Harrison groaned when they came around the corner and saw that his parents were, again, already waiting for them. But so were Clarice’s lovely friends, and to see the delight in her eyes as she ran toward them made him endlessly happy.
Last night, after retreating to their room for hot make-up sex, both she and Harrison took a break to have meetings with their loved ones and tell them about the plan they had come up with. Harrison had to go through the difficulty of breaking his mother’s heart regarding her future grandchild — for which she rightly gave him a slap across the face — but she seemed soothed by his revelation that he had fallen in love with Clarice in earnest, and that her grandchild was at the most, delayed. He promised both of them to make their relationship better, as well, including semi-annual visits.
Clarice took her girls to dinner and then private shopping at the boutiques on Harrison’s tab, a gift he insisted would soften the blow when she told them she wouldn’t be returning to New York with them. She had saved up vacation time at work and intended to take it all right now, so that she and Harrison could begin laying the groundwork for her permanent move to Bali. She wouldn’t have to work at all, if she didn’t want to, though she was sure she would find something amazing to do eventually. She wanted to build a new life with Harrison, a new adventure here in Bali, helping him run his empire, and starting a family.
They returned to each other emotionally exhausted, but happier than either of them had been, and spent the wee hours of the morning making love. But morning came, and though it was heavy, their goodbyes now were only the first step on this new road.
Harrison stood with his arm around his mother as Clarice said her goodbyes to her friends. Each of them gave her a bright, warm hug — especially Trudy, who wrapped her so tight she looked like she was trying to absorb her best friend right into her skin. All of them were teary-eyed except the one called Liz, but even she had a look of sweet emotion on her face.
“I’ll call you as soon as I get back,” said Trudy, when she finally released her grip. “You’re sure about all this?”
“I’m sure,” said Clarice with a smile. “Never been more sure. I’m just going to take all the vacation I have left at the publishing house before I cruise home to get the move started. I’m, uh… I’m not quite ready to leave yet.” She turned and gave a wink to Harrison.
“I did not expect adventure Clarice to come roaring out so boldly again,” laughed Trudy. “I should have known better. She was hibernating too long, prepping for something big.”
“She was,” agreed Clarice. “And I’m glad she’s back, too.”
“How the shit are we going to live in the city without you?” said Sophie, with a few sniffles. She patted her nose with a cloth handkerchief she pulled out of her patent leather bag. “It won’t be the same at all.”
“I know, but that’s not a bad thing,” said Clarice. “Things change all the time. And besides, now you guys not only have the perfect excuse to come back to Bali, but you won’t even have to pay for it!”
Behind her, Harrison cleared his throat in an obvious manner, and quirked his eyebrow at her sternly. “Oh, is that right?”
Sheepishly but with her own seductive charm, Clarice gave him a pouty look. “Well, that is if my darling partner approves such frivolous expenses, right sweetheart?”
“What in the hell have I gotten myself into,” muttered Harrison playfully to his mother.
“It’s about time someone was able to keep you in line,” she replied.
“As if I needed another reason to support you finally getting some regular, high-class tail,” said Liz when Clarice pulled her into a hug. “And I will be taking you up on that trip offer probably every single summer until I die at my desk, okay?”
“C’mon, Liz, we all know the kids will kill you before they’ll let you die of natural causes.”
Liz gave her a happy, lopsided grin and tweaked her nose between her fingers. “I’m really going to miss you, dummy.”
“I won’t give you enough time to miss me. You’re all calling me when you get home and we’re getting drunk over webcam,” said Clarice, pointing a sweeping finger at all of them. “I mean it, alright?” Her voice was firm and light, but she was wiping tears from her eyes anyway.
Harrison put his arms around her gently to comfort her. He smiled at the ladies. “I can’t thank you all enough for bringing Clarice here. If it wasn’t for you, we never would have met.”
“Yeah, you’re damn welcome,” said Trudy. “You make sure you take care of her and we won’t have a problem, got it?”
“On my honor,” said Harrison with his hand over his heart. “And on the name of my father. Also, Clarice is right. You are all welcome back whenever you want, no charge. It’s the least I can do to repay you for introducing her into my life.”
The ladies all beamed and squealed until the bellhop came running up to inform them their car to the airport had arrived. Clarice gave them all one last hug before she watched them wander out the lobby doors, waving as they did.
“I hope they don’t mind, but I replaced their shuttle van with a limousine. Oh, and I changed their flights, they’ll be taking a private jet all the way back to New York,” whispered Harrison to Clarice quietly.
“What were you thinking? They will be furious,” she giggled. Harrison kissed the top of her head and pulled her into his side playfully.
George Moore cleared his throat, and Harrison turned to watch his parents exchange a glance with each other before his father began speaking. “Well, I must say this is the most unusual engagement holiday I’ve ever heard of. Certainly the most unusual in our circle of friends.”
Clarice turned a bit red and stuck close to Harrison’s side. Despite his promises that his parents didn’t hold anything against her for the ruse, she was still insecure about her part in it. “Hopefully it won’t turn into some resentment toward your fabulous new daughter-in-law? For real this time?”
