Holiday Treasure (Billionaire Bachelors - Book 10) (15 page)

Chapter Twenty-Six

T
his is the
life,
Tanner thought as he kicked back with a sixty-year-old scotch and looked at the snow falling outside the huge picture windows of his penthouse living room.

Home. There was no better place to be. At least there were no rodents scurrying across his floors. There were no drunks yelling outside his door, no broken water pipes or faulty heaters, and he didn’t have to worry that some scumbag was going to come rushing through his door and demand money or drugs.

So why was he tense? Why was the ludicrously expensive liquor practically choking him? Why couldn’t he get one woman’s face from his mind? Because that place had made him temporarily insane.

Tanner stood up. He set his empty glass on the end table and paced his pristine floors, replaying the last few weeks over and over again. He’d hated being Santa, yet he couldn’t erase the image of Billy asking for his parents back, saying what a good boy he would be.

Why in the hell had Judge Kragle given him such a ridiculous punishment? He would have rather spent those twenty-four days in a small jail cell. At least then he’d just be pissed off, and he wouldn’t have these ridiculous what-if thoughts running through his mind.

Midnight struck and Tanner stared blankly at the antique timepiece. “Christmas is over,” he said aloud, trying to get his brain to function properly. “It’s over, so let’s get back to the way things were.”

As he climbed into bed that night, he tossed and turned, sleeping little. He should have been in ecstasy in his luxuriously oversized bed. But no, he was restless and out of sorts, feeling alone there for the first time ever.

By the time he got up the next morning, Tanner was even moodier than he’d been the night before. He’d wanted nothing more than to get back to this place for almost a whole month, but he had to get away right now. He was suffocating inside these depressingly immaculate walls. After shutting the door behind him as the sun rose in the sky, he drove to his father’s office building.

At one point his dad had hoped his sons would take over the family business, and then, when none of them had stepped up to the plate, he’d sold that business and moved here, giving them each this test to turn a failing company around.

Crew had succeeded. He was doing great.

The rest of them were still struggling, fighting their father, not wanting to let the old man control them. Tanner had his own money, of course, and didn’t even need to go all the way with this challenge, but he also knew that once he began something, he couldn’t quit halfway through. He had to get through this task if it took everything in him. But he didn’t exactly know how he’d manage that, or what the end of this game would look like, and who would be the ultimate winner.

Tanner parked in front of his father’s building, then stepped inside and nodded at the guard on duty — the only other person there — before going to the elevator and riding it to the top floor. He then went into the office his father had set up temporarily for him, and he walked around. His father had given each of his kids an office in the building, hoping they’d see the light. He wanted his children to feel passion, to outgrow the selfishness they’d all embraced for a time.

Tanner felt only hollowness, as if all he had within him was a stuffing of straw. But he’d handle this. He sat down at his desk, bound and determined that this would be just a phase, a phase that would soon pass. And it would. He had a strong will, and he wouldn’t be held down for long.

He thrived on work, thrived on being feared and respected for all he’d amassed. He loved glamour and power. It was all a part of who he was, and he in no way wanted to change. Three or four weeks taken from his life wouldn’t make him change who he was forever. If he felt a little lonely, he could go and get a stupid cat. They weren’t nearly as needy as dogs or humans.

But he wasn’t an utter misanthrope. And he wasn’t without some sense of family values, dammit. He would play his father’s games because he did care about his family, but he certainly wasn’t playing the games of some dimwitted judge. Opening his laptop, he dove into work, ignoring the fact that the rest of the building was empty, the employees spending time with their families. Holidays were no excuse for laziness. Hadn’t that always been his motto?

He didn’t even know anymore what he felt or what he wanted. But he would erase that thought, and he would return to normal. It might take a few more days of adjusting, but that was all. Assured he would be fine, he pushed all thoughts other than work from his mind and soon he even managed to convince himself he was perfectly okay.

He’d always been successful. Lying to himself the way he just had was proof of that.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

W
hat do
you
want, Dad?”

“Now, Tanner…”

“I’m busy now, Father. Why’d you call?”

“It’s the week after Christmas,” Richard told him. “And the whole family missed you at the family dinner your uncle Joseph was kind enough to include all of us in.”

Tanner thought over the Christmas Eve dinner that he
had
enjoyed — immensely — and his eyes grew soft for the briefest of moments until he snapped himself out of it. That time was over, as well as it should be.

“I’d just been freed from my sentence, Dad. Did you really think I’d be in the mood to leap into the holiday spirit, to drink wassail and sing carols over a blazing fire with family love in my tender heart? That just proves how little you know about me. Anyway, I got enough Christmas spirit to choke a horse during my miserably long stint as a mall Santa.”

