“Brent, why don’t you take Tilly upstairs to see one of Cecelia’s rooms? I’d like to have a private chat with Deacon, if you don’t mind.”
“Not at all, not at all. Come on, Tilly.” Brent put his arm around his wife and escorted her through the crowd to the wall of brass elevator doors that led upstairs.
Deacon watched them disappear, curious about what Chip had to say to him in private. The two of them had probably shared less than a dozen words between them. He imagined there was only one thing that Chip wanted to talk about: Cecelia. She was the only thing they had ever had in common.
The friendly expression on Chip’s face vanished the moment the Morgans disappeared. When he turned back to look at Deacon, a scowl lined his forehead and drew down the corners of his mouth. “I’ve heard that you’ve been taking up with Cecelia.”
Deacon did his best to maintain a neutral expression. He didn’t want to give Chip any ammunition. “Have you? Good news travels fast.”
“I wouldn’t consider you making moves on my fiancée to be good news. Because of that whole dustup about the adoption, I am willing to be a gentleman and overlook the whole thing between you two. Especially since Cecelia has come to her senses.”
Deacon tensed up and frowned at Chip’s statement. “Come to her senses and realized marrying you was an epic mistake?”
Chip snorted in derision. “Hardly. You see, Chase, while you were busy getting ready to open this hotel, I was busy reconciling with my fiancée. I’ll admit I reacted poorly to her news, but I apologized to her and she’s accepted my apology. I presume, now that the hotel is open and the engagement is back on, that you’ll crawl back into whatever European hole you climbed out of.”
Deacon could hardly believe his ears. Chip couldn’t be serious. There was no way that Cecelia would take him back after the way he had treated her. Deacon had been the one who’d comforted her when Chip broke their engagement. Deacon had been the one who’d whisked her away to France to avoid the cutting gossip after Maverick’s revelation about her adoption. Deacon was the one who had held her in his arms, worshipped her body and accepted her for who she really was.
Would she really go back to the man who had shunned her after nothing more than a simple apology?
“You look surprised, Chase. I take it Cecelia hasn’t gotten a chance to break the bad news to you yet. I would imagine the truth smarts a little, but you can’t really be surprised. We all know who gets the girl in this scenario. I don’t care how much money you’ve made over the years or who you’ve conned to get it. She wants a man from a good family with the connections and the power that only someone like I can give her. You might be a fun diversion in the sack, but you’ll never be enough of a man in her eyes for anything more serious than that.”
Deacon tried not to flinch at Chip’s expertly aimed barb. Without fail, it hit him right in his most tender spot. He had worked hard to make more of himself, to be the man Cecelia always thought he could be. But he had always wondered if that was enough. It hadn’t been enough back in high school when she broke up with him. She hadn’t given him any reason to doubt her, but what really made him think that anything had changed?
Chip was right. He had money. But there were some things that money couldn’t buy, things that Chip had been born with. If that really was the most important thing to her, Deacon would never be good enough.
“Besides, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and talking to my campaign manager, and we’ve decided that her past isn’t the career bombshell I thought it might be. In fact, it might even be an advantage. I’m not polling well with the working-class demographic. Having a fiancée with a tragic backstory like hers—adopted with a drug-addicted mother and humble origins—might give me an edge come election time. It makes me more relatable to the masses.”
Deacon looked at Chip’s smug expression and felt his hands curl into fists at his side. Cecelia was nothing more than a campaign prop to him. Chip might be more connected than him, but he wasn’t stronger. He had no doubt that he could lay Chip out on the floor without much effort. It would be amazingly gratifying to feel his knuckles pound into the man’s jaw. He could just imagine the stunned looks on the faces of everyone around them as Chip lay bleeding on the newly laid marble floor.
But he wouldn’t do that. He liked to think that he’d gained some class along with his money over the years. Starting a brawl at the opening gala of his five-star resort wouldn’t earn him any new friends in this town. He wouldn’t ruin this night for Shane and Brandee, or any of the hotel’s employees. They had all worked too hard to make tonight a success, and he didn’t want to undo their efforts with his brash behavior. Chip wasn’t worth it.
Besides, if Chip was telling the truth and Cecelia had chosen to return to him after everything he’d done to her...she wasn’t the woman he loved. The Cecelia he wanted was the one he’d fallen for again in Cannes. There, she had been happy and free of all the pressures this damned town put on her. That woman wouldn’t have returned to Chip after his cold betrayal. But perhaps that woman had stayed behind in France.
Deacon eyed Chip coolly before swallowing his pride and holding out his hand like a gentleman would. “Well, congratulations on your engagement. You two certainly deserve each other.”
Chip narrowed his gaze at Deacon’s backhanded compliment, but chose to grin and accept it anyway.
“If you’ll excuse me,” Deacon said, walking away before Chip could respond. He had to get away from him before he reconsidered punching him in the face. Instead, he sought out Shane and Brandee. He knew this was his party, too, but he couldn’t stand to be here another moment. He certainly didn’t want to be a witness to Cecelia and Chip’s reconciliation. Seeing her on that bastard’s arm was more than he could take. It was better that he leave now than risk causing a scene and ruining the whole night.
