His Absolute Arrangement: A Scandalous Billionaire Love Story (Jessika, #1) (13 page)

He chuckled and opened the door for me, leading us outside.  "I make no promises.  I may have gone completely overboard."

A
sher didn't go overboard.  Everything was perfect, but quiet.  Or, it did seem a little overboard, what with everything going on in the ballroom in the main home, but the actual decorations were softer and less excessive.  The room itself was huge, commanding a certain sense of awe and amazement merely from standing in it.  A part of that—for me, at least—went away when I remembered what we'd done in here only a couple of hours ago, though.  When we first walked in, my eyes kept darting towards the table we'd used, half expecting someone would see something and say something.  No one did, though.

I don't know how they didn't, because Asher and I needed to clean up a bit after we finished with our... activities... but no one did and it worked out fine.

The rest of everything was a weird mix of fog and happiness, blurred excitement with too many wonderful things going on.

We mingled beforehand, speaking with everyone.  I met with friends I hadn't seen in years.  I tried to be confident and friendly, but a tinge of anxious worry seeped through.  Did they think I was fake now?  Did they think I thought I was too important, and that's why I hadn't spoken with them or spent time with them in so long?  Did they think all the media coverage and bad press was true?  Did they believe the articles and comments decrying me as a whore and a homewrecker?  No one acted that way, and I didn't have a lot of time to worry about it, because soon enough the ceremony began.

My father came, grinning from ear to ear, and Asher gave me up to him.

"I'm so happy for you, Jessika," my father said.

I smiled.  "Thank you, Dad.  I'm happy, too.  I missed you before.  If we could have, I would have asked you to walk me down the aisle then, but Asher and I weren't able to.  I'm sorry."

"Shh," he said.  "No need to be sorry.  I understand.  Just know that your mother and I are so proud of you.  We're really glad everything's working out."

I smiled and nodded, on the verge of tears.  I was so happy, I really was.  But, I just didn't know.  Why should they be proud of me, and what did they think was working out?  I hadn't done anything, I wasn't anything important.  I...

Everything began so suddenly and I did cry a little but I didn't have a chance to overthink it.  It didn't matter and my father hadn't meant anything by it.  He was proud of me because he was proud of me, and that was that.

He walked me down the aisle and I met Asher at one end of the ballroom.  The decoration crew had set up a makeshift trellis along the wall, with flowers set into the thin wooden beams.

A man played piano at the other end of the ballroom and our wedding began.  Vows, speaking softly, staring at Asher, looking into his eyes.  He smiled and I smiled.  The man presiding over our wedding spoke to the attendees.  It was shortened and not some lengthy, drawn out affair, but it seemed like it went on forever.

"You may now kiss the bride."

I barely remembered saying, "I do," but I knew I must have.  I knew it.  Asher held my hands in his, squeezing lightly, and I stepped towards him with careful, nervous footsteps.  His step towards me seemed better, more certain, and then he bent low and kissed me.  Chaste and soft, or as chaste and soft as we could be.  It wasn't too much, nothing anyone could really get too excited by, but it made me so happy.

Everyone clapped.  Asher and I kissed for what seemed like hours, but I knew it was only a few seconds.  I turned to smile, to see all of my friends, my family.

Everyone.

M
y stomach grumbled and I glanced over at the cake.  Asher had arranged for some large monstrosity of a cake to be delivered for the company party, but in actuality it was a wedding cake.  I smiled as I looked at it, so out of place and strange in the middle of a room filled with businesspeople mingling and having fun.  The focus was on Landseer Enterprises now, not the quick vow renewal ceremony Asher had planned for me, but we still had a wedding cake.

After going through with the ceremony, saying our vows, and kissing, Asher and I floated around the room, talking with everyone.  A few caterers wandered about with plates of finger foods and I ate a little, but not nearly enough to satisfy my hunger.  We usually ate dinner around this time and I'd only eaten a finger sandwich, a deviled egg, and a piece of cake.

There was more cake.  I tried to look away from it, but it kept calling to me.  The cake was big enough for everyone to have more than their fair share, and if I went for another piece there'd be plenty more for everyone else, but I'd already eaten a piece.  If I was the only one here, I'd have no qualms about having two pieces of cake, or maybe even three.  I wasn't the only one here, though.

