From Duty To Desire

"Marriage? You mean, like, a fake marriage?" ‘What era are we in again? The nerve of this man to propose marriage to someone he'd met only once is outrageous,’ Emily thought quietly to herself. The said man nodded. "In name only. I'm willing to offer you financial security, protection from your ex, Ethan, and a generous settlement in exchange for your agreement to bear me an heir." Her eyes narrowed, surprise and wariness etched on her face. "How do you know about Ethan, Mr. Worthington?" James leaned back in his chair, his expression neutral. "Let's just say I did my due diligence, Miss Lohan. I know about your financial struggles, your dedication to your work, and your... complicated past." Emily's cheeks flushed, her mind racing. How did he know? Had he done a background check on her? The thought sent a shiver down her spine. "I see," Emily said, her voice measured. "And you think a fake marriage will solve all my problems?" James nodded. "I can offer you protection from Ethan, financial security, and a chance to start anew. In return, I need an heir. It's a practical solution, Miss Lohan." Protection from a deranged ex? Financial security? How in the world did she get here? ~Few days prior~ James Worthington was one to reckon. Hardly impressed yet easily pleased, James sat on a pedestal of prestige, integrity and esteem in the business world. All the money in the world and he was never too materialistic. Owning just two cars, one for work and the other for personal use, and a modestly luxurious two-story building, James was anything but proud. As he sat in his office reading through a document, a call came in from his secretary. "Yes?" His eyes barely left the document. "You have a call from Mr Benjamin Locke of Min-i furniture on hold for you," the secretary said. "Send it through," He said, finally lifting his eyes to his ceiling-to-floor glass windows. "Worthington speaking," "Worthington! A pleasure to speak with you once again!" An overly jolly voice greeted him and James cringed, fighting the urge to let out an audible sigh. "The pleasure is mine, Mr Locke. To what do I owe this blissful call?" James asked as he stood up, placing the call on speaker and walking towards a fridge that had been pushed into the wall of the office. "Ah, come on James! We're friends, and friendship requires communication. Don't you agree?" He took out a flask and a wine glass. "Worthington to you. I don't mix business with pleasure, so we're not friends. If we are to be friends, you'd have to pull out of any business with me.” Opening the flask, he poured the contents into the glass before taking a sip. "Don't be like that. I'd be crazy to pull out of any business with you,” Benjamin said, letting out a chuckle. "Exactly.” One word reply, Benjamin understood. Clearing his throat, Benjamin continued. "Well, Worthington, I called to personally invite you to our charity event coming up on Friday. I'd have called earlier to do so but you know how it is as a CFO." Again, he laughed. "I wouldn't know, I'm the CEO," James smirked when Benjamin coughed. "Right, of course. We'd really love to have you at the charity ball, Worthington. The amputee kids need your help as much as ours.” "For the armless children of the world. You have my word, Locke." Finishing off the contents of his glass, James barely hung up on the sputtering man before his sister walked in. "Oh Jamie," Lydia sang, strutting towards him. "Did you miss me?" She grinned at him. "How was your stay in the Maldives?". He asked, kissing her cheeks as she gave him a warm hug in return. "Capital letter A-mazing. You would've loved it. But nothing can seem to get your mind off work, documents and meetings.” She pouted, placing her head on his shoulder and snatching the flask from his hand. "Work always needs to be done, Lydia." "Is my brother finally taking alcohol?" Opening the flask, she took a sip and immediately gagged. "When will you stop taking juice instead of alcohol? Or even coffee?" "When the sky rains juice.” He walked to his chair and sat down immediately, setting eyes on his previously abandoned document. Lydia groaned and sat opposite him. "You need to go out more. You're not an old man, James. You need to remarry and to do that, you need to meet ladies. I have friends who are dying to be with you, but you're too stuck on work to even see that —" "I have a charity ball to attend on Friday, and you'll be my plus one.” Lydia gaped. "I was talking about y—" "Take my card and get a new dress if you need to." "James, you can't j—" "Where do you plan on traveling next?" Her mouth shut, Lydia