Chapter Five #2
“Good. That’s not why I’m here.”
“No, you want to marry me to get your hands on things that aren’t even mine!” She waved at the table.
“Only Vorstoben.” He swallowed the last of his drink and sucked his teeth. “I already own a number of shares in it. Once I gain the ones that contract awards me, I will be the majority shareholder, which grants me total control. So I won’t let him renege. Not again.”
“But that comes at my expense. I don’t want to be used by either of you.” She shook her head, honestly wondering if she’d taken some of that weird cough medicine that gave her squirrely dreams. “No. There’s no reason for me to agree to any of this.”
At that moment, the door lock hummed. Heskel stepped inside and held the door open for the room service trolley to be pushed in by a server. As the server began setting the table, Heskel gave Joy a diffident nod.
“I apologize for the interruption, Ms. Youngston, but I have a few questions regarding your father’s care.
Is there any interest in a full-service senior building?
There’s one located near your sister-in-law that seems very well recommended.
The cost is comparable to purchasing and retrofitting a home for accessibility, then hiring appropriate staff, so I thought it makes sense to explore it? ”
“Puh… Pardon? I haven’t agreed to anything.” She threw that at Axel, alarmed.
“This is for discussion purposes.” Axel rose and set aside his empty glass.
“Heskel is pulling together options to present to your father. You seemed concerned that your brother will visit your father less often, now that his wife lives across the country. I asked Heskel to include a plan that moves your father closer to his grandchildren. If he chooses to stay in his current home and have a nurse come daily, that’s up to him, but with my resources you can offer more far-reaching solutions. ”
“But I don’t have your resources. Not unless—”
“Exactly,” Axel cut in. “Include it,” he instructed Heskel. “With a timeline on when the move could be accomplished.”
“Of course. I’ll be across the hall. Please text if you need anything.” Heskel accepted the bill from the server and signed it, then followed the server out the door.
Axel drew out a chair for Joy at the dining table.
She sat as though in a trance, mind incapable of grasping a solid thought. She was halfway through the soup course before its delicate taste traveled from her tongue to her brain. Even then, she couldn’t have said if she liked it.
“I’m probably not even her.” At this point, she didn’t know if a negative result would be a relief or a devastating loss.
The server had lit a candle. The soft glow painted flickers of golden light against Axel’s cheekbones and brow and mouth. His eyelids blinked once, slowly. Almost suggesting pity at how she was grasping at straws.
“You’ll still have thirty thousand dollars and a story you can never tell,” he said dryly.
She choked slightly and pulled her spoon from her mouth. “Lucky me.”
Thirty thousand dollars was not chump change, but it would only give her breathing space. Deeper pockets could alter the course of her father’s care altogether, vastly improving the quality of his golden years.
She rowed her spoon in her soup.
“Could I really afford to move Dad into a senior building?” she asked tentatively. “A nice one?” Because she’d seen the ones she could afford, and it was another reason she’d started dancing at Martini’s.
Triumph flashed in Axel’s fierce blue eyes, telling her she’d tipped her hand, but it was too late to backtrack now. “The level of care you can offer him will astound you,” he assured her.
He was stepping right on her Achilles’ heel.
She knew he was manipulating her with her emotions because it had happened once before.
This time was different, though. It wasn’t about her fearing abandonment.
It was actually a fierce desire to give back to the man who had raised her and given her a warm and loving upbringing.
Paul might be dependent on her now, but for most of her life he had been her safety net.
He had done his best to give her a solid foundation to launch from. It wasn’t his fault she had flubbed it.
“All I have to do is marry you?” she asked tentatively. “And meet my birth father?”
“We have to stay married a year. You’ll behave as my wife in public.”
“Where do you live?” she asked curiously.
“Vorstoben’s head office is in Berlin, but I have a number of residences that you can retreat to. We don’t have to live in each other’s pockets.”
A number of residences…
It was mind-boggling. Nothing about this made sense.
“What about…” Her voice dried up.
His attention lifted from his plate and settled on her in a way that was almost as physical as feeling him press her into a mattress. He was attractive. She couldn’t help but be aware of that. She could cut her finger on the edge of his jaw, and those masculine lips would kiss it better.
