“Mrs. Garth, there’s actually been a change of plans. Instead of Kara and Aiden staying here for a short time, we’ll be heading for the yacht in a day or so for an undetermined amount of time.”
Her eyes opened wider, but she only smiled. “Certainly sir. I appreciate the information.”
“And before we go, we’ll be having a wedding. A very small wedding, family only. But we’ll need a cake and flowers and champagne. And anything else you think we may need.”
Kara almost choked on the bite of omelet she’d just taken at the look on Mrs. Garth’s face now.
“Would this be happening tomorrow then?”
Warren nodded, completely unaware of what he’d just asked of her. “Yes, though I don’t know what time yet.”
“I think a sunset ceremony would be nice,” Kara suggested for no other reason than to buy Mrs. Garth as much time as possible. “And I like things simple.”
“It’s your wedding?” Mrs. Garth asked, turning to her in surprise.
“Sorry,” Warren said. “I wasn’t very clear, was I. Yes, Kara and I are getting married tomorrow.”
This time the housekeeper looked as if she might pop with excitement. “Oh, congratulations, sir. And you, Miss Dupree. This is so wonderful. And to think that cute baby is going to be here from now on. Well, I’d better go get busy. There’s so much to do!”
Kara shook her head as the housekeeper left. She picked a piece of cantaloupe out of the bowl of fruit. “I hadn’t thought about that. What are we going to do about living arrangements?”
“Would you mind living here?”
“Uh, no. No one would mind living here. I just don’t want to intrude.”
“Well, you’re going to be my wife, so relax about it. People would think it was really weird if we didn’t live together all the time. There will be benefits to it, you know.”
Kara nodded. “Like Mrs. Garth.”
Warren raised an eyebrow at her. “I was thinking of the security and being under the same roof if you need help with anything. Even if we get this straightened out legally, I’m all too aware that if Derrick’s family is involved in the Vegas mafia, or anything shady, they may decide to take matters into their own hands.”
With a sick feeling in her stomach, she realized he was right. “I hadn’t thought about that.”
“Well, don’t worry for now. One thing at a time, right? Like calling your parents and getting them here for the ceremony tomorrow.”
Kara put her fork down and took a deep breath. It was time she told him. “Warren, there’s something you should know.”
“What?”
“My parents don’t know about Aiden either.”
Calm, collected, perpetually in-command-of-himself Warren gaped at her, his mouth hanging open. “You didn’t tell your parents you had a baby?”
“No. I know it sounds horrible, but just think about it. If they knew, they would have been determined to see him. Then it would have gotten out to the media that they had a grandchild. There would have been paparazzi everywhere, and no doubt my mother would have been sharing photos right and left. So, no. I didn’t tell them.”
Warren drew in a deep breath and blew it out in a long whoosh. “Then I guess getting a call that their daughter is getting married tomorrow will be the least of the surprise.”
Chapter Eight
Warren wondered if it was normal to feel so…energized…on the morning of your fake marriage.
Not precisely fake. It was real enough in a sense. Maybe it was a marriage of convenience. But whatever it was, it had been like a fresh breeze in the sameness that had dulled his life. Luxury and opulence couldn’t stimulate happiness the way a purpose could. Even then, he couldn’t understand exactly why he was so looking forward to marrying a woman that he couldn’t have romantically.
At least not yet.
Maybe if there was enough time and enough healing, he might hope to one day have her look at him the way he was trying not to look at her. She was too tense, too scared, and too traumatized for him to even think of pushing for more from her than friendship. Which was really the beauty of this plan. Not only would it help Kara, but it would keep her in his life while she healed and found herself again. Everything was a giant, fuzzy maybe. But that was better than what he’d had for over a year now.
He whistled as he went downstairs to the main floor. Kara’s parents would be arriving soon, and he wanted to make sure everything they had planned for this meeting was in order.
Kara was seated at a table on the main deck under an awning near the pool. Aiden sat beside her in a newly purchased highchair, playing with a colorful selection of baby toys. Em sat next to her, an iPad and an iced coffee in front of her.