I stood at Asher's side while he talked with some of the higher ups at Landseer Enterprises.  Managing to draw my attention away from the cake, I scanned the room for the one person I knew I could rely on to help me.  If we both got another piece of cake, it wouldn't look as bad, right?  That's what I was hoping, at least.

Except I didn't see Elise anywhere.  Or Lucent.  Strange.  They couldn't be hiding in any dark corners of the room, because there weren't any.  Bright lights from above illuminated the ballroom while music played through a sound system occupying the space where the wedding trellis had been before.  The decorators really did do a good job of changing everything up.

Some of my friends and family stood in one corner of the room.  Asher said they could stay and enjoy themselves, but they looked a little confused and disoriented.  Maybe I should go over there, instead?

My stomach grumbled again.  Damnit, Elise!  I needed her.  We had cake to get.  I couldn't just go get another piece on my own.  And then we could both go over to the corner with my friends and family and... do something.  Eat our cake, I supposed.  Maybe we could pretend we were delivering it to someone, then hide behind everyone, eat it, and go back for more.

I wished we had more food.  Dinner?  Anything, really.  There were olives and crackers and slices of cheese, but I didn't consider that much of a meal.  Granted, cake wasn't a meal, either, so I might have had a skewed perspective there.  Oh well.

The fire alarms rang.  It took me a moment to realize what was happening, but then Asher tugged on my arm.

"Jessika," he said.  "Something's wrong."

"What?  Are you sure it's not just a mistake?"

"No," he said, pointing to the ballroom windows.  "Look."

I looked.  Oh God.  This wasn't good.

Plumes of smoke rose and bounds of fire crackled and flickered in another section of the mansion.  The fire was more difficult to see from where we were, but the smoke billowed out of the windows and rose high into the air outside.  The alarms blared along with the music playing through the speaker system, making the ballroom seem surreal and far off, alert and mellow all at once.

People looked to the windows, saw the fire, and panicked.

Asher shouted above the cacophony.  "Everyone, please exit through the entrance you came in!"  Jeremy stood near the entrance, eyes darting between Asher and the emergency happening in another area of the mansion.  "Jeremy!" Asher yelled, catching his attention.  "Please show everyone to the front doors.  Let's exit the building and congregate on the lawn."

"Asher," I said.  "What's going on?"

"I don't know," he said.  "There shouldn't be fire like that.  Something's really wrong.  The fire alarms are going off, but the extinguisher system should be, too.  It's not, though.  Something's happened."

I glanced up and saw the sparkle of the silver fire extinguishing system dotted along the ceiling.  I'd seen them before but never really thought about it.  They weren't extremely customary in most homes, but this wasn't most homes, either.

Fear gripped me and my hunger vanished, but my stomach continued to churn and growl.  What was going on?  I couldn't handle this.  I didn't know what to do.  Asher put his arm around my waist and pulled me along with him, making me walk until I started doing it on my own.

"Is this...?"  My question never came out, but the images in my mind continued playing over and over, repetitive, flashing.  Someone had broken into my office today, had destroyed my sanctuary, and now they were here again.  It was unreasonable and irrational, but I couldn't get the thought out of my mind.  They wanted all of it, they wanted to destroy everything.  They didn't want me to feel safe anywhere.

"Jessika, everything's going to be fine," Asher said, but his voice sounded far off and alone.

I forgot to breathe.  I couldn't breathe fast enough.  The smoke, it was here.  In the air, blurring my sight, sweeping into my lungs.  I blinked and it was gone.  No, we were safe.  It wasn't here.  The fire was there, close but somewhere else, and smoke poured through the windows in another section of the mansion, but I was alright.  I was with Asher, he was keeping me safe, we were fine.

Everyone exited the building in a frantic rush, gathering on the lawn of the mansion grounds.  Once Asher and I got outside, I turned to stare at the flames.  I didn't want to look at them, but I did, and for whatever reason I couldn't pull myself away from them now.  There was something strange going on, though.  They weren't spreading, at least not yet, but they looked massive and huge.  They filled the windows, filled parts of the room, but it was hard to tell how far in they went.  Maybe it was superficial.  Just on the outside?

