His Secret Virgin E-Book

Michelle Love

• Herausgeber: Michelle Love
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

This seductive bad-boy billionaire took me by storm.

I knew he was the one the moment I saw him, and I was attracted to him right away.
He is exactly the kind of man that I need in my life.
A big and strong protector to keep me safe.
I know he is older than me, but maturity looks good on him.
The only thing standing in between us is my father and his daughters.
I hope we find a way to be together before our little secret is born.

Keywords: Guaranteed HEA, no cliffhangers, happily ever after. billionaire, bad boy, office romance, steamy romance, contemporary romance, love books, love stories, new adult, alpha male, romance, action, adventure, steamy romance, small-town secrets, hot, alpha hero. free book, free novels, romantic novels, and sexually romantic books.

Leseprobe

​​HIS SECRET VIRGIN

A Forbidden Romance

The Sons of Sin 3

––––––––

By Michelle Love

©Copyright 2025 by Michelle Love

All rights Reserved

In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All rights are reserved.

Respective authors own all copyrights not held by the publisher.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

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Blurb

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty- Six

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Thirty

His Secret Virgin Extended Epilogue

Emma

Christopher

Emma

Christopher

Sneak Peek for Nobody’s Girl

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

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​Blurb

––––––––

Sexy, powerful, and twice my age, he took me by storm.

From the moment I saw him, I knew he was the one to show me a world I’d never experienced.

I didn’t care that he was my father’s age; maturity looked good on this man.

And I couldn’t shake the feeling that he was as attracted to me as I was to him.

He had an ex-wife who didn’t want to let him go and a couple of daughters older than me who followed right along in their mother’s footsteps.

And my father was in my way.

With so much between us, would I ever get to feel him touch me in a way I’d never been touched in my twenty years? Would his mouth ever take mine in a savage kiss? Would my hips ever grind against his?

Would he be willing to fight with me for our love?

Chapter One

Christopher

Not long ago, the laughter of my children always managed to stir my heart in a way nothing else ever had. Even as adults, the sound of their laughter riding the wind made me smile. When they were young, I lived my life for my girls. But time passed, life happened, and somehow that all changed.

My role as the doting father seemed like eons ago; now I had nothing, no one. And I couldn’t be happier about it.

“Dad?” I heard my oldest, Lauren, call out. “We know you’re home. Don’t bother hiding from us. Ashley and I want to know all about how your forty-sixth birthday went yesterday.”

My forty-sixth birthday. Fuck, I’m old!

Sitting on the back deck watching the sun as it dropped out of the sky, I didn’t particularly want to hear anything my darling daughters had to say. They’d just come back from a weekend shopping spree with their bitch of a mother. I didn’t want to hear a thing about my ex-wife.

Five blissful years of being happily divorced had gone by, and I looked forward to many more years of paradise without that banshee in my life.

“Dad?” Ashley called out in her sing-song voice. “Where are you? Come out, come out, wherever you are.”

“On the deck, my loves.” I figured I might as well let them say their piece and get it over with. I hoped the glass of Scotch I held in my hand would help steady me for their jabs.

High heels clicked over the wooden floor as my always fashionable daughters made their way out to me. Lauren, at twenty-five, had done little with her life thus far. It seemed she planned on majoring in purchasing all the clothing possible at the College of Daddy’s Credit Card.

“There you are.” Shuffling through her enormous purse, she fished out a yellow envelope. “From me, Daddy. Happy forty-sixth birthday.” She punctuated her sentence with a kiss on my cheek.

“Thank you, my dear.” Opening the envelope, I found a blue card inside. Fireworks covered the front of the card and exclaimed that I should have a happy one. Inside, there was a signature, Lauren Taylor, and nothing more than that. “Well, it’s only a day late.” And a dollar and sentiment short. “Thank you, darling.”

Ashley took a seat across from me and then smoothed her hand over new denim jeans that fit her like a glove. “I didn’t have a chance to get you a card.” Her narrow shoulders moved with a shrug. “But you already have everything money can buy, so that makes it pretty hard to buy gifts for you.”

