by K. T. Tomb
“Now, don’t be alarmed, just tell me; is everything running according to schedule?”
“Yes, Mr. Thorn,” she replied confidently.
“I like a sure response. There is absolutely nothing that can be allowed to go wrong tonight. So if you need more people, bring them in, but get it all done perfectly.”
“Yes, sir.”
Will left her there on the lawn barking orders at some workmen and went inside to get dressed for the party. As he walked up the marble staircase of Thorn’s main house, he wondered to himself what his father and Zach were doing at that moment. Were they feeling as blessed as he was now to be looking forward to such a perfect night of good food, friends and family that lay before them? He knew Robin would be thinking of different things this Christmas; hard and difficult things, unless he decided to come clean about what had happened. They would let him out on house arrest if he agreed to testify against the real criminals. He knew Robin would do the right thing soon enough.
Will smiled and shook his head. He knew that of all the things the Thorn’s were or could be from time to time, one thing they weren’t was ungrateful.
***
As the clock struck eight, people started arriving at the estate and handing over their Buicks, BMWs and Mercedes-Benzes to the well-dressed valets that stood in a perfect line in the main entrance portico. The night was clear with not a wisp of a cloud in the sky and the winter stars shone brightly. Will stood on the terrace, watching the guests arrive and waiting for his brother to pull up. When he saw the car, he went down to the garden.
Quickly, he went around to the passenger side and opened the door for his brother’s lovely new girlfriend. He had been more than a little curious about what she would wear since Rayna was well known for her fashion forwardness as an Atlanta heiress.
“Wow!” was all Will could say when he saw the oxblood red satin gown she wore. It was sleek and smooth and hugged her every curve before falling into a sexy flare.
“Thank you, Will. I keep telling your brother that winter is either for daring colors or white, and for the life of me, I can’t pull off a white dress against my pale skin.”
Zach took his girlfriend’s hand and led her toward the tent with Will following behind. He took a glass of burgundy from a waiter walking past him and settled in at a table set for two to watch the door until Aurora came through it. The band tuned up and started the first song of the evening, which was Winter Wonderland, as she had insisted. John took Rebecca’s hand and led her out onto the dance floor where they danced gracefully as some of the guests joined them on the dance floor. When the song came to a close, John Thorn took the microphone and addressed his guests.
“Friends, colleagues and family: it is with the warmest wishes of the season that we invite you into our home to celebrate with us the joy of the holidays and the turn of another year along with all the hopefulness that it will bring with it. We ask that you eat, drink and be merry with us for as long a time as we may have in each-others company. Welcome!”
Applause went up throughout the party and the band struck up a jazzy rendition of Let It Snow, calling many guests back to the dance floor. Will smiled as he saw his father dip Rebecca very dramatically and wondered when he had last seen John Thorn dance like that. Just then, he caught sight of her silky skin as she paused at the doorway, searching the room for him. He couldn’t move at the sight of her, but stood still until their eyes finally met. Only then could his feet leave the ground and it was as being pulled in by a magnet how he gravitated toward her.
Aurora was upset that she was late. She always prided herself in being on time, but as she had been stepping out onto the portico, she had caught her heel and broken it. Luckily an impulse shoe buy on a planning trip into Atlanta the day before had been her savior since its silver tone was the only thing she had with her to match her dress. But she had finally made it and she had found Will as well. When he took her in his arms, she held her breath. His chest felt so good against her, she had known this feeling for so many years and yet every time it felt as if she were coming home again. Will kissed the cool bare skin at her shoulders and held his lips there as if he meant to spark a fire in her.
“Good evening, Mr. Thorn,” she whispered seductively in his ear.
She felt the shiver run down his spine as he raised his head to respond to her greeting.
“Good evening, Miss Aldridge.”
He swept her onto the dance floor and they danced closely and slowly for quite a few songs before taking their seats at the little secluded table that Will had chosen earlier.
“What are my parents doing here?”
“They’re invited to all John’s big parties. Didn’t you know that?”
“As a matter of fact I didn’t,” she replied as she accepted a glass of red wine from a waiter. Will took another glass as well of the warming burgundy. “I’m never usually in attendance; always in the background planning and executing.”
They engaged in more of the easy conversation that Aurora had come to adore until Rebecca approached the table and pulled over a chair.
“Hi, Will,” she said as she sat down.
“Hi, Rebecca. Are you enjoying yourself?”
“I sure am. Everything is just fantastic. Now if someone could just point me in the direction of the eligible bachelors, I would be quite satisfied.”
Will laughed and then said, “Do you smoke?”
“I quit a few years ago. Why?”
“Well, the bachelors... the good ones at least... all smoke and they will be out behind the tent, chatting it up by now.”
“Oh, thanks Will. You guys excuse me, let me just go check that out.”
“Take a scotch and soda with you so you have something to offer the one you pick out when you bum his cigarette,” Will said, winking at her.
