Masters for Hire

by Ginger Voight

  “I never get tired of saying it,” I whispered against his ear, before peppering him with kisses. “I love you. I love you, I love you, I love you.”

  He covered my mouth for another kiss, and all was forgotten as we tumbled together back onto the bed.

  Sunday came much too quickly. I wasn’t ready to leave our sheltered little cocoon in Vegas, where we could lose ourselves among the crowds of strangers who couldn’t care less about our existence. But we couldn’t stay there forever, and by noon we had packed up his car and pointed our car south towards Los Angeles.

  We stopped by his downtown L.A. apartment before we went home to my Father’s estate. He wanted to stay at his place for the night, but I wanted to get the first difficult conversations out of the way already. I was tired of worrying about it and stressing over it. Best to treat it like a bandage. One swift movement and tear the fucker right off.

  I was stunned by the opulence of his downtown digs, which was every inch a bachelor pad. The furniture was black leather. The floors were hard wood. Sensual art hung on the walls and all the latest gadgets and gizmos filled every room. Floor-to-ceiling windows afforded a great view all the way to the ocean. It even smelled of his masculine cologne.

  The entire place was designed to entice, to lure… to seduce. This was especially true of his bedroom, which had a king-sized platform bed covered in black satin.

  “Did you ever bring clients here?” I asked, simply because I couldn’t help myself.

  “I told you I don’t answer those kinds of questions, Coralie,” he said without looking at me, as he packed some clothes in his suitcase.

  “What could it hurt?” I shrugged. “It’s not like you’re going to do it anymore.”

  He sighed as he faced me. “Yes, I fucked other women here. Is that what you want to hear?”

  “Don’t be a dick,” I snapped before turning back to the window. He walked up behind me and turned me around.

  “But they weren’t clients, okay?”

  I stared him a long moment before I nodded. “Okay.”

  He pulled a portfolio from the shelf behind his bed and handed it to me. “For your father,” he said before he finished packing.

  I looked through the photos, each and every one a professional photo shoot for things like athletic wear, or business suits, or gym equipment. This was his legitimate work, and it was fairly impressive. “Why didn’t you just stick with modeling?” I asked.

  “Less pay and more hustle,” he clipped as he slammed his suitcase shut. “I tried to get away from escorting a couple of times, but I just needed more money. It was either that or porn and porn would have killed the escorting and the modeling.”

  “I’m not judging you, Devlin. Just curious. This is exceptional work,” I said, gesturing to the portfolio.

  “I guess it’s going to have to work now,” he decided as he hoisted the suitcase in one hand. “Give you the respectable husband that you deserve.”

  I closed the gap between us. “I just want you, Devlin.”

  “You say that now,” he said. “But what happens if the truth comes out? Remember what I said about fame?”

  “Then we’ll deal with it,” I promised. “Right now, let’s just deal with our immediate problems.”

  Twenty minutes later, when we pulled into the bricked driveway on my father’s estate, we were prepared to do exactly that.

  We decided to face my father together, so after we dropped off our suitcases at Petit Paradis, we walked together towards the main house, hand in hand. Gretch was in the kitchen, preparing the evening meal. I walked up behind her. “Guess who?”

  Gretchen jumped. “CC!” she gasped as she threw her arms around me. “I was beginning to worry about you. I thought you were coming back two days ago.”

  “I was, but something came up,” I hedged. “You remember Devlin Masters.”

  She nodded and shook his hand. “Mr. Masters. Nice to see you again.”

  “Likewise,” he assured.

  “Is Father home?” I asked.

  “Your father is in his study. He’s pretty worried as well. You may be an adult, young lady, but there are such things as good manners. You should be more courteous to the people who love you.”

  I nodded, instantly chagrined. “I know. I’m sorry.”

  “So what things came up?” she demanded as she stared down her thin nose at me.

  It was time to rip off the first bandage. I held up my hand to show her my rings. Her eyes widened and her surprised gaze bounced between Devlin and me. “What?!”