glared hard at her brother before giving up and smirking. "Vegas" "Done. Take my card and get us lunch, I'm starving,” He smiled at her and she rolled her eyes. "I hate you for always shutting me up. What's the ball for?" "Amputee kids," "Oh, they need a hand?". Before her brother could scold her, she was out of the office with his card, cackling. James cracked another smile before shaking his head. Since losing his wife three years ago in a boat accident, James' personal life had been shut off with his work life taking over completely. He never complained as this gave him less time to think about it. He never did grieve properly. His late wife was the luxurious type, his complete opposite. But she never did too much. If it weren't for her, their house would've been just as average as James wanted. After her death, James shifted everything that reminded him of her to a separate room and had it locked. He never stepped foot there since then. How they met would never be forgotten by James. He had knocked into her and had broken a vase she had just bought. She threw a fit and had him replace it immediately. After convincing her to have an "apology lunch" with him, they exchanged numbers and became friends who slowly became lovers. Sighing at the memories, James stood up abruptly and left the office. Edwin had his hands around a lady's waist. At the sight of his boss, he immediately pushed the lady away and frantically tried to put himself in order. James stopped, stared blankly at both. "Call for a meeting with the finance department right now. I'm waiting at the display room for everyone." With that, he walked away. Three intense hours later, the meeting had ended with everyone except James tired. "You really need to stop calling for impromptu meetings, Jamie," James' cousin, Maxwell, said and raised an eyebrow at him. Contrary to what people thought, James hadn't hired his cousin to work in the finance department because he was a family member. Max had always had stellar grades in math and proceeded to study it at Harvard. He was more seasoned in the area than anyone James had seen. Yet, he'd worked from the bottom, and he was two steps away from being the Chief financial officer, all his hard work. "It's to keep you on your toes," James replied, leading the way to his office. "If we were any more on our toes than we are, we wouldn't have the toes," Maxwell protested. "You're all doing well. You shouldn't be having any problems with impromptu meetings," James sat down and opened a file. Maxwell sat down opposite him. "I don't know why I'm surprised that you're working already, right after such an intense meeting." "Don't you have work to do, Maxwell?" "Nope. My boss gave me an early day." "I did no such thing". James denied glaring at his cousin. "You're not my only boss. Meanwhile, I thought Lydia was supposed to be back by now," He stood up and went straight to the fridge. "s**t!" James cursed and grabbed his phone, dialing Lydia's number. "You forgot about her, didn't you?" Maxwell laughed. He shut the fridge after finding nothing but juice. "Lydia..." "What kind of brother dumps his little sister for a meeting?!" Lydia berated from the other side of the phone. "I forgot, I'm sorry. Come back, let's have dinner instead,” he pleaded, massaging his temples. "I'm kind of busy right now, but I'll try to make it.” "You're shopping with my card, aren't you?" James groaned and Maxwell cackled. "You owe me for dumping me for your meeting. What was I supposed to do? Wait for you? I gained a little weight so I need new clothes to fit me," She whined and James rolled his eyes. "You looked just fine when you came back. And what about all the dresses in your walk-in closets?" He was confused but not surprised at that. "You're such a guy, Jamie. I'll see you for dinner later. Say hi to Maxie for me. Bye!" She made a kissing sound and hung up. James groaned again and glared at a laughing Maxwell. "Don't mind me, I'll be over there, sleeping." He walked over to a couch in the office and laid down there, ignoring James' glare. A few hours later, James was listening to his sister talk about her trip over a table of different meals. Lydia was always known to eat largely yet barely gaining whatever weight she talked about. She talked about the cute guys she saw and the places she went. James listened keenly as he watched his sister eat. He'd been full long before but occasionally sipped his orange juice. James laughed at the jokes she made at people that passed them. Times like this were cherished by James, extremely. He enjoyed eating with his sister because she didn't