Page 7 of Ben

He would have smiled if the matter wasn’t a serious one. Seeing her unflappable persona shakable made her more real to him in that moment.

“Crazy maybe, but I am not a Brooks for nothing. When we see a great opportunity, we take it. Us getting married is perfect timing, the Diamond Princess and the dark prince of the Brooks family tying the knot; it will be the social news of the year and will keep the focus off the charity money and on us instead.”

He could see the wheels turning in her head. What he really wanted to tell her was that he’d always wanted her for so long, that she was the very air he needed to breathe, everydream or thought surrounded her, she was his obsession, and she was made for him, belonged with him, and no one else. He had gotten to the point that he didn’t care what he needed to do in order to get her and never let her go. Once they tied the knot, she was truly his.

Ben continued. “Think about it: suddenly getting married will buy us more time to figure this out.” She frowned, thinking about what he was saying, but he could tell he knew she had no way out of this.

“This will also catapult your career; you just married the Brooks heir, opening more doors and money for your charity. Influences that only my family can provide, even though your family is well off, we are more of a powerhouse. My family comes from old money and with the perk of the upper echelon.

Her eyebrows rose, and she blew air out past her lips in a scoffing sound. “A win-win situation, huh? But the causality in all this will be our families, us, and my fiancé.” Diamond said bitterly.

Ben shrugged and was going to say something else when a ping from his computer sounded, letting him know something was happening to Diamond’s bank account.

“What?”

She followed him to his desk and almost elbowed him out of the way to see what was on the screen.

Diamond reared back, allowing him to see what he knew already was happening. More money had been spent from her account.

“Shit, can’t you stop it?”

“Yes, I can put up some type of wall so that the money will stop being spent from your account, but whoever set this Trojan horse up is just as good as me and probably planned for this.

“Okay, well. What are you waiting for?”

“I will need my office back to concentrate on what I need to do.”

“Yes, right, okay.” She began to walk toward her purse she’d left on her chair.

“Diamond?”

“Yes, I will wait outside.”

“No. Well yes, you can do that, but you are forgetting one thing.”

“What?” She opened her brown eyes wide.

“The phone call you need to make is right now.” He straightened and took a step away from his laptop.

“I can’t believe this.”

“Believe it.” They heard another chime.

She strode stiffly back to his desk.

“This marriage will be in name only, and until we can figure this—”

“No, you will be my wife in every sense of the word, and no divorce either. You will belong to me completely or no deal.”

Ben watched as she opened her mouth to argue, and then they heard another chime. At this rate, in a day or two the money would be spent, and word would get out from the retailers that the money was being spent by Diamond Jackson, who was considered the Diamond Princess of New York. Diamond’s flair for being on top of the latest trend of style, her fiancé beinga famous and rich football player, along with her social media presence, earned her the nickname of the Princess of New York.

He would need to reach out to those retailers and silence them until he could get ahead of this, but right now, he needed his fiancée to realize her fate was now sealed to him whether she liked it or not.

Her gaze searched his, realization dawning on her face that he was serious. He saw a look cross her features for a second, not sure what to make of it because it had looked for a second that she was enjoying this, and maybe on some level she was. Diamond was an enigma to him, but he was looking forward to unraveling who she really was inside.

“Fine.” She took her phone out and, without looking through her directory, punched in a number.

Chapter 4

---