by Emily Tilton
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
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The Billionaire and the Wedding Planner
By
Emily Tilton
Copyright © 2017 by Stormy Night Publications and Emily Tilton
Copyright © 2017 by Stormy Night Publications and Emily Tilton
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Published by Stormy Night Publications and Design, LLC.
www.StormyNightPublications.com
Tilton, Emily
The Billionaire and the Wedding Planner
Cover Design by Korey Mae Johnson
Images by 123RF/Maksim Toome and 123RF/Edvard Nalbantjan
This book is intended for adults only. Spanking and other sexual activities represented in this book are fantasies only, intended for adults.
Chapter One
Some weddings, even when the couple are clearly made for one another, go off the rails from the very beginning. Maria Sali knew she should turn this one down; she could feel it in her bones. She even knew that her former boss and mentor Heather would have turned it down flat. She could hear Heather’s voice in her head. “No amount of reputation you can get from taking a job like that one is worth the negative word-of-mouth when they blame you because the MOB falls down in the aisle, or the hors d’oeuvres are lukewarm on the third pass, or the priest messes up the groom’s name.”
But Maria had only had her own wedding-planning business for a year. She was only twenty-four. This society wedding would pay, and it would open doors to others—the kind that Heather Carrington had started doing only after being in the business for years and years.
She convinced herself that Emily Easton and Albright Allerton were only having a bad day. She convinced herself that Priscilla Allerton, the MOG, was much too well-bred to ruin anything the way only an MOG can. Maria could see with complete clarity the difficulty of the unique situation that meant Priscilla would also serve in the capacity of MOB, because of Emily’s own mother—one of Priscilla’s best friends—having died the previous year, but she convinced herself it would be a unique benefit rather than a unique pain-in-the-backside.
She took one look at Jason Garrons, the FOB. The step-FOB, rather; the actual FOB, Pierpont ‘Chip’ Easton, having been on an extended cruise of the Mediterranean for the past several years, with multiple lovely young models, and unwilling to return for something as mundane as the wedding of his eldest daughter.
Jason Garrons, only thirty-eight. Self-made billionaire philanthropist turned politician, quite possibly the best-connected man in New England whose family hadn’t arrived on the Mayflower, sat on the elegant Second-Empire couch next to Priscilla. He looked more amused than irritated by his stepdaughter’s behavior, at least as of this moment. He also looked so incredibly hot in his black silk jacket and pink Oxford shirt that Maria had no trouble seeing why Emily’s mother, most eligible divorcee in Boston at the time, had fallen so hard for him, if Heather’s account was correct.
Priscilla, Jason’s relaxed posture seemed to say, might get as high and mighty as she wanted, and Emily might behave like an utter spoiled brat, but how much aggravation could a wedding really be, in the end, as long as you had enough money to throw at it?
A very great deal, Mr. Garrons, Maria thought, as hard as she could, trying she supposed to send the idea to him on a brainwave. If he would step in here—Maria grimaced inwardly at the play on words, given how notorious a problem stepparents always were—he might actually do some good, and get things off to at least a decent start, rather than the rolling disaster Maria could see had already started to come apart before it even got up to speed.
Maybe she decided then—subliminally, anyway—that eventually Jason would have to put his foot down, since he was paying for the wedding. Maybe she had an instinct, though of course instincts could always betray a person, that the Easton/Allerton wedding, to be booked for June sixth if Trinity church and the Park Plaza were available, couldn’t actually be the catastrophe for everyone involved that it looked like on March fifteenth.
“Emily, dear,” Priscilla said, “if you decide the wedding has to be on June sixth, you have to be flexible about the location.” Priscilla looked to Maria for help, but in the patrician expression Maria could see the same reluctance to trust the young wedding planner that Maria had sensed in their initial handshake. Heather had told Priscilla firmly that she had retired, but that Priscilla must call Heather’s protégée Maria Sali.
“We’ll do our best,” Maria said, intending to add the but Priscilla is right, but Emily cut her off, making—Maria felt sure—Priscilla think that Maria had actually meant to promise the bride something she couldn’t promise. How could this be going so badly?
“Albright, sweetie, you really want the reception to be at the Park Plaza, don’t you?” Emily asked in a wheedling voice. The nineteen-year-old college junior, clearly ready to cut any remaining apron strings that attached her to her sad past, and clearly rushing into this marriage however well-suited she and the groom might be, turned to Maria. “We went to my friend Chloe’s wedding there last year, and it was soooo gorgeous.”
Well, yes. Maria had done ninety percent of the work on the Dabney wedding, but she couldn’t say so because no one was supposed to know how much Heather had delegated to her.
“I worked on that wedding,” Maria said, knowing how badly this would end, but unable to keep from at least showing her pride in her work.
Emily smiled a patronizing smile that seemed to mirror Priscilla’s. Wow, these rich people start their condescending expressions young, Maria thought.
