Page 5 of Robert

Robert, multi-billionaire industrialist. She had sought him out or rather his company to partner with a project they had been working on.

The new clinic they were building in the downtown area to accommodate the less fortunate, people who were working low-income jobs and who could not afford proper healthcare. They had spoken at length, and he had agreed to take it up with his board.

He was also a former classmate. When he reminded her that he had been a scholarship kid at the private school, she had been afraid to ask.

“Did I- was I a bitch to you?”

He had laughed, white teeth gleaming against tanned skin. “You barely noticed me. You had an entourage that poked fun at my clothes, but one day you decided to come to my rescue.”

“I did?”

He nodded. “You told them to leave me alone and they scattered instantly. That was how powerful your words were. I had been an admirer before, but after, I became even more so.”

She had sighed with relief. “I must have noticed something special about you.”

“Oh, I sincerely doubt that.” The cynicism that was an integral part of him had returned.

She could ask Robert. But why would he want to do her that favor? She could explain the situation to him and assure him that it would not be a real marriage. She had someone in mind to perform the ceremony. Michael Blaisdell was an actor who had played the part of a priest too many times to count and he owed her a favor.

She was desperate. In order to continue her work, she was going to have to bow to her mother’s wish or at least pretend to do so. A fake ceremony for Deidre’s sake and then she would be free to get on with her life. With that in mind, she reached for the phone.

Chapter 2

“Thanks for agreeing to see me.”

“No problem.” Robert watched as she flitted across the blue-gray carpet, her slender frame tensed, her movements jerky. He had been surprised by her phone call and had not hesitated in agreeing to the meeting.

“I know you are busy and probably had to shuffle things around to meet me.”

“Nothing much.” He thought of the conference call to China and the dinner invitation he had declined in order to make the meeting, but she did not have to know that. He was curious as to why she wanted to see him. And of course, dazzled by her beauty as always. “You sounded…, anxious.”

Whirling to face him, she studied the man behind the massive oak desk. Robert Faulkner had come a very long way from being the poor scholarship kid from their high school days.

He was wearing a baby blue cotton shirt that was discreetly expensive, with the sleeves rolled up to reveal powerful arms with their covering of dark brown hair. His tie was loose around his neck and the two top buttons of his shirt opened to reveal his strong throat.

“I’m afraid I am going to ask a very big favor, and I want you to know that you are free to say no and boot me out of your office,” she began, nerves scattering along her spine.

His brows lifted as he continued to stare at her. “You cannot tell me sitting down?”

“No.” She shook her head. “Oh God. I cannot do this.”

“Is it that much of a favor?”

“Yes.” Taking a deep breath, she decided to just plunge on. “I want you to marry me.”

To his credit, Robert did not react, at least not outwardly. In business he was known as a shark, as a man who did not reveal his feelings. He was dubbed as the man without an ounce of emotions.

Years of bottling things up inside him had come in handy when doing business. The women he had taken over the years, accused him of being carved from stone. One had accused him of having a plank of wood where his heart should be.

“I see.”

“No!” She shook her head quickly. “You don’t.” she explained about her mother and the demands being made.

“And your only solution is to give into her?”

“Yes!” She sat, sinking down on the sofa. “She holds the purse strings. All of it. And what I am doing is incredibly important to me.” Her exquisitely beautiful face was tense. “It would not be a real marriage.

Just for show, something to get her off my back. I do not want to be married. I have seen what that institution does to people, and I don’t want to be part of a statistic.” She shook her head. “Anyway, I have this friend, he is an actor and plays the part of a priest in a series and he owes me a favor.

---