care about how she looked, and she ate a lot when she was hyperactive. It was a wonder how he kept up with her. A while later she was tipsy. "Alright, let's go home now. You're drunk" James said, wrapping an arm around her waist and lifting her up. "No, I didn't finish my crabs". She groaned, trying to grab the tray of crabs. James placed her in his car, securing her with the seatbelt before getting in the driver's seat. "You owe me crabs, big brother." She mumbled, shutting her eyes and yawning. "I owe you sense, little sister." After getting her into bed in his guest room and taking off her shoes, he made his way down the hallway to his bedroom, only stopping in front of a door with a "DON'T ENTER" sign hung up. The room held everything that reminded him of his late wife. He tried going in, tried to touch the door knob, but he couldn’t bear it. She was his greatest gift, and now she was gone. On the Friday of the charity gala, James spent until seven in the evening working, losing track of time. He only left because Lydia threatened to go on her own and was getting impatient with her brother's tardiness. "You're late!" Lydia grunted the moment he entered the house. She was clad in a lovely and sparkly black sleeveless dinner dress that covered her stilettos. Her hair was done in a messy bun and her make-up bold. "You'll catch a cold in that dress, Lydia," James commented, unbuttoning his shirt as he eyed her. "A compliment, an honest compliment for once," She complained, collapsing on a couch. "Fine. I guess you look.... good," He mumbled, climbing up the stairs. "I'm hungry, Jamie", She yelled after him, looking away from the two empty boxes that contained pizza previously. "James, I'm sure you weren't blind to the exclusive white Wang tux on your bed. Dry cleaned, might I add," Lydia scoffed, standing up and placing her hands on her hips, staring him down, disappointed that he had worn a plain black suit instead. James placed his hands on his hips too, copying her. "I am not going to that place dressed like a swan," "What are you talking about? That suit would've made you look like an angel." "Like any man would want to look like an angel. You might as well give me a pink tux, so I can lift one leg up and be a flamingo tagged on the papers." Rolling his eyes, he picked up his keys and left while Lydia gaped at him. Close to an hour later, they finally got to the hotel where the event was taking place, with both siblings bickering. "I can't believe you ordered pizza again. And we had to pick it up," James snapped at Lydia, who had a slice of pizza in her hand. "I don't see how that's a problem. The pizza place is on the road down here, we didn't have to take another turn or anything," She bit into the pizza and James glared at her, hard. Lydia remained unbothered. "We had to wait. Thirty bloody minutes, Lydia," He growled, leaving the car. "You're just impatient. It's not like you really want to be here," "I wouldn't be here then, Lydia. Just drop the box, you can have it later," He opened the door for her. When she only grinned at him in response, he started walking away towards the hall. With eyes wide, Lydia immediately dropped the box and wiped her mouth, grateful for the great make-up, and left the car. "Wait! Don't leave me here, alone," She whined, and he stopped walking. Smiling, she walked majestically towards him and looped her arm through his. "Let's get this party started!" She yelled. "Behave Lydia, it's not a party." James warned, and she grinned wider. He only shook his head before they passed through the doors and were submerged in a crowd of greeters and business predators. "Worthington! You made it! I was worried you decided not to come anymore." A pot-bellied man rounded them up. "I couldn't leave the armless children hanging," James replied with a straight face and Lydia snickered. "And who might this be?" The man asked, grinning at Lydia. "I'm his sister, Lydia Worthington. I heard the children needed a couple more hands, so I came along," Lydia grinned back. Red-faced, the man said a few more words before wobbling away. "I shouldn't have brought you along." "What do you mean? You started it," She took a glass of wine from a server. "Get him juice instead," She instructed. "You have my interest at heart. Who knew?" He yelped when she pinched him. "Don't be flattered. I wanted to see which woman would approach the only man drinking juice here," With that, she shifted from him. "I'll go make friends, you can sit pretty. I'm sure they'll come to you. I'll be watching from anywhere." Without waiting for any replies, she strutted away.