“Sorry about that.” I found it odd that my youngest daughter would try to make me feel guilty for not needing anything.

Ashley, at twenty-three, wasn’t exactly a scholar either. Unfortunately, Lisa, their mother, never taught them much in terms of ambition. My ex’s master plan was for our girls to do what she did: find a man, train him right, help him become a success, and then ride his coattails.

Lisa had done that for twenty-one years before I found out she’d been cheating on me throughout most of our marriage. I had been unhappy with our marriage for at least five years before I found her in our bed with another man.

Whether it was wrong of me or not, I was happy to have a legitimate reason to divorce the woman who’d made my life hell for what felt like an eternity.

Lauren took a seat at the table, grinning like the Cheshire Cat. “Mom said we should get you a cane for your birthday, old man.”

I didn’t find that so funny.

“I suppose it must be all the surgeries that made her forget she’s a week older than me. But when you have to go in once a year to get your face lifted and every couple of years to get your fake boobs pulled up, I guess you forget how old you really are.” I knew it was a shitty thing to say, but I didn’t care.

“Put your claws away, Dad!” Ashley said with a smirk as she raked her hand in the air. “She told us to tell you happy birthday from her and that she would like nothing more than to join us some weekend here at the lake.”

It would be a cold day in Hell before I invited that woman to my home.

“Um, no.” I took a sip of the Scotch to stop me from saying anything else.

I prided myself on keeping most of my unkind remarks to myself, trying not to vent to our daughters about their shitty mother. Today felt extra challenging.

When I left Lisa, I left her with the home we’d raised our children in. She could have that place. As far as I knew, she’d screwed men on every surface of that mansion. I wanted nothing to do with it.

Rushing to find a place of my own, I’d bought myself a small four-bedroom, five-bath home in Manchester. I had to stay in New Hampshire; my company demanded too much of my attention not to.

After the divorce was finalized and I was no longer afraid that Lisa would get half of everything I owned, I bought a large, stately mansion on the shores of Massabesic Lake, just outside of Manchester. Settling down in my own house, I was finally able to feel like myself again. It was my very own mansion, which I could furnish and decorate as I saw fit for once and not how my wife dictated.

I wasn’t in the new lake house long before Lauren came to me, asking if she could move in. Watching the unending parade of men through her mother’s bedroom was getting old, even for her.

Not long after she moved in, Ashley showed up with her driver struggling to unload all of her things. “I’m moving in, Dad.”

“I see that.” With a nod, I’d let her move in; life returned to a bit of the routine I’d left behind when I moved out of our family home.

Having them in the house wasn’t nearly as bad as it had been with their mother around to stir things up. The girls didn’t bicker with each other as much as they had when we all lived under the same massive roof. They got along quite well, as a matter of fact. We all did.

Of course, I didn’t try to make them do much of anything. They came and went as they pleased. Each had their own credit card that I would pay off each month.

They weren’t completely spoiled. I did set limits on their cards. Only fifty thousand a month. If they met their limit, then they had nothing more to spend until the next month came around.

I thought it fair enough.

Somewhere deep inside, I knew I should point my girls in some kind of direction. I wasn’t getting any younger, and I wanted to make sure my girls could take care of themselves if anything should ever happen to me.

“I think you two should start thinking about college or a career or something.”

“Why?” Ashley asked as she rolled her blue eyes. “We’re just kidding about your age. You’ve got tons more time. No reason for us to get all worried about money right now.”

Lauren smiled at me as she batted her long, dark, fake lashes. “Yeah, Daddy, why start worrying now?”

Taking another sip of Scotch, I wondered how I could possibly explain something as profound as doing a job because you should be skilled in at least one thing in life. But nothing came to mind. “Okay, forget it.”

“Even when you do kick it, we’re set.” Ashley reached out, taking the glass out of my hand. “You should stop drinking and maybe take up yoga so you’ll live longer.”

I took my glass back. “I don’t need yoga when there’s alcohol to help me relax after a tough day at work.” Inspiration struck. “See, that’s what I’m talking about. You girls should know how it feels to do a good day’s work, to reap the rewards from doing that. It feels great to accomplish something. To set goals and to be able to see them through—it’s more than satisfying.”

