Romance: Match Romance - A Billionaire Romance (Alpha Male Romance Series) (The Matchmaker Book 1)

by Jessica Wharton

  They agree and everyone then takes a turn to come up with wild speculations of what kind of a date he will take her on and how it will end. Bets are taken and Bubby is in charge of the money until the results are in.

  Frank calls Sabrina and leaves messages. She won’t call him back, so he calls Jason on his cell and explains he has been trying to get ahold of Sabrina for a week with no luck.

  Jason walks out to Sabrina, and without saying a word he hands her his cell phone and stands there with his arms folded listening to her end of the conversation.

  Puzzled Sabrina takes the phone. “Sabrina Oswald, how may I assist you?”

  “Sabrina, well hello. This is Frank Sands I was just explaining to Jason that I thought you must have lost your cell or forgotten the password for your voicemail, as I have left many messages for you over the past week and have not heard anything back from you. I am sure it was an over sight as I don’t see you as being so rude you would not even give me a courtesy call.”

  Sabrina completely shaken up just stammered “Well I, umm… I… well… no… I mean… hello Frank…”

  Although on the outside Jason was standing with folded arms monitoring the call with a stern face, inside he was grinning and jumping up and down clicking his heels. He never thought he would see the day when his secretary, who scares him to death half the time would be rattled so easily. He couldn’t wait to tell Casey about this.

  Frank asks her out in a way that makes it impossible to say no to him, especially with her boss standing over her like a guard dog.

  After they hang up, Sabrina coldly hands back his phone. “I have no idea what kind of operation that glorified Madame you insist on making me deal with is running, but she can’t just hand out my number to any Tom, Dick or Harry who asks for it. She is supposed to match me with someone I am compatible with based on the questionnaire. I know, even without looking at his answers, there is no way that man is compatible with me. This nonsense needs to cease and desist immediately.”

  “That’s fine Sabrina, the choice has always been yours, however know that your job is contingent upon you not only going on a date with whoever Dahlia decides to match you with, but in finding a life for yourself which has nothing to do with me or Billiard Enterprises.”

  “Fine, I am leaving early, I have a date tonight, I will have to see if I have anything appropriate in my wardrobe for a hayride or a barn dance or whatever Mr. Cowboy boots has in mind.”

  Jason abruptly turned and hurried into his office before Sabrina could see him choking back laughter.

  A beautiful ebony box is delivered to the office by a man who was dressed like a butler. When she opened the box, inside was lined with red velvet and contained an engraved invitation and a white orchid. The invitation read:

  Mr. Frank Sands requests the presence of Ms. Sabrina Oswald this evening.

  A car will arrive at 7:00 PM.

  Formal evening attire required.

  When Sabrina had gotten it she had wondered what Frank would consider formal. Somehow she doubted formal meant the same thing to him as it did her.

  Chapter 14

  She dressed in a gown she had worn to the Met Ball. She put the orchid in her hair and at 7 pm on the dot opened her door to a driver.

  She had expected Frank, so she was a little thrown off by the driver. So far he had surprised her from the moment she laid eyes on him, he kept her off kilter.

  The car takes her to Dahlia’s house, where she is then instructed by the driver to walk around to the back of the house and go to the end of the dock. At the end of the dock was an amazing yacht and standing there waiting to help her aboard was Frank.

  And oh my.

  Frank was wearing a tux she would expect to see on a red carpet. It was obviously couture, having been made just for him.

  He holds out his hand to her and she takes it, as she is passing him to step aboard the yacht, he stops her by lightly touching her face just below where the flower is in her hair.

  “The orchid suits you” is all he says.

  She blushes and looks down, once again completely taken off guard.

  They go aboard the yacht, it sets sail. They have champagne and a lavish meal. There is a man playing the piano and between courses they dance. She finds him funny and sexy, and she was half in love with him already.

  She noticed he was easy going and laid back with the staff, yet with her he was more commanding and she liked that. She liked strong men, someone she couldn’t steam roll.

  Most men were intimidated by her, so she was even more intrigued than ever at the thought that this man instinctively knew what people needed from him. That was probably why he was so successful as a recording artist. He always had sold out concerts, and he was known to give an amazing show when you saw him live.

  He scared her. He scared her so much that she decided she would take this one night for herself, one night to pretend she could have this and then never, ever see him again. She would not survive that kind of heart break again.

  As Frank watched her he could see she was scared. He didn’t understand why, but he accepted it as something he would have to help her through. He was willing to put in the time and energy. This woman was worth the investment.

  He could see the moment she gave in, the moment she decided to relax and enjoy herself. He didn’t trust it, he knew it was short-lived and she would have her guard up again but he wasn’t’ going to waste this precious gift she had just given him.