Her pulse fluttered at the mere idea of his lips against her fingertip.
She looked away, embarrassed. She’d never experienced anything so carnal. An inappropriate fantasy of walking around the table and straddling his lap came into her head. He looked strong enough to pick her up and carry her to the sofa from there.
The corners of his mouth dug in, making her think he could see her thoughts like he was watching a film. She couldn’t tell if he was amused or satisfied or if that reaction was something more reciprocal.
“When I said I want you, I meant it.” His gaze slid to her mouth, and her blood turned to fire.
She knew when men were ogling her, and this wasn’t that. He wasn’t looking at her like a source for his sexual pleasure. He was looking at her with a mixture of intent and appreciation. As though they already had secrets between them. Delectable, seductive secrets.
“I’d rather you came to me with your own wants.” His features took on a more concrete implacability. “Managing public opinion around your recent occupation will be difficult enough without you partaking in extracurriculars.”
“Excuse me,” she blustered, erotic thoughts scorched away by an indignant blush.
“You’re making a lot of assumptions. I don’t partake in extracurriculars.
I dance for money, but that’s all I do for it.
I don’t go home with men. Not for money or recreation.
So don’t presume you can take possession of me along with everything else you think I can get for you. ”
“I’m only making clear that if you do have an itch, you’ll come to me to scratch it.”
“Keep dreaming,” she muttered but only got an unimpressed mouth twitch in response. “I haven’t even agreed to marry you, in case you haven’t noticed.”
“I noticed.” He switched out their soup for the entrees, lamb chops with asparagus and cherry tomatoes atop ravioli. The sauce smelled like mint. “What else do you need besides the arrangements for your father? I can pay off your student loans.”
“That’s what the credit card is for.” Those loans had been hanging over her like an anvil on a fraying rope, but they were hers to pay. Actually, they were Todd’s, but paying them off was a punishment to herself for being so stupid. She wouldn’t make them anyone else’s problem.
“I’ll clear them along with your father’s mortgage. Call it a wedding gift. Shall we discuss your allowance?”
“I’m not twelve.”
“Stipend? What do you want to call it? It’s only for budgeting purposes. You’ll have leeway to overshoot it.”
“You’re moving too fast,” she muttered.
“I told you there was urgency. Let’s find the clincher.” He set his elbows on the table and laced his fingers together, imposing his iron will upon her. “If you could have anything you wanted in the world, right now, what would it be?”
“I don’t know.” She couldn’t imagine a life without all these stressors and obligations that had been accumulating for years.
But as she sighed and looked into the flickering flame on the candle, her heart wrenched with yearning toward the one thing she’d been pretending she was okay with losing.
The thing she sought and found, in a watered-down form at least, whenever she walked onstage and grasped the pole.
The one place where she had always felt she belonged.
The words came out of her like an incantation. “I want to dance.”
His brows shot up.
“To finish my degree,” she clarified crossly. “I want to perform with musicians and artists.” For a real audience, not a bunch of men looking to scratch their own itch.
She’d lost so much time on that aspiration.
It broke her heart to consider where she might be if she hadn’t let Todd derail her.
Dancing at Martini’s had been as much about regaining the condition of her body and rejuvenating her skills as filling the coffers because, deep down, she secretly dreamed of returning to dance.
Somehow. Even though it seemed impossible.
Axel picked up his phone. “I’ll put Heskel onto researching academies.”
“No. It’s…” Against her best judgment, her heart lifted with anticipation. Hope.
She hadn’t allowed herself to feel that emotion in so long, it brought a sting of tears into her eyes. If she had a chance to train again, she should take it. Shouldn’t she? Before age and all the other vagaries of life made it even less likely that she could?
“What about the wedding itself?” he asked as though she’d agreed. “I’d prefer simple, but if you have your heart set on something bigger—”
“For a fake marriage? No,” she scoffed.
But there was one girlish dream she had all but abandoned. One that she saw could still come true if she acted soon. Oh, he was cruel to offer this to her when it meant everything to her and their marriage would mean nothing.
Still.
“I want…” She had to swallow the thickness from her throat. “I want my father walk me down the aisle. My real one. Paul.”
“Of course. Let me relay that to Heskel.” He tapped his phone.