Chapter 3
CHAPTER THREE
Parker
Twenty-five thousand pounds? For a date with me? I was a little dumbstruck at the figure and frustrated I hadn’t been able to make out who had placed the bid. The lights had been so glaring that I’d not seen anything.
Sutton rushed up to me as I was helping to pack up backstage. “Trust you to have the hottest guy in the room bid on you.”
“I did? Did you recognize him?” It was kinda nice that someone handsome had bid. It might be fun to go on a date under these circumstances—where it was nothing to do with attraction or the possibility of a relationship. Instead, this was all about Sunrise.
“I recognized that I’d like to climb him like a tree, does that count?”
I elbowed her in the side. “Maybe you should go out on a date with him.”
“Speaking of.” She elbowed me back and nodded to the door where the hard hunk of muscle I’d crashed into earlier stood. I glanced back at Sutton. “That’s the guy?” Maybe covering myself in cream just before one of the most important nights of my life hadn’t been for nothing.
We locked eyes as he strode toward me, the sexy crinkles at his temples sending my stomach into a spin. That’s when my father bellowed, “Parker! I want to introduce you to your dinner date. Meet my very good friend, Tristan Dubrow.”
My heart, which to that point had felt like it was attached to a hundred helium balloons, landed with a thump. Of course. The hunk knew my father and was no doubt trying to impress him with a high bid.
I plastered on a smile. “Good to be introduced.”
“Very good to meet you.” He took my hand in his. I was acutely aware of how small mine was in his giant hand. He could crush my bones into flour if he squeezed too hard. “I’m Tristan, and I’m looking forward to our dinner very much.”
I sighed. He’d won the bid. He’d impressed my father.
He could stop. There was no way this was going any further.
There was a reason I’d been single for three years; I’d had enough of guys who were interested in dating the daughter of Arthur Frazer and all that entailed.
“Oh, there’s really no need to actually go through with it. They have your bank details, right?”
“There is every reason,” my father replied. “This man paid twenty-five thousand pounds for the privilege of a night with you. You better make it worth his while.”
Tristan cleared his throat.
“Dad,” I said, in the you’re embarrassing me voice I hadn’t used since I was a teenager. “You’re making me sound like a hooker. The auction catalogue didn’t say anything about me providing my date with a good time.”
“Good grief, Parker. I didn’t mean it like that. But Tristan here is on strict instructions to take you out and show you some fun.”
I rolled my eyes. My father was the worst. “Okay, Dad.”
Thank goodness, someone interrupted before he could say anything even more inappropriate. He allowed himself to be guided back toward the ballroom with a silent wave.
“So,” I said, tipping my head back to meet Tristan’s gaze. “Dinner it is. Somewhere we can sit down so I don’t get a sore neck.”
He chuckled. “Do your dates often take you to restaurants without seating?”
“I’ve been strictly food markets until now.”
“I think we can do a little better than that. Give me your phone.”
I handed it to him and he punched in some numbers. As he was typing, a notification went off on my phone. “Gillian wants to know if you’re going to Pilates tomorrow,” he said.
“Hey, don’t read my messages.”
He laughed. “Don’t hand strangers your phone.”
“You asked for it!” Who was this guy?
“Oh, and what’s this?” he said, sweeping his thumb down my screen. “Oblix Holdings just debited sixty-seven pounds from your account.”
I groaned. “Not again.” I snatched the phone back from him. “Sixty-seven? That’s worse than last time.” I opened up the message and sure enough, the charity account had another debit from a company I’d never heard of.
“You okay?” he asked. “You look like you have to go on a date with a stranger for money.”
One side of his mouth was curled up in a half smile and his almost-irresistible laugh lines were back.
“I’ll figure it out. I just keep getting these debits from my account and I don’t know why.”
“They’re unauthorized?” He snatched the phone back from me. “Have you spoken to your bank?”
“Yes!” I tried to wrestle my phone back but he just held it up higher than I could reach.
“How many times has it happened?” His voice had taken on a dark, serious note. I tried to ignore the buzz it sent between my legs.
“None of your concern. Give me my phone back, please. This is my problem. Not yours.”
He tossed me my phone and I caught it. “You could make it my problem,” he said. “It’s what I do, after all.”
What was it with guys who thought they knew better than me?