“Um, no,” Lauren spouted. “Mom says that we don’t need to work. She says we’re always going to have money. She made sure that you made tons of money so she would never have to worry about it. And that money will continue to make more money until the day you die, and then it will still keep growing because of the investments you’ve made.”

My God, these girls are spoiled rotten!

Pinching the bridge of my nose, I had to remind myself that I’d married their mother at the tender age of twenty. I’d been a dumb kid who’d fallen for the first female willing to suck my cock. Granted, she’d only done that while we dated. That shit went out the window as soon as my ring was on her finger.

So many things went out the window once I said, ‘I Do.’

The sweet way she’d say my name in her quiet, shy voice was, “Christopher, come here, baby.” That all changed. I was no longer her beloved Christopher; she’d started calling me Chris after our vows were said. Sweet names were no longer part of the marital package. And I didn’t understand why.

After our graduation, Lisa began the daunting task of finding just the right job for me. I’d never thought about working in the food industry until she found an opening at a wholesale food company. I came in as a manager, and after I’d climbed the ladder to the top, she came to me with a new idea.

“Why not start your own company and take this one out of business?” she’d asked me one day. “I’ve made sure our credit is excellent. You could get a business loan and start building up our company as soon as you want to, Chris. What do you say?”

I’d said yes. I did it all, just like she told me to. But I didn’t make her my partner in any of it. Thank God!

She might’ve had the idea, but her involvement and interest in the company ended there. As long as I was bringing in money, she didn’t care about anything else.

My divorce lawyer had been damn proud of me for leaving her out when I’d asked him to help me keep as much as I could with the divorce. Lisa had wanted half, and she wasn’t budging on that.

Thanks to her infidelities, she got way less than half. I gave her our home, and she got to keep the three cars I’d paid for. In the end, all I had to provide her with was one billion dollars from my company, Global Distributing.

I counted myself lucky to have gotten away only losing that much. But I had to admit, she took much more than money from me. My ability to trust—to love—had crumbled along with my marriage. My desire to have a woman in my life was gone too. All I really wanted was to live happily ever after—alone.

Well, my girls could be around. But no romance was required, or even desired, in my life. Too many years of living with a self-serving narcissist had taken its toll on me. Love, lust, and even attraction were lost to me.

“Daddy, did you hear me?” Lauren asked.

I hadn’t heard a word as I’d drifted off in my own thoughts. “No.”

“I said that you should think about letting Mom come over for at least a cookout or something. You know how much she’s always loved this lake. We could take her out on the boat. She’d love that. And she really wants to be your friend, Dad. She talked about you all weekend.” She patted my hand. “Please.”

I always had a hard time saying no to my girls—except when it came to their mother.

“No way in Hell, precious. I don’t want your mother to come here. This is my place. One day, when you fall in love, you’ll understand better. I don’t hold any grudges or hate in my heart. That said, I don’t want your mother involved in my life in any way.”

Ashley swiped blonde locks that were so similar to her mother’s out of her face. “See, I told you, Lauren. He can’t get over what she did to him.”

“Oh, I’m over it.” I got up to go inside, needing to leave the whole conversation behind me. “And I want to stay over it. Night night, girls.”

Aside from my daughters, women weren’t something I wanted in my life, friend-wise or romance-wise.

I’m done!

Chapter Two

Emma

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On my twentieth birthday, my dad had terrible news. Instead of coming home with the usual: a chocolate birthday cake and a bouquet of balloons, he came home empty-handed. The look of despair on his face told me that there were more important things to worry about than a missing cake.

“Dad, are you okay?”

He shook his head and looked around the living room. “Where’s Mom?”

“In the kitchen, cooking shrimp alfredo for my birthday dinner.” I didn’t like the way my father was acting. He’d never looked so bad. “What’s wrong?”

Walking past me, he said, “Come on, I only want to say this once.”

I followed him to the kitchen, where my mother took one look at him and then dropped the spoon she’d been stirring with. She walked straight to him, hugging him tightly.

