A Cinderella Seduction. Karen Booth

       One

      The room was pitch-black and perfectly still, except for the ring of Daniel Stone’s cell phone. He rolled over in bed and blindly slapped his hand on the nightstand, fumbling for the device. He didn’t bother checking the caller ID. Despite the five-hour time difference between London and New York, his mother never worried she might be calling too early.

      “It’s 5:49 in the bloody a.m.,” he croaked, pushing himself up in bed. He switched on the lamp. The bright light shot across his room, and he squinted hard until his eyes adjusted. “What could possibly be so important?” The second of April, it was still dark out. His three dogs, Mandy, Buck and Jolly, were asleep at the foot of the bed.

      “Are you going to see spaces for the new store today?”

      His mother always jumped straight into business. She’d been this way as long as he could remember, but ever since his brother, William, had passed away, it was even more impossible to keep her content.

      “I meet the real estate agent at nine. Two spaces to see today. I’m hopeful.” That was a lie. Daniel was anything but optimistic, but he had to keep up the charade. It had been his idea to forge ahead with his mother’s long-held dream of a New York location of Stone’s, the family’s wildly successful department store chain based in the UK. He’d hoped it might finally make her happy. So far, it was doing nothing but making Daniel second-guess himself. He’d been in Manhattan for three weeks now and he’d only come up empty-handed.

      “You’ll ring me when you’ve had your look?” she asked.

      “Don’t I always check in?” Daniel hated that she still had so little faith in him. He’d worked for the family his entire adult life. Then again, he’d spent those years playing second chair to his brother. That changed a year ago, when William’s black Aston Martin hit a slick of oil on a road outside London and went careening off a bridge. The Stone family was no stranger to tragedy, but this one had hit especially hard.

      Daniel’s father now spent his days and a considerable chunk of the family fortune sailing the world. No boat was fast enough, no stretch of ocean too dangerous. He was currently somewhere off the coast of West Africa. His mother despised her husband’s new hobby and had become equally reckless with the family business. Daniel felt as though he was babysitting them both, an unfair situation given that they still felt he needed to prove his worth.

      “I trust you’re prepared for the Empire State fashion show this evening?” she asked.

      His mother was the micromanaging sort of boss. Never mind that he was thirty-four and this had become wearisome. “I am.”

      “Taking a date?”

      “I’ve been busy.” Daniel was not in New York to make friends. He certainly was not in America for romance. Women only made life complicated. No, he was here to prove to his parents that he had things well in hand and it was time for them both to retire. William might have been the golden boy, but Daniel refused to be the black sheep because of the argument he and his brother had had the night of the accident.

      “I’ll take that as a no then. Now, please tell me you remember your marching orders for this evening.”

      “I track down Nora Bradford and convince her to design a line exclusive to Stone’s.”

      “I can’t emphasize enough how important this is. Eden’s has not done right by her and her designs. She’s too talented to be selling an entire line of her gorgeous garments in a second-rate department store.”

      Daniel choked back a grumble. He hadn’t realized his mother still had an ax to grind with Eden’s until he’d already begun his initiative of opening Stone’s New York. If he’d know this much, he never would’ve suggested it. “It’s not second-rate. I’ve seen it.”

      “You’re wrong. And you know how much I despised Victoria Eden. The woman was vindictive.”

      Victoria Eden, the founder of Eden’s, had given his mother her start in retail years ago, grooming her to be the manager of the Eden’s flagship store in Manhattan. Eden’s had locations all over the world, and Stone’s, a business founded by his grandparents, was dying on the vine. His mother had been sent to New York to learn the secrets of Eden’s. But when Victoria found out, she not only fired his mother, she got even with his family by convincing suppliers to stop selling to Stone’s. It nearly crippled their company. A family feud was born.

      “I’m aware.”

      “Our move into New York has everything to do with destroying Eden’s. It does make me sad, though, that William isn’t here to be a part of it.”

      Daniel slumped down in bed. Jolly, the English bulldog that had belonged to his brother, crawled her way closer, curling up at his hip. Daniel gave her a scratch behind the ear, but she growled. She wasn’t always affectionate with him. Even Jolly thought he didn’t quite measure up to William. “Our best strategy is to focus on being Stone’s. May the strongest survive,” he said.

      “The Eden sisters are no competition. Those three know nothing about running a department store. One of them has been off in the south of France her entire life, doing nothing.”

      Daniel closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I need to take the dogs out. I’ll ring you later.”

      Daniel said goodbye and shuffled into the kitchen to put on some tea. With the kettle heating up, he strode into the living room. Through the tall windows, he watched the sun begin to creep up over the horizon, illuminating the edges of the lush green tree line of Central Park, tucked neatly inside the hard city landscape. This was a million-dollar view, the sort of vista most people only dreamed of.

      Still, something was missing. He probably felt that way because it wasn’t London. There was nothing tying him to this luxury high-rise or this impossibly busy metropolis. The sooner he found a location for Stone’s, got the store opened and staffed, the sooner he could head back to England and whatever future he could manage to build.

      * * *

      For the fifth time in as many days, Emma Stewart stared into the mirror, scrutinizing herself and her attire. Was this dress chic enough for the Empire State fashion show tonight? It was flattering. Tasteful and tailored. The gray midweight crepe fabric had a beautiful drape. Plus, she had on somewhat daring shoes—black Manolo Blahnik pumps that her half sister Sophie had instructed her to buy. The ensemble was befitting a woman with an executive position at Eden’s department store. But would it make the cut in a room full of designers, celebrities, fashion editors and models? That, she did not know.

      Emma took a final skeptical turn in front of the mirror, gathered her long brown hair and reached back to unzip the dress. It was just going to have to do. The fact of the matter was she was comfortable wearing gray. She might someday be a bolder, sexier version of Emma Stewart, but not today. She wasn’t ready. It didn’t matter that she now had a net worth of over a billion dollars, owned a swank apartment overlooking Central Park, and was CFO of the largest department store in the city. Three months ago, Emma’s checking account held thirty-four bucks, she was renting a tired one-bedroom apartment in New Jersey, had a fleet-footed brown mouse for an uninvited roommate, and was a junior CPA at a tiny accounting firm. She wouldn’t be at ease in a dress that might make her the center of attention, mostly because she’d never been the center of anything.

      She tucked the dress inside a garment bag in order to take