CHASING TEMPTATION

Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

The shrill ringing of his phone was what made Byron wake up in. Groaning, he cussed the hangover. Damn! He should never have gone on a drinking spree with Philip. He reached for the phone, placing it against his ear without bothering to check who it is.

“Dude I’ve been calling you for ages now,” Philip’s voice came through the phone.

“Its bloody morning Philip,” he cussed, massaging his forehead.

“Well you better wake up, because man you are trending like s**t,”

“What? It’s the gay thing again?” He groaned.

“Nope. Apparently you are getting married,”

This time he sat up startled, his eyes flowing wide open. What could have possibly happened when he was drunk yesterday?

“I’m getting what?”

“You are getting married,” Philip echoed his earlier statement.

“What are you talking about? I’m not getting married,”

“Remember your cousin Vicky? She got drunk at some party yesterday and apparently posted a video saying you would be marrying Juliet. Its been trending like s**t since one in the morning,”

“Juliet? Snarky, Miss Perfect-I-got-it-all-covered Juliet or some other Juliet?”

“If you are referring to her best friend, then that is definitely the same Juliet,”

“Unbelievable! “He cussed, running a hand through his messy blonde hair. He had only met the woman once but her snarky attitude and how she turned down his advances would make it hard to forget her. No woman had turned him down before and in a way he hated how he had not stopped thinking about her for the last three months.

“What?” Philip questioned from the other end of the line.

“Remember that girl I told you turned me down and made me look like a damn fool? That’s the one,” his tone was sharp and a bit enraged. The other end of the line went silent for a minute.

“Dude, are you sure you are gay?” Philip questioned.

“Why?”

“You almost sound angry that she turned you down. I doubt if that is something a gay man would do,”

“No. I’m just angry Vicky would spread such ridiculous rumors about me getting married to some woman. You know what? I’ll call you later because right now I need to sort out this marriage s**t,”

“Sure,”

After the line went dead, Byron stepped off the bed quickly pulling on a pair of slacks and after a thorough cleaning of his teeth he walked into the living room. The quietness of his lavish mansion greeted him as he made his way into the kitchen. He was about to reach for the cereal box when the ringing of the doorbell disrupted him. Frowning, he traced his steps to the front door, unlocked it only to come face to face with his parents.

“Now what?” he snapped. It was never really a pleasure to see his parents. According to him, they were just a couple who tried to control his life.

“Good morning to you too son,” He almost rolled his eyes at his mother’s statement but held himself back at the nick of the time.

His father said nothing and instead brushed past him, walking straight to the living room. Wondering what exactly would have brought his parents at his house so early in the morning, he shifted a little on his feet. For goodness sake it was only six twenty in the morning.

“What are you guys doing here?” He asked as he followed his mother to the couch.

“Can’t we just come and see our son without him questioning it?” his mother went on.

“Look, if you are here to talk me out of making the big announcement that I’m gay then you are both here for nothing. I’ll be coming clean in Eddy’s Live Show tonight,”

“Actually no. For a long time I’ve watched you throw away every single thing that we gave you but you are not going to blow this deal for us. You are twenty four not seventeen Byron and by now I expected you to know what should and should not be done when it comes to business. I guess I had my expectations too high for you. So you are going to do exactly what I’m going to tell you. Now you are going to marry Juliet today and I really don’t care what you do with her after we’ve closed the deal but for now she is going to be your wife. Do me a favor and get her pregnant, we still need an heir for the company,” His father, an always serious man, announced rather sternly.

“What the hell! I’m not going to marry Juliet or anybody at that matter just because you have some f*****g deal that you find more important than your son’s happiness,”

“Language Byron!” His mother warned.

“I’m not going to marry her mom and you can do whatever the f**k you want,”

“You don’t want to go that way with me son because I will take back every single thing you’ve got, including this house and to the very last coin in all your bank accounts,”

“What? You can’t do that,” His father had to be joking.

“Oh, yes we can. So you are going to be a good little boy and marry Juliet in two hours. She’ll be here in an hour sweetie. And don’t you dare try anything because you know what would happen,” That was the last thing he heard, before his parents stomped out of the mansion.

What the f**k just happened? Did his own parents threaten to take away every single thing if he didn’t marry? f**k! That had been the one thing he had been avoiding the entire time and now it just got thrown in his face. What the hell was wrong with the universe? Every time he had a f*****g plan, it was backfired. Now he had to get married and just to the one girl he would never have dreamed of.