“Sebastien, what’s happened?”

“The warehouse is shutting down.” He sighed deeply. “The company went bankrupt. No one from corporate has ever mentioned any financial problems. I just got a call from the main office; I was told to tell my people that today is their last day and that it’s my last day too. Someone came from the bank to lock up the warehouse. It’s been repossessed.”

The shock made me feel numb. My father had been with that company since before I was born. I didn’t understand how an entire company could just up and go out of business like that.

“I guess I should tell Laney at the boutique that I need to work full-time.”

Mom let Dad out of the hug and looked at me with drooping eyes. “Yes, Emma, we’ll all need to do whatever we can to make ends meet until your father can get another job.”

“Celeste, you know I’m not going to find a job that’ll pay me as well as the warehouse.” Slumping over, he made it to a chair and sat down. Putting his head in his hands, he groaned. “I’m forty-six years old; no one’s going to hire me.”

“Well, that’s ageism,” my mother remarked. “I’m only a year younger than you, and I bet I can get a job. Besides, I’m sure there are a lot of managerial positions at any number of companies around here.”

“Not one that pays what mine did.” He lifted his eyes to look around the kitchen. “The mortgage payment alone will wipe out what’s left in our bank account. Then there are the three car payments. The other bills will have to be paid too. I’m afraid we’re going to lose everything, Celeste. You, Emma, and I can all go to work doing whatever we can, but it won’t be as much as I’ve been making.”

“You’re talking like we’re doomed, Sebastien.” Mom went back to the stove to stir the sauce.

I jumped in to help her, and I could see from her expression that Dad’s words were weighing heavily on her despite her attempt at optimism.

“Here, Mom, let me help you.”

Handing me the spoon, she went to the fridge and pulled out a beer. Popping the top, she placed it on the small kitchen table in front of my father. “Here, drink this. Hopefully, it’ll settle your brain a bit. We’ll figure things out, honey. I know we’ll be fine.”

After chugging the beer, a thing I’d never seen my father do, he put the empty can on the table. “Not the way we’ve been living, we won’t.”

“So, we downsize,” Mom said with a positive attitude. “It won’t kill us to trade our cars in for cheaper ones. Or better yet, we can trade all three in and just get one.”

Dad looked like he wanted to cry. “I don’t want you and Emma to lose your cars.”

“I don’t mind,” I chimed in. “I’ll do anything to help out, Dad.”

He smiled, albeit weakly. “You’re a good girl, Emma. My little baby girl.”

“I’m kind of not a baby anymore, Dad. I did turn twenty today, you know,” I reminded him.

“You’ll always be my baby girl, Emma Hancock.” Getting up, he hugged me and kissed the top of my head. “Happy birthday, sweetheart. I’m sorry I forgot to pick up the cake and balloons.”

“There’s no need to apologize. I understand completely.” I kissed his cheek, which was bristly with a five o’clock shadow.

Letting me go, he went to the fridge and pulled out another beer. “I wish I could tell you that I’ll make it up to you, but we’re going to have to watch every penny until I figure something out.”

After a solemn birthday dinner, I walked next door to visit my best friend, Valerie. She and I were the same age and had lived next door to each other forever.

She met me at the front door with a small pink bag in her hands. “Happy birthday, Emma!” She held it out to me. “I got you a little something.”

I felt lucky that my birthday had fallen on a Friday. Otherwise, Emma would’ve been at her dorm at Columbia University in New York and not at home. “You didn’t have to get me anything.”

Placing the bag in my hands, she went on, “I know that. Just open it.”

I pulled out a small box and opened the lid to find a charm for the bracelet she’d given me when I’d turned fifteen.

“An angel?” I looked at her for an explanation.

“Yes, I wanted you to have an angel to look over you.” She ran her arm around my shoulders and then pulled me to walk with her to the back patio of her parents’ house. “You see, Emma, I feel like you need some type of guardian in your life. You seem to be kind of stunted.”

“Stunted?” I asked, feeling a little surprised by her words.

