How to Resist Prince Charming

by Linda Kage

  How To Resist Prince Charming

  by

  LINDA KAGE

  How To Resist Prince Charming

  Copyright 2013 by Linda Kage

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, businesses or establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book—except in the case of brief quotations in reviews—may be used or reproduced without written permission of the author.

  Contact Information : linda@lindakage.com

  Credits

  Cover Artist: StanzAlone Design

  Editor: Jessica Damien

  DEDICATION

  Dear Kurt Karl, the absolute love of my life. Since you tried to trade me for a truck, I should probably dedicate this story to Denney.

  But being that we're married and bound together ‘til death do us part, this one's for you. You're still my Prince Charming.

  I love you.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I would like to thank Claire Ashgrove, Jackie Bannon, Alfie Thompson, Jessica Damien and Karen King for helping make this manuscript readable! Thanks so much to Amber Skyze for the formatting tips, and to StanzAlone Design for the cover.

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Dedication

  Acknowledgements

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  CHAPTER 25

  CHAPTER 26

  CHAPTER 27

  Coming Next

  Sneak Peek

  About the Author

  CHAPTER 1

  “You’re not actually wearing that to the party, are you?”

  Lenna Davenport frowned. A second earlier, she’d opened her door with an anxious smile. Since her mom was stuck at home, nursing her thirteen-year-old sister back to health after a row with strep throat, Lenna had agreed to accompany her dad to his company’s Christmas party. And she’d actually been energized about getting in a little father-daughter time.

  Until now.

  Anticipation dying a quick death, she rolled her eyes. “Why, not at all, Father. I’m just trying it on to see how it fits.”

  He blew out a breath and swiped at his brow. “Thank God.”

  “Dad!” She ignored the jolt of disappointment because he hadn’t immediately oohed and ahhed. “Of course I’m wearing it tonight.” Why would she be in it if she wasn’t going to wear it? Hello.

  He made a face as if he’d just tasted a tart apple. “But, it’s so...revealing.”

  She hadn’t lived at home for six months now, yet to listen to him she would’ve thought she was still fifteen.

  “It goes all the way to the floor.” She kicked out a toe to demonstrate. “Look. Even my ankles are covered.”

  He didn’t bother to glance down. “I’m not worried about the length. It’s the overall effect that concerns me.”

  Instinctively, she covered the bare expanse of skin below her throat with one hand, hoping he didn’t pick on its strapless factor. There wasn’t even a hint of cleavage.

  “What’s wrong with the overall effect?” She bit her lip, wishing she didn’t sound so much like a pathetic kid desperate to please Daddy.

  Why she’d always been so gung ho to gain his approval was beyond her. It was sad, really. She was twenty-two, and sometimes she still caught herself acting like she used to, aspiring to become his special girl.

  “You’re too pretty,” he said.

  Sucking in a surprised breath, Lenna beamed. Now that was more like it. She’d spent three hours picking out her dress so he would be proud to have her at his side tonight. It was nice to know her efforts had been worth it. She opened her mouth to thank him, but his next words cut her off.

  “I don’t want my boss knowing how pretty you are.”

  Huh? Lenna tilted her head and squinted her eyes. “You lost me. Why would Mr. Farris care what I—”

  “Good, God,” he broke in. “You haven’t heard.”

  She faltered. “Heard what?”

  Alienation swamped her. Though she went home most Sundays on “family night” to eat supper with her parents and siblings, she missed being a more integral part of their lives. Obviously, she’d missed something major.

  Her dad wiped his mouth with his hand. When she saw his fingers tremble, she gasped. “What happened to Mr. Farris?”

  She pictured the kind, fatherly man she’d met only a few times. He better be okay.

  “He retired. It was rather sudden. And mysterious.”

  Lenna’s jaw dropped. “What?” She hadn’t realized the president of Farris Industries was anywhere near retirement age. Spencer Farris couldn’t be much older than her father, and Tom Davenport was only fifty. “Who’s the new president then?”

  She knew of three top executives at her father’s workplace: Pat Foley, Ben Hendricks, and her dad. The three men were terribly close. One of them must’ve taken over Farris Industries. Since it obviously wasn’t her dad, that could only mean one of his two best friends had just moved from coworker to boss.

  She braced herself for the answer, but her dad’s response still shocked her. “Farris’s son took over.”

  Lenna blinked. Wait. What?

  If Spencer Farris wasn’t much older than her father, then his son couldn’t be much older than...

  Her.

  Wow. Her dad’s new boss was more than likely young enough to be his...well, his own son. She winced, knowing all too well how much her dad didn’t respect her generation or trust them to make any kind of responsible, executive decision. He had to be hating life right now.

  “Oh,” she said, her bare shoulders drooping an inch. There went the fun evening she’d been all eager to have. Damn it.

  Her dad didn’t reply, but moodily grabbed her coat off the back of a chair. “Let’s just go already.” Not meeting her gaze, he held open her jacket. “I refuse to give him any more leverage to use against me by being late to his precious event. I’ve already been warned insubordination is the leading cause of employee termination.”

