The Counterfeit Wedding

By Cristina Grenier and Marie Parker

Graham Connor is a man about his business. After dominating the corporate real estate industry, his family has been encouraging him to find the legacy he wants to leave behind on this world. Right away, he's nudged into politics.

The campaign is interesting as it starts to heat up, but what happens when love knocks him off the campaign trail? Leave it to his wise cracking, campaign manager, best friend to figure out a way to spin Graham's new romance into a publicity stunt for the ages! Follow Graham Connor on his campaign path to city official with his ebony lady, Amelia Watkins, by his side. Will their stunt blow up in their faces or will love land them an election? 
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Monster Media LLC
• Release date: Apr 4, 2019
• ISBN: 9781386314738

Book preview

CRISTINA GRENIER PRESENTS

The Counterfeit Wedding

Marie Parker

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full length BWWM Romance by bestselling author Cristina Grenier?

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Chapter 1: Campaigning Toward Catastrophe

Graham Connor stands at a regal 6’2". His body is well defined and physically sculpted as a direct result of his militant workout regime. His suits are custom tailored to emphasize his athletic physique. His dark brown hair mirrors his dark brown eyes, and his jaw is as chiseled and strong as his pecs. He’s a good looking man in his early forty’s.

Graham has dominated the world of corporate real estate for quite some time, escalating his net worth to well over a billion dollars. Now he had set his sights on tackling politics. He had an entire team behind him, but the one pushing him the most is his friend and campaign manager, Tony Zinger. Tony wasn’t as tall as Graham, but he’s tall enough. His light brown hair plays off of his hazel eyes which sit narrowly close to his long nose which resembles something of a bird’s beak. He’s always been skinny and lean, but even more so, he’s always been friends with Graham from the day they met. They had known each other since freshmen year in college and now some 15 years later, they are still friends and business associates. Tony knows that Graham comes from a long line of leaders and politicians. He’s been encouraging him to run for a while now. The office best suited for a billionaire … City Comptroller. Who better to manage the allocation of government funds and tax dollars other than a man who’s been managing his own wealth so successfully?

Graham is convinced fairly easily to run and now that the campaign season is swinging into overdrive, he stands at the window of his penthouse office suite listening to his campaign staff. One of the young advisors speaks up to reveal the latest poll results, Mr. Connor, you’re doing fantastic amongst the upper class, working constituents. However, where you are slipping is in the minority and lower class demographic. The surveys we took show that they are unaware of your many charitable donations to organizations that reach out and help their communities. We need a way to make you and your volunteer work more transparent to these voters. The people want to see if their next comptroller can actually do the job necessary and allocate funds where they’re supposed to go. So if they see you in a position where you’re volunteering your time to a cause where they believe you will allocate future budget monies; it will put you in a great position to win this election.

Graham thanks the young man with a wave of his hand and motions for the next person to come forward. Tony hangs back as he watches his young protégés converse with a man who yields such wealth and power. A young lady asserts herself forward into the conversation, Another thing we really need to focus on is getting your fundraising up to par with average running mates. It takes millions of dollars to fund an electoral run, as I’m sure you know, so we want to utilize your likeability amongst older affluent voters to raise some more capital. Spending your own money isn’t necessary, sir.

Graham appears to be thinking over her suggestion but he doesn’t care for the begging part of campaigning. He’d rather put his own money up and then work harder to make it back. The logistics of winning an election are a bit overwhelming but he doesn’t let it show. It isn’t until his father, Mason, steps into the office that he has any significant reaction that he’s being attentive.

Good morning, Dad. How are things? Graham smirks knowing exactly why his father has come bursting into his office.

Graham you know damn well how things are! the older gentleman slams a bunch of papers down onto Graham’s desk. He turns to the people in the room, Good morning everyone. Can you please excuse us?

The group returned a collective, Good morning, sir. They all exited the office, except for Tony who stays in place, but near the door.

Graham waits for the last person to leave before he nods to Tony to close the door. He looks his father in his eyes and tells him calmly, I needed to move that money for this campaign tour around the city we’re planning to visit. Tell him Tony!

Tony begins to step forward but Mason waves him back to the door, Shut up, Tony! I don’t need you telling me what he just did! What I need to know is why you’re not using your mother and me as connections to campaign funds. Campaigns are not meant to be paid for by the electoral candidate. It’s not done that way!

But it should be! Graham argues, You know how much I hate those stupid dinners and taking all of those god damn pictures with people who don’t give two shits about what’s going on in my actual campaign and what I stand for. I don’t want your friends’ pity contributions. I don’t want donations as a favor to my parents. I want donations from people who truly believe in what I want to do for this city.