“Yes, stunted.” She let go of my shoulders to take a seat at the patio table.

I sat down as well and then looked at the little angel with a sparkling clear crystal set in the middle of it. “This is very nice, Val. Thank you so much.” I was trying to put an end to this conversation, wanting to move on from that awkward ‘stunted’ comment.

But she came right back to it. “Emma, what do you want to do with your life?”

And there it is.

“I work at the boutique, and I like doing that.” I put the angel back into the box and back into the pink bag before placing it on the table, feeling a little prickly.

“Working at a boutique isn’t a career, Emma.” Her hands settled on her lap, psychiatrist style—not that Valerie took those types of classes at Columbia. She was majoring in English with the goal of becoming a teacher.

“And what does that mean, Valerie?” I knew what she meant; she meant that I should go to college, too.

“It means that you need to broaden your horizons, and that means getting an education.” Her dark eyes peered into mine. “If you don’t want to go the traditional route, you can always get some type of certification. That never takes long.”

“I don’t have anything I want to get certified in.” Then, I thought about my father’s job predicament. “Plus, Dad lost his job today. He can’t pay for me to take any classes right now. I don’t have any money saved, and even if I did, I would use it to help out my family.”

She looked shocked. “Your dad lost his job?” 

“Yeah.” Fingering the fringe of my cut-off denim shorts, I felt an odd sensation in the pit of my stomach. “I think there are a lot of changes ahead for my parents and me.”

“I’m so sorry, Emma.” She looked genuinely sorry, too. “If I would’ve known that, I wouldn’t have brought this up. It’s just that you’re twenty now. A grownup. Not a kid anymore, you know?”

Valerie had always looked out for me. I knew she meant well, but she didn’t understand me for a person who’d known me nearly my entire life.

“I know I’m not exactly a kid anymore. I just don’t know what I really want to do with my life yet. I like where I work now. And Laney, let me help out by ordering the merchandise. I really like that part of the job. Besides, some people do work in retail their whole lives—and there’s nothing wrong with that.”

Slowly, she nodded. “Maybe you could be a buyer for a larger store like Macy’s or something?”

She always did think big. But I’ve never cared about flash or grandeur. “I like the size of the store I’m working for now. You might not believe it, but making sure I pick out things that will sell in that small of a shop isn’t exactly easy. The pressure of buying for a department store like Macy’s would just be too much.”

“Pressure isn’t such a bad thing, Emma.” She looked over the thick black frames of her glasses, giving me the teacher’s expression she was starting to perfect. “Sometimes pressure helps build perfection.”

“You just made that up, didn’t you?” I laughed as she shrugged. “I knew it.”

“All I’m saying is that pressure is inevitable in life. Stop running away from it and embrace it.” She pushed the glasses back up on her nose. “I think that’s why you’ve kept all the boys at a distance, too. You’re afraid of the pressure they’d put on you if you let any who’ve made googly-eyes at you over the years do more than speak for two minutes.”

Rolling my eyes, I had to correct her. “I give them all at least three minutes of my time, Val. You know that.”

Shaking her head, she laughed, but she wasn’t done with me. “A guy needs more than three minutes to get to know you—or you, him, for that matter.”

“I haven’t wanted to get to know any of the guys I’ve met like that. And I don’t want any of them to get to know me.” Besides, there was a bit more to it than that. I sighed. “First of all, you should know something—I haven’t talked about it because, frankly, it’s embarrassing. I promised my father that I would let him talk to any guy I find myself interested in before ever going out on a date.”

The look of pure confusion on her face told me that most girls didn’t have the same problem I had. “Why would you make a promise like that, Emma? What is this, the 1950s? Are you insane?”

“No.” But the way she looked at me had me rethinking that assessment. “Look, Dad knows me. He trusts me, and I trust him. And I do believe he has my best interests at heart.”

“You’re fooling yourself, girl.” She leaned back in the chair, fanning herself. “You’re a grown woman now, Emma Hancock. You’re a beautiful young woman, too.” She leaned up, propping her elbows on the table, then her chin on her palms. “Maybe it’s time you start embracing that. Hell, you’re twenty, and I haven’t even seen you wear makeup. Let me put some on you before you leave.”