“Then you know what I mean,” she said, clearly trying to be sweet. “It’s got to be at the Park Plaza. It’s like the only thing Albright cares about.” She cast moony eyes back at the groom, who wore a fixed smile as if he knew that getting married was going to involve these moments, and he wanted to get married, so he would smile in the meeting with the wedding planner. Heather’s briefing on the twenty-two-year-old Albright ‘Quint’ Allerton the Fifth said he was a sailor’s sailor, and not unintelligent, having graduated the previous year from Dartmouth.
“Well,” he said after a moment, clearly not sure whether a man who opened his mouth in this kind of meeting was taking his life into his own hands.
That was as far as he got, though, because Priscilla said, fully exasperated now, and plainly not just with Emily but with everyone in the room, with Maria at fault for the entire incipient debacle, “Then wait a month or two to have the wedding, so you can get the Park Plaza.”
“But it has to be the sixth, Priscilla,” Emily said petulantly. “It has to. Georgia’s going to Paris for the whole summer, on the eighth. You know that.”
Georgia Easton, E
mily’s eighteen-year-old sister, maid of honor by right.
“Jason,” said Priscilla, appealing to the stepfather. “You can fly Georgia back in August, can’t you?”
“No,” Emily said even more petulantly. “He can’t. Georgia’s program is full immersion. I told you that. And I want to be a June bride.”
The phenomenon of a sweet young bride turning into a monster represented both a very well-worn cliché and a daily reality for Maria. She already had a very great deal of experience, from her apprenticeship, with dealing with girls who made her long for the days of old-fashioned loving discipline. Emily Easton’s doubtless pert backside would benefit greatly from being turned over her fiancé’s knee and given a sound spanking.
Quint Allerton bore not the slightest resemblance to the sort of fiancé who might do that. The thought, though, stirring in Maria, made her glance at Jason and wonder. She felt the tiniest degree of heat creep into her cheeks, and thanked heaven for her Mediterranean complexion. If Priscilla saw her face flush, she would probably take it for a sign of weakness. Priscilla Allerton, still one of the most beautiful women of the Boston social scene at forty-two, didn’t look like she had blushed in twenty years.
“Emily,” Jason said, with decision but no exasperation, “something is going to have to give, here. Neither the church nor the room is available.”
“But I thought that’s why we were here,” Emily protested, looking over at Priscilla, and then quickly at Quint, as if to make sure he still was paying attention without really paying attention—the state that a bride of her type, on the verge of becoming a monster, generally prefers in her groom. “I thought you said that Maria would be able to fix it.”
Maria had to use every ounce of willpower in her five-foot-three-inch body to keep her eyes from rolling back into her head. Unable to help herself, she darted a look at Jason again, and found him looking steadily back at her with a faint air of amusement. The heat came back into her cheeks. Nightmare. This would be a nightmare. But surely Jason will put a stop to this.
Priscilla spoke next, in a tone betraying a good deal of frustration that Maria could tell was directed mostly against Maria, the one blameless person in the room. “I said that Mrs. Carrington said she thought Maria might be able to help.” The matron looked at Maria meaningfully. At that moment, Maria almost declined the business.
But Jason said, “Priscilla, I think you aren’t understanding what Maria said, and neither are you, Emily. Really, you’re not understanding what Maria didn’t actually say, but what she meant, when she said that it would be difficult to negotiate for what you want, Emily.”
Maria flashed him a grateful smile, and decided right then that she would be able to do this job, since he was involved. The way he had looked at her, and his incredible hotness, didn’t have anything to do with it. Nothing at all.
“What did she mean, then?” Emily demanded.
“Ask Maria,” Jason said calmly. “I feel certain she’ll tell you.”
“Well?” Emily said, fixing her blue eyes on Maria and giving every indication that she had grown up in a house full of servants.
“I meant,” Maria said, as calmly as she could, “that it would cost a good deal of money, as a premium, to get the church and the hotel to persuade the people who currently have the reservations to change them.”
Emily’s eyes went wide. She turned instantly to Jason. “Jaaason?” she said in a voice that suggested she had employed it with great success for at least the past fifteen years. “Pleeease?”
Maria didn’t know whether she wanted to vomit or laugh. She did study Jason Garrons’ face very closely, though. She could tell that the reason Emily had obviously gotten her way so very often in the past didn’t have anything to do with the wide-eyed little-girl wheedling she thought had made everything happen for her. Instead, Maria could see very clearly that Jason gave Emily her way out of a mixture of sheer exasperation and a good deal of guilt that the girl’s mother wouldn’t be present to see her beloved Ivy-League eldest married.
“Of course,” Jason said. “Maria, you’ll let me know how much?”
Maria nodded. “I will. I can’t guarantee that I’ll succeed, but I’ll let you know by tonight.”
“But it’s a Saturday,” Priscilla said, frowning. “Those offices won’t be open.”