“Thanks. But I’ve got it covered.” I didn’t have it covered. I didn’t have much faith that my bank had it covered, but better to do nothing than have a perfect stranger asking questions I didn’t want to answer.
“Give me a call if you want me to help. Otherwise, text me your address and I’ll pick you up on Saturday at seven.” He turned and headed out.
“Wait,” I called after him. “I’m taking you to dinner, not the other way around. I can’t do Saturday.”
“Sure you can,” he said as he kept walking without turning around. “I saw your calendar. You’re not busy on a single Saturday night between now and Christmas.”
How could one man be so thoroughly annoying, and at the same time, send lust circling between my thighs?
I turned to find Sutton at my side. “Can you believe that guy?” My outrage was completely fake.
Not many men spoke to me like Tristan had.
Having a man like Arthur Frazer as a father took care of that.
Every man I’d ever dated had either taken me out because I was his daughter or found out shortly after we’d started dating and had continued to take me out because I was his daughter.
Either way, it meant I had dictated the terms of every romantic relationship I’d ever had.
My boyfriends had never contradicted or denied me.
My dad might not have a crown, but he was a king and I was treated like a princess.
Great in theory, but not so good when it came to figuring out whether or not my boyfriends liked me for me or for the advantageous connection to my father our relationship would provide.
History told me my father’s wealth and power coaxed the worst kind of men out of the woodwork, like ants following the scent of sugar.
Despite Tristan clearly bidding on me to impress my father, he didn’t seem exactly like the others. No doubt he’d prove me wrong.
“He’s totally hot. And you get to spend the evening with him. Plus, he donated twenty-five grand to this charity. You could have been a little nicer to him.”
Sutton was right. I should have been nicer to him—he was a major donor tonight.
Which reminded me, I’d need to check we got his money.
I didn’t want him changing his mind and backing out.
“I suppose. But if he’s taking me out because of who my dad is—which he obviously is—I’m not sure nosing into my business is the best way to go about it. ”
“Maybe he’s just being himself instead of the suck-ups and grifters you’ve dated in the past. Maybe he’s different. Maybe he’s the guy you end up marrying.”
Urgh. I wish Sutton would stop going on about her half-baked idea to marry me off.
“Don’t be ridiculous. I’ve told you I’m not getting married just to get access to my trust fund.
” There was a time when I thought marrying the man of my dreams would be part of my twenties—not to get my hands on my trust, but because I loved the man who’d asked me. But that ship had sailed.
“Stop being so stubborn. Getting married would be an easy way to raise the money for the parents and care givers program you want to establish.”
I sighed. The twenty-five thousand pounds Tristan had donated was a lot of money, but it wasn’t enough.
Tonight, Sunrise, the charity I’d worked so hard for over the last three years, would bring in an additional hundred thousand pounds.
It was a huge amount of money but it was nothing compared to the twenty-five million I’d be able to donate if I got my hands on my trust fund.
“Better to convince my dad to change the rules of the trust than to marry someone. I’m not giving up my last name for anyone.
” I’d learned my lesson. I wasn’t going to make that mistake again.
“You don’t have to give up your last name just because you get married.
This isn’t the nineteen fifties. But that’s not the issue at hand.
You want that twenty-five million and you’ve been trying to convince your dad to change the rules of your trust for the last three years.
If he was going to do it, he’d have done it by now.
You’re going to have to face up to the fact that if you want access to your trust, you’re going to have to get married. There’s no other way.”
“So what, you think I should just marry someone I meet in the street?”
She shrugged like it was an actual possibility that I was going to march to the altar with a complete stranger. “You’d need to get a prenup obviously.”
“Sutton!”
“It’s a win-win. If, like you say, Hottie McGorgeous is trying to impress your dad—what better way than to marry his daughter? The only problem is . . .”
A knot of regret pinched in my stomach that there might be a serious obstacle to her hair-brained scheme. Not that I was actually considering marriage to Tristan as a possibility. “What?”
“You’re going to look a little funny together. He’s a foot and a half taller than you.”
“Stop exaggerating. He’s six two, max. That’s a foot.”
It shouldn’t have, but the thought made me shiver. I’d bet he could pick me up in one huge hand. I wasn’t sure I’d object if he tried.