“You know Charming Pharmaceuticals?”
She nods.
“My father owns it. My sisters are the CFO and president of operations, respectively, but I’ll inherit it when Dad retires.”
She looks at me, and I can see the questions in her eyes. “And that’s coming soon, isn’t it?”
I glance at her and nod. “Yeah. Mama wants him to retire. The company is doing well, and truthfully, he would have retired years ago, if he had his way.”
“Why didn’t he?”
“Because the heir apparent didn’t want to be the heir apparent.” I give a quick, guilty grin and shrug. “I dunno, running a corporation has never been my life’s goal. I guess I’ve always enjoyed doing my own thing.”
“So why are you going? If you don’t want this.”
“Because I’m Samul Charming, Celeste. I don’t have a choice.”
She frowns, and I reach over, squeezing her knee softly. “So you’re going to meet the Board.”
Celeste reaches down and wraps my fingers with her own, and listens to me as I drive and tell her about the people we’re going to see.
The dinner party is exactly what I expect. It’s huge, a good three hundred people milling about in the lavishly decorated hall. Charming Pharm has rented a banquet hall at the aquarium, and I nod at a few familiar faces as I tuck Celeste’s hand into the crook of my elbow and pull her into the lion’s den.
We find Wolf first, leaning against the bar with a girl that’s tall and gorgeous. She’s watching him with wide eyes that seem amused and a little bit afraid, and she brightens just a little when I approach.
“Hey, Scar,” I murmur, leaning in and kissing her cheek. “You keeping out of trouble?”
“This one is trying to drag me into it.”
“Yeah, well. He’s a bastard, and you’re smart.”
She laughs and then sends a warm smile at Celeste. “I’m Scarlet Robins. I grew up with these two.”
Celeste smiles, bright and easy, like she didn’t just meet the only daughter of an IT empire. “Celeste Queen. I’m with him.”
“Oh, honey. You have any idea what you’re walking into?” Scar eyes me briefly and a grin quirks her lips. “You don’t. C’mon, I’ll give you the cheat sheet before he throws you to the wolves.”
Wolf makes a small sound of amusement and Scarlet flashes a look at him before tugging Celeste away, whispering fast and low in her ear.
“That is going to backfire,” Wolf says, watching them. I nod at the bartender, who’s absently tapping his drink, and then follow his gaze.
I’m not the only one. Scarlet has a way of drawing attention, and with Celeste at her side, they’re all anyone is watching.
“Where’s her keeper?”
“He’s her fiancé,” Wolf corrects, just as quietly calm as always. “He’s here somewhere.”
I give him a skeptical look and he shrugs.
“I know what I’m doing, Charm.”
The thing is, I know he does. Wolf has never been anything but eyes wide open when it comes to the pretty IT genius. But having his eyes wide open isn’t gonna keep him from getting his heart broken when she finally marries the guy she’s been dating since we were in high school.
“Be careful, brother,” I murmur. He flashes me a smile and watches as our girls work their way through the room, listening to Scar’s high, sharp laugh and Celeste’s easy smile as they go.
“You seen your mother?”
“No. We just got here.”
“Which means,” a grumpy voice says from behind me. “You’re late, and she’s pissed.”
“I’m here, aren’t I?”
Rebecca glares at me, pushing her glasses up her nose. She’s in a pale green sheath that brings out the color of her eyes, even behind the glasses, and she looks like the successful business woman I know she is. “Can’t always do the minimum, brother mine. Eventually someone is going to get grumpy that they’re picking up your slack.”
“You, Bek?”
She snorts, and shakes her head. “Rachel.”
I frown. My youngest sister has always had some pretty firm ideas about what I should be doing with my life.
The fact that she was so damn successful with hers made it annoying and difficult to ignore.
“Did either of you bring a date?” Bek asks, eyeing us now. “Mama is gonna have a fit if you didn’t.”
“I did!” Wolf sounds altogether too pleased with himself, and I shoot him a quick raised eyebrow. He shrugs. “She’s here. Mama doesn't care if I’m with someone I’ll see again.”