  Lenna’s eyes widened. That didn’t sound good. Nodding compliantly, she hurried forward so he could slip her sleeves snugly around her arms. Glancing over her shoulder, she sent him a worried look. “He can’t really fire you for being late to a party, can he?”

  Pressing his lips thin, her father eyed her with distaste sparkling in his gaze. “Let’s not test it, shall we?”

  * * * *

  Braxton Farris stood with a group of three older men, listening to them brag about their grandchildren. Braxton was a hell of a long way from the grandchildren stage. He hadn’t even hit married with children. Jesus, he was still light years away from just plain married.

  Standing across from him, Pat Foley shook his finger Braxton’s way. “Enough talk about that. I bet we’re scaring the kid here.”

  The kid.

  If only Braxton had a penny for every time they called him the kid, or boy, or sonny in the past month, he’d be a millionaire. Well…more of a millionaire than he already was. Behind his back, he knew he w
as called much worse. Boss Boy seemed to be the mildest but most popular handle. He refused to let it fester, though. He knew what he’d been signing on for when he’d stepped behind his father’s desk.

  Well, sort of. It was still a shock to see how quickly they’d turned on him.

  Brax treated the men to a tight smile. “Takes more than that to scare me.” He lifted his glass, only to find it nearly empty. Perfect.

  “Just you wait your turn,” Charlie Fairbanks advised, beaming out an ornery grin as he jabbed Braxton in the ribs with a saggy, wrinkled elbow. “Then you’ll know exactly what we mean.”

  “Sure.” He shot Charlie a look; not a frown, but something dry and annoyed enough to make the man’s smile drop flat.

  Charlie’s face turned red, and he coughed into his hand. Their conversation crashed, exploded and floated off into an uncomfortable ball of silence.

  Both Charlie and Pat shifted and snuck not-so-discreet glances toward the clock on the wall.

  Braxton did as well, only to bite back a groan. It wasn’t even seven yet. He knew good and well these Christmas shindigs went on until the wee hours.

  “If you gentlemen will excuse me,” he announced, backing away from the group. “I need to refresh my drink.”

  His oh-so-respectful employees were in rare form tonight, trying to make him look as young and inexperienced as they assumed he was. Typically, they observed a little more discretion in person. But in casual party mode, soused and safe in numbers, their tongues wagged a lot looser. And Davenport, their rebel leader, hadn’t even arrived yet to stir up his usual trouble.

  Braxton sidled up to the bar and ordered a Crown and coke. “Make it a double,” he pleaded, plopping onto the rotating stool before surveying the scene around him. Quite a few couples swayed to the lazy, slow tunes provided by the live band. But the only people around to dance with were employees or their dates, and neither option made an ideal partner. So, that killed half the fun he could’ve had.

  He had briefly considered scrounging up his own date. But who knew what kind of gossip would spread about him if he’d walked in the door with a blonde bombshell on his arm. He’d probably go from Boss Boy to wild playboy, which would only give his dad a coronary, and he wanted to avoid that. The old man had enough on his plate already.

  Braxton sipped his drink and idly watched the crowd for about the hundredth time in the past five minutes. He hoped he didn’t look as alone as he felt.

  Earlier, he’d wandered toward the group of people who were his age. But that ended up being a dud. Anyone who was remotely as young as Braxton was so fresh and new to the company they had no rank yet. They were merely assistants, mailroom workers, and interns.

  As soon as the high and mighty Boss Boy entered their circle, all conversation dropped flat.

  It sounded like they’d been having an entertaining discussion too. As he approached, he saw one guy cupping his chest with both hands, obviously talking about female breasts. A fan of female breasts, Braxton neared them with interest.

  But as soon as he’d called a greeting, all eyes went wide and every mouth snapped shut. Gazes fell to their drinks while only a few managed to mumble hello. Other than that...nothing.

  Realizing he wasn’t welcome, Braxton thanked everyone for coming and moved along to the higher-up employees, where he’d found himself joining a discussion about retirement funds, then listening to a heated debate over what was the best liquid in which to soak false teeth.

  Knowing more about false teeth than he ever cared to, he tossed back a good portion of his drink and blew out a long breath, hoping he could make it through the rest of the night. Not used to being the most unpopular guy in the crowd and knowing everyone was badmouthing him, Braxton sighed.

  He was contemplating escape when he spotted her.

  She was beautiful.

  Stunning.

  A complete vision.

  And she was young...like him.

  Who was she? Where had she come from? What was she doing here? Braxton didn’t know and, frankly, he didn’t care. All that mattered was finding a way to get inside her as soon as possible.

  He hadn’t arrived with a blonde bombshell on his arm, but by God, he sure as hell wouldn’t mind leaving with one.

  Dayum. She was gorgeous.