Rebecca winked back and walked over to the bar.
“Thanks for that,” Aurora said, taking his hand over the table.
“It’s nothing, darling.”
Just then the dance floor came to a standstill as the band introduced a singer and everyone applauded. She walked up to the microphone and spoke.
“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. We are the Alpharetta Jazz Orchestra and we would like to play our next song for you as it has been requested by Mr. Will Thorn.”
Will took Aurora’s hand and led her out to the middle of the dance floor as the opening chords to La Vie en Rose began to play. She smiled at him and he pulled her close and they began to dance. The singer belted out the words with a passion that enraptured Aurora’s heart and she swooned against him.
“You know this is one of my favorite songs don’t you?”
“Of course I do. That’s why I chose it.”
“So tell me how you know that you make me see life in rosy hues.”
“That’s because every time I hold you I can feel your heart beating.”
Aurora laughed at his answer and followed as he turned them around again on the dance floor.
“Will you marry me, Aurora?” Will whispered into her ear.
“What?” she said, shocked, and stopped dead in her tracks.
Will let her go and looked her in the eyes as he sank to one knee in front of her. He dipped into his pocket and pulled out a black ring box. He opened it and asked her again.
“Aurora Aldridge, will you marry me?”
“Yes, Will. I will marry you.”
Around them applause erupted loudly as Will slipped the square cut diamond ring onto Aurora’s finger. She helped him up from the ground and they kissed deeply. Soon their family and friends had surrounded them, offering congratulations. John and Rebecca, Aurora’s parents, Tom and Crystal and finally, Zach and Rayna.
“I am very sorry for how we got started out, Aurora. I honestly know that you are the right one for Will and I know you’ll make each other very happy. I, in hopes of making peace, will try my best to be on my best behavior at all time.”
“Thank you for
that, Zach, I know we’ll come to appreciate each other.”
***
Later that evening, Will and Aurora sat under one of the tables in a corner, holding each other and kissing madly.
“Reminds me of when I used to build forts when I was a kid,” Aurora said.
“I know. I just got tired of everyone watching our every move.”
“I know. We really took over your dad’s party, didn’t we?”
Will laughed and held her tighter. The band had already packed up and the servers had cleared the buffet. Only a few people were still meandering around under the marquee.
“You look amazing tonight, by the way. I can’t wait until the day I can call you Mrs. Thorn but right now, all I want is to get you out of that dress and make love to you.”
Aurora smiled and as the last server turned off the final lights and the chandelier in the tent, she replied, “Well then, what are you waiting for?”
The End
Return to the Table of Contents
THE MAGNIFICENT DISASTER
Sacred Thorns #2
by
K.T. Tomb
The Magnificent Disaster
Published by K.T. Tomb
Copyright © 2018 by K.T. Tomb
All rights reserved.
The Magnificent Disaster
Chapter One
Avenida Boyacá,
Caracas, Venezuela
The wedding at the Stone Mountain Estate made Robin Thorn very aware of several different feelings.
First, it humbled him greatly that his presence and inclusion as Will’s best man was requested; that in spite of what he had done, he had been forgiven and was still loved and accepted by his brothers and father. Second, that being sent to Venezuela, though a type of exile, was a chance to redeem himself. Most of all, watching the way Will and Aurora looked into each other’s eyes and the way that they melted into each other on the dance floor had made him painfully aware of what was missing most in his life.
As the car was bringing him from the airport wound along Avenida Boyacá at the foot of El Avila, all three of those convictions bombarded him in turn, just as they had the moment that he’d been ushered out to the car by his father and brothers and transported to the airport. He wasn’t particularly fond of traveling, but because of the private fleet of jets owned by Thorn Industries, he at least was able to avoid the discomfort of typical airline travel and of the harassment of a typical immigration and customs inspection by an extremely suspicious military police force in a country full of corruption.
As he looked at the slopes of El Avila in front of him, he realized that all of the necessary arrangements for his redemption had already been made for him. He’d been forgiven and he’d been given charge of an important, though removed, portion of Thorn Industries. From the moment that he was called into the boardroom with his brothers, he had already become repentant and was determined to make things right. Once he heard what his new role would be, he had embraced it and made the decision to do the best he could.
Everything was falling into place for him except one, the third of his convictions; he was alone. It was true that with his money and position, he could draw the most beautiful or even the most elegant of high society into his bed, but sharing a bed wasn’t the same as sharing a life.
He had been hard on his brothers and worse when it came to how he treated Aurora. He had accused her of being a gold digger who once she had failed at trying to seduce his father, had attempted to pick off the sons one by one until she had established a more permanent place within Thorn Industries.
When he had reasoned with Will that Aurora was not their type and that he could do better, he’d been turned down flat by his brother. After reasoning had not worked, he’d attempted to enlist the help of their father, John Thorn, who had hired Aurora Aldridge as his personal assistant and placed his full faith and trust in her from the very beginning. When that attempt failed, he had resorted to more sinister means to undo what he believed to be a horrible error that his brother was making.
