Paul (Members From Money Book 7)
Page 11
“We were beginning to wonder if you and Paul had eloped,” she said greeting Gina with a fierce hug and a twinkle in her eyes.
“Love is grand, isn’t it?” Felicia said dreamily as she looked over to where her husband was talking to some of his friends.
“She still has stars in her eyes,” Deidre told Gina dryly with a smile on her face.
“Don’t we all?” Carrie asked with a laugh looking to where her husband was lounging against the wall and sipping champagne. This brought back so many memories of her own unorthodox meeting with her husband and realized that the love she has for him had only grown. He looked up and his eyes met hers, the exchange of it making her shiver!
“Okay darling, let’s get this party started!” Leesa said with a smile.
Chapter 11
Milton pinned a smile onto his face as he watched them. The man could not seem to be able to stand without putting his hands on her and Milton felt as if he wanted to break something, like his face! He had thought about coming up with some excuses not to be here when Gina had told him, but he had to try and convince her that he could still be friends with her without bringing his feelings into play, but it was getting increasingly harder. He forced a smile as he watched her make her way over to him. She looked different. Unlike the girl he knew, the one who was not averse to sitting on the rug in his living room with his papers spread all around her.
“I hardly recognize you,” he told her as she bent to kiss his cheek, her scent swirling around him.
“I am still the same beneath these fancy clothes.” She tweaked his tie automatically to straighten it. “You are not mingling.”
“Two beautiful ladies came over and sat with me for a little bit. There are no single women in here, Gina.”
“Of course there are,” she looked around the room quickly. “There is Sheryl over there, just recently divorced, but I understand that she is not very faithful so I would not advise you to go for it. Those over there are on the market for husbands.”
She looked down as he burst out laughing! “Good, at least I got you to laugh.” She squeezed his shoulder. “I am not going out of your life, Milton, so stop thinking I am.”
He brought his hand up and used it to cover hers. “I will try and remember.”
Over at another corner of the room, Leesa said to Paul. “If he had the use of his legs, I would say you have something to worry about. He is wearing his feelings on his forehead.”
Paul’s mouth tightened as he looked over to where the couple were. “I told her that he is in love with her, but she refuses to believe.”
“She has eyes only for you, so you have nothing to worry about.”
“Who says I am worried?” he growled.
“You look a little worried, darling.” Leesa said with a smile.
His eyes wandered over to her and his body tightened as he stared at her. She was too damned beautiful for her own good!
*****
“Let’s elope!” Gina said as soon as she got inside his car. It was the middle of March and their wedding was only four weeks away.
“Why?” he looked at her in amusement taking in the chunky black sweater she had on and the faded denims.
“This was exactly what I ran away from,” she dug into her oversized pocket book and came up with swatches of material in different colors. “I have to decide what colors the bridesmaids are wearing. Leesa who is the matron of honor says she wants to wear strawberry and the other ladies are leaning to teal blue, which Leesa said does not go well with strawberry. You know Leesa and what she says is law. I have to decide on green or some pinkish color or maybe a touch of orange. So I thought about it and have decided that we should elope.”
He glanced at her briefly and then concentrated on the road. “Where do you think we should go?”
“How about Vegas in one of those chapels with all those cupids around the room and the creepy guy with his wife as witness.”
“I don’t think the creepy guy would look good in our wedding pictures.” He said with a straight face.
“You are making fun of me.” She accused him.
“I am not.” But his lips were twitching.
“Okay fine! When I am stressed out and miserable, I am blaming you.”
He pulled the car off the road and putting it into park he pulled her over to him. She settled into his lap, his hands framing her face. “I did the big society wedding already, so it is nothing to me if you want to ditch everything, let us do this by ourselves – I am game. I just want you.”
That’s sweet,” she ran her fingers through his hair. “My dad wants to get the chance to walk his only child up the aisle.”
“So no more complaints?” he asked her softly tilting her chin to look down at her.
“I will try my best.”
*****
It was a week and a half before the wedding when she was searching frantically for a scarf she wanted to wear to a girls’ night out when she discovered the box. She came up on it stashed away in the corner of a drawer that was not used and found herself hesitating and wondering if she should open it. Maybe it was a Pandora’s box that once opened would reveal something that she never wanted to know. She looked up to see whether or not Paul was coming, but she knew he was in the gym doing his nightly routine which sometimes takes him an hour. She usually did it with him but had cried off tonight telling him she wanted a night off.
