Page 1 of The Marriage Agreement
Prologue
Damien
My best friend’s sister has been on a crusade all day to seduce me. After fifteen tries, I have to admit, it’s starting to work. Ivy Hawthorne’s attempts were pathetic at first, if not downright embarrassing. It is her father’s birthday party. Important people are here. Everyone from industry leaders to movie stars. Athletes and politicians are present. One would think the daughter would be on her best behavior. Not Ivy, though. While her antics are embarrassing, they’re somewhat amusing.
I didn’t even want to come to this awful party. Nolan Senior’s not-so-subtle implication that I won’t get promoted if I didn’t attend, is the reason I came here. My preferred way of wasting the weekend is to spend time alone with a book. Instead, I have to fend off a horny, barely legal teenager who has never heard the word no.
I started noticing it in the afternoon. Ivy tried to get my attention by ‘accidentally’ falling into my arms many times. She did this whenever someone ‘brushed’ against her. If people weren’t bumping into her, she would caress my arm. We were in a small circle of friends that included her brother, me, a couple of people at work, and her. None of them noticed any of it, including her brother. When I remained aloof to her schemes, she moved to the next stage. Getting me alone with her. Twice when I was on my way to the restroom, she cornered me and led me to a guest room for a ‘talk.’ But that had worked against her.The first time, a middle-aged tech billionaire who was having sex with his assistant already occupied the room. The other time, the room was locked.
I have to admit; she made the tedious garden party interesting even though I pretended not to notice. The last thing I want to do is to give her a firm rejection that would only boomerang into me being out of a promotion, and maybe a job. But fucking hell, is she relentless.
And to add to my irritation, Ivy wasn’t the only one trying to get my attention. A few of the women who are on the younger side of forty have either slipped a note into my pocket or sent me bold text messages. The brazen ones actually asked me out outright. One is married, and her husband is here. None of them held a candle to Ivy’s tenacity. By evening, I gave in and entertained one woman to get Ivy off my back.
Bree, an interior designer about the same age as me, twenty-seven, is an acceptable choice. She is cute, has a pixie cut that suits few people but on her it looks charming. Chatty and outgoing, she makes the party a little less miserable. I can simply listen to her talk and not say much in response while I nurse my drink. Like Ivy, she’s a beautiful old-money heiress who sees work as an optional hobby. Unlike Ivy, she’s not nineteen.
“Can I ask you something?” Bree says over the music and party chatter. “What’s going on between you two?” She gestures her drink towards Ivy. She has now given up her pursuit and is hanging out with her friends. Good, I think. Stay away. You don’t want someone like me tainting you. Ivy notices us looking at her and stares back. She looks mad. Angry even.
I turn my attention back to Bree. “Nothing.”
“It’s not nothing. That girl has been trying to get your attention the whole night.” Try the whole day. “And yet you have ignored her. Where you two ever…”
“She’s my friend’s sister.” I take a sip of my drink and find the rum less potent than before.
“Makes it even more plausible.”
“She’s in college. There’s an eight-year age difference between us.”I glance again at Ivy. I haven’t seen her while. She’s only been back from college a few days and boy, has she changed? She’s more beautiful—stop. Don’t go there. If Nolan, if both Nolans were to know what I was thinking, they would drag me out of their party by the ear and toss me into the nearby ocean.
Bree rolls her eyes. “That doesn’t stop the CEO of Delphi tech from fucking his twenty-something assistant.”
I’m surprised to learn she knows about that sordid affair. “You saw them?”
“Not at this party, no. But they were extremely brazen on Yuri’s yacht last weekend. But back to you and Ivy.”
“There’s no me and Ivy.”
“Why is she so into you?”
I cast my gaze back at Ivy again. She is now alone, standing under a tree decorated by rope lights made to look like fireflies. The combination of her short white sundress and blonde hair waving in the breeze gives the impression of a wood nymph. She’s ethereal and innocent, while sexy and deviously tempting. A dark part of me, a part I have been repressing the whole day, wants to defile her. I’m so mesmerized by her beauty that I permit my thoughts to go where I didn’t want them to for the first time today.
Everyone suddenly disappears, and it’s just Ivy and I. I’m tossing the glass away. It tumbles onto the grass as I march over to her, take her in my arms and kiss her against the tree. She eagerly accepts my tongue and scrambles to open my pants while I rip her panties off her and thrust into her — I close my eyes to wipe away the intrusive daydream. Ivy is still glaring at us, but now she looks less mad and more… conniving. What isshe cooking up in that little head of hers? I ignore her and turn to Bree. “I don’t know. Ask her.”
Bree chuckles. “So you’re saying you’re unattached. I would hate to step on someone else’s territory.”
Bree is beautiful and fun. She’s the one I should fantasize about and not Ivy. “This territory is unclaimed.”
A twinkle sparks in Bree’s eyes. The corner of her lips curves upwards and she leans in to whisper, “I heard there’s another garden on this property. Mind showing it to me?”
“Sure,” I reply.
My gaze goes back to Ivy, who’s still watching us. My cock hardens and for a moment, I’m not sure if it’s because of Bree or Ivy. I turn my gaze back to Bree just as Ivy marches away. Good. Go away as far away from me and my devilish thoughts. Bree brushes my shirt, leaning into me, and unlike all the timesIvy brushed against me, I feel nothing.
Just as we’re about to leave the garden, we’re interrupted by a girl with a phone in her hand. “I’m sorry Bree, they said it’s urgent.”
Bree sizes her up and down. The poor girl, who I assume is Bree’s assistant, looks like she’d rather be anywhere than here. “Tell them I’m busy.”
The girl gulps and whispers something in Bree’s ear. Bree sighs and swears under her breath. “Looks like I’m going to have to take this,” she says to me.
“Interior decorating emergency?”