“Oh, no.” I shook my head. “Dad would have a fit.”

Rolling her eyes, she added, “I bet he would. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t wear it if you want to. Do it a little at a time, and I bet he won’t even notice it.”

I knew he would. “No. Especially not right now. I’ve never seen him look as awful as he did when he came home today, Val. I mean it. I can’t go shaking things up now.”

Her lips pulled up to one side as she scrutinized me. “There will come a time when you will have to shake things up, little Emma Hancock.”

Well, today will not be that day.

Chapter Three

Christopher

A soft rapping on my office door pulled my attention away from the computer screen. My assistant, Mrs. Kramer, opened the door, letting herself in.

“Mr. Taylor, how are you doing this morning?”

“Fine. I’ve received an interesting e-mail this morning. I may be on the next flight to China if the Skype meeting I’d like you to arrange works out.” I turned the screen around for her to see. A handful of farmers wanted to grow organic crops, and they wanted my company to distribute them. Before I agreed to anything, I’d have to visit the farms myself. They would have to prove to me that their products were truly organic, or I wouldn’t put them on my lists.

Sliding the tortoiseshell-framed reading glasses onto her thin face, she read the e-mail. “This is interesting.” Turning my keyboard around, she tapped away on it, forwarding a copy to her e-mail. “I’ll get on this meeting right away.”

“Great.” Sitting back, I put my hands behind my head. “A trip, even if it’s just a quick business trip, will do me good. I’ve been in the office way too much the last few years.”

“You have.” She walked over to the coffee pot to make me some of her famous coffee. “But then again, you can’t deny that focusing on work helped you forget about all the crap that was going on in your personal life. That’s much better than turning to alcohol or something even more destructive like so many people do when dealing with divorce.”

“Well, there is that. But I probably drink a bit more than I should, too. I’m merely human.” I thought about how different my life had been since leaving my wife. “But then again, I don’t drink to drown my sorrows—I don’t have any of those anymore. I do it because I can without anyone trying to make me feel guilty.”

Not one to pry much into anyone’s personal life, Mrs. Kramer quickly turned the conversation. “Mr. Taylor, I’ve been kind of falling behind on my work lately.”

“I hadn’t noticed.” The woman never fell behind on anything. “Is everything okay?”

“Sure.” She brushed her graying hair back after turning on the coffee machine. “It’s just that you keep coming up with new projects so quickly that it’s getting hard for me to keep up.”

I had to remember that the woman was well past the age of retirement. But she had many good years left in her and wasn’t the type to stay home and knit. “Should I slow down some?”

“No.” She shook her head and then went to look out the window. “This company needs you to keep on doing what you’ve been doing.” She turned to look at me again. “I love my job. I want to keep working until I can’t anymore. With my husband gone now, being home doesn’t feel the same.”

Mrs. Kramer’s husband had died two years earlier. The woman had handled herself professionally throughout the whole ordeal.

“I’m sure it doesn’t feel the same.” I nodded to her.

The coffee machine dinged as the brew filled the cup below it. She watched the dark liquid as it poured into the mug. “It never will.” Her eyes cut to mine. “So, you see, I want to keep this job as long as you’ll let me. I know a younger person could keep up with you a lot better, Mr. Taylor. But I’m going to need an assistant of my own if I’m going to be able to do it.”

“Of course, you can have an assistant.” I got up to grab the coffee, beating her to it. “Head to human resources and get them on it.”

Her expression told me she felt relieved. “I was afraid you’d say you couldn’t do that for me. It seems I’ve been worried for nothing.”

It made me feel terrible that she’d think such a thing. “Mrs. Kramer, if you ever need anything at all, you just need to ask. I’m not trying to work you to death here. And I’m not trying to boot you out, either. I want you to work here for as long as you want to. You’re invaluable.” It was the truth. “But don’t forget, you’ve got a pretty great retirement here. If you feel like you need to stop working, then you do what’s best. Life’s too short not to live it the way you want to.”