  He suspected no one else ever saw her without the cold, thorny exterior. He decided then and there that he would make it his mission to let the world see this very human and warm side of her, that she would feel safe enough to be able to not live her life behind a cold, hard shell, and that she would be his forever.

  “I never want to see that man again! Look at my profile and give me the type of man I have asked you for.”

  Bubby and Dahlia just looked at Sabrina.

  “I am serious, I will walk out of here. I will lose my job, but I will walk out of here and how unfair is that? Because of your incompetence, I will have to walk away from a job I am not only very good at, but I have worked at for the last seven years.”

  Dahlia looked at Sabrina closer now, something was just not adding up. “So what you are saying is that you would rather walk away from a job you are obviously very passionate about than to see Frank Sands again?”

  “Yes. That is exactly what I am saying.”

  “You do realize most women would offer me not only their fortune but their first born, to even let them be in the same room as Frank Sands, let alone go out on a date with him. Did I miss judge him? Is he awful? Did he chase you around the deck? Did he drug your drink? Was he a pig or a slob? Is he racist or a chauvinist? Did he have bad breath or an odd body odor? I need to know so I can decide if I am going to keep him as a client.”

  “Nothing is wrong with him, he is perfect… Just not perfect for me.”

  Bubby wanted to cry at the sadness she could hear in Sabrina’s voice.

  Deciding it was best to humor Sabrina until they could get to the bottom of things, Bubby said, “Give us a few days to go through our data base. I am sure we can find the perfect man for you.”

  Sabrina, her moment of vulnerability over looked at the two matchmakers and said “I don’t want the perfect man for me. I want the right man for me.”

  Sabrina turned on her heel and stalked out.

  Natalya came into the room said, “That woman has a story and unless we can get to the bottom of it, she will spend her life miserable and making the world pay for her misery.”

  Bubby and Dahlia once again did their “I’m an owl” impression and just looked at Natalya blinking, not sure they heard her right. Just not being used to an insightful and sensitive Natalya.

  Natalya continued “You two find her what she thinks she wants, but find the most extreme one. I am going to go talk to her.”

  Natalya leaves. Bubby and Dahlia shake themselves
as if coming out of a trance and get to work finding exactly what Sabrina thinks she wants in a man.

  Chapter 15

  Natalya stopped by the office and Jason told her Sabrina called in to say she was working from home today, as she is under the weather. Jason gave Natalya Sabrina’s address.

  Sabrina answers the door in a pair of sweats, with a pint of Ben and Jerry’s in her hand. Natalya pushes past her into the apartment without saying a word. Sabrina just shrugs, grabs her spoon and once again starts eating her ice cream, using her foot to push the door closed.

  Still neither of them saying a word, Sabrina sits on the sofa and Natalya joins her. They just stare at each other while Sabrina spoons the Cherry Garcia into her mouth. Finally Natalya starts talking.

  “I would like to tell you my story, not even my mother or my daughter know my story, I don’t expect it to change your mind about Frank, what I hope it will do is make you pause and think before acting rash. I have not always been the person I am today, I once believed in love and happy endings. I used to love life and everything about it, the sun on my face, the ocean breeze, birds singing in the trees, butterflies dancing in the meadows, I saw beauty and joy everywhere.”

  “I was 18 years old and I fell madly in love with the boy who lived in the big house on the hill. He said he loved me. We spent an amazing summer together and then he was going off to Harvard. Since we were so in love, I saw no problem with becoming intimate with him, after all our love was going to last forever. The day he was due to leave for school I ran all the way up the hill to tell him the news. I was 2 months along, we were going to be parents.”

  “I threw my arms around his neck and whispered the exciting news into his ear. He pushed me to the ground, spat on me, got into the car and left. I never saw him again. A week later I married Alexander Rasputin. Al had been my childhood playmate, he was weak and easily manipulated. I loved him as a brother until I married him, then I resented his puppy dog devotion and his constant attempts to make me happy. The more he bent to my will the more awful I treated him.”

  “It wasn’t fair that I treated him so, but I couldn’t stop myself. I let that spoiled, privileged boy who lied to me and left me ruined to fend not just for myself but for our child, shape my life. I let him win in thousands of ways while everyone else has lost. I had to make my mother suffer for making me believe in the fairy tale, then my sweet, beautiful Dahlia for being so much like I was. I never wanted her to get hurt, all I managed to do was drive her further from me and closer to my mother, which isn’t a bad thing but I missed out on so much because of it.”

  “And my poor Al, he tried until the day he died to show me how loved and cherished I was. His last words to me as he lay dying were that he would be sitting on a cloud for two, counting the minutes until we were together once again. As I said, no one has ever heard this story and I only tell you to give you some food for thought. I have no idea what your story is, but don’t let him win. Defy him and let go of the fear, grab the brass ring and be happy.”

