Alice glared at him. Sighing, he dismissed the PR team, and once they were alone he sat back down next to Alice.
She was fuming. “Don’t you ever patronize me like that again.
“What?!”
“I’m talking about you telling me that I should just listen to what the men in suits say and be quiet like a little girl.”
Kade’s mouth dropped open. “When did I say that?”
“You might as well have, the way you talked to me when you came in. I’ve had enough of that from my ex boyfriend to last a lifetime.”
“Babe, you’ve got the wrong end of the stick. I’m not trying to patronize you. I just have a really good team and I’m confident they can help you. Hey, look at me. Why are you being like this?”
Alice stood up. “I am not comfortable with this, Kade. They completely discounted everything I said. It’s my show. I at least want to be consulted and listened to. And this whole being Mrs. Kade Brannigan. It doesn’t sit right with me. I’m an individual in my own right.”
Kade stood up and followed Alice into the large open plan den. He grabbed her wrist and turned her around to face him.
“Look Alice. I don’t know much about your ex, but I know he really hurt you. I promise you that I’m not going to take advantage of you. I will get the team to back off and take instructions from you from now on. Will that make you happy?”
Alice didn’t know where to look. Willing herself to relax, she smiled and nodded her head.
“Okay yes.”
“I promise you, I’m going to make good on my end of the bargain. But you have to trust me.”
“I know. Thank you.”
Kade’s eyes seemed to burn into Alice, and she couldn’t help feeling the heat rising in her face. He was so handsome and looked so earnest. She pulled him close to her and ran her fingers down his chest.
“You don’t have to do this…” he said quietly, but Alice cut him off with a deep, probing kiss.
“I want to,” she whispered, and led him up the stairs to the master bedroom.
***
A few weeks later, Alice’s show opened to huge success. The PR team had backed off and agreed that she should show in a smaller, more intimate venue. It was perfect. She was feted as the new darling of the LA art world and was contacted non-stop for interviews and press conferences. The art critics were quick to get on board with Alice and their dazzling reviews meant that the gallery was packed every day. Her show had to be extended several times, as people flocked to see her artwork.
She was absolutely exhausted, but elated that she had finally managed to realize her dream. Alice, in a rare moment of quiet during her busy schedule, found herself looking back on how far she had come in the last few months. When she thought back to the night that Alex had ruined everything by smashing her sculptures, she still felt pangs of anger and pain. Having to struggle as a hostess to try and make ends meet had been the hardest time in her life. But then, Kade Brannigan came along and swept it all away. With the help of him and his team, she had managed to find her creativity and begin making art again. She was finally doing what she had been born to do and she felt overwhelmingly happy, lucky, and blessed.
During the last press conference, she answered questions from journalists and reveled in being able to talk about her creative muse and her passion.
Halfway through the press conference, she began to notice that the questions had turned away from her artwork and on to her marriage.
“I’m sorry, but what does this have to do with my artwork?” She asked, barely able to hide her annoyance.
The reporter continued with his line of questioning. “It just seems that your marriage was very quick after Kade had all the bad press about the hookers in the hotel. Can you confirm if Jimmy Sanders had something to do with your wedding?”
She fixed a deadly stare on the reporter. Kade had told her all about the meeting with his manager and agent before they had met.
“You’ll have to ask Jimmy about that. But I actually met Kade at an art event.”
“But isn’t it true you were working as a hostess there? And now suddenly you’re married to Kade and you have all this money and free PR to relaunch your art career. Has he bought you off?”
Alice froze. Before she could speak, Don leaned over and spoke into the microphone.
“I think that’s enough questions for today. Thank you all for coming.”
He motioned for Alice to follow him and they left the room, leaving the loud cacophony of voices behind them.
Once out of the room, Alice leaned against the wall and put her head between her knees. She was going to be sick.
“How could they know about that Don?” she asked.
Don patted her on the shoulder. “They don’t. Don’t worry. It’s just gossip.”
“I can’t believe this. I’m finally getting my artwork out there and now everyone is going to think that it only happened because of Kade, because of his money. No one is going to care about my talent.”
She walked away from Don, headed out of the building, and got into the car waiting for her. She was scheduled to meet Kade for dinner.
In the car, she fretted over her makeup and hair as she thought about the barrage of paparazzi she was about to face at the restaurant. Ever since being with Kade, the intrusion had been non-stop, and she was beginning to feel exhausted about it.
The car arrived at its destination and as she stepped out, multiple flashing bulbs went off in her face. She tried to smile, but it just didn’t reach her eyes. Ducking her head down, she ran into the restaurant and the host had to follow her to the table in the corner where Kade was already sitting, waiting.
She sat down and ordered a large glass of wine immediately. When it arrived, she downed it quickly and ordered another.
“What’s wrong Alice?”
“The press conference. Some asshole was asking about our marriage. It was like he knew everything about us, the arrangement we had. Everything.”
“What?”
“Don cut the conference short, but I’m worried it’s going to be all over the gossip sites tomorrow.”