His sister had completely freaked out when they’d called her the day before to fill her in, and it wasn’t long before she was demanding to be involved with all the wedding planning. He wasn’t surprised that she was already here.
“Good morning, Em. Morning, darling,” he added, dropping his hands over Kara’s shoulders for a brief second as he moved behind her to the empty chair across from her.
Kara shook her head. “It’s not even eight o’clock and you’re already being ridiculous.”
“Just practicing. I figure we’d better start getting used to pretending we’re a couple if we want it to look natural by the time your parents get here.”
Picking up her phone, Kara glanced at the screen and set it back down. “Which is any minute now. What do you hope to accomplish by then?”
Warren shrugged and looked toward Mrs. Garth, who was coming out with his breakfast. “I’d hoped to make you smile.”
“I’ve been trying all morning,” Em said, looking up from her screen.
“Sorry. I’m a nervous wreck.”
As he took a drink of coffee, he looked at her over the rim of his cup. She might feel nervous, but she didn’t look nearly as tense as when he’d gotten to her apartment the day before yesterday. “I suppose being nervous on your wedding day is appropriate too.”
“Funny, I wasn’t nervous at all the first time I did this. How naive I was.”
“What did you ever see in that guy?”
Kara didn’t answer for a moment as she buttered a crescent roll. “He was very good-looking and exciting and…charming. And he wanted me. That’s a very potent thing I suppose—to be wanted.”
Em nodded in agreement. “You have a good point there.”
Warren pressed his lips together, refusing to give in to the impulse to tell her that he had wanted her. Hadn’t he just given himself a long lecture about patience and timing and all that? “I’m sorry he didn’t turn out to be the man you thought he was.”
“Thank you. It’s a good thing I was so stupid though.”
Raising an eyebrow, he tried to figure out what she meant. “Why?”
She reached over and ran her fingers over the peach fuzz on Aiden’s head. “If I hadn’t married Derrick, I wouldn’t have Aiden. I’ve thought about it a lot. Believe me, I’ve had way too much time to think about things. As horrible as everything has been, Aiden is absolutely worth it. He’s worth anything else I might have to do too.”
Warren smiled and hoped it looked more natural than it felt. “Including marry me.”
A buzzing noise caught his attention then. It sounded like it was coming from a distance, but it was growing louder. It didn’t take long to figure out what it was. “Kara, go inside. And take the baby.”
Kara’s eyes got big, but she didn’t question him. She had Aiden out of his seat in moments and ran inside with him just as a small drone appeared overhead. Warren stood up and smiled for the camera the drone surely carried and waited patiently. It took only a few more seconds before Ronin emerged onto the deck with a rifle in his hands. A few seconds later, the bodyguard took the shot and the drone fell from the sky.
“Let me know what you discover when you retrieve it,” he said to Ronin as they both went to look over the rail into
the vegetation that grew up the side of the cliff.
“Yes, sir.”
At that precise moment, his ears caught the sound of voices coming from inside. Turning, he could see through the glass walls that the Duprees had arrived. He strode around the pool and inside as quickly as he could, hating that he wasn’t already beside Kara.
She was just emerging from an affectionate and dramatic hug with her mom, during which Aiden was being smothered. Marilyn Dupree stepped back, smiling and looking her daughter over. “Well, I haven’t seen you in too long. You look…well, you’ve put on some weight, haven’t you? Don’t worry, dear. My dietician just put me on this juice diet that will have ten pounds off you in a few days. You’ll just have to stay close to a bathroom. Now, who’s baby is this?”
Seeing that Kara was speechless, Warren jumped into the breach. “Hello, Marilyn. I’m glad you were able to make it. And how are you, Robert? I don’t think I’ve seen you since the Cannes Film Festival last year.”
Robert Dupree stepped forward and shook his hand. “I think you’re right. And just think…all this time that we’ve been wondering why Kara never came to see us, she’s been with you.”
