Compromising Kessen (Vandenbrook #1)(3)

Taking a deep breath she thought aloud, “I can do this.” Hadn’t she survived four years at Harvard and an excruciatingly long year at Yale for her master’s in business? Surely she could survive a Season in London.

She did a mental calculation of how long the flight would be and moaned.

Planes did not sit well with her. Ever since 9/11 she couldn’t get it out of her mind that someone might have the audacity to hijack her plane and crash it into something for the sake of religion.

“You’ll be fine,” she told herself.

Her thoughts were too scattered for her own good. What were they wearing in London now? Wasn’t it rainy there? She packed what she could, then decided she would go shopping with her dad’s credit cards if need be. He deserved some sort of punishment, even though a monetary hit would do nothing to his mounds of funds.

Technically, they were her cards anyway. She had been an employee since her graduation a few years ago. She wasn’t the type of girl to use company cards and not somehow pay her father back. But at least it would make her feel better to imagine his face as she scanned and emailed him the bill. Naturally, she would send him a check within the same day to pay for everything.

Being the owner and CEO of Newberry Tea and Coffee had its perks. It was nearly as well known as some of the largest coffee companies in the world. Just last year they were in a bidding war over the coffee rights of some of the smaller areas of Colorado. A major competitor ended up winning but not before they attempted to buy out Newberry and Company. They failed and, at the same time, received lots of bad press for trying to take out such a thriving company.

The Newberry brand was different from other brands, because they specialized in tea even though they still served coffee drinks and roasted their own beans. They prided themselves on tea which tasted just like it did during Regency times in London. They also had a line of specialty baked goods.

Kessen hoped that by the end of the year, the product launch of their specialty creamers and coffee flavorings would be as much of a hit as the last surge of peppermint-flavored English breakfast tea. She threw something else in her bag and sighed. She needed to concentrate on packing rather than business. She couldn’t help if her mind was always on the next marketing plan or the week’s sales.

After college her dad had placed her in the marketing VP position, which she took with open arms. He had left out that it was actually a glorified assistant job to the president, where she would be groomed until her father deemed her ready for advancement. And now it seemed she was ready.

She had been waiting two years for his approval.

Not that she blamed him, but she was incredibly ambitious, and this is what you were supposed to do with your life, right? The American dream was success. And she was a vision of success. She was everything America represented, yet why was it she didn’t have fulfillment? She kept telling herself it was because she was grieving, but maybe it was something more.

Needing a distraction, she grabbed her e-reader and plopped onto her bed. Reading was the only thing she could do to completely take her mind to another place. It was escapism, pure and simple. As much as she loved the Wall Street Journal, her feminine heart still desired romance; thus the reason behind her newest purchase … the latest historical romance in The Vandenbrook Series.

She had an unhealthy obsession with historical romance novels—and not just any historical romance novels, but the ones that were centered around London’s aristocratic society, ironically enough. To tell her father this would make him think he’d won. He could never know.

One time at a bookstore her mother had caused a huge scene at the coffee bar just so Kessen could purchase a book without her dad finding out. Naturally, he was too busy helping her mother to notice Kessen was off buying out the store’s supply of Regency romances. After that incident her mother had bought her an e-reader so she could purchase her books in secret. It was always fun to keep such a silly secret from her dad.

Historical romance provided Kessen the vision of a simpler time, a time when women still wore gloves, when men still bowed each time they were introduced, and when stolen kisses were cause for scandal.

What would it be like to be a part of such a time? She sighed and opened her latest book, The Duke’s Decision.

It was the tenth book in the Vandenbrook series. Their heritage had been traced back to Holland, but the family still resided in London to this day. An internet search had revealed the family has always had strict rules about blue blood matches. Each heir, regardless of the match, must marry a blue blood to keep the lines strong. Apparently it was important; though for the life of her, she couldn’t figure out why.

She wondered if her blood was blue. Well, it was partially blue; it would have to be, considering her father was an earl, but her mother had been nothing, a nobody. Though her father hated to discuss it, things in his family had never returned to normal once he left London.

How would they accept her now? She was the much-rumored, long-lost daughter, returning to London in order to please her father, in order to inherit his company. Grandmother would be pleased; she had been begging Kessen to visit for years. Her grandfather had passed away shortly after her father had left London; Kessen figured it was from the shock of it all. Her grandmother didn’t shed so much as a tear at his funeral. She said they married for blood, which seemed to be the case with all British aristocrats.

It’s not as if anyone else in the world cared; why should they?