When he found Shane, he leaned in and whispered a few things to him. Shane turned to him with a surprised look on his face but knew better than to start a discussion about it right now. He simply nodded and clapped Deacon on the shoulder.
Deacon turned and disappeared into the bowels of the hotel where only staff were allowed to go. He wasn’t entirely sure where he was headed, he just knew that he had to put some distance between himself and the woman he had been foolish enough to fall in love with the second time.
Shame on him.
* * *
Cecelia circled the ballroom for the third time, still unsuccessful in locating Deacon. She had been anxious about tonight—her first public appearance since Maverick spilled her secrets—but as she maneuvered through the crowd, everyone had carried on as if nothing had happened.
She was glad because she refused to have tonight ruined by old drama that was out of her control. She had more important things to tend to. She was bubbling over with nerves and excitement, eager to find Deacon, but so far she was having no luck. She was certain he was here—she had seen him earlier, and his car was still in the lot—but now he had vanished into thin air.
Arriving late to the party had not been a part of her plan for the evening, but it had been unavoidable. She’d had to make an unplanned stop to confirm something she had suspected since they got back from Cannes. Now that she knew for certain, she couldn’t wait to find Deacon, but he was lost in a sea of tuxedos and cocktail dresses.
She was on the way to the office suites to see if he was hiding out and working instead of enjoying the party. That was when she found herself face-to-face with her ex-fiancé in a secluded hallway.
Chip was wearing his favorite Armani tuxedo, showing off his good looks the way he’d always liked to do. There had been a time when Cecelia could have been swayed by his handsome appearance, but that was in the past. There was no comparison between him and Deacon, and she couldn’t understand how she let herself waste so much time on a man with few redeeming qualities ou
tside of his social standing.
“There you are, kitten. I have been looking all over for you, tonight.”
Cecelia folded her arms over her chest and narrowed her gaze at him. “I can’t imagine why. And please don’t use pet names, Chip. I’m not your kitten. I’m not your anything, if you recall us breaking up a few weeks ago.”
Chip smiled, oozing all the practiced charm that he used on women and constituents alike. “Listen, I’m sorry about how all that went down. It was wrong of me, and I reacted poorly.”
Cecelia was stunned by his apology, although it meant very little to her now. She didn’t understand why he was bothering her, much less cornering her at the opening, when she had more important things to be doing. What was he after? “Thank you. Now if you’ll excuse me I—”
Chip reached out and caught her arm, stopping her from pushing past him and returning to the party. “What’s the rush, kitten? We really need to talk about some things. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about us.”
“Us? We don’t have anything to talk about, Chip, but especially not about us.” Cecelia was desperate to escape, jerking away from his grasp. She glanced over his shoulder, hoping to catch the eye of anybody who could come and rescue her, but there was no one in sight. The party was carrying on at the other end of the hallway. “I would rather have a root canal than talk to you right now.”
Chip just smiled. “My favorite part of my kitten is her claws. Now just relax and give me five minutes. We were together a long time, certainly you can spare a moment or two. That’s all I ask.”
Cecelia sighed. “Okay, fine. Five minutes, that’s it. And stop calling me kitten. Do it one more time and I walk.”
He held up his hands defensively. “Okay, okay. No more pet names. Cecelia, I came here looking for you tonight because the last few weeks apart have helped me realize that I was a fool. My feelings for you are stronger than I thought, even stronger than my concerns about your background. I’ve realized they’re unfounded. I need you by my side going into this next reelection.”
Cecelia could hardly believe her ears. When she was a liability, he couldn’t dump her fast enough. Now that he decided she could be an asset to his campaign, he was crawling back. He was delusional to think she would go along with nonsense like this. “Chip, you’ve lost your mind.”
“No, hear me out. You and I are good together. We always have been. We make the perfect American couple. Voters are just going to eat up the classic, traditional values we represent. This is a win-win for us both, Cecelia.”
She could only shake her head. “You never wanted me, Chip. You just wanted some trophy wife you can parade around at fund-raisers and rallies. That’s not what I want out of my marriage.”
Chip didn’t look dissuaded. He was well versed in debate, and she could tell that he wasn’t going to give up until he won. “It wasn’t so long ago that I was everything you wanted, Cecelia. You were so anxious to plan our wedding and start our life together. What about the children we were going to have? The future we planned? Are you willing to just throw all that away?”
“You threw it away, Chip, not me. And yes, I am willing to walk away from what you’ve offered me. I have found something infinitely better.”
Chip chuckled bitterly. “You mean Deacon? Seriously? I’m offering you the chance to be the first lady of the United States, Cecelia. I’m going all the way to the White House one day, and I want to take you with me.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out the engagement ring she’d returned the afternoon they broke up. He held it up like a gaudy offering to the diamond gods. “You’re going to turn this down and walk away from the amazing life that we have ahead of us because you’ve got feelings for that loser?”