She nodded in agreement. “For now, I want to continue working. And getting an assistant will make things better—take some of the pressure off me.” She made her way to the door. “I’ll get to work on that meeting. It may take a day or so to get anything set with our time difference. I’ll let you know as soon as I’ve got it all hashed out.”

As she left, I thought about what it would be like when she wasn’t my assistant anymore. Perhaps her new assistant might one day take her place.

I jotted a quick e-mail to her, telling her I wanted to be involved with the hiring of the new assistant. If that person could one day work for me, then I wanted to make sure I could get along with them, too.

I’d become picky about the people I surrounded myself with since the divorce. Too many of my ex-wife’s lovers were men I thought of as friends. And too many of the women that I thought were friends stopped talking to me in favor of maintaining a relationship with my ex. To be honest, I’d lost a bit of my faith in people as a whole.

Life hadn’t turned out the way I thought it would. The relationship I put all my hopes and dreams into sank like the Titanic. My daughters had grown into shallow people. My friends were all but gone, as I’d cut them out one by one. Life wasn’t going anywhere near the way I’d planned it.

Even though things hadn’t worked out the way I’d thought they would, I wasn’t sad, upset, or mad about it. I’d grown quite content with my life.

So what if my daughters were shallow? That was their life, not mine. I still loved them just the same.

So what if I made the mistake of marrying a woman who eventually cheated on me? It didn’t ruin me. At least not completely. I still had my company; I still had my wealth.

And as far as cutting out the friends I’d had, I hadn’t really lost anything. During my marriage, I’d surrounded myself with people just like Lisa. And who needs people around who are just trying to use you?

There wasn’t anything for me to complain about. My company thrived. I spent my time spent wisely. And I had nothing or no one to worry about.

My daughters did make that part easy. Neither of them ever got into any trouble. No drugs. No partying like so many other rich kids. No promiscuous behavior. They could’ve been just like their mother, and that would’ve given me a reason to worry. But they didn’t act like her in that regard. Thank God!

However, I knew if I ever tried to bring a woman around, there’d be trouble in my little slice of paradise. My daughters would turn into nasty little weasels then. I knew that for sure.

They weren’t shy about telling me that it was their mother or no one for me. And not even their mother unless she turned over a new leaf.

Funny how they’d turned the tables on me. As their father, I should’ve been the one to give them hell about who they dated. But I stayed out of their love lives, preferring to remain ignorant on that score.

It might’ve been nice for the girls to butt out of my love life. But I didn’t have one, so it never occurred to me to tell them off. And the fact that I had no desire to date made the idea of putting up a fight with my kids feel like an unnecessary chore.

Things were simple, and I adored simple.

Simple things always appealed to me. I liked Scotch neat; my favorite color was white, and hands down, I always prefer a peanut butter and strawberry jelly sandwich over any other food.

As I sat there thinking about what a simple man I was, a bit of anger began to seep in to me towards my ex-wife. She didn’t have it bad with me. We rarely fought about anything. I let her have her way all the time. I gave her expensive gifts when she left hints about what she wanted. And I gave her everything and then some in our bedroom.

The slightest zing of pain shot through my heart.

With a sigh, I released the pain, letting it all go. “No reason to be hurt by what she did, old man. Selfish people only ever think of themselves. Don’t take it personally.” I’d made it through all the divorce ugliness by using those words.

Not taking things personally was the key for me. Those words had kept me sane for the last five years, and I had a firm belief that they’d continue providing me with peace of mind for years to come.

Another soft knock at my door, and Mrs. Kramer peeked her head in again. “Excuse me, Mr. Taylor. I wanted to ask you if you thought you could come back here around nine tonight for that Skype meeting. Mr. Wong and Mr. Lee will be available at nine in the morning, Beijing time.”

“That’s not a problem at all. Set it up.” Getting out of my chair, I put on my jacket. “I’m going to go home and get some lunch. I’ll take the rest of the day off, then come back up here for the meeting.”

“Since I’ll have to be here for that meeting, too, may I also take the remainder of the day off, sir?” She looked at me with hope-filled eyes.