  “I’m married, Gretch. Happened on Friday.”

  “But… but….,” she stammered, unable to form a coherent thought.

  Devlin stepped forward and placed his hands on my shoulders. “Completely my fault, Gretchen. I had been harboring feelings for this special lady for years. They just caught fire this weekend in Vegas, as things are wont to do.”

  “But… but…,” Gretch stuttered. “How? You just… What?!”

  This was going very well, I thought with the roll of my eyes. It made me even more nervous to talk to Father. “Gretch, listen to me. It just happened, okay? We spent the entire week together and … it just happened.”

  “Marriage does not just happen!” Gretch corrected.

  “It does when it’s right,” he assured her. She stared up at him like he was an intruder from Mars before turning her startled eyes my direction.

  “Your father,” she breathed. I nodded. I knew.

  I grabbed her hands in mine. “I know this is sudden. And I know this wasn’t what you were expecting. It wasn’t what I was expecting either. But I’m happy, Gretch. Probably for the first time since Mother died. Please be happy for me.”

  Gretch finally picked her mouth off of the floor, snapping it shut at last. This was a far cry from making sure I wore a sweater when it was cold, or ate my vegetables. This was real, grow-up stuff, decisions I’d make that she’d have to let me make, even if they were mistakes. It wasn’t an easy pill to swallow, but she did her best to choke it down. She nodded and straightened her spine. “I’ll set two more places at the table,” she announced before she turned back to the stove. Before I could step away, she turned back and hugged me fiercely. I could hear her suck back a sniffle. I held her for a moment before she turned back to her task, trying to compose herself like a professional.

  I took Devlin’s hand in mine and we headed for Father’s study. I knocked twice, to which he replied, “Come in.” I took a deep breath before I swung open the door.

  Father sat at his desk, poring over paperwork, burning the midnight oil as always. His eyes met mine as I entered the room. “So nice of you to return home,” he said. He spotted Devlin behind me. “And you’ve brought an unannounced guest. How thoughtful.”

  I pulled Devlin into the room and he shut the door behind him.

  “How was your trip with Lucy? Crisis averted?”

  I nodded before I cleared my throat. “It was good. Relaxing. We needed it, I think.”

  “Yes, apparently being handed the wedding of your dreams can be quite taxing,” he remarked.

  I gulped hard. I knew he’d never understand. “I think she’ll be okay from here on out.”

  He leaned back in his chair as he clasped one hand on top of the other. “And how about you? Ready to go back to work tomorrow?”

  I nodded. “Yes.”

  “Good,” he said. His cool gaze slid over to inspect Devlin. “So do I get to hear why you’ve brought this man back into my house, Coralie? Or am I supposed to guess?”

  I gulped again. “No. You don’t have to guess. I, um, actually have something to tell you.” I sat in the chair opposite his desk before I wilted right to the ground. I had never been so scared. I was sure he’d hear my knees knocking. Devlin stood behind me for moral support, but wouldn’t sit. I knew he would wait for an invitation. The longer Father glared at me, the more certain I was that it would never come. “Devlin went to Vegas with us. Lik
e I told you before, we were old friends,” I started, though the lie tasted like a tarnished penny in my mouth. My Father said nothing as he waited. “Anyway, um… we just… we just kind of reconnected, you know? It was… it was… sort of a whirlwind kind of a thing.” Boy was it ever. “Anyway, um… we realized that we had feelings for each other.” I gulped again. “We decided to take our relationship to the next level.”

  Father’s gaze never wavered. He sat stone stiff, like a statue. “Meaning?”

  I found myself hiding my rings with my right hand. “Meaning we’re in love.”

  Father scoffed. “Love? Please. You can’t fall in love in a week.”

  “You did,” I reminded. “It was love at first sight, or so you keep telling me.”

  Father’s face drew into a thunderous scowl. “You are not going to compare some week in Las Vegas to your mother and me.”

  “Why not? Love is love. Isn’t that what you always wanted for me?”

  “And what about Oliver?” Father countered. “Where does he fit into this scenario?”