She closed her eyesm and then taking a deep breath she opened it slowly. She took out a pastel silk scarf and sniffed the lavender scent. She dug around and found a gold brooch and a copy of a thick novel which looked as if it had been read several times. There were also letters. This time her hesitation was longer. She would be entering into forbidden territory if she pulled the pink ribbon and started reading. But she wanted to know what she was up against. She pulled the ribbon and took out a scented white envelope with the same lavender scent. She took out the thin pink sheet and started reading. “My darling David,” Gina frowned heavily. As far as she knew, Paul’s name was Paul St. Clare Brady! She began reading again: “I wished I had met you before, but as you know I am absolutely committed to my husband and I would never dream of leaving him no matter how much I love you! I so enjoy our little escapades and the way you make me feel. Paul is large and he hurts me when you know… Anyway you are gentle and kind and so thoughtful and I wished things had been different!” Gina sat down heavily on the bed with the letters in her hands. She had been cheating on him with some weak-willed prick by the name of David! How could she after being with Paul want to be with anyone else? She moaned as she remembered how hesitant he was around her and how suspicious he was of Milton. The seemingly docile and gentle Linda had been cheating on him and pretending that he was her world! How on earth had he dealt with finding the letters and when had he found them?
She felt the tears coming to her eyes and blinked them back hastily, feeling the sense of anger pouring through her! How dared she hurt him! How dared she made him go through that! She shook herself and hurriedly put the letters back together, tying the ribbons knowing that he would be back in another few minutes. She had forgotten that she was looking for her scarf, so taken up with emotion was she!
That night she did her best to show him that she loved him completely.
“What are you doing?” he asked her as she took the sponge and started running it down his magnificent body.
“Ever listened to Desiny’s Child’s song about catering to you?” she asked him lightly.
The end.
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Her Asian Billionaire's Perfect Match
She works in dating, but can she find her own man?
A complete romance story, brought to you by the bestselling BWAM author Mary Peart.
Leonie doesn’t really believe in love.
Which is funny, considering she runs a match making service for over 50s, and her entire job is based on finding love for her clients.
But her beliefs are about to be called into question.
One day a potential client enters Leonie's office accompanied by her son.
John Masaki is a billionaire who wants to make sure of the service's legitimacy before signing his mother up.
Upon meeting Leonie however, he soon becomes convinced he’s found his own match in her.
Will the loveless Leonie be able to overcome her beliefs and pursue something she never thought she’d want?
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapetr 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 1
“So Ms. Williams why don’t you tell the listeners why ‘Finding love in Prime’ is such a success and why women and men fifty and over are fighting to register?” The reporter was a middle-aged attractive African American herself and had confided to Leonie before the start of the interview that she was recently divorced and was looking to find herself husband number two.
“Are you sure you want to go through that again?” Leonie had asked her politely, just barely controlling her impulse to tell her that a failed marriage does not mean she should try a second time.
“Absolutely my dear!” The woman had smiled, her perfectly made up face lighting up with the smile. “I aim to prove to that jerk that I am as attractive as I was the first time we started going out.”
Leonie had not responded.
“As the name suggests; it is finding love in the prime of your life, it’s telling you that you are not over and done with when you reach fifty and over but your life is actually just beginning.” Leonie used her most practiced smile. “As a matter of fact we tend to put it like this: You are at an age where the mistakes have been made and immaturities have been honed into maturity and now you realize what went wrong before. It sets the stage for a perfect second chance.”
“And I could not have said it better myself.” The reporter beamed. “No wonder the middle aged men and women have been flocking this place.” She nodded to the camera to cut the feed as she put away her notes. “Now about that form for me to fill out,” she said with a mischievous smile.
*****
Leonie went into her office and closed the door behind her. The interview had lasted fifteen minutes but it had seemed like fifteen days. She had only agreed to do it because her assistant and best friend Simoniel had told her that it would be good for the company. It had taken a supreme effort for her to smile at the camera and pretended that she was all about love and marriage especially at an age where people would be retiring from such nonsense.
She leaned back in her chair and rubbed her temples with her fingertips. It was coming on again; the headache that plagued her each time she had to make some comment about her company. It had been started by her mother five years ago as a lark when her husband and Leonie’s father had walked out on them two years before that when Leonie had just started her degree in English Literature. He had left without a forwarding address, saying that marriage did not suit him anymore. It had left both women devastated and spinning in the wind and as her mother had said: “If anyone had told me he was unhappy I would have told them it was a blatant lie!” Her mother had left her the company to run when she had married and gone off to Italy to live with her new husband.
She was getting tired of pretending and since she was the face of the company she had to do the interviews. “You look great on camera,” Simoniel had told her firmly. “With that face and that body you are a sure sell.”
She glanced at the desk clock and discovered to her surprise that it was already a quarter to twelve, that meant updating the profiles of the women to find a suitable match for the men who had signed up and she had a lunch meeting with a potential client.
