Billionaire for Valentine

Chapter 1

“Our Stepmommy Dearest is about to buy herself a gigolo.”

Pandora Turner, who’d been signing a foot-tall stack of documents at her desk, dropped her pen, leaving a blot of black ink on the second quarter Profit and Loss Statement from a major local firm. Looking up, she

could muster no surprise when she realized her sharp-toned visitor was her older half sister, Laura, looking as enraged as she sounded.

Enraged…but beautiful, as always. The stunning fashion plate had inherited all her mother’s tall and slender genes, blond hair and elegance, which suited her lifestyle to a T. Pandora, meanwhile, had been gifted with their father’s more short and round frame, plus her late mother’s nearly black hair; dark, laughing eyes and dimples. Which did not suit her lifestyle as a nose-to-the-grindstone bank manager to an R or a squiggly S, much less to a T.

Laura tossed her designer handbag onto an empty chair and kicked the door shut with the heel of one pointy-toed, five-hundred-dollar shoe. “Pandy, did you hear me?”

“I think the construction workers twenty floors down heard you,” Pandora mumbled, wondering why Laura always had to be so damned melodramatic. Something else she’d inherited from her jet-setting mother.

“The money-grubbing witch is going to cheat on our father.”

Considering Laura had cheated on one of her husbands and one of her fiancés, Pandy figured her sister had better jump off that moral high ground upon which she was perched before it crumbled out from underneath her. Still she frowned, not happy with the news that their father’s newest wife—his fourth—was already looking around for more adventure than her older husband could provide.

Laura might loathe Deborah, but Pandy had never had anything against her. The woman wasn’t exactly warmth personified, especially not to her adult stepdaughters, but she was a lot better than some of the alternatives. Their father could have married a twenty five- year old…someone younger than Pandy or her sister.

At least Deborah, aside from being in her forties, was well-spoken, graceful and successful. She had once run her own successful ballroom dancing studio—that’s where she’d met Pandy’s father—and seemed to make

him happy, first as a dance partner, now as a wife.

So she really hoped Laura was wrong. “How do you know this?”

“I got it straight from Bitsy Wellington.”

Their stepmother’s best gal pal. “Why would she tell you?”

 “Well, you know Bitsy. She can never resist causing trouble.”

True. The woman was completely toxic.

“Besides, she wants the man for herself. He’s some European gigolo being auctioned off at that Give A Kid A last gift charity gig at the InterContinental tomorrow night. You know it is the Valentine’s ball that Deborah has always been a party to. And it is the night of the year where all the women gather around in order to do things that would bring shame to the word scandal itself.”

A gigolo being sold to benefit a children’s charity.

There was some serious irony in that. Leave it to the Ladies Who Lunch of Chicago to come up with the idea of buying a stud to raise money for a worthy cause. And then, to compete over him.

Laura lowered herself to one of the chairs across from Pandy’s broad desk, sniffing slightly at the messy files strewn across it. Her big sister liked the money that came from the bank their great-grandfather had founded

several decades ago. She just didn’t particularly like the stench of work that came along with it.

Sometimes Pandy wondered if one of them had been adopted. Or found on a doorstep. They had so little in common with each other, physically as well as everything else.

In personality, she was told she was a lot like her mother, Jason Turner’s second wife, who’d died when Pandy was four. Supposedly, though he never spoke of her, Jason had mourned her greatly. Which could

explain why her sister always harassed Pandy about being their father’s favorite.

Maybe it was just that they had more in common.

Aside from looking more like Jason than Laura did, Pandy was also blessed with his quick mind, one fascinated by banking and finance. She also had the work ethic to run the business that had been in the family for

generations. That didn’t mean Laura hadn’t gotten something from their father, too—his fickleness. Pandy seemed to be the only Turner who didn’t fall in and out of love as frequently as the networks changed their Friday night lineup.

“We have to do something.”

“About what?”

“About the little cheater, that’s what!” Pandy sighed, lowered her pen, and leaned back in her chair. “But she hasn’t cheated yet, has she?”

“No…and we’re going to make damn sure she doesn’t.”

Frankly, her sister’s attitude came as a surprise. Considering how strongly Laura disliked their father’s new wife, Pandy would have figured Laura would want Deborah to cheat, and get caught. Her father would tolerate

a lot when it came to his wives—spending money, demanding attention and throwing tantrums. But he would never tolerate being cheated on. As a few of his former loves could certainly attest. Laura’s mother

included.

“I’m surprised you haven’t hired a detective to follow her and get the goods yourself.”

