

  “Well, the wedding is set for eight weeks from now. Dylan reserved the restaurant without any problem, the benefit of working there. I am calling in favors from everyone I work with. Then a couple weeks of honeymoon, so you have at least two months. Lots of time.”

  Keeli sobered up quickly. “Two months? You call that a lot of time? Where will I go?”

  “You could stay here,“ Dylan offered, “with some new roommates. You should have no problem with that. Logan Square is hip now.”

  “Yeah, maybe.” Keeli was less than enthusiastic at the prospect of randomly finding new roommates among Chicago’s millions. “Not your problem, boys. Tonight we celebrate.” Pasting on an obviously forced smile, Keeli raised her glass to Theo for a refill.

  “Oh no you don’t. You are cut off, my tipsy friend.” He refused the refill and took her glass from her as the buzzer went off indicating someone was at the downstairs door.

  “Expecting company?” Dylan asked. Looking at them both, he was met by bewilderment. He struggled to get off the floor and went to the intercom. “Who is it?” he shouted into the machine. He had never gotten the hang of it and they all began laughing. “You can talk normally,” Theo was already correcting, so that they did not actually hear a voice respond before Dylan hit the button to release the downstairs door.

  The three waited expectantly listening to footfalls on the creaky stairs. When the sound grew closer, Dylan stepped into the hallway. Theo and Keeli heard him speaking to someone he knew. Perhaps Mark, from upstairs, had forgotten his keys.

  “We’re celebrating, come drink with us,” they heard him offer. Then Wyatt’s large frame was filling the small entryway. The boys were welcoming him, sharing their exciting news, pouring him a large glass of the crisp, cool wine.

  “Congratulations guys. This is so exciting. I am so happy for you both.” The three were doing those backslapping, non-hug hugs that men do while Keeli remained frozen in place, cross-legged on the floor.

  “You said you were going to call, not show up.” The words came out sharper than she intended. In her drunken state she was unable to hide her hurt and anger.

  “I tried calling a couple times but got no answer,” he shrugged. Keeli lay across the floor, stretching for her hobo bag just out of reach and dug for her cellphone. Sure enough, she had three missed calls and two text messages, all from Wyatt. She also saw that she already had an email from Linda Stuart with a list of possible dates for a trunk show. Her heart, already pounding uncontrollably since Wyatt entered the room, did an extra little flip of joy. She couldn’t wait to reply.

  “What do you want, Wyatt? You are intruding on our little celebration.”

  “Oh, no intrusion, man. We are about done with the booze anyway.” Dylan missed the scathing look Keeli fired his way. “You’re just in time to share the last of it with us.”

  The three men drank and laughed together like old friends while Keeli did a slow burn watching them. After several minutes, Theo took Dylan by the hand to lead him down the hall. “We’ll just leave you two alone then.”

  Wyatt took Keeli’s hands, easily lifting her from the floor and settling her on the tired, lumpy couch. Leaving her there, he wandered into the kitchen, emerging moments later with a large glass of water, which he pressed into her hands.

  After three large, unladylike gulps, Keeli put the glass on the scarred side table, not bothering to put a coaster under it. Wyatt reached for a coaster, and reaching across her, placed it carefully under the damp glass. His proximity as he leaned across her body almost made her faint with desire. Moving slowly back to a sitting position he stopped halfway back to upright, gently touching her smooth waves, then her face, with his fingertips.

  “You look so beautiful.” He sounded awed, looking at Keeli with his heart on his sleeve. “I have missed you so much.”

  She responded to his confession with stony silence until he was forced to continue.

  “I wanted to call you, I did.”

  “Yeah, I can tell.”

  “I did. All hell broke loose with my family the day after I saw you in Milwaukee.”

  “Is everyone okay?” Keeli could not help asking with concern. “Your father? He’s okay?”

  “Yeah, sorry, everyone is healthy. That is not what I meant. I didn’t mean to scare you. It is this damn family loyalty crap. I told my father I wanted to start my own company.”

  “Is he thrilled?” Keeli had forgotten her anger now, turning halfway toward Wyatt in her excitement.

  “Thrilled? Not the word I would use here.” The sarcasm was heavy in Wyatt’s voice. “He threatened to disown me.”

  “Are you kidding?” Keeli could not believe it. “He should be so proud of you, of what you have already accomplished and about what you want to achieve in the future. I don’t understand.”

  “It’s that family thing I have tried explaining. It is not about what I want to do. It is about abandoning the company, the family, and the name. He wants to cut me off without a cent, which is okay. I don’t care about the money. Then he played his ace. He threatened not to be a customer of the new company. My investors will jump ship if I cannot bring them Lyons Howe.”