Robin had attempted to turn Will against her by hiring a private investigator to dig up dirt on Aurora and expose her to Will, when no dirt was found, he found a low-life in Thorn Industries that would do his bidding and paid him a healthy sum to make some things up about her and present it to Will. In spite of his efforts, Will had seen through his attempts and had not for an instant believed any of it.
It was that unmovable faith in Aurora that Will had that finally began to bring him around to understanding that his brother had discovered something special. From that point forward, he began to look at them in a different light. They seemed to move as one, seemed to have the same mind, seemed to anticipate what the other was about to do and, in so many ways, seemed to complete parts in the other that were weak or missing. Though he hadn’t fully grasped what was going on, he knew that he wanted the same thing, but how would he be able to find anything like it exiled in Venezuela.
As the car slowed on Avenida Boyacá – named for the location of the final battle that had won independence for Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela – it started a turn to the right onto a narrow street that led into the Altamira sector of the El Chacao municipality of Caracas, the place where anybody was somebody lived. Though his eyes had mostly viewed the vistas laid out before him without really seeing them, as they turned the corner and began to accelerate, he saw something that shook him out of the fog that had covered him like a thick blanket since he left Stone Mountain.
Her shapely, curvy form was in perfect proportion and the long black hair that cascaded down her back glistened in the late afternoon sun. She was certainly a dazzling specimen of womanhood that would have driven any man wild with desire. But it was the moment that she turned and looked straight through him that haunted him the most.
For a brief second, he wondered if the car windows were not tinted, because her dark eyes looked straight into his; it was what he could only describe as a challenge and yet, within those eyes as well, there was a softness and a depth that gripped him tightly. Though the glance only lasted for an instant, its effect stayed with him; even as the car had pulled into the drive of the Thorn’s Altamira estate and stopped to wait for the gates to slide open, Robin noticed nothing. In fact, it wasn’t until one of the house staff opened the door and welcomed him that he snapped out of the spell that had been cast upon him.
For the next several days, the bewitching eyes continued to haunt him. As he traveled between the estate and the Thorn Industries offices on the other side of the narrow valley, not far from the U.S. Embassy, he searched for those eyes continually, to the point that he had become obsessed. He saw glimpses of them upon a number of different faces, but he could not quite be satisfied.
What was within the depth of that glance? What was behind the dark, penetrating gaze that seemed to read his soul, even through tinted windows? With the answer lingering just beyond his reach, he was becoming desperate. He did something that he would never admit to anyone for as long as he lived.
Knowing that after the way he had spoken of Aurora being beneath Will’s class, if anyone ever heard of the fact that he searched for a woman he met on the street, and then contacted a Venezuelan matchmaking service, he would never hear the end of it. It was a secret that he would have to keep tucked tightly away.
Once he contacted the service, he had been invited in to have photos taken and to do a live, video interview. Sworn to absolute secrecy and the utmost discretion, the service agreed to only show his photos and video to those women that he selected. Having that bit of insurance, he began to look through photos until he saw a pair of eyes that were so nearly like those that had haunted him, that he would have sworn it was the exact same woman.
“This one,” he whispered as he passed the photo to Vanessa, the woman assisting him.
“Natalia Arboleda.” She smiled. “Mr. Thorn, she is an excellent choice. From my experience, I also think that she would make a perfect match. Woul
d you like to select some others, just in case Natalia is not interested?”
“No,” he replied. “She is the one.”
“Very well, we will make arrangements for a meeting. We will contact Natalia and allow her a chance to see your photos and videos. If she is also interested in you, then we will offer her several times and places of meeting in one of our secure locations. This is for the protection of you both, you understand?”
“I do understand,” Robin replied, “and appreciate it immensely.”
“Very good,” Vanessa answered.
“May I ask another question?”
“Certainly, Mr. Thorn.”
“What does ‘intermediate English’ mean, exactly?”
“It means that she can converse well on some subjects, mostly those of daily living, likes and dislikes, general interests, more or less; however, she’ll speak with a fairly strong accent and occasionally make grammatical errors or even errors with her vocabulary. There could be a few instances where the two of you might have some difficulty communicating in English.”
“So, basically, her English is a little bit better than my Spanish, but not perfect.”
“Exactly!” Vanessa laughed softly. “However, what we have noticed is that those who find a match – but don’t speak each other’s language fluently – figure out a way to communicate in either or both languages to the point that it really doesn’t matter. In fact, I would say that might be your first indication of how well matched the two of you are.”
“Thank you for everything,” Robin said, standing to leave. “Is there anything else you need from me? A blood sample, a lock of hair or something?”
“Nothing else, Mr. Thorn; just wait for our call.”
“Thank you.”
“A la orden,” she replied and then winked. “My pleasure.”