  “He doesn’t,” I answered. “I don’t love him, Father. And he doesn’t love me.”

  “Really? You’ve asked him and that’s what he’s told you?”

  I sighed. “He doesn’t need to tell me, Father. He showed me, with his actions. It was never going to work.”

  “Please,” Father scoffed as he rolled around the desk. “You build a relationship one brick at a time, like a home or a business, or a family,” he added. He turned to Devlin. “Are you even French?”

  “No sir,” Devlin answered. “Irish on my mother’s side. My dad was part Scottish and part Dutch. I’m what you might call a mutt.”

  “Indeed,” Father sneered. “Now if you’ll excuse us, I’d like to talk to my daughter alone.”

  “No, sir,” he said softly, but firmly.

  “Pardon me?”

  “I said, no, sir,” Devlin repeated. “Whatever you say to her, you can say to me.”

  I saw steam rise from Father’s ears. “And what gives you the right to say such things to me?”

  “The state of Nevada, sir. Coralie is my wife.”

  Father’s mouth dropped open as his eyes shot to me. “What did he just say?”

  My voice came out in a squeak. “He said that I am his wife. We got married on Friday.”

  “Coralie Caressa Cabot!” he thundered at once. “What the bloody hell did you do?”

  I became an axe murderer, Dad. I pie nuns in the face. Oh, and by the way, I now kick puppies for fun. “I fell in love and I got married. Yes, it happened in a week, but it did happen. It’s not the end of the world.”

  “You’ll get it annulled,” he announced before rolling back over to his phone. “I’ll call Sid,” he said, referring to our lawyer. “We’ll get you out of it.”

  “I don’t want out of it, Dad,” I said, using the softer touch, to try to appeal to him. “This is what I want. And this is what is happening. And if you don’t like it, I can move out tonight.”

  “How can he get your money if you move out tonight?” Father sneered.

  “I don’t want her money, sir,” Devlin tried to assure, but Father didn’t believe him.

  “Of course you do. Look at you. You look like a goddamned gigolo!”

  I sucked back a breath before stealing a glance at Devlin, who held his tongue with such effort I though he might break his jaw. I stood beside him and took his hand into mine. The glint of my wedding rings finally caught my father’s eye. “I want you to apologize to my husband.”

  “I’m not going to apologize to your husband!” he thundered. “You aren’t married. I don’t care what any of that paperwork says. You marry in a church, Coralie! Around your family!”

  “You would never agree to that.”

  “What does that tell you?!”

  Tears burned the back of my eyes. “It tells me that you’re a bitter old man who is holding on to the past, to all these hopes and dreams that you had with Mother. But Mother is gone. And I’m here. And I deserve my own life.”

  Gretchen knocked once before she entered, rolling in a tray of Father’s favorite bourbon. She apparently knew he’d need it.

  “Leave us!” he barked at her, but she ignored him as always. She rolled the tray over to his desk and poured him a glass before she complied with his angry order.

  “I suppose she knows?”

  “Yes,” I said. “I told her first.”

  “I see. Well, I suppose now I know where your priorities lie.” He tossed back the tumbler of alcohol. “Who else knows?”

  “Lucy and Gus,” I said. “They stood up for me at the wedding.”

  Father wheeled around and tossed the empty crystal glass into the fireplace behind him, where it crashed against all the embers from the last fire. “Leave me,” he muttered. We didn’t move an inch, so he turned to face us. “Go!”

  Devlin pulled me from the study and walked me back to my private bungalow. I wasn’t even sure I could stay there, but I didn’t want to go back to Devlin’s bachelor pad either. I decided we’d stay at the estate until Father called the law and had us physically removed.

  After hours had passed and no such thing had happened, I finally started to relax, even though I was still emotionally devastated by our confrontation.

  “What if he never forgives me?” I said as I cuddled next to Devlin in my bed. We hadn’t made love. We couldn’t make love. Every time I closed my eyes I saw my father’s face, and it ripped open the wound once more.

