Contract Bride

by Kat Cantrell

  Ellie Gold had never punched anyone before, but she vowed to end that lifelong streak right now.

  Wearing the only cocktail dress she owned, simple and black, with a matching black lace overlay, and spiky heels that made her arches ache, she stepped into the private dining room on the top floor of the historic Hay-Adams Hotel named, interestingly enough, the Top of the Hay.

  For a second the anger choking her brain cleared. Her breath hitched as her gaze wandered around the sparkling space with the fancy chandeliers and cream-colored walls. Only the business people milling around with death grips on their drinks, all looking awkward and out of place in their navy suits, threatened to ruin the fairy-tale moment.

  French doors lined the outer walls and vaulted skylights soared above her. She stretched up on tiptoe to peek around more than one set of shoulders to the stunning view of the White House below.

  Her balance faltered and she might have landed headfirst in a nearby tray of champagne glasses but fingers wrapped around her elbow and steadied her. She glanced up to say thank-you and saw a face…his face.

  Derrick Jameson, the oldest son of a vast empire that included everything from commercial real estate in Washington, DC, to a prize-winning horse farm in the Virginia countryside. The guy who excelled at making her life miserable.

  Just seeing him made her forget how to spell. She wasn’t all that sure she could recite the alphabet if pressed, either. She wanted to blame the fury flowing through her, but even she had to admit that might not be the real reason for her hottie-induced speech lapse.

  She’d researched Derrick before tonight, reading online in stories that droned on about his money and dating life. But seeing him up close? No one had prepared her for that.

  The black hair and striking light brown eyes. She’d read about his family background and picked up on the subtle hint of Japanese heritage passed on from his maternal grandmother. The firm chin. Those shoulders.

  The features combined into a potent package of tall, dark and delicious. He gave off a confident vibe. In control and assessing. But his unspoken determination to destroy her reputation and rip her family apart marred her appreciation of his pretty face.

  “Ms. Gold.” He nodded and threw in a little smile for a group of people walking past him. “I didn’t expect to see you at a business function.”

  Her voice came back to her in a rush. So did the rage swirling in her gut. “Interesting tactic.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “That charming thing you’re doing?” She leaned in closer and dropped her voice to a whisper, ignoring how good he smelled. “I’m not buying it.”

  He continued to hold her arm. Not in a tight grip. No, his thumb brushed back and forth over her bare skin in a gentle caress, as if trying to soothe her. The guy seemed oblivious to the fact that he was the one causing her stress. Well, him and everyone and everything else in her life.

  He might not know it but she hovered right on the edge and his decisions kept shoving her closer to the abyss. Her baby brother, Noah, was in a strange emotional downward spiral, all thanks to Derrick and his claims about Noah stealing from him.

  She’d practically raised Noah after their parents died in a car crash. He wasn’t easy, but he wasn’t a thief. Her brother had been argumentative and frustrated back then, much more so than other kids. She’d dragged him to a specialist, who diagnosed him with oppositional defiant disorder, something she’d never even heard of before that moment.

  She’d scraped together the money for the therapies not covered by insurance. But even now, at times of stress or when he felt cornered, the flashes of anger would come back and he’d buck authority. Something about Derrick had Noah’s negative behavior kicking to the surface again.

  The worst part was that Noah didn’t even see it. She did. She’d watched him make bad choices as a kid, tried to help him to the point where she’d sacrificed her personal life to spend all of her extra time with him. The idea that his issues were resurging now, at twenty, deflated her.

  She’d deal with that later. Right now she needed to handle Derrick.

  “This is serious.” Serious enough for her to track him down through a series of calls to his office.

  “Is it?” Amusement filled his voice as he handed her his glass of champagne.

  She couldn’t think of anything more annoying than that welcoming lilt to his voice. The whole fake-charming scene threw her off. She didn’t realize he had shifted and moved them toward the elevators until she looked around the room and saw the space between them and the rest of the party.

  She didn’t know if this was a rich guy’s way of escorting her out of the building or something else. Either way, she was not ready to be dismissed. There was too much at stake for her to give up now. “Mr. Jameson, I—”

  “Derrick.”

  She’d investigated Derrick’s business when her baby brother got a job there seven months ago. At first, Noah had talked about Derrick in a nonstop cycle of hero worship. His enthusiasm had rubbed off on her. She’d clicked on every photo of him. Let her mind wander, tried to imagine what it might be like to see that shockingly handsome face close up.

  Now she knew.

  She worked in human resources up until six weeks ago. She hadn’t reached management level yet. The Jameson family was the equivalent of DC royalty. She didn’t move in their world. She also possessed a general distrust of people who rolled around in that kind of money. But Noah had been impressed. And, up until that point in his life, almost nothing had impressed her brilliant but moody brother.

  In theory, Derrick was more mature and reasonable than her brother. But thanks to this gossip site silliness she wasn’t totally convinced that was true.