Keeping the Duprees in the dark about how his and Kara’s “relationship” had started was a big part of their plan. They were counting on the fact that they were old friends to smooth that over. “We reconnected after her divorce. You remember how good of friends she is with Emmeline, my sister, right?”
Em stepped forward then and shook his hand. “I always thought they’d make a good couple. Turns out I was right.”
“Is this your son?” Marilyn asked Em, pinching Aiden’s chubby cheeks.
“Er…no,” Em said, her voice trailing off.
Kara took a deep breath. “He’s mine.”
The Duprees stared, blinking at her as if waiting for the punchline. When the silence grew lengthy and awkward, Marilyn stepped back. “You’re serious. But…he must be six or seven months old.”
“Six,” Kara said. “This is your grandson, Aiden. I’m sorry I never told you about him, but I have very good reasons.”
Marilyn recovered from her first shock and shifted quickly into anger. “Not good enough reasons to not tell me you had a baby. Who’s the father? Oh, as if I couldn’t tell. He’s Derrick’s, isn’t he?”
“Yes. Mom, Dad, I think we need to go up to my room so I can talk to you privately. I’m sure you’ll understand that I don’t want my fiancé to be subjected to one of our family discussions.”
“Kara, it’s fine,” Warren insisted.
She shook her head at him. “Please, Warren. This is something I need to do on my own.”
Warren hesitated, but nodded and stepped back. Kara walked sedately across the gleaming marble floor with Aiden on her hip. Her mom and dad followed her but not before her dad sent him a long, suspicious glance.
Turning to Em, he said, “I feel bad that she’s facing that on her own.”
Em nodded, a frown on her face. “I know, but she has to face the consequences of her decisions, no matter how good her reasons were.” She’d been watching as the others disappeared up the stairs, but then she turned to him, her expression quizzical. “And I think it’s really sweet that you want to protect her so much. I’m starting to wonder if maybe, just maybe, you—”
“Don’t, Em.”
She closed her lips without finishing her sentence. Then they twisted in a half-smile. “Okay, brother dearest. Keep your secrets. We have a lot to do.”
For the next hour, deliveries were made to the house nearly every ten minutes or so. Em directed traffic while Warren went to his office with his lawyers, where they put together prenuptial agreements and drafted new wills. But the sound of yelling and other dramatics broke through the chaotic sounds filling the house as it was being decorated for the wedding. He winced every time it got loud.
Once all his work was done and the yelling had been quiet for a long time, he decided it was time to rescue Kara.
He went upstairs and knocked briefly on her bedroom door before going in. Her dad stood on the deck, leaning against the railing, and her mom sat in an armchair, crying into a pile of tissues in one hand while holding Aiden on her lap with the other. Kara herself looked broken. His heart went out to her. Whatever Em said about her having to face the consequences, he didn’t like to see her suffer.
Not moving from the doorway, he directed his words to Kara’s mom. “Marilyn, I need to take Kara to go get our wedding license. What do you think of watching the baby while we’re gone?”
Kara blinked, even though this had been their plan all along. They hoped that by giving her parents time alone to bond with Aiden, they might start to forgive her a little. “Yes, but I need to nurse him before we leave so he’ll be happy till I get back,” Kara reminded him.
Warren nodded. “Be sure to bring your driver’s license. I’ll be downstairs.”
He waited for her at the bottom of the steps, reaching out to take her hand as soon as she stepped down next to him. He threaded his fingers through hers, squeezing gently. “There, the worst is over. Are you okay?”
She nodded. But from her red nose and eyes, he knew she’d been crying.
“I hope the makeup artist you hired is really, really good. I have a feeling this won’t be the last time I cry today.”
He led her out through the front door onto the circular drive where his Bentley was waiting for them, the driver holding the door open for them. “He is a prime favorite with every celebrity in Hollywood, and the only reason I could get him is because there aren’t any movie premieres or awards shows tonight. He’s bound to know what to do for a little redness.”
“Ugh…how bad do I look?”