  “He’ll forgive you,” Devlin promised. “The only reason he’s so angry is because he’s worried about you. Think about it. If you had a daughter who waltzed in and told you she married a total stranger, you’d have been upset, too.”

  “I’d like to think I would trust her to make her own choices.”

  “Spoken like a child instead of a parent,” he murmured as he stroked my hair. “It’s his job to protect you. That’s not something that just goes away when you turn eighteen.”

  “So what do we do?”

  “We try again,” he said softly. “Eventually he’ll come to terms with it.”

  “And if he doesn’t?”

  His eyes met mine. “Then we have each other. And I’m not going anywhere, Coralie.” He sealed his promise with a kiss.

  I didn’t fall asleep until somewhere around dawn, so I was completely wrecked by the time my alarm went off at seven in the morning. Devlin roused as well. He wanted to go to the agency and resign in person, which he felt he owed to the owner, who had been taking care of him for the past three years.

  He drove me to the store, where he dropped me off with a kiss and a promise that everything was going to work out exactly like it was supposed to. I wasn’t so sure, especially when I headed upstairs to my office. More roses filled my office, complements of my new husband, and Simon practically came unglued the minute I walked in the door.

  “You got married?!” he squealed before he threw his arms around me. “I didn’t even know you were dating anyone other than Oliver.”

  “It was sort of a whirlwind thing,” I dismissed. “Is Oliver in?”

  “Not yet. I think he went to your house to meet with your Father. I’m sure he’ll track you down the minute he comes in, though.”

  “I’m sure,” I grumbled.

  It was a little after noon when Oliver finally entered my office, closing the door behind him and locking it so we wouldn’t be disturbed. “I hear congratulations are in order,” he said as he strolled casually to one of the chairs across from my desk. He sat, crossed his leg over the other and waited.

  “Yes,” I said.

  “You do realize that you have devastated your father. He’s beside himself. We ended up calling his doctor to prescribe a sedative for him.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” I said, mumbling like I had a mouthful of marbles. “I didn’t do it to hurt him.”

  “Then why did you do it?” he asked.

 
; “Because I fell in love.”

  “Bullshit,” he scoffed. “You ran off to Vegas in a huff because you didn’t get your way. You’re punishing us, admit it.”

  “How can I be punishing you, Oliver? It’s not like you care.”

  His eyes hardened as he glared at me. “How the fuck do you know what I feel, CC?”

  “I asked. Repeatedly. Remember? Every single time I brought up anything about our relationship you’d roll your eyes like you were being so put upon. Well, congratulations. I’m someone else’s problem now.”

  He glanced around at all the flowers. “Yes, I see. And it appears he really wants everyone to know it.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Sending all these flowers. Making sure everyone knew you were married. It’s the talk of the whole goddamned store. He might as well have hiked his leg and pissed all over everything to mark you as his property.”

  “Well, I kind of am. I’m his wife, not some on-again, off-again girlfriend used to fill up lonely evenings when no one else is available.”

  Oliver shot up out of his chair, sending it crashing to the floor. I shrank back as he came around my desk, where he grabbed me by both arms and yanked me up to my feet. “You think you know me. You don’t know anything, Coralie.” Before I knew what was happening, his mouth crashed down on mine and he shoved his tongue between my lips as I gasped in surprise. I struggled against him but he pushed me down onto my desk, sending all of the flowers and equipment onto the floor with a crash. “This was what you wanted?” he growled as he landed on top of me. “Fine.”

  He kissed me again, and I could feel him harden against my leg as I struggled against him. “Oliver, no!”

  “You ruined everything!” he growled as his hands pawed at my body. “I was going to marry you. I was going to become CEO. We were going to do it all together!”

  “Oliver, stop!”

  “I’m not going to let you go. You hear me? I’m going to be smart enough for the two of us. And when that pretty boy grows bored of you, and he will, and you run back home to Daddy, and you will, I’ll be the bigger man and take you back. Because that’s the way it’s supposed to be. You’re mine, CC! Accept it!”