*****
“How about this one?” Simoniel handed her a file that was not too thick with a photo of a charmingly handsome middle aged Caucasian man on the front.
“It says here he has been divorced twice and is now looking for the love of his life.” She raised beautiful dark brown eyes to her friend who was seated on the edge of the desk. “This does not look good Sim, you know how I feel about them being married multiple times and come on! He is looking for the love of his life? What is he twenty?”
“The problem with you is you are too cynical,” her friend said dryly, taking the file from her grasp. “But I agree with you this time. He sounds kind of creepy and such a pity, he is so cute. It says here he is a doctor.”
“Even doctors can be creeps.” Leonie said wryly. “I will have Bates check him out some and see if he has a dirty little secret.” She said referring to their Private Investigator.
“I hope he comes up clean. I have Ms. Mary-Ann Johnston who is dying to be Mrs. Doctor so and so.” She caught her friend’s stare. “Don’t worry; she is a widower and the sweetest woman you have ever met. She was married to a pharmacist who dropped dead of a heart attack two years ago. The mourning period has been officially met.”
“That’s one of the reasons why we should make sure that we do not set her up with a creep clothed in a doctor’s robe.” Leonie said grimly. She opened the file and looked at the picture of a smiling Mary-Ann whose slightly plump cheek looked to be glowing with fresh outdoors health. She was fifty-three but looked a comfortable fifty with slightly graying blonde hair and bright blue eyes. “She has two children grown and gone to live in other states and she has been a homemaker all her life. She looks too gullible and eager to fall for anyone in pants.”
“That’s harsh,” Simoniel looked at her friend skeptically. She knew the girl’s hang ups when it came to love and marriage and had seen her fall apart when her father had left. She had watched her slowly build up a barricade over her heart when it came to matters of the heart. What made it so sad was that she was so beautiful. She had men coming on to her every few seconds, even those she signed up but she only showed politeness and barely contained contempt. “Your bias is showing.”
“I am just being truthful,” she closed the file and handed it back to her friend. “Can you handle it? I have several on my desk that I want to deal with personally.”
“Of course,” Simoniel slid off the desk. She was the exact opposite to her friend. Whereas Leonie was tall, curvaceous and classically beautiful with shoulder length dark hair, caramel skin and large dark brown eyes and full lips, Simoniel was petite and a little on the plump side with dark chocolate skin and flashing dark brown eyes which were her best features. She wore her hair short in a neat afro and was happily married with a two year old son. They had been friends since they were little girls and were very close. “You know honey; you are closing yourself off from love. You need to let go of the past and put yourself out there or else you are going to end up a lonely old lady with a bunch of cats.”
“I doubt that is going to happen,” Leonie said with an amused quirk of her tapered brow. “I have you and Daniel and little Danny, don’t I,” she said referring to her friend’s entire family.
“Of course you do,” Simoniel said poking out her tongue. “Speaking of which: I am inviting you to dinner this Sunday and before you start finding all kinds of excuse, I will have you know that Danny has personally asked if ‘Aunty Lee’ will be coming over.”
“That’s really low even for you.” Leonie gave her friend a gimlet stare. “I’ll be there; you know little Danny is the only guy I cannot resist.”
“That’s really sad,” her friend said with a shake of her head as she left.
With a smile, Leonie went back to studying the files on her desk. She took up the form that the news reporter had left for her. Her name was Sandra Lee Phillips a
nd her marriage had lasted ten years before it had disintegrated due to the fact that she was not able to have children. Ten years and then to discover that the man who promised to stay with you in sickness and health just up and go! She had seen so much of this kind of thing happening that it had only cemented what she already knew. Marriages were not meant to last so why go into something that was going to tear you apart eventually? And to bring children into something like that, it was very selfish and heartless. She was single and liking it, no matter what her friend says.
*****
John Masaki settled back against the sofa and watched as his mother increased the speed on the treadmill she was using. It was Saturday afternoon and he had promised her that he would stay home for a change and help her deal with the garden. Plants were her passion and she decided to spend some time planting new bulbs in time for summer. It was the first week of June and she had already started the process by purchasing the seedlings and getting the greenhouse ready for the planting.
He put aside the document he had been perusing trying to get ready for the meeting he had first thing Monday morning. Masaki’s Technology had acquired a new software company and he wanted to know everything there was to know about it before he went into the meeting.
For the past four years, it had been just him and his mother since his father had died from a vehicular crash that had left him in charge of the billion dollar company. The good thing was that ever since he had left college, he had been in training to take over the company.
He had been so lost in thought that he had not heard the machine turn off but looked up as his mother repeated the question she had asked.
“John, were you so wrapped up in work that you did not hear me?” Asami Masaki was a petite woman with very attractive features and a very outgoing personality and her son thought the world of her.