“You didn’t enjoy meeting those cute little ones?”

Tanner snorted, and then he absolutely growled. “Don’t get me freaking started…”
Children!
If he never saw another one of those ankle biters again, it would be too bloody soon. Throwing up. Snot. Greed…pain… No! That last thing didn’t matter. A stranger’s child had no business sitting on his lap and burdening him with so much sadness. He wanted to be angry with Billy, with the world. Anger was better than vulnerability.

“Would a grown woman sound better?”

“Oh, no, Dad. Surely you’re not trying to set me up with someone. The last time you got me to go out on a blind date — the only time — was the mother of all disasters.”

“I’m a little more realistic now,” Richard told his son. “Back then, I thought you’d want a ‘nice’ girl, that Melba would show you the value of…yes…personality. Don’t snort at me, and don’t forget that I’m still your father and always want what’s best for you. Plus, I now know rather more about what men your age want and even need.”

Had his dad gone round the bend? The guy hadn’t even dated for years and years after Tanner’s mom had departed from all their lives faster than a tired-out tornado. And now the old man was actually attempting to get a hot date for his son? Interesting. Might be worth playing along — at least for a few minutes, or until he grew bored.

“What’s her name?”

“Merinda Raffel. She’s the daughter of a big real estate investor in town — a friend of mine — and she needs a date tonight to take her mind off a recent disappointment. You’ve met her before, if I recall.”

Wow. Merinda Raffel.
Yes, Tanner had met her before. It was only about a month ago, at a party, and she had been endowed in all the right places. She was a true beauty. Smart, too — not just some little bimbo who would coo at him and have him ready to head for the hills before the sheets got cold. She’d been all over him, but he couldn’t close on the deal because he had to get up early for his worthless trial. One of his attorneys had been at that party and had run interference, damn his hide, saying it wouldn’t look good for the defendant to stand in front of Judge Kragle and look like he’d just had the debauched time of his life.

But now! Yes, now, Tanner was going to get a belated Christmas present.

“Okay, Dad, I suppose I could help you out. Not for more than this mercy operation, you know. I don’t do long term. But if you want me to take her out once or twice to cheer her up, I’m sure I can take everything into hand.”

“Great, son. She wants to go to a new place. It’s called L’Appétit Avide.”

“Of course she does. I wouldn’t expect anything other than the highest pedigree of taste for a woman like Merinda.”

“I thought you could afford it, Tanner, but I’d be happy to slip you the cash if you need a little help.”

Crap. He’d completely forgotten that his father thought he was on the same tight budget as his siblings. He’d best be a little more careful in what and how he said certain things.

“C’mon, Dad. You know it’s no problem.” He delivered those words with just enough arrogance that his father surely had to ask himself what was going on. Was he wondering whether his son was covering up his insecurity about being trapped in this game with his dad as puppet master? Or was the guy unsure how he’d be able to afford the five-star meal?

Tanner expected to pay the highest of prices for his dates. It was well worth it when, at the end of the night, they kindly paid him back.

* * * * *

Merinda was certainly treating the place as if there were prizes to be won by finding the top-dollar dishes despite the built-in handicap of places like these, which had no prices on the women’s menu. What would she do, Tanner asked himself, if he suggested going to get warm cookies for dessert? Or if he took her to a soup kitchen? Nah…

But he was having a good time, he tried to assure himself. All signs pointed to the sack. Her knee kept brushing his, and the gleam in her eyes and the flutter in her eyelashes told him a lot, too. She could talk with authority about caviar and wine, and when the subject turned off onto business and even the stock market, she easily kept pace with him there as well. Maybe he’d even consider a second date, at least if she was as good in bed as her looks and the heat coming off her promised.

Just as he was getting ready to suggest they take their meal to go, her eyes lit up and she looked him straight in the eye. And the conversation turned quickly for the worse.

“I couldn’t help but hear about your recent sentence, Tanner.” Merinda threw him a sly smile after saying what she must have been holding in all evening.

“Oh, that.” He pursed his lips together, then decided to chill. Maybe she was going to actually commiserate with him and say properly nasty things about that senile judge. What was the worst she could do? They were having a great time. She wouldn’t want to ruin it.

“I wish I could have seen you as Santa! I could have poked that cute little padded belly, and…”

Dammit. She was screwing with him. He should have guessed that even the most cultivated of women weren’t above poking a guy while he was down. But he wasn’t a wimp, or a little girl, as someone had recently suggested. He could handle this. Or he thought he could until Merinda continued.

“But, seriously, Tanner, how did you manage to live and work among the great unwashed? All those middle-class people brushing up against you in a tacky Seattle mall! And those old apartments! Have those people no shame? How can anyone live that way?”

