Fantasy: A Modern Romance Inspired by Cinderella (Seductively Ever After)

by Kim Carmichael

  Model or not, she needed to end this, caught Hall’s eyes, and pursed her lips.

  In a flash, her overpaid consultant rushed over. “Thank you Tim. Time is up.”

  “Did I make the cut?” Tim winked at her. “We know the answer to that.” He ran his hand through his hair and struck a model’s pose.

  “Let’s go over to the other side of the room and talk.” Hall held up one finger and led the boring man away.

  Ryane glanced over at her father and ground her teeth together. At one point in her life, Mr. Tim Timothy would have fit her perfectly. As long as he provided the cash and the face, they could have a life. Now, even if it were only for a glimpse, she knew there was something more.

  She wanted her Knight back. At her thought, she balled her hand in a fist and shook her head. The night she drove away, she promised herself never to return to the lake, never to look for him again. For three days she had played this ping-pong with her thoughts, but she had to err on the side of her dignity. He didn’t want her or he would have told her his name and not sent her away. At least with someone like Tim, she knew what she would be getting.

  For all she knew, Knight was married, a serial killer or he didn’t exist. It was better to end it.

  But then why would he kiss her with such passion?

  Hall returned with another man. This one with dark hair and a designer suit, but that was all she could see since his face was hidden by his phone.

  “Larry Charleston, may I present Ryane Windsome.” Hall motioned toward her. “Ryane, this is Larry, he owns one of the premier businesses that makes apps for smart phones.”

  The man continued to type away, but he did do her the favor of turning slightly, the screen illuminated his face. He wasn’t bad. He was no Tim, he wasn’t even a Patrick, and he was most definitely no Knight. Then again, no one would ever be Knight.

  “Larry.” Hall tapped him.

  Her potential date absentmindedly sat down in the chair, but continued to stare at his screen.

  “Larry.” Hall kicked his chair. “Ryane is here and wanting to talk to you.”

  “Well, if she’s going to be my wife, she’s going to have to learn that I must conduct business if I am going to keep her in thousand dollar shoes and handbags that cost more than some cars.” He never even looked up from his device.

  Rather than purse her lips or do any of the other gestures Hall gave her, she simply shot him a look.

  “All right, well, maybe you can text Ryane later.” Hall grabbed the man’s arm and dragged him away.

  Through the crowd she searched out her father. He stood talking to one of the multitude of men there. He threw her out here alone, was this whole thing a test? What would he say or do if he found out she met someone in the middle of nowhere?

  Once again Hall came to the table, this time with two dirty blond men. Identical in every way including their bizarre tuxedo that was trying to be stylish, but missed the mark by a several thousand miles. “Ryane Windsome, may I present Colton and Cash Conway. Their family owns some property in the area.”

  Ryane pressed her back to the chair. These men were not her type at all. Not that she wanted to be mean, but she wasn’t really sure they were anyone’s type, at least not on this planet. They were both sort of a mess and their features were not right, but there was something more, something off putting.

  “Hello,” the first one said.

  “Hello,” the other one repeated, greeting in the exact same tone and inflection as the first.

  “You’re very pretty,” One said.

  “Yes very, very pretty.” Two echoed the words. “We thought it would be more efficient to meet you together.”

  “Why don’t you have a seat?” Only pure curiosity didn’t have her lifting her eyebrows.

  Rather than get another chair, they both shared the one chair in front of her and with wide eyes stared at her. “Do you always share everything?”

  In unison, both smiled identical smiles.

  “We’ve been told it’s the number one female fantasy.”

  Truthfully, she didn’t know who spoke, and it didn’t matter because she never wanted to speak to these people again. At this rate, she would gladly go back to Larry and his cell phone, because at least they didn’t have to talk. How dare her father put her in this position? She wasn’t a prize cow up for auction, she was his daughter.

  “We would make a great merger.” The twin one continued to speak. “You marry one, but get the other as a bonus.”

  “You will be the envy of everyone, with two men to do your bidding.” The other piped in.

  She glanced around, caught Hall’s attention, and raised her eyebrows.

  Hall ran over, and she stood. “I need a break.”

  “Hey, we were just getting started,” One of them called to her.

  “I’m just finishing.” She stomped away from the table and over to her father, interrupting his discussion. “Daddy, I demand to talk to you.”

  “Ryane, Princess, while you’re here, I would like to introduce you to--”

  Before he could finish, she stomped her foot. “Daddy!” She grabbed his arm and pulled him away.

  “Ryane, you can’t be rude,.” her father chastised. “You don’t have to like every man, you just need to find a man. There is no way out of this. We need to plan for the future and be serious. Now are you going to fight me?”

  “No, Daddy.” If she went against him it would be a disaster.

  “Then we are doing this my way,” he told her.

  She had to come up with something fast. “What if I have a man?” Of course, he was the man she thought she had she lost, but there was no time for technicalities.

  His expression softened. “And who might this man be?”

  No one? A man she didn’t know? She needed something. “I don’t think it’s right you make me continue this cattle call.”

  A smile took over his face, and he leaned down. “Is it Patrick?”