“As a matter of fact I am, Chip. Your five minutes are up.” Cecelia brushed past him and the engagement ring she’d once worn and pushed into the crowd, hoping he didn’t follow her. How she ever could’ve agreed to marry a man like that was beyond her. What was she thinking? She knew. It was what her parents wanted for her. She was tired of that. Now she wanted what she wanted for herself, whether they liked it or not.
She was about to start a new phase in her life, and she wanted to start it with Deacon. If she could find him. Finally, she spotted Shane and went up to him, hoping he could help her track Deacon down.
Shane spotted her and smiled in a polite, yet oddly cold fashion. “Good evening, Cecelia.”
“Evening, Shane. Have you seen Deacon anywhere? I’ve been looking for him all night, and I haven’t managed to find him.”
Shane nodded. “Deacon had to leave, but he told me to tell you congratulations on your engagement.”
Cecelia’s blood went ice-cold in her veins. “What engagement?” she asked.
“You and Chip. Both he and your parents have been telling everybody at the party that you two have reconciled and the wedding is back on. It’s all anyone can talk about tonight. Quite a shrewd tactic to suppress the other scandal, I have to say.”
Her jaw dropped. She couldn’t even believe what she was hearing. Chip was such an arrogant bastard that he’d gone around announcing their engagement before he’d even talked to her about it. How dare he tell people that they got back together without even consulting her! “I can’t believe this,” she said. And then she realized the depth of what this meant.
Deacon thought that she had taken Chip back. How could he believe such a thing? He hadn’t even asked her if it were true. No wonder he had left the party early. She dropped her head into her hands and groaned.
“What’s the matter?” Shane asked.
She couldn’t even answer him. She didn’t want to waste another minute talking to him when she could be tracking down Deacon and clearing up this whole mess. She turned and ran as fast as she could, weaving through the crowd to find the nearest exit and get to her car.
Cecelia was almost out of the ballroom when she heard her father’s sharp, demanding voice say her name. She stopped and turned, seeing her parents standing a few feet away with a typically disappointed expression on their faces. “I can’t talk right now, Dad.”
“You can and you will, young lady. Chip tells us that you turned your nose up at his apology and proposal. What are you thinking? Do you know how hard we had to work to stay in the Ashfords’ good graces after all this blew up? After Maverick released your information, you were nowhere to be found. Your mother and I had to deal with the backlash.”
“Please reconsider, dear,” her mother said in a less authoritative tone. “I really do think Chip is a good choice for you. He has so much potential, and he’s from such a good family. We should be thankful that they’re willing to reconsider the engagement after the truth about your lineage came to light. What are they going to think when Chip tells them that you’ve rejected him for the son of a mechanic?”
Cecelia’s hands curled into fists at her side. If she’d gotten nothing else from her time in Cannes, it was that she wasn’t going to let her life be dictated by her parents anymore. “Honestly, I really don’t care what they think of me. I don’t want anything to do with them, much less become one of them. I am not marrying Chip Ashford. If he hasn’t ruined it for me tonight, I intend to marry Deacon Chase.”
Both her parents looked at her with an expression of shock and dismay, but she didn’t care. She cut her father off before he could start telling her why she was wrong. “I am tired of working so hard to meet your approval. If you truly love me, you will love and accept me for who I am, not for who you want me to be, and certainly not for whom I do or do not marry. If you can’t agree to that, then I don’t want you in my life any longer.”
She didn’t wait for their response. Right now, all that mattered was finding Deacon. Outside the ballroom, Cecelia slipped out of her high heels and ran through the back door of the hotel with them clutched in her hand.
She scanned the parking lot, but she didn’t see his Corvette anywhere now. She rushed over to her own car and headed straight for his place. When she pulled up the gravel driveway, she was disappointed to find his car wasn’t there, either, and all the lights were out. He’d told Shane he was leaving. Cecelia thought he had meant he was leaving the party, but now she had a sick ache in her stomach that made her think that perhaps he meant he was leaving Royal altogether.
She whipped her car back out onto the highway and rushed to the small executive airport where he had chartered the private jet to take them to France. If he was really, truly leaving, his car would be there.
At the airport, she found only more disappointment. The airport was mostly empty, with only one other car in the parking lot, and it wasn’t Deacon’s. She put her car in Park and sat there, unsure of what to do next. She didn’t know where else to look for him.
Frustrated, she leaned back into her seat and let her tears flow freely down her cheeks. This was not the way she envisioned tonight going. Tonight was supposed to be happy. She was supposed to be sharing the most amazing and exciting news with the man she loved, and instead she was sitting in an empty parking lot alone, feeling as though everything she had ever wanted in life was slipping through her fingers.
Her whole life, all she ever wanted was her own family. Blood, love and a bond that nothing could split apart. Today, when she’d gotten home from the drugstore, she had looked at the two lines on the pregnancy test and thought that her dream was finally coming true. She had rushed to The Bellamy, anxious to share the good news with Deacon, only to have her dream intercepted by her delusional, lying ex.
And now, if she didn’t find a way to clear things up with Deacon, she was going to find herself in a position she never expected: a single mother.
Eleven
Deacon was nowhere to be found.
Expecting the Billionaire's Baby Page 12