Great unwashed?
He had rubbed up against the truly unwashed on Christmas Eve. And at first he was horrified. But he’d come to know a few of them, if only a little, and to understand where they were coming from. And this woman was treating even people with homes and jobs as beneath her contempt.

“…And those awful kids, of course. Sitting on your lap! They probably drooled as they begged dear old Santa for lots and lots of the most ridiculous gifts.”

No, not all of the kids were awful. Tanner could think of one in particular that he wouldn’t mind seeing again. But Merinda was at last saying something sensible. He knew where this was going — she would soon launch into a denunciation of the commercialization of Christmas and the greed choking our great nation. Of course. He’d thought a bit about that over the past few weeks.

“And those kids were doubtlessly disappointed. Hell, even I was disappointed this year. Daddy is still struggling a little from the real estate bust a few years ago. And I was really eager for a decent car. My Mercedes is just so embarrassing. It’s such a conservative car, really, even in price, and the darn thing is a year old now. My friends all pity me. And my wardrobe. And…”

Tanner had a lot of practice tuning this sort of thing out, and tune it out he did. What was shocking him was the fact that he was no longer so eager to take her back to his place and get her in his bed. What in the hell was wrong with him?

Who gave a crap if she was shallow? What did it matter if she was beginning to bore him? Her body was still out-of-this-world erotic, and she had lips that would fit just right around certain body parts. Strange. Why did that thought now disgust him instead of excite him?

Dinner finished a couple of long-suffering hours later, and Tanner decided that as soon as he got the woman out of the restaurant, he’d rush her to his car, dump her at her place without so much as a goodnight kiss, and, pleading a headache, speed away.

“Tanner, you wouldn’t mind making one quick stop for me, would you?” she asked, her fingernails sliding up and down his forearm, her eyes fluttering once again. He’d been interested a few hours ago, but that look was now making him physically ill.

“Of course,” he said automatically, though he would rather chew on nails than spend any extra time in her presence. How had she been so interesting a month ago, and even at the beginning of their evening tonight, and then turn on him so quickly?

She named an address and Tanner’s eyebrows shot together, but he pulled out into traffic and headed in that direction. When he pulled up in front of an exclusive jewelry store that was normally closed at this time of night, his pulse picked up speed.

“Oh, thanks, darling. My daddy needs me to pick up his cuff links,” she said with a giggle. And she didn’t move from the passenger seat.

In any other circumstance, he would have gotten out of his car and gone to open the door for her. But this time he sat there, frozen. He last thing he wanted to do was to go with her into that jewelry store.

“Tanner?” she asked.

Dammit! Caving in, he apologized for the delay before stepping from his car and moving over to open her door.

“It’s okay. I enjoy sitting in your car, too. The seats are just so comfortable, much more comfy than what I have my outdated Mercedes.”

If she made one more comment about her car, which cost more than most people made in two years, he might “accidentally” push her off the curb into oncoming traffic.

“Welcome back, Ms. Raffel. Are you here to see that necklace?”

Tanner was somehow able to wipe all expression from his face, but his body was tense as he escorted Merinda to the counter. The salesman was practically salivating. Of course he was. He worked on commission.

“No, Clinton, I’m picking up my father’s cuff links,” she said with a pout. But a brilliant smile turned up her lips. “But since I’m here, can I see my necklace again.”

“Of course.” The man went into the back and returned with a velvet case, which he set on the pristine glass counter. When he flipped open the lid, Merinda gave a happy little gasp. Then she looked up and she met Tanner’s eyes with a calculating look.

He’d had enough.

Tanner had bought a lot of jewelry, and he knew it well. The necklace Merinda was so desperately trying to get him to buy her came to at least a hundred thousand dollars. That was a low-end bid. And a month ago, he’d have had no problem buying something like that if a woman was good enough in bed to be worth the high price tag.

He’d thought her beautiful. Sheesh. Now, all he could see was ugliness. How could anyone justify wearing something so extravagant for a single night when the streets were filled with people who would be grateful for a single piece of toast?

“Do you have the cuff links?” The cold authority in Tanner’s voice instantly stopped the conversation that Merinda was holding with the salesman.

Her lips turned down into a pout as poor Clinton put the necklace away. And then she and Tanner exchanged not another word as he escorted her back to his car and drove her directly home. He didn’t even need to plead a headache to get out of bedding this sad excuse for a woman. Her libido had frozen up when he didn’t buy her that flawless diamond necklace.

By the time he got back home that night and sat down looking down upon the city, Tanner knew he was in trouble. His world was shifting, and it wasn’t in a way he wanted it to shift. He only hoped it was only a temporary thing.