  She didn’t react. Didn’t say yes, didn’t say no. What she really wanted to know was why her father couldn’t give her a chance to try this on her own.

  “Go ahead and go. I can only tell you how proud I am.” He gave her a kiss on her forehead. “I’ll clean up the mess here.”

  “Daddy.” She gazed up at the man who raised her. Did she tell him she lied?

  “Go ahead, Princess. Soon you’ll be a queen.” He patted her shoulder.

  Without waiting another moment, she dashed toward the exit. No, she never told her father it was Patrick, but she never said it wasn’t him. The tears started the moment she entered her limo. Why did she feel as if she had betrayed Knight? He wasn’t in her life anymore and never could be. Real love wasn’t meant for her, she had to do what was right for the Windsome name.

  Chapter Eleven

  “Now she’s gone.” In the back of Erik and Christine’s theatre, Nash sat with his bottle of whiskey and took a long drink. A while back, he gave up on the glass. Today was the one-week anniversary of his date with Petals, and she was nowhere. He went to the clearing every day and nothing.

  “Let me recap.” Erik sat down next to him. “You had a date, built her a table in the forest, still never told her your name, then after you kissed, you sent her away.”

  After another pull from the bottle, Nash nodded and the whole room moved with him.

  “You didn’t sleep with the waitress because you couldn’t get it up.” Erik gave him a sideways glance.

  Nash flipped him off. “I didn’t want to get it up.”

  “Be that as it may.” Erik let out a chuckle. “You decided a better activity that night other than being with the woman you wanted, or sleeping with the woman who was ready and eager, was to go fix the idiot twins before they got tossed in jail for disorderly conduct?”

  Nash lifted his heavy hand and made every attempt to point at Erik. “They’re not in jail, therefore I don’t have to hear Stacy the swine call me and complain.” That alone was w
orth not having sex. He took another long drink from the bottle.

  “Fair enough.” Erik swiped the bottle from him. “Only now we have the issue.”

  The issue was that Erik took his one bit of comfort away from him. He went to reach for the sweet elixir, but only ended up flopping over in the seat. “Who’s we? It’s all me.”

  “Well, then you can’t find your girl, and she hasn’t shown up at your secret little den of inequity for a week.” Erik tapped is foot.

  “It can’t be a den of inequity, she’s too good for that.” Without any alcohol for fortification, he flung his arm over his eyes. “She’s too good, too pure, I should have told her not to run around the wilderness meeting strange men, but the strange man was me and now she’s vanished as mysteriously as she came. I can never go back there.”

  He repeated the words he had said to himself every day for a week, but today it hit him he had to put an end to the madness.

  As he had done every day since he let Petals drive away, he followed the same routine, he went to the cottage, got some work done and then stared in the direction of the lake. After vowing he wouldn’t go look for Petals, he snuck out of the house under the guise he needed some air. Inevitably, he would go to the lake, sit on their rock and wait for her.

  Today he sat there, staring off among the trees where she always entered their domain. The sun was setting low in the sky, and there was a chill in the air. Maybe he would have to give her his jacket. The garment would encompass her, and she would look small in the leather jacket he had worn since the Spectre days. All she needed to do was reach into one of the pockets and she could find everything she needed to figure out his identity including a guitar pick with his initials engraved on it and his wallet. Of course, he would prefer it if she would sit in his lap, let him wrap his arms around her and simply hold her.

  He also brought with him two peace offerings. One of his mother’s bracelets he found in the cabin, a simple gold chain, something Petals probably wouldn’t even want, but he still felt the need to give it to her and a few flowers he picked along the way. Pink ones. Pink was perfect for her.

  She had to show up. He leaned back and waited for her. If nothing else, he needed to apologize, tell her he made a mistake. If he was really lucky, maybe she would forgive him.

  At a rustling in the trees, he sat up. Any second she would emerge, an angel in the darkness. Her arrival would only confirm what he knew, she was special, she was for him.

  Rather than his goddess, a little squirrel darted across the clearing.

  The rodent barely gave him a glance before running off.

  He continued to sit, plucking the petals off of the flowers and watching them float away.

  Once the sky went dark, he faced facts.

  She wasn’t coming back.

  A heaviness settled right in his chest.

  He dropped the stems and the bracelet, forced himself up and left, trying not to look back as he hobbled away.

  “So what are we going to do?” Erik’s question snapped him back into the here and now.

  He shook his head. “It’s not we, it’s me.” Would he ever be part of a we?

  “All right. What are you going to do?” Erik asked.

  “I guess I’m going to have to wonder the rest of my life who she was, and then I’m going to have to let go.” He retrieved his bottle from his friend and took a long drink. Oblivion was in his future. There was no getting her back.

  Chapter Twelve

  Work.

  Ryane stared down at the folder on her desk.

  She needed to work. She wanted to work. She should work.

  Sighing, she took in the manila file folder and damn her for thinking it really should be pink.

  With conviction, she opened the folder and stared down at the report on the Los Padres property and her chest ached. While she may not have gone there since that fateful night, she still thought about it, him, her Knight.

  Well, he was a fallen knight, he didn’t save her. He only pointed her in the direction she needed to take.