How stupid did that sound, though?  Yes, it's just the walls on fire, Jessika, nothing to worry about!  The screeching siren of a fire truck roared through the streets nearby and in a matter of moments the emergency vehicles began piling up outside the mansion.  The front gates were open; though who opened them, I didn't know.  Rugged fireman began assessing the situation and preparing to put out the flames, while policemen followed behind them, blockading the area from any interlopers or press crews.

And there definitely were press crews.  Media vans arrived with cameras and newspeople, men and women, setting up shop along the outskirts of the police barricade lines.  There were no actual barricades to speak of, but policemen stood at points around the perimeter of the Landseer estate fence, keeping outsiders at bay.

"Jessika, I'll be right back," Asher said.

He was leaving me.  I looked around in a rush, some gut instinct forcing me to search.  Elise and Lucent still weren't here, though.  I could see everyone now, recognized all of the Landseer employees that had been in attendance, plus my family and friends.  I saw Asher and the police and firemen, plus the news crews.

I saw everyone except Elise and Lucent.

I screamed, tears pouring down my face, fright destroying my thin facade of regularity.  "Asher, I... where... Asher!  Elise and Lucent!  Where are they?  What's going on?  Are they alright?  Are...?"

I didn't know what to say and I didn't know how to say it.  My knees trembled, then gave in on me, and I crumpled to the ground.  Asher looked stricken, standing near me but away, too, having been on the verge of going to speak with one of the police officers.  He saw me and he stared for half a moment before coming to me.  Falling to his knees, Asher scooped me into his arms, holding me tight.

I cried.  I cried into his chest and I cried into the open air.  I bawled, lost.  It didn't matter that it made no sense for Elise and Lucent to be trapped in the flames.  It was an entirely different wing of the mansion from where the ballroom was located, and they shouldn't have ever been there, but it didn't matter to me right then.  I couldn't think, couldn't stop my tears, and everything I tried to do or say resulted in a blubber of torment escaping my lips and streaking down my cheeks.  My black mascara left lines of tragedy across my face, like some ancient Shakespearian actor transcending time and space and coming to life inside of me.

This was too much, this was too hard.

Asher stood strong, resolute, carrying me with him.  "It's alright, Jessika," he said, his voice warding off some of my fear.  "They're fine.  I'm sure they're fine.  Everything's going to be alright.  It's just an accident."

I didn't know if he really believed that or not, but I desperately wanted to believe it right now.  The fire, though, the flames and smoke.  And they weren't there.  The extinguishers weren't working.  Elise and Lucent were missing.  I felt so terrible.  What if they died?  I'd been contemplating silly ideas like begging Elise to come with me to get another piece of cake and now for all I knew she might be dead.

Asher tried to calm me with words and his gentle, tight arms around me, but I couldn't stop myself from crying.

"They're... Elise... she's... Asher, Lucent is... where are they?"  I cried and cried.  My weakness consumed me and filled me with terror.

Something was happening.  I didn't know.  An ambulance.  Alarms, sirens.  Police and firemen.  The media.  Cameras, lights flashing, booms.  I spoke but my words made no sense.

A man from one of the ambulances approached me, speaking softly.  "It's going to be alright.  Everything's fine.  I'm just going to—"

Asher nodded.  Why was Asher nodding?  What was going on?

Something pricked my arm and I looked over, staring blankly at the ambulance man and his medical needle.  He'd stuck me with it.  I tried to protest but my eyelids drooped, closing soon after, and then I fell unconscious and didn't remember anything.

I
awoke with a start.  Where was I?  There were shadows above me.  A man loomed over me, dark and dreadful.  I opened my mouth to scream, but my lips and throat were dry and the only thing that escaped was a harsh croak.

"Jessika," Asher said, worry thickening his tone.  "Thank God.  They said you were fine, but I was so worried.  I didn't know what to do.  I've been waiting here."

"What..."  I tried to say, but my tongue felt like a burnt sausage in my mouth.

Asher grabbed a pitcher of water from my bedside table and poured me a glass.  He handed it to me and I drank deeply, letting the cool liquid wash across my parched tongue and throat and dribble over my lips.  I drank the entire thing and Asher poured me another glass.  I drank that, too.