Bek looks at me, and raises an eyebrow. “How ‘bout you, Sammy? You bring someone for Mama to pick over?”
I glance over at where Celeste and Scarlet are laughing, standing by the wall of windows. Beyond them, a sea of fish and a small whale swim on, and they’re lovely. I can hear people observing them, and even hear Celeste’s high pitched fascination.
It’s just a fish, a pretty display that pales in the face of her beauty.
“Yeah, Bek. I brought her.”
She eyes me as I step away from them, and I hear Wolf talking to her, drawing her back to his side while I cross the room and slide an arm around Celeste’s waist.
She twists her head up and smiles at me, sugar sweet and happy as she leans into me, still listening to Scarlet telling a story about us in school. “That’s about enough of that from you, Scar,” I interrupt gently. “I need to steal her away. Mama wants to meet her.”
Scarlet nods, and flaps a hand at us. “Go, but bring this one back, Charm. I like her.”
I glance down at the girl I don’t get to keep and let a tiny smile twist my lips. “I do too.”
“Samul.”
I stiffen and Celeste’s eyes dart up, searching mine. Questioning.
I turn and offer Bishop Dartmoor a tight smile. “Bishop.”
“We missed you at the last meeting.”
“And yet I'm very sure my sisters were able to function without my presence,” I say easily.
His eyes narrow a little and then he seems to register Celeste. I want, ridiculously, to pull her away from him, to tuck her somewhere where Dartmoor won't ever see her.
It's ridiculous and I can't. Celeste isn't mine and I have no right to protect her. I don't even know that she would want me to.
Yet, she offered to be here, almost insisted on it. She knew there would be people watching her.
"Would you like to meet my wife, Celeste? I'm sure she and the other ladies would love to get to know the girl who managed to catch Sam."
There's a barb in his words that I get. Dartmoor hasn't liked me since his wife tried to seduce me two years ago, and I—drunk and a little annoyed—rather publicly turned her down. Sometimes I wonder if it was his idea. Getting blackmail material on me wouldn't hurt him if I were controlling the company.
"I'm good," Celeste says, leaning into me, and some of the tension drains from me. "Samul. You were going to show me the beluga tank."
I glance at her and she's watching me, carefully, offering me an out. I squeeze her hand in mine and nod. "In a second, pet. I need to see my father first."
Her eyes go a little wide and startled, but she nods and gives Dartmoor a final smile before letting me tug her across the room to where Mama and Rachel are standing near a long, carefully decorated dining table.
My father is there, watching with big silent eyes, quietly surveying the room as a whole. He smiles when he sees me, a tight but warm thing. "Son. I wasn't sure you'd be here."
"Mama asked, Dad."
He laughs, and shrugs, tugging lightly on Mama to press a kiss into her hair. He's a bastard for sending her to do his dirty work, but the man always was smart. He knows I'd never refuse her anything, certainly not something as small as attending an unpleasant dinner.
"And who is this?" Mama almost coos, eyeing Celeste. Her eyes dart to mine, warm and approving, and Celeste seems to curve into me, a little nervous.
"M
ama, Dad, this is Celeste Queen. She works with me and—" I hesitate, glancing down at her. "I really like her."
Blue eyes dart up to mine, startled, before Mama is tugging her away from me. "And just how long as my son been hiding you from me, sweetheart? I love that dress. Do you want a drink? Let's get you a drink and you can tell me all about yourself. Sammy always forgets the important bits."
Celeste laughs, a little helpless, but relieved, and nods. "Yes, ma'am."
I watch as Mama leads her to the bar, ignoring everyone but the very pretty, very bewildered girl following her like a lost puppy.
"Did you warn her what your mother can be like?" Dad asks, following my gaze.
I shrug, and shake my head. "Didn't want to scare her off."
He laughs and sips his drink. "You like her a lot."
I tense. I'm not supposed to like her. "She's a nice kid, and she was free. I know she's not what you want for me."
"Sam, I want you to be happy. I want you to be happy with someone the way I was with your mother."
