Let's Make a Deal

"You have to tell them to hold it carefully and gently. They must cradle it like a newborn baby. And they can't steal it as well. They absolutely cannot steal it okay? If they do it's your fault and you owe me new bottles."

Richard felt the vein on his forehead throb once again.

The moment they reached the top floor, Celeste examined the office space.

It was tastefully decorated in a clean minimalistic feeling. As she followed Richard into a central location, she saw a man and a woman dressed in full military fatigues respectfully saluting.

"At ease."

"Yes sir!"

The both of them responded loudly. Celeste watched with interest as the woman approached with a file in hand.

"Commander as ordered, here are the preliminary results on that…woman." The woman officer shot a quick glare a Celeste who waved casually in return.

"Good work I'll be meeting with her now." Richard turned to Celeste and asked, "Do you need any refreshments?"

"I'll take a hot chocolate with non-dairy milk and marshmallows, please. Oh, and a dozen warm chocolate chip cookies. Thank you" Celeste breezily replied. She stepped close to Richard and took the folder out of his hand while smiling mischievously at the woman.

"Commander?" the female officer asked incredulously while staring at her. How dare she snatch something from the commander's hand.

"Get her what she wants adjutant. And please get the champagne bottles out of my vehicle as well." Richard sighed before turning to Celeste, "You, stop making trouble."

"Yes yes, big boss." Celeste insincerely replied and threw a fake salute before continuing her browsing through the files. Once she finished glancing through the contents of the file, she handed it back to him and docilely followed him to his office.

The first thing she noticed was the large sleek ebony desk that took up a huge space in the room. It was centrally placed with two armchairs in front of it and a desk chair behind it. Completing the backdrop of the room was a wall of floor-to-ceiling windows that had a clear view of the financial district and the rest of the city. The rest of the room was lined with shelves filled with a different variety of knickknacks and books.

Richard sat in his chair while watching Celeste poke and prod around the room with no intention of sitting down. He thought that this was the first time in his life that a woman not only kept him waiting in his own office, she completely disregarded him as if he didn't exist. Although he wanted to order her to sit he just kept silent and watched and waited for her to tire herself out.

A knock came in at the door and at his orders, the adjutant entered holding a tray containing the hot chocolate and steaming cookies as well as a bag holding the champagne.

"Wow wow, you are so efficient." Celeste praised. She quickly walked over and took the tray and bag before carelessly placing them on the desk.

"Sir, any other orders?" the adjutant asked respectfully as she stood at her usual position at the side of the desk.

"Third parties should please leave the room thank you," Celeste said while munching on a cookie. She walked to the door and held it open.

The adjutant stared at Richard without acknowledging her words.

"Thank you adjutant. Please leave. I'll call you as soon as I need you." Richard echoed.

"Yes sir." The adjutant saluted and marched unwillingly to the door. As she passed, she shot a glare at Celeste who simply continued eating another cookie. Once the adjutant exited, Celeste slammed the door shut.

She then casually sat down and gazed at Richard.

"You mentioned a deal?" he urged.

Celeste was silent for a moment. She gently lifted the cup of hot chocolate, blew it on the surface, and took a sip, before sighing happily.

"Richard, let's get married."

"Pardon me?" Richard stared incredulously at her.

"You heard me, let's get married. Or rather let's have a really long engagement in which we break up after a couple of years. This is the best way to solve both of our problems." Celeste said seriously. She put down her delicious hot chocolate and began to pace around the room.

"Before you refuse, hear me out. You have my file in front of you, but I can summarize it for you. I am the illegitimate daughter of my father Edward Valentine. My mother died early, and my father's wife didn't want to raise me, so I grew up with my paternal grandfather. I had absolutely no plans to join the family business and wanted to do my own thing. But my half-siblings are relatively useless and are allowing outsiders to influence company matters. Gramps is literally begging me to join the succession race since he doesn't want his legacy to die to non-family members.

But the matter of fact is I am illegitimate; I didn't grow up in this circle and I don't have enough connections and power to be an effective candidate. My half-siblings ostracize me and make it difficult for me to complete tasks I get assigned in the company due to their influence. The only way for me to win this competition is to get outside influence."

At this she turned her head to stare at him, her violet eyes almost glowing from her intensity.

"This is where you come in. Wealthy, influential, and very handsome. You're the heir to your family and by all standards, you should have women throwing themselves at you left and right and you should be married by now. But you don't! I've been investigating, and it seems you have a stalker who is very powerful. The woman from the Girardi family has staked a claim on you, and everyone is too afraid to cross her and her family."

