by Alina Jacobs
But if you want that property, maybe you should. Who knows how much clout Teddy has left with Orson Sutherland.
I grabbed Teddy. “Let’s let the ladies plan their wedding. I need to talk to you.”
Ivy all but rolled her eyes as I dragged Teddy into the foyer.
“Look, you know about that deal I had with your uncle, right?”
“The land deal?” he said and took another bite of quiche.
“Right. Look. Can you talk to him for me? You know, we’re going to be family, with you marrying my half sister and everything.”
“Totally, dude, totally. But just give Camilla a call, would you? She is sorry. She’s heartbroken!” Teddy said.
“Sure,” I lied. “I’ll do that.”
A woman cleared her throat behind me. “I’ll be leaving now, Mr. Harrington, since our meeting about womanly things like wedding planning is over,” Ivy said dryly.
“I’ll walk you down,” I offered, grabbing my coat off the rack.
“That won’t be necessary.”
“I was just leaving.”
“I’m leaving first,” she said, pushing past me.
I easily caught up to her in two strides and slid into the elevator before she could mash the close door button. She was quiet as it took us down to the ground floor.
When the doors opened, Ivy brushed past me, saying over her shoulder, “I hope you’re not getting back together with that lying bitch. Though knowing you, you don’t have enough sense not to.”
God, that woman was infuriating.
My phone beeped as I watched Ivy’s curvy, black-clad form and her high heels make their way through the front lobby.
Camilla: Hi sweetie. Teddy said he saw you today and that you wanted to talk.
Camilla: Please don’t ignore me I love you I want to be with you. Don’t throw away everything we had!
Camilla: Arnold was a one-time thing. I was anxious, but that was before I went to that retreat in Palm Springs. Now I’m totally committed to you and our life together.
Camilla: And you can’t hold me sleeping with your father against me. I was drunk and I thought your father was you! I’m the victim here!
Camilla: Evan you need to talk to me right now!
I ground my teeth.
Would it help me get the land deal if I pretended to get back together with Camilla? Of course. I could have it in hand tomorrow if I played nice. But I couldn’t risk it. Besides, Ivy clearly didn’t approve of Camilla. What would she think? And why did I even care?
11
Ivy
The thing about weddings was that there wasn’t just the main event. No, before the big day, there were the engagement party, the couples’ shower, the bridal shower, the bridal tea, going dress shopping, and the rehearsal dinner. What in the olden days had been one, maybe two days of wedding festivities had now stretched out to more than a year of events for the future happy couple.
Or unhappy couple in Evan’s case.
“Is he just going to lurk there in the corner?” Amy asked as she put out the flower arrangements on the small tables in the solarium of the historic hotel.
“I think he’s too attractive to be considered lurking,” Grace said as she took close-up shots of the table décor. “Lurking is for greasy, scrawny men who work at Aldi. Evan is the lion surveying the Serengeti for his future queen.”
“Lord have mercy.”
“I bet he’s after Ivy,” Elsie said too loudly for my liking as she came by with a tray of miniature crab cakes.
“Sharing is caring!” Amy prompted, reaching for one.
“You can have any leftovers,” Elsie warned. “Up until then, don’t mess with my counts.”
Mika smiled at us, slid several crab cakes onto a plate, and came over with them.
“Since my brother is paying for this shindig, you can have as many as you want. I feel like we’re all going to need food and alcohol to deal with the upcoming bridezilla moment when Imogen realizes a bunch of people canceled at the last minute.”
“Oh no.”
Mika shoved a crab cake into my mouth then one into hers and nodded then offered me a sip of the watermelon mojito that Elsie had prepared.
“Yep. She’s just burning bridges right and left.”
“We have this place booked for eighty people!” I said, looking around in horror at all the tastefully decorated but glaringly empty tables. “The event is starting in fifteen minutes.”
Grace was concerned. “I can do tricks with the camera and make it look like a bigger crowd, but we need some warm bodies here.”
Mika ate another crab cake unhappily. “I’ve been texting and begging people to show up. They’re all full of excuses about why they can’t make it. Imogen is going to figure out that no one is coming, and then she’s going to blow up.”
Her phone dinged, and she looked down. “Oh no! Another person just said they weren’t coming. I think kicking Kaitlyn out of the bridal party because she was pregnant really irked a lot of people.”
“You don’t say,” Elsie remarked dryly, coming by with another tray of mini duck sliders.
“Excuse me,” Mika said, following her. “I’m going to fix myself a snack plate and hide somewhere.”