My heart twists at that because isn't that the dream—a woman who could meet me as an equal, someone smarter than me, that could make me happy and help me run a corporation.
It was a woman I wanted to spend a life with and who I could.
Problem is, the corporation was never something I wanted, and I needed more than pretty and smart and love.
Celeste’s eyes find mine across the room, quietly questioning, and I shake my head, just a little, enough that some of the tension eases from her and she happily returns her attention to my mother.
Fuck.
She's so goddamn perfect. And she fits here, right now. She fits into a world I hate, and makes it bearable.
"Not everyone can have what you and Mama did," I say, softly, and he watches me with concern. "Tell me about the company. She says things are changing?"
He frowns. "You don't want this."
"Nope. I never did. But it's my job, right? Time to quit running from that and be an adult."
"Charm," he sighs, and I reach for a glass of wine and catch Wolf's eye where he's watching from a few tables away. My best friend always has my back, even here.
Maybe especially here. I nod at Celeste and he nods once, moving to her side, and then I push her from my mind and listen to my father.
An hour later, I've been trotted before the last Board member, I've lost track of Celeste, and I'm not nearly drunk enough to handle another sharp smile and judgmental stare. Rachel has replaced Dad, which makes some sense. She president of operations and makes sure the company runs smoothly every day.
She's the one who should have had the damn company from the start. She actually wants it.
Unfortunately, tradition and something as fucking ridiculous as order of birth means I get the president's seat and she's my right hand.
At least I won't be alone running this ship. I've got my sisters.
"You need a minute?" she asks, and I nod once, desperate to get some air and some space. If I see one more fake fucking smile, I'm going to rip my hair out or run screaming.
She nods at the door. "I'll cover you. Get the hell outta here."
I flash my sister a smile and duck away, not bothering to try to talk her out of it. I snag a bottle of whiskey from the bar and push out of the noisy banquet hall, and then wander.
In the day, the aquarium is gorgeous. It's soothing and tranquil, even with the hundreds of visitors who pour through the doors every day. I love to come here and find a dark, quiet corner and just watch the peaceful fish swimming.
But at night, the aquarium is magical. It's all shadows and shifting light, the sleepy pulse of the ocean life, and the slow swish of them floating by. It feels like another world and I want to revel in it.
Maybe it’s because it feels like my world. It feels decadent and illicit, hidden and magical and so damn breathtaking—it reminds me of the Kingdom, of everything we offer there, and the hushed beauty of it all.
It’s easy to see the ugly side of it, but the beauty can't be denied.
It's something hidden. Something I can't share.
Charming Pharmaceuticals is a family company. I'll take over, because that's been the plan since I was born, but no one wants a president who likes to beat up pretty little girls on the weekends, who would rather keep a sex club running than talk about the bottom line.
I drop to the ground, sitting and watching the beluga whales playing sleepily on the other side of the glass, and wonder how the fuck I got here.
I'd ignored my inheritance for so long I'd begun to let myself believe that everyone had ignored it too, that I'd be able to avoid it completely.
And that was just fucking stupid.
Six months—Dad was stepping down in six fucking months. I had no idea how to give up the life I loved, but I was out of time and I'd always been out of options.
The bitch of it was that I couldn't even be pissed. I got how hard this was for dad, how much he hated forcing this on me. I got how much my sisters wanted to continue things as they were.
"Fucking stupid traditions," I huffed and twisted open the whiskey, drinking from the bottle. On the other side of the glass, the whales chased bubbles, blissful and unaware of my existential crisis.
"It'd be easier," I muttered, "if they weren't so damn good at their job. Or if I didn't like mine."
“Talking to yourself, Charm?”
I tense, and look at Celeste. She’s in the shadows, lingering in a way that tells me she’ll go if I say the word. I say go and she’ll retreat.
I almost do. For a second, I stare at her and wonder why the fuck she’s here, why any of us are.
Then she gives me that smile that I really love—the one that is as much a tease as it is a promise, an offer made. There is no insistence there. Just a question posed.