  “Ms. Windsome.” Belinda tiptoed into her office and clasped her hands behind her back.

  As if to prove she was deep in work, Ryane lifted a paper. “Yes.”

  “It’s Mr. Allen.” Bernadette said, scurrying into her position next to Belinda.

  Bobbie dashed inside next. “He has a gift.” Her cheeks reddened.

  Ryane inhaled, smoothed her hair down and gave her reflection a quick glance in the jeweled mirror on the corner of her desk. “Please send him in.” If she wanted to get to work, she needed help, or maybe he was her job. She wasn’t sure and couldn’t really think about it.

  Her three assistants created their makeshift receiving line and motioned toward the door.

  In a suit, with his hair neatly combed back and holding a bouquet of flowers, he entered with the grandeur of a handsome prince. By all rights, her heart should have been aflutter, her knees weak, but there was nothing, not even a little surge of excitement.

  “Patrick.” She held her hand out.

  “Ryane.” He bowed, then presented her with a copious amount of red roses.

  “Thank you.” She took the present. If this would have been Knight, he would have given her one pink perfect flower, then kissed her until she melted, or maybe he would have simply scattered petals at her feet. Well, that life was over, she hadn’t gone to the lake. It was the time to make things happen, and she glanced over at her staff. “Perhaps we should put these in water.”

  All three of them went into action.

  Bobbie rushed forward and grabbed the flowers. “I’ll get the vase.”

  Bernadette straightened out her desk and ran after Bobbie.

  “Just ring if you need anything. We’ll leave you alone.” Belinda backed up and closed the door on the way out.

  “I’m glad I had a clearing in my schedule, and I have to say I was even happier with the invitation here.” Patrick glanced around the room. “It feels like I’m part of the inner sanctum.”

  “Of course you are.” She smiled up at him willing any butterfly to enter her stomach, but maybe butterflies were overrated.

  “What can I help you with?” He reached over, took her hand and kissed the back.

  Still nothing, not even a shudder, but she forced a smile on her face. “I want to spearhead selling the Los Padres property, but I think to make the most of the sale, I need that other piece of land you found.” She took a breath. “This will be our first project together.” It was time to do what her father couldn’t and get rid of the land. It was time to let it go. Maybe everything with Knight had been nothing but a sign to move on.

  He stepped closer. “I thought you didn’t want to sell the property.”

  “It’s a woman’s prerogative to change her mind.” She purposely put on her flirty tone and gazed up at him through her lashes.

  “I hope you don’t change too much.” His gaze traveled over her, taking her all in. “I quite like you the way you are.”

  If Knight would have said the same words she would have practically been on her knees, but this wasn’t Knight, this was Patrick, and this was her future. She handed him her folder. “Do you think we can start working on securing that little bit we don’t own?”

  “Only if we keep using the word we.” He grabbed the folder, opened it and gave the contents a quick scan. “The property is interesting. It’s a little cottage and some land owned by a family and is being held in trust now that the father died. The widow wants to sell, but there are two things.”

  “What’s that?” She studied the man. He was good looking, handsome, actually more than handsome.

  “Before we move forward, I want to make sure this is what you want. You seemed adamant on leaving the property as is when we spoke before.” His voice lowered, not as deep as Knight’s, but with a nice timbre.

  She forced herself to focus on him and not a memory of something she couldn’t have. “I think it’s time to look
to the future.”

  “Then that brings me to my second item.” He wrapped his arm around her waist. “The most important thing.”

  “What could be more important than closing the deal?” Maybe she bated him, maybe she tried to put him off, she didn’t know.

  “Closing the deal with you.” He dipped his head down and kissed her.

  Rather than becoming lost, once more she found herself in a comparison with the man in the forest. Her world didn’t disappear. Even as their mouths opened, their tongues touched, and he held her tighter, she didn’t drift away. All she could focus on was work and how she set in motion the selling of the Los Padres property. Once the property was sold, it would be developed, and any chance of ever finding Knight again would be gone.

  At her thought she gasped, thereby breaking the kiss.

  Patrick let out a little moan and wrapped his arms around her. “That was perfect.” Once again he kissed her, a light kiss.

  Yes, their kiss was perfect. Perfection for the perfect couple, but while it may be perfect, it wasn’t magic. What if she let magic vanish? The moment the land was put up for sale any magic would be gone. The urge to run overtook her and she grabbed his arm to keep her grounded. “Patrick.”

  “I can’t believe I have to go back to work, I’m not going to be able to get anything done.” He let out a low chuckle. “How about I pick you up for dinner tonight?”

  “I need to get a few errands done.” At the moment, all she wanted was for him to leave and let her escape.

  “Do your work, do your errands, and I’ll pick you up for a late dinner.” He gave her another kiss. “This is going to happen.” After kissing the back of her hand once more, he let go of her, then backed up toward the exit. “Until later.”

  Once sure he left, she acted on instinct alone. She may have perfection, but before she gave in, she needed to know one last time if she had magic. In a flash, she rushed to her desk, grabbed her purse, and without second guessing her next move, going with her gut, ran out of her office, passing her assistants on the way. “I’ll be back.”