“Don’t worry Alice, it will all be fine.”
Alice looked at him incredulously. “It will be fine for you Kade, not me..”
“What?”
“That’s what this has all been about isn’t it? Your reputation. You don’t even care that all they will be talking about is that I’m a gold digger.” Alice’s voice grew louder as she spoke and Kade looked around nervously as he noticed the other patrons watching them.
“Keep your voice down. People will hear you.”
“So it is only about your glittering new reputation. I knew it!”
“Alice, you’re being ridiculous.”
“No. I knew this would happen. It’s all about you. This whole thing has always been about you. And I get crapped on for the second time in my life. Why do I let people do this to me?”
She looked at Kade, who was staring at her in a mixture of anger and hurt.
“You don’t get it, do you?” he asked, pulling his napkin away from his lap and throwing it on the table.
“Oh, I get it. You’re back to being the golden boy, so now I’m just going to be discarded again.”
Kade stood up and glared down at Alice. “Enough!” he said. “I’m not going to do this here with you.”
“Well if you’re not going to do it here, then don’t do it at all.”
“Oh really? After all I’ve done for you, you’re going to do this to me?”
The waiter was arriving with the menu, but Alice shot him such a dirty glance that he scampered away.
“All you’ve done for me?” Alice stared at Kade incredulously. “Of course. Now we get to the truth of it.”
Kade shrugged his shoulders, resigned. “If that’s what you really think then I think we’re done, don’t you?”
He walked away from the table and told the host to charge the bill to his accou
nt. He looked over at Alice one more time, and then left the restaurant.
She couldn’t think straight. Had she really just let Kade walk out of the door and out of her life? She knew it would happen soon but hadn’t expected everything to fall apart as quickly as that.
Tears streamed down her face. The host approached her table and offered to escort her out the back door to her car, so that she wouldn’t have to face paparazzi. She accepted gratefully, and called her driver to pick her up around the back.
They sped off into the night towards her apartment. She thanked the driver when they arrived and ran into her building. As soon as she reached her apartment, she locked the door and slumped down on the ground.
She was exhausted. The entire whirlwind of the marriage and then the frenzy that led up to the launch of her show had finally caught up with her. She couldn’t process it anymore.
She hadn’t realized that the paparazzi could look at her as a gold digger.
“Is that what I am?” she asked herself quietly. A headache throbbed at her temples, the pressure behind her eyes becoming too much to bear.
Sitting on the floor, she thought back to the opening night of her show. Kade had been by her side and he had been so proud of her. They had spent the night afterwards making love in the hot tub and drinking champagne until the small hours of the morning.
The next day, she had woken up to a room full of flowers, and still Kade had seemed to be so proud of her achievement.
The doorbell rang and Alice opened the door to her doorman.
“Sorry Ms. Alice. I forgot to give this to you this morning. Mr. Brannigan dropped in off and asked me to send it up to you.”
Alice thanked the doorman and closed the door. She sat down on the couch, clutching a small envelope and box.
She opened the envelope and took out the card. Kade had written her a note.
Darling Alice,
I know you’re incredibly busy with the amazing popularity of your gallery.
I just wanted you to know that I am incredibly proud of you and the work you have put in to make this show a success.
And as for the whole temporary situation we negotiated. Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m kind of hoping that the gift in the box that goes with this envelope shows you what I think about the whole temporariness (is that even a word?) of our situation.
I hope you love it.
Kade xxx
Fumbling, Alice opened the small box and gasped as she looked at the delicate white gold chain with an infinity charm. Tears fell freely as she suddenly realized what Kade meant. Yes, she had agreed to a marriage of convenience with Kade. Yes, his reputation had been boosted by her arrival in his life. But she now realized that the way Kade treated her in those days in the running up to the show and afterwards, was much more than just someone who was pretending to be married.
Suddenly she felt so stupid for not seeing it for what it was. For once in her life, someone had kept his promise and, far from betraying her trust, he had been there for her in more ways than she ever imagined he could be.
She could not let Kade get away and had to apologize to him.
***
It was halftime and the LA Ram’s trooped back into the changing rooms, exhausted but elated with their extensive lead. Kade was trying his hardest to be buoyant, but he was having trouble focusing. Jimmy shouted at him and told him to get his head in the game.
Sweating, he sat down and took a large swig of his isotonic drink. Jimmy started shouting out tactics to the team when the door to the changing room opened.
They all turned and looked towards the door. Alice stood there meekly, looking around to find Kade. When he saw her he frowned.
“What are you doing here? You can’t be in here.”
“Leave her Kade. I told her she could come in,” Jimmy barked at him. He winked at Alice, who took a deep breath and walked towards Kade. The rest of the team fell silent as she approached Kade and knelt down in front of him.
Looking up into his fiery amber eyes, Alice smiled hopefully at him.
“I know I messed up,” she said. “I know I hurt you. I’m sorry. I didn’t realize that you were doing all that stuff out of love.”
“I really don’t have time to listen to this, Alice. I have to go back out there and play.”
