Destiny and the Devil, page 13
“I don’t give a fuck about the revenue,” my father says quietly. “All I care about is the man my son is becoming. And with everything that has happened lately—I have no idea who you are.”
Wait. What’s going on? Is this a personal thing? “Father, I know that my private life has impacted the business...”
“No shit,” he says, reaching into his desk for a bottle of scotch, and pouring himself a glass. He rubs his hand over his eyes in frustration. “Ash, this hot sauce-in-the-condom scandal has been the only thing anyone can talk about for months. We ran the numbers, and know that it’s costing our company billions in revenue. Do you hear me, Ash? Not millions. Billions. Globally.”
Oh, fuck. I didn’t realize the negative effects of my actions had any impact outside America. I didn’t realize I was hurting the rest of the company, too.
“That—that can’t be possible,” I respond hesitantly. “There are so many other challenging global events that could be impacting revenue. Supply-chain issues, recession—that’s a huge number to attribute only to—”
“Stop. Stop trying to shift blame, son. It’s you. We did the research. It’s you.”
I find myself gulping slowly. So slowly that a lump of saliva gets stuck in my throat, and I feel like I’m choking on my own tongue. This is worse than I could have imagined... I’m totally fucked.
“Our high-end supermarkets are suffering the most,” Father says. “Discerning clientele are very conscious about the companies they support. They want the best organic, non-GMO produce, but they also want to deal with clean companies with good leadership. They don’t want to shop at companies run by people in the middle of sex scandals. Your careless playboy image is hurting us badly.”
“I am so sorry, Father.”
“And more important than all of that—you’re breaking your mother’s heart. She’s worrying about you, night and day. She feels guilty, responsible. Like we let you down. She fears we didn’t raise you right.”
I swallow another giant lump. “That’s not true, Father.”
He shakes his head, clearly deeply disappointed in me. “Ash, I’m sorry. I will have to remove you from your position at the head of our American retail operation.”
“No!” I tell him, feeling like the rug has been pulled out from under me. Scratch that—I feel like a chasm has opened up in the earth, just below this rug, and I’m about to get sucked into a bottomless hole. “Please, Father. There must be something I can do.”
“We don’t want to force you to change your lifestyle, if gold-digging bimbos and hot sauce in condoms is what makes you happy—you do you. We just can’t have that idiocy at the reins of our company. And we can’t condone that behavior in our family. You’re out, Ash.”
“Father, no! That’s not me. You don’t understand what happened—”
“I would very much like to understand, but we have given you too many chances. You have been incredibly immature, and taken all our love and support for granted. You know how hard your brother Spruce works for the hospitals? You know how hard Adam works for the charities? You are pissing all their hard work away. And don’t get me started on your sweet little sister, and how you’ve made her business suffer.”
“Father, I never meant—”
“No. Shut up and listen. This is not some trailer park trash family where you can go around impregnating the whole town, and end up on Jerry Springer fighting over paternity. We are running a multinational corporation, my boy. A global, fucking empire. We gave you everything, and you acted like a little Hollywood starlet in need of rehab. Like Lindsey Lohan or Paris Hilton! I won’t insult Britney by comparing you to her. #FreeBritney. She had a father who took everything from her, and used her as a cash cow—meanwhile you have a father who gives you everything, no matter how you screw up. I’m telling you something, Ash. This ends today.”
“Father, what can I do to prove to you that I am not the person you think I am?” I ask. “Because you didn’t take the time to talk to me and learn the whole story. You just judged me. But the press got it wrong, and I am not that person. I do not go out into the world intending to hurt and humiliate women!”
“It will take time to recover from this, Ash,” my father says, sighing and taking another drink. “I’ll be relieving you of your company duties, and cutting you off until you show some signs of maturity. Until you’re ready to settle down with a good woman, and stop your manwhoring ways... you can consider yourself thrown out of this family. We will no longer enable your childish, harmful behavior.”
I swallow. And then something clicks in my brain. Before I can even realize what I’m saying, the words begin to leave my mouth. I can’t stop them or pull them back in, and in a few seconds, I have signed my death wish.
“Actually, Father, I am settling down with a good woman. If you took the time to talk to me more often, you would know that. She works for the company, and she’s brilliant. We have been dating for some time now, and I was just getting ready to propose soon.”
My father frowns. “You never mentioned you were in a serious relationship.”
“Yes, well, you told me to sit down and shut up before even saying hello or asking how I am, or maybe you would have found out,” I inform him.
“So tell me about this girl,” my father says, taking a sip from his drink. “How do I know that she’s real, and not some bullshit that you just made up to keep from losing everything?”
I swallow. “Well, because she’s here, in fact. I was excited to introduce you to her, before you gave me this whole lecture. Her name is Ellie, and she’s upstairs right now.”
Chapter 8
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
What have I done? Why did I put my foot in my mouth like that?
Racing up the stairs of the small castle-like house, I head directly for Ellie’s room. I have to brief her on the new battle plan. I have to get her to agree to doing this with me—whatever the cost. It is impossible to imagine the scope of what I will lose if she doesn’t agree. It’s not just everything. It’s everything and a biscuit.
My father has already peppered me with questions about my super-serious secret girlfriend, and I’ve already told him a thousand lies about how Ellie and I have experienced a whirlwind romance of discreetly dating these past few months, and staying out of the public eye until we were absolutely sure. I told him about how we knew each other our whole lives, growing up together in Silver Mountain, but only recently became romantically involved.
He seemed impressed. Hopeful. Skeptical.