  “The DC Insider posted a note about us.” The comment rolled out of her mouth as if it made any sense. She still couldn’t believe she had to confront him about this.

  For a second Derrick stared at her, not saying a word, then he nodded. “I know.”

  Words backed up in her brain until she finally pushed them out. “What kind of response is that?”

  “My name is in the social column because I allowed it to be there.”

  Good grief. “Are you kidding?”

  He frowned at her. “No.”

  “I’m thinking people have let you get away with nonsense for far too long.” When he started to pipe in, she talked right over him. “I mean, really. Do you know how condescending you sound?”

  This time he studied her. She could feel him assessing and reordering his strategy as they talked.

  “I called you lovely in that Insider quote, if that helps,” he said.

  It took a second for her brain to catch up again. She silently blamed all the people in suits standing around, staring at them and whispering, but she worried his smooth tone might be the real issue with her concentration. “It doesn’t, and that’s not the point.”

  “Should I have used a different word?”

  His focus on vocabulary made her head pound. She shifted until she put her back to most of the room. Maybe not seeing the gawkers would help. “Stop talking.”

  He made a sound that came close to a growl. “People don’t usually speak to me that way.”

  “Which is probably part of the problem here.” She’d never worked in a classroom but her mother had. Ellie called up that disappointed-fifth-grade-teacher tone without even trying. “Okay, so you’re admitting you planted the article?”

  “Of course.”

  The champagne sloshed over the side of her glass. “The one about me?”

  Because that was the point. She came there to pry the truth out of him about the planted story, maybe put him on the defensive. He ruined her plans by admitting to spreading the gossip, like it was no big deal.

  He slipped the flute out of her fingers and put it on the small table behind him. “Technicall
y, the story is about me.”

  She inhaled, trying to bring some air into her lungs and refresh her brain cells. She refused to get lost in his words or have a “him” versus “them” fight because she had the very clear sense confusing wordplay was one of the ways he won arguments. “Okay, why do it?”

  “To change the public conversation from your brother’s false allegations while I figure out what he did with the money that is now missing from my business accounts.” Derrick answered without blinking, following their conversation with ease as it bounced around.

  She decided to ignore the money part for now. “But you named me as your…well, I guess as the woman you’re dating?”

  “That’s right.”

  She had no idea what to think about that nonchalant response. “We don’t even know each other. Why would you think that’s okay?”

  “My business is the most important thing to me.”

  She didn’t try to hide her wince at his sudden stern tone. “My brother is the most important thing to me.”

  “Wrong answer, Ellie.”

  Was he really making a tsking sound? “What is wrong with you?”

  “I have two brothers, both adults,” Derrick explained with all the emotion of someone reading a recipe. “They take care of themselves. I take care of me and the business.”

  “That’s cold…bloodless.”

  He actually smiled. “Is it possible you’re the one with the confused priorities?”

  She swallowed a gasp, along with a bit of her anger and possibly some of her dignity. The whole conversation was ridiculous but she could not tear herself away from him…not yet.

  “Let me get this straight. A perpetual bachelor and notorious ladies’ man who is being trolled on the internet by my little brother in his antibusiness videos is giving me advice on interpersonal relationships?” She wanted to sigh, throw things. “Listen, Mr. Jameson.”

  “It’s still Derrick.”

  The way he stayed calm made her temper spike even more. The heat rose inside her and flooded her cheeks with every controlled word he uttered. She refused to believe the sudden need for a fan had anything to do with his perfect face or that sexy smile. Not that she found either all that appealing. “Do not mention my name to anyone ever again.”

  “Now, Ellie.” His eyes narrowed. “You don’t think that’s maybe—just a little—extreme.”

  Apparently she was not the only one familiar with the teacher tone. He threw it out there and nailed her with it. As if she needed another reason to dislike him. “Leave my brother alone.”

  “When your brother comes clean and then backs off those videos, I will.”

  “You’re a grown-up.”

  “So is he.” Derrick leaned in close enough for his warm breath to brush her cheek. “My suggestion to you is that you start treating him like one.”

  “I’m not kidding around.”

  His eyes traveled over her face, lingering on her mouth. “I can see that.”

  She fought off the tremor moving through her. “Leave me out of your games.”

  Before he could say anything else or touch her again, she slipped around him and through the crowd of people heading toward them. Kept going until she got on the elevator and watched the doors close on his smiling face. Getting her breathing to return to normal and the image of his face to disappear from her mind took longer.

  * * *

  An hour later Ellie poured a glass of red wine as she kicked off her stupid heels. Thanks to a bout of storming and muttering, she’d wasted most of her energy and hadn’t made it to her apartment. She needed to vent and that meant taking the Metro to her best friend’s condo instead.

  Vanessa McAllister’s one-bedroom place was small but cozy. Light bounced off the bright yellow walls. During the day, the sun beamed in from the large window at the far end of the living room.

  A steady beat of background conversation came from the television. Ellie had no idea what show was on and didn’t care. Vanessa didn’t appear to, either.