It’s because of that, I reach for her, extend a hand in a silent offer, and she smiles, a little huff of noise, before she moves toward me.
She sits carefully at my side, tucking her skirt under her thighs, and gives me a curious look. "Hiding?"
"Yep."
She laughs. "They're very...."
"Yep. Very."
That gets a warm look, and she leans into my shoulder. "So why are you here?"
"Don't have a lot of choice. Family obligations. There's strings that come with being a Charming."
"Do you really think the Board would force you to run the company if you didn't want to?"
"I think they are." I answer, quietly. "And it's not so much forcing as much as these are the things they expect from their children, and I love them enough to give it to them." I shrug. "My parents are good people. They worked like hell to build Charming Pharm. I'm not going to walk away from it just because being a Fortune 500 president wasn't in my life plan."
She hums in acknowledgment and we watch the whales, and I sip the whiskey as she thinks.
Finally, she says, "What about you?"
I glance at her. "What about me?"
"What makes you happy?"
I laugh. "This has never been about what makes me happy, sweetheart. And I am. Happy. That's why we're doing this ridiculous audition, so that in six months, when I settle down as president of Charming Pharm, I do it with a girl who understands what I need, and can give me that."
"A girl you don't know and don't care about."
Her voice is tight and almost angry, and I let my head fall to the side to stare at her.
I frown.
"Celeste?"
"Drop it, Charm," she says, and I study her for a moment.
She's staring away, her face set and cold, her whole body tight and angry.
Whatever the hell I did, I pissed her off.
And that just won't do.
With one finger under her jaw, I twist her head to meet her eyes. "What's your safeword, pet?"
Her eyes go very wide and she licks her lips. "Charm, not—"
"Safe out or shut up." I say and for a moment, I see the
indecision in her eyes, and then her gaze drops and she murmurs. "Yes, sir."
"Safeword, pet?"
"Midnight."
"Good girl."
I feel the soft tremor of relief go through her, and then I yank her up and into my lap. I kiss her, and it's hard and demanding, a fierce claim. She whimpers against my lips as I shove my tongue into her mouth. There's no finesse here, no skill or seduction. This is just me taking, demanding what I need from her, and her giving it up, sighing prettily as I slide my tongue against hers. It's hard and hungry, and it's just what I need, her mouth pliant on mine, her body soft and mouldable atop my thighs.
It eases some of the tension in me, and I nip her lip, pouty and delectable when I pull away.
Celeste looks fucking gorgeous, swaying on my lap, her breath catching in her throat, eyes dazed and hungry.
"Charm," she whispers.
"You wanna know what would make me happy, right here and now, sweetheart?"
She bites her lip. "What?"
I wrap her ponytail around my hand and use it to tug her head back, exposing the long sweet arch of her throat, drag my teeth over it and bite down, sucking just hard enough that she whines in her throat and wiggles, grinding down against me.
"You, coming for me, right here," I whisper, and she gasps, this noise that is almost a sob. I kiss the curve of her shoulder and slip my hand down, between us.
Her eyes are wide and almost scared, but so damn excited it steals my breath when I slip my hand under her skirt.
She reaches for her shoulder, twists something there, and the damn dress seems to shiver before it falls, revealing a tiny black lace bra pushing pale tits up and cupping them in a fucking mouthwatering display. My hand, on her thigh, freezes for a moment, and then I groan and reach for her.
I take her nipple in my mouth as I thrust into her. There's no tease to it, no foreplay at all, just my fingers, sliding deep, fucking into her warmth as I nip at her pink nipple and suck hard, and she moans, her head bent to bury the noise in my hair.
I pull off just long enough to rasp. "You can come for me, but you better be fucking quiet, pet."
And then I take her back into my mouth and I squeeze her hip with my free hand until she gets the idea and her hips shift, and she's fucking herself on my fingers, whimpers lost in my hair every time she bumps her clit against the heel of my hand and I grind in.
Wicked Charming (Wicked Ever After Book 1) Page 5