  As Natalya had been telling Sabrina her story, Sabrina had inched her way closer and closer to Natalya until her head was resting on Natalya’s shoulder. Natalya had her arm around Sabrina, idly playing with Sabrina’s beautiful white blond hair as she spoke. When the story was finished they both just sat in their own thoughts being comforted by each other.

  They spent some time speaking about anything and everything. By the time Natalya left that day, they had a lifelong bond that nobody but each other understood.

  Dahlia and Bubby had found the perfect man to set up Sabrina with. He was exactly what she said she wanted — times a hundred. He was smart, shy, and wealthy and had never been married.

  Sabrina would be able to bend him to her will, with no effort whatsoever. He was a software Mogul who had started like many of the big names today, in his parent’s basement, while he was in college. The man had zero social skills. Bubby knew Sabrina would chew him up and spit him out, then come back for seconds. She also knew that Ben Frasier would let her do it and thank her after.

  The date was a disaster from the beginning. He was allergic to everything in the world, so he would only eat food prepared by his personal chef. After dinner they just sat and stared at each other until he got up from the table and offered to drive her home. After 3 long boring hours she was more than ready to go home.

  She had a headache, and she was nauseous. She could not imagine spending ten more minutes let alone a lifetime with this man.

  Sabrina had spent the last few days thinking about what Natalya had said about letting go of the fear and grabbing the brass ring. She hadn’t been convinced she could until 3 hours ago when she realized spending the rest of her life with someone she didn’t love or respect would was no longer an option. Maybe if she hadn’t had that one magical night with Frank she could have done it, but not anymore. She had been so lost in thought, she was home before she even realized they had driven across town.

  When they stopped in front of her apartment building, she barely thanked him for a wonderful evening before bolting out of the car and into her building.

  When she got inside Natalya was waiting for her.

  Sabrina flew into Natalya’s arms and cried as if she would never stop. This was the first time she had cried like this, the first time she was able to mourn the girl who disappeared the night she had discovered the man who claimed he would love her forever was not only sleeping with several other of his students as well but was married and had 5 children and she had become this cold calculating woman.

  When she quieted Natalya held her at arm’s length and looked at her. “Oh dear you are not the pretty crier my Dahlia is, your nose and eyes get all red and your face blotchy.”

  Sabrina started laughing at Natalya’s words.

  Natalya led her inside the apartment, had her wash her face and change into some comfortable, warm clothes.

  “Where are we going?” Sabrina asked.

  “Do you trust me?”

  “More than anyone in the world.”

  “Good, remember that.”

  Natalya drove them to her house she shared with her mother, daughter and son in-law, led her around back where tied to the dock was not the yacht she had experienced the last time she was here but a sail boat, outlined in white fairy lights. And on the dock waiting for her was the man who made her heart beat fast and her palms sweat.

  Natalya stopped and said “This is a journey you must begin on your own. I can’t drag you up to him and hand you over. This is where you must decide if you are going to let the past rule your future or if you are going to say forget that, and head into what could be your fairytale ending after all. If I were able to take back all those years, I would, but since I can’t, I have to live vicariously through you, we both deserve the fairytale.”

  Sabrina gave Natalya a hug and a kiss and turns towards the dock. She started off walking but her pace picked up until she was running down the dock towards Frank.

  Grinning, he opens his arms and braces himself as she becomes an airborne projectile heading straight at him. Frank easily snatches her out of the air and she wraps her arms and legs around him and gives him a kiss he will never forget.

  “I thought you never wanted to see me again,” he said.

  Sabrina grinned and replied “That was before my fairy godmother reminded me I deserved my happily ever after.”

  As the couple boarded the boat, Natalya turned and headed for the house. She stopped and wiped the tears from her eyes before entering through the sliding doors into the living room where her family were all gathered.

  “Mama, would you like a glass of wine or something stronger?”

  Dahlia only called her mama when she could sense Natalya was feeling vulnerable or sad.

  Natalya smiled and said “Have that gold digging son-in-law of mine pour me two fingers of scotch.”

  As David handed her the glass, she said in a low voice so only he could hear, “If you fail to
continue to make my daughter happy, be prepared to enjoy your private parts for breakfast.”

  Startled David took a close look at his mother-in-law and could see evidence of her tears. He leaned over and gave her a kiss on the cheek and whispered back “No worries Nat, I will love that woman through eternity.”

  She watched as he walked over to her daughter. She could see the way they looked at each other. They were able to communicate easily without words. Never saying a word they walked out of the room hand in hand. Forgetting Bubby was still in the room, Natalya smiled like the Cheshire cat, took a big swig of her drink and murmured to herself “Maybe it’s not too late for me.”

  Bubby startled her when she said “What’s that dear?”

  “I said it is late, I’m going to bed.”

  If Natalya had seen the calculating look her mother had given her as she walked out of the room, she would have packed her bags and fled back to Russia on the first flight out of the country.