Money Man (King Maker 1)

“Not really. My father wants me at his company. I made it a condition in my contract, thinking there would be no way he could fulfill it.”

I was surprised by his candor, but didn’t let that stop me from asking more.

“You didn’t want to work for him?”

He thought about it a second. “I wanted him to fail and be forced to beg me to work for him.”

His frankness relaxed some of my earlier tension as he opened up to me.

“He wasn’t a good dad?” I asked.

“More like an absent one. When my parents split, we had no contact until he needed me.”

Though I wanted to know more, I decided not to press my luck. I went for a softer question.

“Do you have any siblings?”

“A half-brother he fathered while married to my mother. And who knows, there might be more out there. I’m sure his funeral will be full of them.”

A bitter bite chilled his words, so I extended an olive branch. He’d shared some of himself, and I would do the same.

“I have seven brothers and sisters,” I said and watched as his brows lifted. “I have an older sister and my youngest sister is four.” I thought about how I had only seen her once and nearly choked up. “It makes me sad I won’t get to see her grow up.”

A pinprick of tears stung the back of my eyes.

“You can’t go visit?” he asked.

“It’s complicated.” I took a deep breath. “Have you ever heard of a simple lifestyle?”

“Living without excess,” he guessed.

That was close.

“Sort of. Are you familiar with Amish people?”

He nodded. My eyes strayed to my ring. I had almost forgotten about it, which surprised me. Movement forced my eyes back to the enigmatic man I was with.

“Well, it’s like that but not. We live without much interference with technology. However, we do have a minimal amount. Like our community has a phone and a computer. It’s locked away and used only when absolutely needed. Anyway, to put it mildly, by going to college as a woman and on top of that not going back to use my skills for our community basically makes me an outcast. I’m too worldly and may corrupt the young minds of my siblings, not to mention other children there.”

I fell silent after releasing the tight band of knots I’d held so close for years.

“You can never go back?”

That wasn’t the right question.

“I can go. But there are lots of rules, and it’s always hard to come from the world of jeans and yoga pants and back to only wearing modest skirts and dresses.”

I caught his slight wince. Now he understood what his command about wearing dresses had felt like for me.

“That’s where your defiance about me asking you to wear skirts comes from?”

A glance down at my dress was a reminder I didn’t hate them. “It’s not that I mind. Dresses are perfect for certain occasions and I own some cute skirts. It’s the demand to wear one that takes me back to the few choices I had growing up.”

We fell silent but not for long.

“We’re here,” he said.

I looked up and saw The Metropolitan Museum on our right.

“I’ve never been here before,” I said absently.

It felt like I was in some sort of dream. There I was at The Met, with the most handsome man I’d ever laid eyes on in an eye-turning car.

“At midnight, will I turn into a pumpkin?” I muttered.

“What?”

His question shook me out of my daydream. I hadn’t realized I’d spoken out loud until that moment.

“Nothing,” I said.

We were in a line of cars waiting for a valet.

“Your firm must have some pull. They don’t normally host corporate events on a Saturday.”

That gave me pause. “How would you know that?”

He didn’t seem like an event planner.

His broad shoulders lifted in a half-shrug. “It came up in a meeting when we were planning our holiday party.”

“I wasn’t in on the planning, but I know it’s a party not only for employees, but our clients as well,” I said.

A man came over and opened my car door. I got out and did a little three-sixty, soaking everything in. When I stopped, I caught sight of Kalen handing the valet a fifty.

Kalen was rich. On some level I knew. But the car, his tip, and the tux that fit him perfectly all spoke of money—lots of it. I felt a little uncomfortable. As much as I wanted away from my life back home, I didn’t fit well in Lizzy’s world, and Kalen’s was starting to appear a whole lot bigger.

“Shall we?”

I glanced up into those glorious green eyes and took the arm he offered. He escorted me inside the museum like a prince holding his princess.

My glass slippers shattered when we walked into the great hall and smack into my nemesis.