Fuck! What if Ellie doesn’t agree? If it were any other woman on earth, I wouldn’t be freaking out so hard. But she Hates me, with a capital H. This is probably the most offensive, disgusting thing I could ever ask her to do, and I bet she’ll go to HR immediately and file a harassment complaint against me. Or maybe she’ll go to the media. Maybe in a few hours, this relationship I lied about and then tried to fake will be the newest scandal about my name. It could be worse than the hot sauce thing.
I can see it now.
DESPERATE CHILI PEPPER CONDOM CEO ASH WINTERGREEN KIDNAPS SECRETARY TO EUROPE, GETS HER DRUNK, THEN BEGS HER TO PRETEND TO BE HIS GIRLFRIEND SO THAT DADDY WON’T DISOWN AND DISINHERIT HIM.
The ultimate nail in my coffin.
But I had to try.
Maybe, just maybe, if I can promise her something to make it worth her while...
I enter her room without knocking, and she is still passed out, dead asleep and hung over. I march over to the tall, heavy velvet curtains, and fling them open with one fierce, aggressive motion. I’m surprised that I don’t rip the fabric and curtain rod clean off the wall.
But there’s no time for being delicate here. My whole life and future are at stake. The jobs of all those employees in Silver Mountain depend on this. I need to secure Ellie’s help, or everything is forever fucked. I’ll end up homeless, on the street, living under a bridge or in a cardboard box.
I’ll end up eating in soup kitchen, sleeping in shelters and prisons, with an unwashed beard growing down to my bellybutton, home to forgotten pieces of food, mice, and birds. I’ll never manscape below the belt again—I will give up and grow a comfy little nest of pubic hair for lice and crabs, in my one pair of underwear, with holes in it. People will pass me in the street, and not recognize me, and throw money at me just to get away from my putrid smell.
Okay, maybe that’s an exaggeration. But it’s the way my father makes me feel.
I turn to look at my reflection in the mirror, imagining my dirty beard of defeat. Imagining my downfall.
I take several deep breaths, to try and calm down.
Moving over to the girl on the bed, still bundled up in her winter coat and boots, I see that she is starting to slightly squint at the sunlight.
I march over to her, standing above her body and waiting for her to wake up.
“Noelle,” I say sharply. “Noelle, get up. It’s serious.”
She frowns and rolls away from me, covering her face with her arm to shade her eyes from the sun. It reminds me of the way my sister Willow’s lazy cat would always put his paw over his face on a sunny afternoon, sleeping by a window.
Will I become a pariah to my siblings, more than I already am? Will Willow begin to despise me so much that she won’t even let me babysit her cat? I could not survive that. Clawdia is very important to me.
“Ellie!” I say loudly, frantically. “Wake up. Please. I know you’re hung over, but this is a Code Red. Code Red!”
She groans softly. “What the fuck is a Code Red, Ash?”
“It’s not about the business. It’s about me!’
“What?” she asks, groggily. Then she lifts a hand to press it against her head. “I’m too hung over to think. I worked on your presentation and gave you all the facts and figures you needed.” She yawns loudly. “I gave you the percentages and a plan to increase your profit margin...”
“It’s not about that,” I tell her firmly. “It’s way, way, way worse. You’re going to kill me.”
She rubs her eyes. “What? Ash. What are you talking about.”
“I need you to be my fake girlfriend.”
She blinks.
“I already told my father we were dating.”
She stares at me, completely confused and horrified.
“Please,” I add miserably.
* * *
See what happens with Ash and Ellie…
Faking it with Bossy
Other books by Olivia Noble:
Snowflake Creek
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You Can’t Ruin Christmas
All I Want for Christmas Eve
Hello Dr. Christmas
A New Year Baby
My Secret Valentine
Christmas in July
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Billionaires Underground
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Club Luxe 1: The Private Room
Club Luxe 2: Secrets Exposed
Club Luxe 3: Deadly Lust
Club Luxe 4: Tortured Heart
Club Luxe 5: New Beginnings
Club Luxe 6: Forever
Other books by Olivia Noble:
Silver Mountain
* * *
Snowed in with Grumpy
Knocking up his Nanny
Faking it with Bossy
The Princess and the Nerd
Also from Olivia Noble:
Snowed in with Grumpy
* * *
The story of June’s sister Ava
A steamy, small-town, over-the-top, hilarious holiday romantic comedy…
They say he’s so grumpy that he never speaks. He only growls.
* * *
I’m not intimidated. My boss sent me to deep backwoods Vermont to get Garland McGrumpypants—I mean McGuinty, to sell some of his lucrative landholdings on Silver Mountain. And I NEED this commission.
McGrumpy only likes kids, animals, and his giant axe… he definitely doesn’t like me.
When our meeting goes horribly wrong, and an avalanche causes my car to be nearly crushed under a pile of snow… I’m rescued by the massive hermit himself. No cell service, no road access, no escape. I am STUCK with Grumpy, and this Christmas couldn’t get any worse!
* * *
Garland
* * *
Her name is Ava, and she’s the unluckiest woman I’ve ever met. She spills every drink she touches all over herself, she trips over her shadow… and somehow, when she comes around, the whole mountain falls apart.
So why do I have a strange urge to protect her and take care of her?
Damn this crazy woman. She will be the death of me.
* * *
Check out Ava’s story!
Warning: Extremely Steamy
Do you like your romance dangerously hot?
* * *
Don’t miss the thrilling, New York Times bestselling Club Luxe series!
Featuring a brooding, billionaire CEO and a feisty young reporter. With twists and turns, extreme possessive passion, and over-the-top sensuality and intensity.
Join a headstrong, fiery couple for their dangerous adventures and romance…
* * *
Available everywhere books are sold!
Olivia Noble, Destiny and the Devil