“An unanswerable question. You will always be a beauty, no matter what. How’s that?”
She glared at him a second. Leaning close to him, she murmured. “You’d better be glad this isn’t real, or I’d be dumping your butt on the altar.”
“Fortunate, aren’t I?”
She got in the car, and he let out a strained breath. He had to be careful. That had sounded a little too sarcastic. Funny how emotions could give your words a twist without your permission.
Chapter Nine
By five o’clock that evening, Kara had been plucked, waxed, buffed, polished, and moisturized. Her hair had been shampooed, conditioned, trimmed and styled. Now she was sitting as patiently as she could manage while Antonio applied her eyeshadow. A gorgeous and deceptively simple gown hung on a hook over the closet door. It was a tea-length dress in white chiffon with short, sheer sleeves. It was going to take every bit of magic from the shaper Em had gotten for her to make it look decent on her. She’d been so thin and perky when she got married to Derrick that she hadn’t had to worry about that kind of thing. She hadn’t even had to wear a bra—which was good, since her first wedding dress had had a plunging, open back.
“There,” Antonio said, stepping back and looking back and forth between each of her eyes. “You look divine, girl. Like a goddess.”
Kara spun around and looked in the vanity mirror. It was probably just a nice way to refer to how white her skin was. But no, somehow, he had managed to smooth her skin tone, accentuate her cheekbones, and highlight her blue, almond-shaped eyes while at the same time keeping her look as natural as she’d requested. “You’re a master,” she said, nodding in approval.
He took this as his due and nodded, continuing to admire his handiwork in the mirror. He handed her a tube of nude gloss. “Put this on after your dress is on and reapply as needed. The base color will stay on all night, but this will give you some shine.”
After Antonio had packed up his gear and headed out, Kara got up and went over to the sitting area at the other end of her bedroom where her mom was playing with Aiden on the area rug. Well, actually, Marilyn was taking selfies of her playing with him, but Kara was trying to ignore that fact. “Mom, I need to nurse him before I get dressed.”
“Why? H
e’s perfectly happy.”
“Yeah, right now, but he’ll be cranky in a minute. There’s no way I can nurse him with that dress on, and I’m super uneven right now. My right side is way bigger than the left. Like, noticeably.”
Her mom looked her over critically. “Ooh, you’re right. Here you go.” She picked Aiden up and held him out to her.
Kara carried him over to the bed and got comfortable, leaning back against the pillows. She didn’t bother to use her nursing cover since it was just her mom. Marilyn sat on the end of the bed and watched her, though, so Kara started to regret her decision.
“You’re a good mother,” she said, surprising Kara.
Raising her eyebrows, she said, “Thank you.”
“I don’t agree with your choices. Your dad and I would have kept everything private if you’d just asked us to—”
Kara held up a hand, trying to ward off any chance of this conversation veering off into another argument.
“But,” her mom continued, “there’s no doubt you love Aiden and you take good care of him. You look so maternal, and it suits you. More than being a mother ever suited me. I’m sorry I haven’t been better at it.”
Now Kara was stunned. This was almost, almost, the apology she’d been hoping for her whole life. “That means a lot, Mom. I always loved you, even when it was hard.”
Her mom nodded. She was self-aware, even if she didn’t care enough to change. “That’s what love is, right? We don’t stop loving people just because they aren’t perfect.”
Kara snorted. “I stopped loving Derrick easily enough.”
“No, you never really loved Derrick, and he didn’t deserve for you to. I’m glad you and Warren have found each other. It’s obvious that he’s going to take good care of you. I’ve been watching him all day. I’ve never seen a man so concerned for all the details of the wedding. It shows that he wants this to be a perfect ceremony for you, even though it is rushed for absolutely no reason that I can find.”
Kara refused to bite. Her mom had questioned them over and over on that point. Since they didn’t have a good answer, she and Warren had just sidestepped the whole discussion. “Warren is never happier than when he’s got something to do. He’s always been that way, for as long as I’ve known him.”
Saved by the Billionaire Page 5