The Billionaire's Personal Secretary

Garrett was quiet for a long minute. “Do you love Felicia?”

Derrick shrugged and answered nonchalantly. “I don’t hate her. We’ve been sort of friends most of our lives. Close a few times when we were younger. We know each other pretty well, I guess.”

He took another long drink and looked back at Garrett. “I could do a lot worse for a wife, I’ll say that. She’s smart, she’s hot, and she’s wealthy. She’s always had kind of a crush on me. I just… don’t love her romantically. I guess that’s not a deal breaker for me, though. I’m not really sure that real love exists, at least for me. I know my mom and dad had it, and my grandparents, but… not me. She has a thing for me, but I don’t know if I could ever really love a woman.”

“Sounds like a match made in heaven.” Garrett rolled his eyes.

Derrick scoffed a laugh almost inaudibly. “So, I guess I need to ask you to be my best man.”

Garrett looked away from him and then turned back to face him. “Yeah, of course, whatever… but, are you really sure? You really want to tie yourself to Felicia for the rest of your life when you aren’t in love with her?”

“Why not? I don’t have anything else going on. She’d be a good wife. She likes me. It will please her father, and I guess mine, if there’s a heaven and he’s actually there. It wouldn’t be terrible, would it? I could think of it as another business arrangement.” Derrick finished his beer.

“You old romantic you…” Garrett shook his head and waved at the bartender for another drink.

Chapter2

Derrick stood outside of the door of Felicia’s condo on 5th Avenue. She was expecting him, and he knew it. He’d called her to tell her that he was going to come visit, and she had been excited to hear from him and to have him drop by her place. It was set. All he had to do was make himself knock on the door, go in to ask her to marry him, and change his whole life.

It felt to him as if his hands were made of lead as he tried to raise one of them to tap his knuckles gently on the door. He had gone over and over the scenario in his mind. He would just ask her. She would say yes; it would be over. They’d get married. He’d ask her for a small wedding, though he wasn’t sure he’d get it, and then the deed would be done. He had told himself over and over that it was as simple as all that, and yet it felt like the most difficult thing that he had ever committed himself to doing.

With a deep breath, he finally got his hand to chest level and rapped on the door. He heard her light voice sing song out as she came to open the door for him. Felicia stood there beaming at him with a bright smile on her flawless face.

Her elbow-length, wavy blonde hair was pulled up loosely at the back of her head. Her hazel eyes were shining, and her smile gave away her absolute excitement to see him standing in her doorway. She reached both hands to him, closing them around his forearms as she pulled him into her condo and closed the door behind them.

“You’re here! I’m so thrilled! It’s so good to see you, darling. God, you look divine!” she lifted her heels off of the floor, adding a couple of inches to her five foot something frame, and she wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing his cheek and then aiming to kiss his mouth, which he narrowly escaped by leaning in closer to hug her loosely.

He let her go and stepped away from her. “It’s nice to see you, too. Thank you for taking the time to see me. I appreciate that.”

She waved her hand through the air dismissively. “Of course! You know I’m always glad to see you. The real trouble is that I don’t see you nearly enough!” She took his hand in hers and tugged him along behind her.

“Come in here and sit on the sofa with me, and tell me what’s going on. I haven’t seen you since your father’s funeral. How are you doing?” She looked at him with wide sympathetic eyes.

He shrugged. There was no way that he was going to share with her just how he really was doing. That was for him to suffer through alone. He neither needed nor wanted her to be privy to any of his innermost emotions.

“Oh, I’m getting by. I didn’t come to talk about that, though. I’m here about something else,” he said nervously, trying his best to sound calm. His heart began to beat a little faster, and his mouth grew dry. She plopped down on the sofa and pulled him down right beside her, holding his hand in hers.

“Yeah? What’s that? What brought you over here to me?” she smiled coyly and began to stroke her fingertips over the back of his hand.

He drew in a long slow breath and looked around her apartment, willing himself to answer her. “Well, to be honest, I had a visit from your father the other day. It seems that… well, it seems that your father and mine have had this idea for ages that they want us to… that they want…” He had practiced saying it. He couldn’t figure out why he was having trouble getting the words out.

He cleared his throat, and she watched him closely. “What is it?” she asked in a soft voice, reaching her other hand up to the side of his face and combing her fingers through the longer locks of his dark hair, brushing it back over his ear.

He wanted to pull away from her, but he knew he had a job to do, and he knew he wouldn’t leave until it was taken care of. “I… know we haven’t really been with each other… romantically… in a long, long time, but…” he pulled the box out of his jacket pocket and opened it, handing it to her.

“Felicia, would you marry me?” he almost blurted it out. He had meant to try to be more gracious and romantic, but his nerves had gotten the better of him. He hadn’t felt at all romantic about it, so faking it came much harder to him. Honesty, he decided, was truly the best policy for them both.

Her eyes grew wide, and she g

asped, grinning as she clamped her palm over her heart and stared at the ring. “Oh my… oh my god… yes! Yes, oh my god…” she gushed and giggled and looked from the ring back to Derrick as tears formed in her eyes. “Oh Derrick, I’ve been waiting for years for you to want me like this! I love you so much! I can’t believe this is finally happening! God I love you!”

She threw her arms around his neck and kissed his cheeks and then kissed his mouth over and over as she slid one leg over his lap and straddled him, her dress sliding far up her thighs. He kissed her in return a couple of times and then leaned his head backward and looked at her, bringing her attention back to the ring in the box in his hand.

Felicia looked down at it again and blinked, whispering as realization overtook her. “Is that your mom’s ring?” she asked reverently.

“It is,” he answered quietly. “I bought a band to go with it, and I know it’s traditional to go the other way, but because this is my mother’s ring, I’m going to give you the band now as an engagement ring, and I’ll give you her diamond ring when we have the ceremony, if that’s alright. I’ll just… hold onto it until then.”

She looked at him in surprise. “Yes… I guess that’s alright, I mean… that’s really breaking from tradition, but if you want to do it that way, then I’m fine with it! I’m just so happy that you’re finally here and that you finally asked me, and it’s really going to happen! I’ve been dreaming of this day since I was a girl!”