“Wait, when did I properly propose to you?” asked Harrison.
Clarice blushed. “Oh, well, you didn’t, I just assumed.”
“You just assumed I would want to marry you.”
“Well, yeah… I mean, look at me,” said Clarice, waving a hand up and down her form.
Harrison beamed and laughed, pulling her close for a hug and a kiss.
His father watched them, shaking his head, but there was a sparkling smile on his face. “I wonder if you two weren’t playing a ruse on yourselves this whole time, rather than us.”
“That’s very philosophical, father,” said Harrison. “But you know how I feel about learning life lessons and such.” He stuck his tongue out and made a thumbs down.
“Harrison, what has gotten into you?” his mother gasped, with a gentle slap on his arm. But she was smiling, too.
“That old black magic,” said her son, winking at Clarice. “It’s what you two always wanted anyway, wasn’t it? Surprise! My confession was actually the ruse; we weren’t pretending this whole time.”
“We just didn’t realize it right away,” said Clarice.
“That is typically how it happens, I find,” said his father with a loving look towards his mother. “But I’m afraid we must head back to England. I’ve been too long away from the board rooms. Everything is liable to collapse at any moment.”
“Of course, the fate of the free market depends on it.”
Harrison shook hands with his father, and then pulled him into a tight hug. His father was surprised at first, but he returned it firmly, patting his son on the back. His mother’s embrace was far more loving, and she kissed him thrice on the cheek before she was satisfied enough to leave.
“We’ll invite you back when the wedding or the baby is on, whichever comes first,” said Harrison as they headed for the door.
“Which will definitely be the wedding,” added Clarice.
“Take care of my baby, Clarice!” said Vanessa.
“I promise I will,” she replied.
>
They shared one last wave goodbye before the Moores disappeared into their own limousine and headed for the airport.
Harrison turned to Clarice and wrapped his arms around her. He dropped a kiss on her head. “Well, my queen, what would you like to do on this first day of your rule?”
Clarice twisted her mouth in thought. “I’d like to dare you to streak through the water gardens.”
Harrison fought a smile, and instead heaved a big, dramatic sigh. He pulled away from her and started to unbutton his shirt. “As my queen commands…”
Bonus Book - Trust
The next novel I’ve included is Trust, which I wrote with my friend Aubrey St. Clair. Aubrey has another book coming out soon, so this is a good time to get familiar with her work as she had more to do with this one than I did.
1
"If I win, I get the girl."
It was said so matter-of-factly that it didn't register with me until I heard it a second time, after Harrison asked him to repeat it.
"You're in over your head, kid, that much is obvious," the other man continues, eying the small stack of chips left in front of my boyfriend meaningfully. He had just shoved a large stack of his own chips into the pot that more than eclipsed what Harrison had in front of him. "Instead of risking what you have left, which isn't much, I'm suggesting we change the stakes. You win, you get everything in the pot."
With the chips he had just added, that would more than cover the heavy losses Harrison had accumulated in the last couple of days. "But if I win, the girl comes home with me."
This time I knew I heard what he said and it sounded just as ludicrous as it did originally. Obviously he was joking, or crazy, if he thought Harrison would agree to something like that.
The man lifts the dark sunglasses he's wearing up and off his face as he shifts his gaze up to me. His eyes are a cobalt blue, sitting beneath short blond hair and above a finely chiseled, unshaven jaw. Under normal circumstances he'd be drop dead gorgeous, but the fact that he is calmly trying to negotiate a price for my ass makes him decidedly less so.
I glance down at Harrison who is also looking up at me. I expect to see a familiar grin on his lips, the one that tells me we are both sharing the same joke. But what I see is something else entirely. One of his eyebrows is raised, and his green eyes are staring at me intently, as if he is either considering this ludicrous proposal or asking for my permission.
I shake my head slightly with a frown, annoyed that I even need to give my opinion on the matter.
Harrison looks back at the poker player across from him. "Deal," he finally says.
It's just a single word, but it's the only one needed to crash my whole world.
So many things seem to happen at once in the moments that follow, my senses seem to jumble with time itself and I don't even know in what order everything occurs.
There's a collective gasp that comes from onlookers, both those sitting at the table and others who are just standing around watching. For some reason, a lot of people are drawn to this game, despite the fact that until this particular bet, the stakes haven't been abnormally high.
Cards are flipped, but I'm no longer paying attention to what they are. Despite Harrison's love of the game, and gambling in general, I've never taken any big interest in poker. The important point is, once the hand is over, the reaction from everyone around us tells me all I need to know.
Harrison has lost.
As soon as the cards are turned he's on his feet, explaining the unexplainable. "Unbelievable! There's no way I thought he had a boat there, baby. I thought for sure I had him, and then all of our troubles would have been solved. I'd have won all my money back in one hand!"
All of our troubles? He convinced me to come with him on this trip using a lie about working on our relationship, but ever since we've landed he's spent all of his time at the poker tables. He lost money yesterday, and I'm pretty sure he went back after I fell asleep and lost some more.