  “Oh Wyatt, this is awful. I am so sorry.” Keeli started making suggestions, different investors, and other potential customers. “You have thought of all this already, I am sure.”

  “Yeah. Anyway, he came around in the end, sort of.”

  Sort of?”

  “If I agree to marry Sloane, who is my mother’s choice for me, he will not only promise to be a client, he will be an investor.”

  Keeli moved to put some distance between their bodies as a distinct chill came over he
r.

  “So, you are with Sloane now. Congratulations. I hope you will be very happy.”

  And I get sent back to the wrong side of the tracks.

  “It’s not like that, I swear.”

  “Seriously? Then what is it like?”

  Wyatt had no answer. Keeli had understood perfectly.

  “I am so embarrassed, Keeli. My family would love you if they got to know you, but all they see is that Sloane has the money and connections to help the family and the new business. And my father has some contracts with her father that really complicate things further.”

  “… While I am a useless gold-digger who cannot help you at all.” She flung the words at him in disgust. “I get it. Believe me, this is not new for me. Let’s be honest, Wyatt. They see what you told them to see in me. What you saw in me too, if you are honest with yourself. I was just someone to kill a little time with. I think you should leave.”

  Keeli stood a bit unsteadily and moved toward the door. Wyatt reached to stop her and in her attempt to shake him off, she lost her balance, landing hard on him, hearing the sofa leg make a definite cracking sound.

  “Oh great, now I broke the sofa too. Shit. Look, just go, ok, just go.” She was pushing against the hard muscles of his chest, trying to rise to her feet again. He was holding her in place though, and she was no match for his strength.

  “That is not what I see, Keeli. I care about you, I do. However, I have wanted this company since college and now it is in reach. I can’t jeopardize it now.” He was pleading with her to understand. In fact, despite her hurt and anger, and a lot of alcohol, she did understand and sympathize.

  “My family is closed minded, and old fashioned. They live in their tight little world with people from the same cloistered little world and they like it that way. I can’t challenge the status quo right now.“

  “I understand, Wyatt, really I do. I wish you all the luck in the world.”

  “Just let me get my financing and then we can talk.”

  “No we can’t. It’s over. You will see that too. We barely knew each other. Go marry Sloane. She will make you a perfect hostess and a good wife. She will fit in and help you succeed. I could never do that for you, Wyatt. Just go be happy.”

  Keeli wanted him to leave before she started crying, but he wouldn’t let her go. She wanted desperately to lean into his neck and sob. She was not going to be able to keep up this charade must longer.

  “I care about you, Keeli. I am falling for you and I believe you feel the same way about me. I know it’s only been a few months, but we have something here. You know we do. Just give me a little time to bring my folks around and launch my company.”

  “Sure, Wyatt. You go do that. Just bring them around and we will see what happens.”

  Say it like you believe it, Keeli, or he will never let you go.

  Perhaps she had convinced him that it would work out, because he was holding her now like things would be fine. He believed that he would get his family to see that she belonged with him. They would invest in his business and then Keeli and Wyatt could live happily ever after.

  What damn fairy tale has he been reading?

  He was kissing her hair and her face and she needed him to give her space. Panic was rising in her uncontrollably. “Wyatt, stop, please. I am drunk and tired. You cannot jeopardize things now. You need to go.”

  “Let me stay tonight, Keeli. Better yet, come home with me. We need to be together. We need to talk. It’s been too long.”

  “Not tonight. Call me tomorrow.” With that, she rose to her feet, leading Wyatt to the door. She turned her face up and accepted his kisses. Let him believe she would be there tomorrow if he needed to. She knew that this was the end. She loved this man with her whole being. She would not risk his success even if he would. She would let him go.

  Her heart was breaking anew as she closed the door softly behind him and listened to him recede from her life.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  “Sloane, I cannot stress this enough.” Wyatt was pacing Sloane’s perfectly decorated vintage apartment. “These meetings with the investors will be make it or break it for me.”

  Sloane patted the seat next to her on the overstuffed blue sofa. “Darling, I am well aware of what is at stake here. I know perfectly well how to behave with a group of businessmen. Have I not played hostess at enough parties for you yet? Don’t you know you can trust me?”

  Her little speech, which started with a powerful, independent voice ended in a flirtatious pout and Wyatt remembered again why she annoyed him. He was incredibly nervous about taking her with him to Las Vegas for these three days of meetings.

  What if she gets too strident, or too flirtatious? She had been a perfect hostess in the past, but then she was trying to win him. Now she had him over a barrel and she knew it. The balance of power in their relationship had shifted.