Celeste stalked towards him, threw her hair back, and slammed her hands on the table. "I'm not afraid. In fact, it's a win-win situation for me. Despite my promise to my grandfather, I don't give a rat's ass about this family business and I'm perfectly willing to let it burn to the ground if I can't take over. If I'm married to you and can use your name to sell myself I'll have a good chance of becoming the heir and win. If I can't and the Girardi causes the family business to be destroyed, it doesn't matter to me in the slightest. Either way Gramps company doesn't fall to outsiders, and I will have done my best. As for any ostracization and bullying? Being a pariah in high society? I'm already facing that already so who cares.

So what are your thoughts?"

"All I hear is benefits for yourself and none for me," Richard replied coolly.

"What do you mean? You're the number one beneficiary. We don't even have to be married for real. All you have to do is pretend to be my fiancée occasionally so I can sell your name. I don't need money or material goods, just the status of being the woman by your side. During this time, you can actively pursue somebody you like for real while I take away all the attention you would usually be getting from Titania Girardi! After all, that's why you've been forever alone for the last eight years right?"

Hearing her audacious words, Richard felt his anger rise up once again, but before he could interrupt Celeste continued speaking.

"Once our contract is done, you can happily marry the person you love, and we can go our separate ways so please consider it!"

Seeing that he still wanted to refuse, Celeste decided to use some soft tactics and sell her good points. She walked around the desk and hopped up to sit while looking at him and the prettiest smile she could make, "Richard, look at me. Although I am a bit pale and my eyes are a bit weird, I am very pretty. I will free you from the shackles of being repeatedly harassed by that crazy woman who can't take a hint. Okay? The best way to fight a pretty mean girl is to get a prettier mean girl. I promise that I will drive her completely crazy so that she can only think about me. How about it?"

Richard Carrington impassively observed the woman who was staring at him with a small smile on her face. Her purple eyes were focused solely on him and maybe it was because she was talking passionately but her delicate-looking face was flushed an attractive pink.

Since she was sitting down, her combat boots were exposed and the contrast between the angelic white hair and dress and the black boots that had recently roundhouse kicked a man made him want to laugh. He restrained it as he seriously considered her proposal. He hadn't planned on getting married anytime soon.

Although the Titania situation was annoying, since he was the man in the situation, biologically he had the advantage in waiting. But it was annoying having to deal with her tricks and he would much rather she focus her energy elsewhere than have to constantly guard any petty things she would do. And it would help keep the Carrington family elders off his back if he showed them he had somebody he planned on marrying. Then they would finally stop engaging with the Girardi family.

He re-examined the girl in front of him, noticing her extraordinary beauty. Maybe she would be able to do the job. It would all depend on her acting.

Seeing him just staring at her, Celeste reached out and waved her hand in front of his face.

"Richard, are you there?"

Richard grabbed her hand and gently placed it down. "Your proposal is interesting, but I still think the advantage is not enough for me. You get all the value of the Carrington name while all I get is a shield from Titania? I even have to pretend to like you even if I find someone I want to pursue a relationship with. And then do the work of hiding it from the world and Titania? Too much effort. I'm not opposed to the idea of the contract itself, but you have to do more. I need you to do more than just pretend, I need you to sell relationship so everyone believes it. What do you have to offer?"

"Hmmm, you're not opposed to the contract, but you want to sell the relationship. Are your parents pressuring you to bring a bride home to give them chubby grandchildren?" Celeste snickered at his sour expression before straightening up.

"Well, as I said before although I am a bit pale, and my eyes look weird, I am confident in my beauty and in oppressing others with it! I may be an illegitimate child, but my family background is pretty good. Of course, it is not as good as yours. I am a woman of many talents including martial arts, playing instruments, and sleeping with my eyes open. The only bad part about me is I like dad jokes and cannot sing to save my life. I am great with old people, children, and animals and I'm very good at making other women jealous. You won't go wrong getting into a fake relationship with me as long as you let me sell your name for my purpose as well. Naturally, I won't do anything to tarnish it."

Richard stared at the earnest expression in her face. Even though he knew she wanted to use him and his family name the same as anyone else, he had never had anyone openly say it to him like this. She had laid out clear terms and conditions and he had done the same.

"So? Do you agree?" Celeste asked when he stayed silent.

"Okay." Richard held his hand out for her to shake.

"Yay!" Celeste suddenly threw herself into his arms and Richard caught her before pushing her away.

"What the hell are you doing?"