Page 70 of Once Upon a Prince

“Don’t play that card on me, it isn’t right or fair. I seriously doubt that Ella’s father asked you to make sure that we ended up together.”

“Not in so many words. He asked me to look after her, make sure she never wanted for anything, and that she was happy. You can give her all of that. I think she can give you the same things,” my father’s voice raised at the end of the sentence.

“She does make me happy,” I said. I didn’t want to tell him that she had given me everything I could ever want in a partner and lover. There were some things that you shouldn't say to your father.

“I can tell. Your position as CEO is all but assured. There are a few members that wanted to wait until they saw the financial statements from the last quarter before they officially decided. I’ve seen the preliminary reports and they are impressive. Even with that. I want us to be as prepared as we can be. Anything you can do to make yourself look more stable you should do.”

“Tell the board whatever you want. I’m not going to ask Ella to move in with me before I think we’re ready. I’m certainly not going to go ring shopping.”

“Ah, but you have considered both. I will take that as an excellent sign.”

“Not going to discuss it with you. I’m at the office and should go. If things go well after the meeting, how about we go out to dinner, the four of us to celebrate,” I suggested.

“The four of us? You mean with Ella? You want Ella to have dinner with your family? Yeah, definitely not serious,” my father said with a laugh. “I’ll always make time for my family and to spend with Ella. I’ll make reservations”

“You mean you’re going to call Ana and have her set it up.”

“Or that. See you soon. Love you,” my father said.

“Love you too,” I said and ended the call.

I got out of the car, my mind on Ella. I didn’t like the fact that she was going to confront her stepmother on her own, but I knew there wasn’t anything I could do to help her. I had my own meeting to go to. Just as she was doing what she needed to do to secure her happiness and hopefully our future, I was going to do the same thing.

Hopefully, if things went well, we would be celebrating soon. She had met my father many times but she hadn’t met Ana. I knew they would get along and I wanted them to be friends. I was looking forward to meeting Ara and Layla. Ella had talked about them so much I felt like I knew them. They were important people in Ella’s life and if things went the way I wanted them to between Ella and me, they would become important people in my life too.

My father was right, things were progressing and getting serious between Ella and me. I wanted to ask her to move in with me, I wanted to start looking at rings, or a place to live, or whatever she wanted to do. I liked my apartment but she might want something different. All I knew was that I liked having her in my bed and I wanted to make it permanent.

I wasn’t sure if Ella would be okay with moving in with me without a commitment from me. She was a modern woman and knew me well enough to know that if I was asking her to move in with me it was to progress toward something else. I knew I wanted to marry her, eventually, I just didn’t want to rush what we had.

“Well, hello there,” a woman said to me as I walked toward my building. She was standing by the front door as if she was waiting for me to open the door for her.

“Good morning,” I said and smiled at her.

I had never seen her before and I wasn’t sure if she was heading into my office building or why she was there. She was a mildly attractive woman with long blonde hair and bright blue eyes. Her hair and make-up looked like it had been professionally done as there wasn’t a single hair out of place and I could see the excessive amount of make-up she had on as she stood next to me.

There was something about her that immediately put me off. She looked at me as if she knew me, as if she wanted to talk to me, and for some reason I had a feeling whatever she was going to say wasn’t going to be something I would like.

I nodded at her and moved to open the door but she stepped in front of me blocking my path.

“It’s so good to see you again,” she said and put her hand on my chest. She dropped her head down slightly and lifted her eyes up to look at me. I had seen that move done countless times with other women. It was meant to be a seductive look but it wasn’t working with her, or it just wasn’t working on me.

“I don’t believe we’ve ever met,” I said and stepped away from her.

“Oh, silly me,” the woman said and tilted her head back and laughed. It was too animated, too forced, as if she was trying to put on a show. I couldn’t understand who she was doing it for. I did know that I wanted to get away from her as soon as possible.

“Easy mistake. If you would excuse me,” I said.

“Where are you going so fast?” she purred at me.

“Inside.” I didn’t let her say anything more but pushed past her, it might have been a little more forceful than I wanted it to be, but the woman seemed to be trying to prevent me from going into the office. More warning signs went off in the back of my head.

She turned as I did and put her hand on my shoulder, stopping my movement. “Don’t go. We were having a lovely chat,” she said. Her other hand went to my chest again. She made like she was going to lean in toward me and I stepped away from her.

“No, we weren’t. Good day,” I said and sidestepped her and walked into the office.

I didn’t turn around to see if she followed me but walked up to talk to Tom at the security desk.

“Is the blonde woman I was talking to still outside?” I asked.