“Yeah, well maybe if you listen to her you’ll be able to concentrate on the game, Kade,” Jimmy retorted. The team burst out laughing.
Alice smiled, causing Kade to smile too.
“I’m sorry. Can you forgive me?”
“There’s nothing to forgive. I was being an asshole, acting like it was all about me. I never really thought about it from your point of view.”
“No Kade. I know you were thinking about me all the time. I mean, look at what you did for me. My dreams have come true because of you.”
Kade touched her cheek gently. He smiled as he noticed she was wearing the eternity chain around her neck.
“You did a lot for me too,” he said.
“Not as much as you did for me. And I’ll be eternally grateful for it.”
“You don’t know, Alice but when we got together I thought it would just be a temporary thing, that we would help each other out and then go back to our old lives. But then I started to really enjoy having you around, having you as my wife. I didn’t want to go out hell raising anymore.”
“No more escorts,” they both said in unison and laughed.
Alice looked down and took Kade’s hand in hers. “I know we were supposed to be temporary, but the thing is that I don’t want it to be temporary. I want to stay around for a lot longer. I’ve thought a lot about it and I love you.”
“Oh you do now, do you?” Kade winked.
“Stop it. I’m being serious.” She pulled a green neon plastic ring from her pocket and held it out to Kade. “Since you gave me the chain with the eternity charm, I thought I should give you a gift too. This ring is an heirloom in my family. I won it at the state fair when I was about eight years old.”
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“I’m asking you to marry me.”
“What? You want to do it again?”
“Yes. But this time for real.”
Kade took the plastic ring from her and studied it closely. “Are you sure you want to give something as precious as this away to me?”
Alice nodded and laughed. Kade lifted Alice up from the ground and sat her on his knee. He looked up at Jimmy.
“Boss, is it okay if we do the permanent thing?”
“If you’re happy, and I can see she makes you happy, well then, I’m happy.”
“Well that’s that then,” Kade said, planting a kiss on Alice’s nose.
“I guess we’re going to have to make this temporary marriage into a permanent one.”
“Is that a yes, Kade Brannigan?” Alice demanded.
“That’s a hell yes!” Kade declared, before lifting her up and twirling her around, kissing her deeply and setting her back on the ground.
“Time to go boys,” Jimmy called out to the team. They all trooped out, leaving Kade and Alice behind.
They kissed again, and Alice took the plastic ring from Kade.
“I’ll look after this for you while you’re playing. Now go out there and kick some ass. Or you’ll have hell to pay from your wife.”
Kade winked at her and slapped her on the ass. “Yeah baby, I can’t wait to get in trouble with you.”
With that, he ran out of the dressing room and on to the field, leaving Alice behind watching his broad back disappear and clutching on tightly to the neon green plastic ring.
*****
THE END
BONUS STORY 3 ON NEXT PAGE
3. Billionaire’s Journalist Bride
Roxanne held a hand over her brow as she looked across the parking lot for her sister. They were both headed to the New York Mets game to celebrate their dad’s birthday. She saw the bouncing ponytail long before Mia began to
make her way through the crowd in her direction. At 19, she was everything Roxanne was not. She was tall, beautiful and already catching the eye of every guy around them. Roxanne could only shake her head as she watched Mia blatantly flirt with the guy at the concession stand.
Rolling her eyes, Roxanne made her way towards Mia. She pushed her glasses back up her nose and tucked her auburn curls behind her ear as she went. Unlike Mia’s silky red hair, Roxanne had inherited her dad’s darker auburn and a mass of unruly curls that she could never seem to tame, despite her efforts.
There had been no dates or relationships for Roxanne in the last three years. She believed that people only hurt you and she had had enough of that to last a lifetime. Of course, her magazine was her focal point. Getting a boyfriend – or even getting laid, for that matter – paled in comparison to finding something, anything, that would put her magazine back into the spotlight once more. She just had to find the right angle.
They made their way up to their seats. They came out once a year without fail, and always sat in the same place. It was there that her father had helped her to start dreaming. He had been a good dad; especially since their mother had run off with some guy from work, leaving him to raise his two girls. Roxanne had been 10 and Mia three; but it seemed like just yesterday when their dad had sat them down and told them all about how things would probably change, but that he would never leave them.
He had not remarried and, when he had had a heart attack, his death had been a shock to both girls. He had been gone two years now, but it seemed like an eternity to them both. Baseball had been everything to him and he had made sure he brought the girls out at least two or three time a season to watch a game. Mia sighed loudly as she settled into her father’s favorite seat. This time it was her turn to sit in it. The place represented their father to them both.
Roxanne smiled over at Mia.
“I miss him, Rox; he always knew how to cheer us up.”
Roxanne sighed.
“I know; I miss him too.”
Together they watched the game, laughing as the day went on and both sharing their favorite times with him. Mia ate her fill of junk food and then complained about losing weight, while Roxanne simply laughed at her sister’s silliness.
Romance: Bad Boy Romance: The Billionaire Revenge (A Contemporary Multicultural Office Romance) Page 9