Laura frowned, shifting her pretty blue eyes away to study her perfectly manicured nails.

“You have? Jesus, Laura…”

“Look, it was stupid, and I changed my mind almost right away. I don’t want to catch the bitch cheating.”

“You don’t?”

Her sister finally lifted her eyes, and in them was a hint of genuineness, an emotion Laura didn’t often let the world see, but which Pandy knew lurked beneath her sister’s polished, shiny, brittle surface. “He loves

her, Pandora. Really loves her and she makes him so happy. It’s like he’s twenty years younger.” She swallowed, murmuring, “I don’t want him hurt. Again.”

Wow. That stunned her. So much that she couldn’t reply for a minute. Because while she completely understood the sentiment—and felt the same way—she wouldn’t have expected it of Laura.

Then she remembered the one area where she and her sister were absolutely, one hundred percent alike: in their love for their father.

She lowered her pen to her desk, finally giving her sister her undivided attention. “Okay. What do you propose we do?”

Laura dissembled for a moment, glancing around the room, at the few framed photos on Pandy’s bookshelf— all family—at the plants in the corner and the view of the Chicago skyline out the window.

She wasn’t going to like this, Pandy knew. Laura had the same look she’d had when they were nine and twelve and her big sister had suggested they “borrow” their new stepmother’s—wife three’s—Dior gowns to

play house. And Pandy had the same reaction—the similar twitch in her temple and the sweatiness in her palms she’d experienced on that day.

One thing was sure…sweat wouldn’t wash any better out of her Chanel suit now than it had out of Dior then.

“Laura?”

Her sister finally met her stare, appearing almost defiant. “It’s simple, really.”

The twitching intensified. The moisture on her palms could water the office plants for a week. “Oh?”

 “Yes. She can’t cheat on our father with the guy if somebody outbids her.” With a smile that showed off the twenty-thousand-dollar smile their father had bestowed upon his oldest daughter, Laura continued.

“You buy the gigolo.”

Pandora looked at her older sister for a while and then said,” You cannot be serious, Laura. There is a limit to every single thing and this is crossing it.”

“Why on earth is that so ridiculous to you?” asked Laura as if it was incredibly normal to go to a gala that too a Valentine Gala, charity auction for kids and then buy herself a gigolo for spending the night. Pandora could not tell her older sister under any circumstance that she had no interest, absolutely zero interest in men.

That she was a closeted lesbian.

But she was not going to be able to say that to her sister, and the fact that she knew that she had always wanted Barbie and not Ken is something that could not be shared to anyone. She never looked at men that way but she had always dated them to keep up the pretenses so when the fact came that at twenty-seven she was still a virgin, people would really laugh at her. She did not even feel the need to tell this to anyone but now her step-sister was here and she was asking her to buy a gigolo.

“The fact that you would think that I would need to buy to have a date or to have sex. I mean, that you think that I am so desperate is ridiculous,” said Pandora with gritted teeth.

“When was the last time that you went out on a date?” asked Laura as she raised her brows in challenge.

“How does that matter?” asked Pandora.

“It matters because people think that you are celibate, and it matters because you have an image to uphold. It does matter because by your age I already have been twice married…Dear lord….I cannot even think how you spend your time like this all alone,” said Laura and Pandora grimaced at her and then she was forced to bite out the words,” Because I have a career and work, unlike some people and I need to focus on this. So I don’t have the luxury to move around strutting about like a peacock and hoping that some man might take notice of me and then marry me.”

“If you think that your words are going to have some kind of effect on me because I have been married thrice then you are completely wrong, sister. You think that the way I lead y life is something which can be looked down upon..” said Laura as Pandora interrupted her and said,” I did not say or mean it in that way.. Laura…don’t misunderstand me…I am just trying to understand that why would you want me to do this? Don’t you have friends?”

“I might but why on earth would they have to think about my Dad and my step mommy dearest? You are the only one who thinks about then and even cares about them and their married life…so you are the only one who can do this. And who asked you date him? Just do this for charity…I am pretty certain you get tax concessions for that if pay for a good cause,” said Laura as she looked excited.

“You really thought about this hard before you came here right?” asked Pandora as she sighed badly.

“Of course I did. I know that you don’t think that I am too educated for understanding the stuff you work on and I really am not interested in but what I know is how to charm people and blackmail them into getting what I want. So you are my sister and I know where and how to make you say yes. Just say yes and I shall stop this. Why are you making me work so hard for this sake?” asked Laura and Pandora glared at her.

“Ok. Fine. I shall do it. Dear lord, the things that you have to do for your family,” said Pandora.