Harry is still talking, still trying to explain, but I'm too stunned to listen as I stare down at the table and the stranger sitting across from us. The dealer has shoved the huge pile of chips toward him in a messy assortment of hard, plastic, primary colors, but he's ignoring them as if they aren't worth thousands of dollars. Instead, he's watching me behind an expressionless mask of blue eyes and blond stubble. I wrench my gaze away and back to Harrison. He's still talking. Still explaining. I haven't heard much, but I don't need to. I've had enough. I don't need to listen anymore. I've spent too long listening in the past. I can recite the excuses by heart.
"You gambled me away," I say simply. It isn't any more complex than that.
He shakes his head, still in denial over what seems so undeniable to me now. We're done.
"Lila," he begins, but I shake my head again.
"Don't."
I can't imagine a single thing he can say right now to change the way I feel. In my mind, the last few months have been leading up to something like this. An inevitability that I've been trying to ignore, but now that it's here, I already feel strangely calm about.
Of course, in my mind I hadn't imagined it would go down like this. Thousands of miles from home, having my boyfriend of the last seven months casually gamble me away to a complete stranger for the equivalent of a few thousand dollars. Yet in a way, it makes sense. At least in terms of my relationship with Harrison.
But it leaves me without a plan forward. Our flight home isn't until Monday morning and it's only Friday night. I have no intention of going back to the hotel with Harrison now. It would give him the wrong idea. This needs to end, and I have no intention of letting him talk me out of it again. This betrayal is the final straw. He's hurt me for the last time and, despite being at peace with the decision, I'm still so angry I want to hurt him back.
I look over at the other player. He's still watching me with that handsome but expressionless face. Still ignoring the pile of money in front of him. Other people are watching as well, many of them whispering to each other. I just want to get out of there.
"What's your name?" I ask, finally addressing him.
The whispering grows louder, a few people exchanging questioning looks as if my question is any more ludicrous than the rest of the last 15 minutes have been. The corner of his mouth curls up into a little half smirk, and his blue eyes continue the smile.
"Chase," he says. "Chase Anderson."
"Okay, Chase Anderson. Get me the hell out of here."
2
"I'm not sleeping with you," I say as I step inside the doorway of Chase's penthouse suite. It's actually the second time I've said that to him, although the first time I remember there being more conviction behind the words. It would be easier if he wasn't so gorgeous. And I wasn't so angry.
The first time had been in the elevator on the ride up. It was right after I wondered how crazy I was to be alone with this handsome stranger who had essentially just won me in a poker game, and right before two young guys got on and acted like they were in the presence of greatness. What the fuck was that all about, anyway? They knew his name and even asked him to sign the back of a receipt they had on them. Said they were big fans. Of what, exactly?
Chase's hotel room is bigger than my apartment back home, and clearly the decorating budget greatly eclipsed the $500 that my roommate and I had scraped together.
The room Harry and I were staying in had a bed and a desk that were fighting for space next to a small window. This room doesn't even have a bed or a desk. Those items must be in one of the other rooms which branch off from here. The only things in this room are couches, carpets and paintings which face a big flat screen television on one wall and curtains lining the edge of another.
Chase is tapping on a touchscreen pad on an end table, and suddenly the curtains begin to pull themselves back to reveal a breathtaking view.
"Wow," I breathe. I can't help but be impressed with the sight and take a few steps toward it. The windows are floor to ceiling and w
e're looking out over the brightly lit Las Vegas strip. The MGM Grand and Monte Carlo hotels are closest, but I can also see the sprawling City Center down below.
"I never get tired of seeing this."
I jump at the sound of his voice which is close enough to my ear that I can feel the hotness of his breath as he stands behind me. He's closer than he should be. Closer than he needs to be. I'm surprised that I don't have an overwhelming urge to step away. I should. Harrison and I haven't even been split for half an hour.
Truth is, things haven't been working for a while. This trip was against my better judgment, but he argued that it would be good for us to get away. That it would bring us closer together. It was obviously just an excuse for him to go and feed his addiction. Things had been headed in this direction for a while. I don't even remember the last time he and I had sex. Even longer since we've made love.
"Would you like a drink..." he hangs the sentence in midair, as if waiting for me to fill something in.
I turn to look at him, his blue eyes probing into me immediately as he waits. I suddenly feel my cheeks redden as I realize what he's waiting for.
"Lila," I finally say. Shit. I haven't even told this guy my name. Where is my head tonight?
"Beautiful," he smiles. His teeth are straight and white, a traditional Colgate smile. Is there nothing about this guy that isn't perfect? Blond, blue eyed, perfect teeth, apparently rich and possibly famous. What the hell was he thinking trying to buy me in a card game? Or win me.
Is there a difference?
"Uh, I'm not sure if that's a good idea. I was just thinking maybe I should go." I wasn't thinking anything of the sort, but that's what I should be thinking. He's still closer than he needs to be. Close enough that I can feel the heat from his body caress mine.
He raises an eyebrow. "Where?"
Is it that obvious that I have nowhere to go?
Pranked Page 32