“I’ll let you know by tonight,” Maria repeated. And I will succeed, on the basis of Jason’s wallet. Frank at the plaza wouldn’t be thrilled to get a call on the weekend; Maria might have to ask Heather to do that. Martha at Trinity would be kind, the way she always was, and not mind a bit.
“Thank you sooo much, Jason,” Emily said. For a moment Maria could see that this bride really did have a very charming side to her nature. Emily looked at Quint, sitting next to her, and took his hand. “Does that make you happy, Albright?”
Quint kissed her chastely and sweetly. “Yes.” He too turned to Jason. “Thanks so much. It means a lot.”
Jason smiled. Maria suspected he understood exactly what she herself could see: Quint Allerton had tried to show an interest in his wedding, and had told Emily that he thought the Park Plaza had looked really great for the Dabney wedding. Emily had decided that they therefore must have it, and had set it before herself as one of those silly tests of love brides are always making for themselves: if we have the reception where my groom wants it, then I really love him, don’t I?
“You’re welcome, Quint,” Jason said. “Happy to do it.”
“Please call him Albright,” Emily said. “Quint is from that shark movie.”
Maria caught Quint rolling his eyes.
Chapter Two
Jason Garrons had never even considered spanking his stepdaughters before. He had parented them only very lightly when their mother was alive, and not much more strictly afterwards, to respect Anne’s wishes—the wishes that represented practically the only thing he and his beautiful late wife had ever fought about.
Jason himself had had a strict upbringing, and he credited it with a good deal of his success, and in particular the rapidity of it.
“But Emily and Georgia don’t have the struggle in front of them that you did,” Anne had said. Though she welcomed it, generally, when he put his foot down—their dominance-and-submission relationship having been the foundation of their love—she made it clear that her daughters by the ne’er-do-well Chip Pierpont lay wholly within her own purview.
Nor had Jason really objected, since he had not grown up in a setting remotely resembling the brownstone and the beach house in which his stepdaughters were flowering into beautiful young women—not to mention the elite private school at which they had learned with more certainty every day that the world would be their oyster. Their school led to the Ivy League, and the Ivy League led to New York for a few years, unless you had already accepted a proposal from a boy who had gone to a school exactly like yours, and probably only five or ten miles away. Emily had gone the latter route; Georgia seemed destined for at least a few years of freedom in New York.
Jason had made it to the Ivy League, of course, but he had taken a path that Anne Easton could hardly comprehend, no matter how much it had clearly put her in awe of him from the very beginning—nor how much it aroused her when the boy from the wrong side of the tracks put the Mayflower descendant over his knee for a sound spanking. He had given those spankings at first out of his own contrasting need to conquer the stuck-up assholes of the Brahmin society that lingered in the oak-paneled rooms that now sat, incongruously, dozens of stories high in the shiny skyscrapers that marked the Boston skyline. To have the bad girl of the blue-bloods, the girl who had run away with the eligible bachelor for just long enough to get pregnant twice, bare bottom up and moaning in disciplinary and erotic submission to him fired Jason’s blood more than he had ever imagined it could be fired.
Neither of them had expected how Jason would, with his firm hand, bring out a sweet, innocent side of Anne Easton that she had hardly known she still had,
nor how Jason would find himself utterly at the mercy of that shy, kind girl and completely consumed by the need to take care of her. Then the cancer had come and deprived them of the years they had expected to have together, of love and of darker passions. Jason had felt, despite the agony of his grief, that his ability to give Anne every good thing in her final days, to make her every promise for which she had pleaded on behalf of her daughters, made good both on his hardscrabble life and on her aristocratic one: Emily and Georgia would lack for nothing.
Now, in the office of the extremely diverting and unexpectedly young and gorgeous Maria Sali, he wondered whether he had lost his way, with regard to the girls, just a little. Should he have enabled Emily’s wish to have everything exactly as she wanted, with regard to this wedding? Surely if it were right to spoil her at all, it was most appropriate and least harmful to do it when she became a bride?
At least things seemed to have begun to take a smoother course. He looked over at Quint and winked. Quint’s lips twitched, and he clearly had a serious struggle not to laugh.
“You’re a good man, Albright Allerton,” Jason had said to him the night Quint had dutifully come by the house on Arlington Street, the visit demanded of both men by Emily. You’re a good man to bear that name and not be an utter prick, he had thought as he spoke.
“I try to be, sir,” Quint had said, doing his best to look Jason in the eyes.
Jason had snorted. “Drop the sir, please. I’m guessing you’re here because Emily thinks it’s the right thing to do?”
Quint had looked very relieved at that, as he took a sip of the bourbon Jason had poured for him. “Yes, s—…”
“Just call me Jason,” he had said.
“Alright,” Quint had said. “Yes.”
“So you really want to take her off my hands?” Jason had said, and Quint had looked rather shocked.