  With a slender, tall frame that was somewhat willowy despite the healthy curve to her hips, she held herself with a graceful, poised stance that screamed dancer. He was too far away to tell whether she had a decent chest, but at this point, her cup size didn’t even matter.

  Her dress was silver. Light reflected off it, making her sparkle as she stood in the doorway, peering curiously inside at the mingling crowd.

  She’d pinned up her light hair, making her neck appear long and incredibly elegant. A stray blond tendril had come undone, or maybe she’d deliberately left it down. It teased the side of her throat and fluttered in a provocative manner, leading Braxton to believe she'd left it down for that intended purpose. To drive him mad.

  Her cheeks looked longer than they did round. From this distance, he couldn’t see much, but he could tell her mouth was tipped in a smile.

  She seemed ecstatic, in fact. The woman simply glowed. While he’d been fantasizing about escape, she looked perfectly pleased to be present.

  At least he’d been dreaming of getting as far away as he could until two seconds ago.

  But now that she was here—whoever she was, standing there as if waiting for someone to greet her.

  Feeling the urge to oblige, Braxton set his glass down and slipped off his bar stool. Welcoming committee, here he came.

  He knew it was wrong to hit on someone here of all places, since she was obviously the date to one of his employees. But he couldn’t stop himself.

  He just had to get closer. He hadn’t even made it all the way off his stool, though, when the person she’d been waiting for entered behind her and set a hand on her waist to guide her into the room.

  A predatory growl of possessiveness filled Braxton’s throat. While he remained civil enough to stop the sound from escaping, he eyed his competition with a narrowed gaze.

  The glare dropped abruptly, as did Braxton, smacking back onto his barstool with a thud. His jaw came loose from its hinges and fell open.

  “No...way.”

  This couldn’t be right. It certainly couldn’t be real. Any moment, Braxton expected to blink awake and discover he’d been stuck in a nightmare, because the man accompanying his mystery lady was none other than Thomas Davenport.

  It was the irony of all ironies for Tom to be the man to walk in with the only interesting thing Braxton had seen all evening.

  There was no way in hell she was Tom’s wife.

  Okay, sure, he’d never met Tom’s wife, but no, this girl was...just that. A girl. She was a child compared to Tom and much too young for him, unless he’d traded for a newer model since proclaiming he’d been married longer than Braxton had been alive. But that had been last week, so the theory didn’t carry much weight.

  Reassured, Braxton stared at Davenport and his escort.

  Escort.

  Oh, dear Lord, could she be an escort? A paid, professional escort? Braxton’s eyes widened at the very prospect. Maybe she was Tom’s plaything.

  But then, why would Tom bring his plaything and not his wife to the company party?

  Watching Tom and the girl wander toward Tom’s friends, Braxton noticed all the guys—Ben, Pat, and Charlie—knew her. They exclaimed in surprise. Ben even opened his arms to give her a hug. The girl grinned and hurried forward to throw her arms around crabby old Ben Hendricks, who beamed at her as if she were his very own daughter.

  Daughter.

  Oh no.

  No, no, no. Life couldn’t be that cruel.

  Ben’s wife pulled her into a motherly embrace next, which threw out the whole paid escort theory. There was no way on God’s green earth Phyllis Hendricks would hug some call girl or any man’s plaything.

>   So, yep, she had to be Tom’s daughter.

  Braxton swallowed and wiped the sudden perspiration off his brow. Damn, who had turned up the temperature in this place?

  Fisting his hand, he set it against his mouth and blew out a breath. He couldn’t take his gaze off Tom Davenport’s daughter.

  Tom’s. Daughter.

  Okay, he could deal with this. It wasn’t like he even knew her. She was probably a brat, or uptight and snooty. She was Tom’s offspring, after all.

  Maybe she talked with a spitting lisp. Or maybe—hopefully—she had a lazy eye and bad body odor.

  Beauty was only skin deep, right? She was probably hideous on the inside. Braxton gritted his teeth. But, God, she had some amazing skin, skin he’d like to investigate up close, and personal.

  In his head, she was already his, naked on his bed and moaning out her tenth orgasm. Realizing she was unavailable frustrated him. Fuck. He couldn’t even flirt with her.

  Braxton gnawed on his bottom lip as he stared holes through Davenport’s daughter. Finally, he said, “Screw it,” before he drained his glass and slipped off his stool.

  What harm could come from a simple introduction? He had to know what he was missing.

  He wanted to sprint right over but held himself back. Casually, he slipped into mingling mode, smiling at a couple nearing the bar and thanking them for coming. He knew he should stop staring, but telling himself that and getting his eyes to cooperate were two different trials altogether.

  She looked just as delicious from the back as she had from the front. The silver material of her dress cupped an ass that had his mouth watering and his hands itching to palm each glittery cheek.

  Finally, she turned enough to give him a view of her side profile. Okay, so her tits weren’t the biggest he’d ever seen, but they were definitely more than a mouthful, which was all he needed.

  Braxton swallowed, dazed by the force of his craving. This was the first time he’d been struck by such an intense wave of instant lust.