  Of course, very little ruffled her. Between her navy career father and her French mother, Vanessa had been all over the world. She spoke a ridiculous number of languages that served her well in her job at the museum.

  Ellie trusted Vanessa with any secret. They’d met in college and had been best friends ever since. They supported and cheered for each other. And right now, Vanessa was frowning.

  She sat on the stool at her kitchen’s breakfast bar. She sipped from her almost-empty glass of red wine as she scowled at the laptop screen in front of her. “Tell me again what happened at that fancy cocktail party.”

  The somewhat distant tone. That wasn’t good.

  Ellie was almost afraid to answer. She did, anyway. “I met Derrick Jameson and told him to back off.”

  The explanation sounded good. So strong. Just what Ellie wanted to be. After years of racing around, trying to keep every ball in the air and failing most of the time, Ellie wanted to be in control of her life and not running behind it, trying to catch up.

  Vanessa tapped on the keyboard. “Uh-huh.”

  Yeah, not good. “What does that response mean?”

  “Did you happen to see a photographer while you were there?” Vanessa sat straighter and waved her hand in the air. “Forget it. I’ll just go ahead and read it to you before you explode.”

  Ellie dropped the paper napkin she was twisting in her fingers. “Wait, read what?”

  “The latest from that Insider site.”

  “No.” Ellie’s stomach fell. She could have sworn it hit the floor.

  “‘Derrick Jameson and Ellie Gold made an official appearance together at the swanky Hay-Adams Hotel tonight. No word on whether they got a room, but they did leave the business party one right after the other, making more than one partygoer wonder if Derrick sprang for the presidential suite…’”

  Silence screamed through the room. Ellie could feel it hammering in her head as it rumbled through her.

  “Okay.” Vanessa cleared her throat. “So, that happened.”

  “It did not happen.” Ellie reached over and turned the laptop to face her. “We argued. We fought.”

  She started tapping random keys. Anything to make that now familiar Insider website disappear.

  “Wait, go back. There’s a photo.” Vanessa swatted Ellie’s hand away then leaned in and pointed at the screen. “Why does it look like you’re hanging on his arm?”

  As if Ellie could deny it. The evidence, even though it didn’t show the whole story, was right there. Her pressing against him, looking up at him. Anyone seeing this would believe they were having an intimate chat.

  “That’s not… I was just…” The words clogged her throat in the rush to get them out. “I’m going to kill him.”

  Vanessa winced. “You can’t think that he—”

  “Of course he planted this. I’m his PR plan.” And he wasn’t even trying to hide it. He’d been very clear. She just hadn’t realized he’d turned it on full-time.

  Vanessa made a humming sound. “He really is cute.”

  “Don’t.”

  “But clearly a gigantic ass.” Vanessa’s voice sounded harsher that time.

  “Better.” But still not good enough. Ellie wanted to forget all about his smug face.

  “Hating him doesn’t fix the Noah situation,” Va­nessa said, being far too reasonable for the moment.

  “Or help with my income issue or get my life under control. Yeah, I know.”

  Vanessa’s shoulders fell as she sighed. “I can give you money, or move in here with me and don’t pay rent for a few months. Give yourself a financial break.”

  “I can’t.”

  “You can.” Vanessa made a grumbling sound as she said something under her breath that wasn’t quite clear. “I’m thinking about stuffing twent
ies into your purse while you’re not looking.”

  With that, Ellie felt some of the Derrick-related anger drain away. She reached over and gave her friend’s arm a quick squeeze. “You’re awesome and I love you, but this is bigger than a short-term money problem. It’s like everything is spinning and I can’t make it stop.” Even now her life choices ran through her head as she questioned each one. “I still can’t believe I got fired for something that wasn’t my fault.”

  “So, take it back.” Vanessa grabbed the bottle and refilled her glass. “Control, I mean. Start with one thing. You take a small piece, conquer that and then move on.”

  The advice rolled around in Ellie’s head until it took hold. She knew exactly which battle to wage first. “Right. Derrick Jameson.”

  “Um, no. I was thinking more like you could get a temp job and rebuild.” Vanessa topped off Ellie’s glass. “A guy like Jameson is not easily managed. Forget him. Handle what you need first.”

  The suggestion made sense but Ellie couldn’t survive that way. She’d spent so much of her life fixing things. First, for her father, who had one pipe dream after another, and her mother, who had fought to keep them together as a family. Then for her brother. She didn’t have the energy left to tackle straightening out her life, but she would. Later. Once she’d dealt with Derrick and Noah was back on track. “I have to handle these other pieces first.”

  Vanessa shook her head. “Ellie, you can’t fix everything.”

  “I can fix this. If Derrick Jameson wants a battle, he’s going to get one.”

  Copyright © 2018 by HelenKay Dimon

  ISBN-13: 9781488091773

  Contract Bride

  Copyright © 2018 by Kat Cantrell

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