Don’t be so god damn naïve! That heart of gold attitude will only get you two things in this world … killed or bankrupt! You keep this shit up and see where it lands you! Stop acting like you’re not a Connor man. You’re a billionaire and I know you haven’t gotten there by being Mr. Nice Guy. So cut the shit and get your head in this election. Campaigns aren’t about politics. This shit is about business. Run your campaign like you do your business. Do you use your own money when you put a new building up?

No, sir, Graham replies solemnly.

"Then why in the hell would you use it to run for a public office? Private capital is good for anything and everything! You need to stop pretending you’re some noble advocate for the less fortunate and act like the god damn financial juggernaut we raised you to be! You can’t worry about what everybody thinks about you. You know that," Mason reasons with his son. He hates talking to him this way, but it’s the only way he’s ever been able to get through to him with results.

Graham sighs, You’re right, Dad. I’ll get the team back in here to figure some things out. But I don’t want to have the typical two thousand dollar a plate fundraising dinner. Everyone who comes to those things always expects a favor out of you once you’re in office. Hell, I should know I still have favors in my pocket after the dinners I donated to last election season.

Okay so figure something out, Mason throws his hands in the air, Whatever you do, your mother and I will do whatever you want to support you, but for the love of God stop spending your own money.

Graham agrees to that and his father leaves the office without another word spoken. Tony holds the door open for him and just after Mason storms out, the campaign staff comes back in.

Okay guys, Graham starts, I’m sure you all heard that. Let’s not pretend that you didn’t. Give me your ideas to raise some money!

The young campaigners eyeball each other waiting for a solution to magically appear, but no one speaks up. Graham calls out the young lady who told him they had to work on fundraising in the first place, You said we need to grab the attention of our affluent voters, what do you think we should do?

Well I was thinking of a wonderful dinner. We can have the best chefs in the city come in and, she begins but is cut off.

No! Graham shuts the idea down before she can even complete her thought, I don’t want to do the same old stuffy dinners. I told you guys not to pretend like you didn’t hear that conversation I just had with my father. I need ideas and I need them now!

I have an idea, sir, a young man raises his hand from the back of the group.

Okay, come forward so I can see you. What’s your name? Graham enquires.

I’m Morgan, sir. Morgan Grady, he humbly responds.

Graham motions for him to proceed.

Well I was thinking that we can do a casino night with a silent auction, he offers.

I’m interested. Please continue, Graham commands him.

Okay, um, we can host a casino night where the guests can place bets and play games with real money that goes toward our campaign, Morgan explains the idea as it comes to him.

The young lady is jealous and tries to shoot it down, But what if they win? We don’t want to lose money, genius!

Now, now, Tony interjects, Let the lad flesh the idea out. We all want to see how this goes.

Morgan clears his throat, Well we can set up each game to correlate with auction entries. The idea will be to have real money coming in from various outlets and anybody who wins gets a certain amount of entries to win the auction they choose to bid on. For example, the buy-in just to attend the event will be $1000. There will be donation boxes set up for those who just want to give us money and not play the games. Then let’s say someone is playing black jack. They bid a hundred bucks and win five hundred. The winnings translate to a voucher. They can use the vouchers to place a bid at whatever auction they want or at a gift table that we set up.

You want to run this like an amusement park ticket exchange for prizes? Tony asks.

Exactly! Morgan gets excited as the idea becomes clearer and clearer, We have a multitude of things we can price above market value and at the end of the night they can cash out their vouchers for a gift or as an entry into the auctions we set up.

I like it, Graham cosigns the plan, Get together a solid plan for this event. I want it iron clad, especially since we’re dealing with money. Make sure the rules are easy and concrete. Have the budget approved by the campaign accountant and have the overall plan approved by legal. I want the entire proposal completed by the end of this week so we can have you guys get to work on the guest list and invitations. This sounds like it’s going to be a fun event. Let’s keep it light, simple, and easy. If it sounds too complicated for our guests to comprehend, scrap it and we’ll come up with something else. But for now, I want to run with this. Let’s get moving team!

The group exits his office in a commotion of comments and accolades for young Morgan on a job well done. Tony hangs behind once again after the group leaves. He isn’t sure he likes the idea yet, but having people spend a lot of money with no intention of getting it back seems like a win win situation for them.

Morgan is floating on air. He can just feel that his position in the company is going to change. He makes his way to his friend’s office to tell her the good news. He believes his life is switching lanes and wants a beautiful woman by his side. Amelia Watkins is the one. She’s been a paralegal for the legal department and his friend since he started working there. They had one romantic encounter over a year ago and he remembers it vividly:

It was a cold November day when Morgan first stepped into Connor and Gleason Corporate Realty. He had an interview for a client retention position and nailed it. Of course he had to go out and celebrate. He hit up a happy hour spot not too far from the office and encountered the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. She was 5’6" with chocolate brown skin and a head full of curls. He wanted to run his fingers through it. Her name was Amelia. They hit it off right away and had a few rounds of drinks together. They shared a kiss and much more that night. It wasn’t a second thought