  “Seriously, they are bringing their spouses. Try to hang with them, ok? We both know you like to be in the middle of the business discussions, but please just resist this one time.” Throwing his hands in the air in frustration, he began pacing again.

  “Stop pacing, I have this. The car will be here any minute. You just have to relax.”

  “Hah!” That one word contained all the anger and bitterness that Wyatt had been feeling for the last four weeks, since the family dinner disaster when his father gave him that awful ultimatum. He had met with his father the following week, understood now that he had entered into deals with Sloane’s father that could compromise Lyons Howe’s reputation and business. Wyatt was in a position to protect them all, but to do so he would have to marry Sloane. He was furious with his father for overreaching, for his greed and shortsightedness. But his father had been ill, anxious and less than cautious.

  He had not seen anyone from his family since that meeting except Missy. She came for weekly dinners with him and sometimes brought the kids. He got all the news from her about things at home. His mother was hurt by his absence but standing by her husband. Regan was thrilled to be in charge at Lyons Howe and his brother was falling into line behind her with no questions asked.

  Each week Missy tried to bring up the topic of Keeli, but Wyatt refused to discuss her, saying only, “I can’t do this, Miss, I cannot talk about her.” Since Keeli was saying pretty much the same thing, Missy was staying out of the middle despite her misgivings.

  The buzzer brought Wyatt back to the present. He picked up his overnight bag and Sloane’s heavy tote bag, nodding to her to indicate that she would need to pull her large rolling bag herself. She checked her apartment quickly to see if she forgot anything, left on a light in the long hallway leading to the bedrooms, and locked the door behind them. Wyatt was already fidgeting at the elevator when she joined him.

  The driver loaded their luggage into the waiting Lincoln Town Car. Wyatt squirmed in the back seat until Sloane laid a perfectly manicured hand over his.

  “Would you feel better if we reviewed it one more time?” Wyatt nodded the affirmative. “There will be three couples from the VC company, all from the Silicon Valley. Edward is the president, Cary the VP of finance and Sydney is the strategy person, right?”

  “Yes, and she is very powerful,” Wyatt cut in. “The men are bringing their wives, Sydney is bringing her husband who also happens to own a software company.”

  “And we are meeting them for cocktails tonight at 6:30?”

  “Yep, and dinner afterward in the hotel, I think.

  “I am sure they picked some heavy French food place where they can impress you with their money.” Sloane said with derision “I don’t know what I will eat if it is all carbs.”

  “Don’t be so sure. This is a California crowd remember? They said it would be casual.”

  “So why didn’t we meet in San Francisco?” Sloane whined. “I would have much preferred that over Vegas.”

  “They were heading to a conference in Vegas already, Sloane. I explained that to you twice.” Wyatt concentra
ted on keeping his patience. It was still early and he had three more days with her.

  “We could have waited for them to get back to San Francisco, Wyatt. I don’t understand the rush.”

  Wyatt turned to her, shock evident on his handsome, tired face. “Are you kidding me? I have been waiting weeks to talk to these guys. Without them I am finished, do you understand that? I am poised to launch a complete line of real estate software, I have my father pledged to beta test everything, but I cannot open my doors without capital and a lot of it.”

  “But you funded your business, sweetie. You hired those people and got office space already, I don’t understand why you can’t just keep doing that.” Sloane rested her hand on Wyatt’s thigh, smoothing the exquisite fabric of his suit pants over the strength of his thigh.

  “I have used all the money I have Sloane. It would be good to have something to live on, right? After all, you like to live well, my dear.” His voice dripped sarcasm that was not lost on Sloane.

  Sloane moved her head away from his, flipping her straight hair in his face as she turned to look out the window. This was her way of indicating that she was done talking. Wyatt knew that if he saw her face right now she would be pouting like a two year old. By tacit agreement, they said as little as possible for the rest of the trip, operating in tense silence, speaking only when necessary.

  At the airport, they whisked through the first class lines, and then sat silently in the Admiral’s Club until their flight was called. Wyatt noticed that Sloane slipped two magazines from the lounge into her bag. Despite his encouragement to leave them, she would not, so Wyatt gave up the fight.

  Once on board, Sloane cuddled against Wyatt across the wide seat divider. “Honey, I am sorry. Let’s go get you your money and have a lovely few days poolside in Vegas, okay? I don’t know why I am being so difficult. Forgive me?”

  After that, they operated companionably, getting their luggage and driver in Vegas, checking into The Cosmopolitan and unpacking in their suite. Sloane removed her creased white linen dress and slipped into a tiny white bikini. Wyatt threw on surfer shorts and called housekeeping to arrange for his suit to be picked up by the hotel for pressing, along with his shoes for a quick shine.