“Trouble in wedding-planning paradise?” Evan asked, sauntering over.
“Nothing you need to concern your precious billionaire self with,” I told him, my smile more a baring of teeth than a friendly expression. “I’m sure you have lots of manly things to do like bulldoze a forest or kick a bunch of people out of their homes so you can turn them into a strip mall.”
“I find that extremely offensive; my firm invests in many wholesome endeavors.”
“Oh, right, I’m sorry, yes, your hedge fund does own all those magazines, like Vanity Rag, that tell women they just have to eat scallops and cabbage for months and they too will look like Karli Kloss.”
“It’s entertainment,” Evan said. “I don’t know about you, but I’m trying to run a business. You should stick around me—you could learn a thing or two.”
“Yeah, like not to trust people when they promise that they’re going to pay for the services they’ve used. Noted.”
“You weren’t contracted under me,” he hissed. “I refuse to pay for a wedding that Camilla wanted. Besides, I paid you back for the lasagna I ate, with interest.”
“Fine, whatever. I don’t care since you clearly don’t,” I said. “But just know that for the rest of your life, whenever I see you, I’m going to be silently sending bad thoughts your way.”
Evan smirked. “Very scary.”
“Just you watch,” I warned. “You’re going to stop being so sinfully sexy, all your luscious hair is going to fall out, those washboard abs will turn to flab, and when you’re crying at your reflection in the mirror, you’re going to know it was me all along, silently wishing you ill.”
Evan grinned dangerously. “I thought you weren’t looking when I was undressed in your apartment.”
“I tried not to, but how could I when you were practically waving things in my face!” I countered.
Evan caught his lower lip in his teeth then said, “I bet you think about me when you’re lying in bed.”
“I don’t.”
“Admit it.”
“No.”
“I bet you looked when I was showering too.”
“I would never.”
Evan leaned over to whisper in my ear. “I know you could see me, because I could see you through the door.”
“Pervert.”
“Pervert? I’m your savior!” He rocked back on his heels, a smug look on his face.
I glared at him.
“It is obvious that no one is showing up to this little bridal tea. Now I don’t know about you, but I think I can only manage maybe half of that tray of crab cakes. What is Imogen going to say when she has this exquisitely decorated party planned and no one shows? You think she’s bad now? Just wait.”
“You can’t help,” I said,
but I was wondering, could he? I’d seen brides go nuclear if even a flower was out of place. Imogen was going to unleash a tidal wave of destruction if no one attended the bridal tea.
I swallowed, refusing to allow Evan to see the uncertainty in my eyes.
“I can have this place packed with well-dressed, fun young twenty- and thirty-somethings that will make this the best bridal tea ever. All you have to do is say the word,” he whispered in my ear like some unfairly tall and sexy Mephistopheles.
I licked my lips. “What’s the word?”
“Well, words.” There was that smirk that I didn’t know if I wanted to slap off his face or kiss.
Kiss? What? No. Nope. No, not happening. Evan is an ass.
Yes, Ivy, he does have a very nice ass.
Lalalala can’t hear you!
“What words?” I asked, feeling like I was walking into a trap.
“It’s simple,” Evan said, that deliciously deep voice wrapping around me. “Just tell me how awesome I am and how handsome, incredibly sexy, and desirable you find me.”
I leaned back, and Evan grinned, blue eyes glinting dangerously.
“No,” I told him and turned away.
He grabbed my arm and pulled me back toward him. “Then I hope you have a helmet, because Imogen is going to detonate.”
Across the room, Imogen was berating Mika. Evan’s little sister was shrinking under her barely leashed wrath.
“You’d do that to your own little sister?”
“Sociopathic billionaire, remember? Tick tock. Imogen’s going to go nuclear any second. Things will be thrown. All those pretty flowers stamped to shreds on the ground.”
“Fine. You’re awesome and sexy. There. Go save the day.”
Evan jerked his head. “Oh no, you have to mean it. Make me feel special and wanted.”
“You just want me to feed your ego,” I seethed.
“Yes, inflate my ego. Make it big and thick,” he said, breath hot against my ear.
“You’re disgusting. And it’s not surprising you’d need your ego and other things inflated.”
“Ouch, Ivy. That is literally the opposite of what you’re supposed to be doing!” Evan said, clutching his chest.
Crack!
Imogen had picked up a glass and hurled it at a wall. Evan raised an eyebrow. I took a deep breath. I could not have another wedding ruined. People would talk. My whole business ran on word of mouth.
Fine. Evan wanted his ego inflated? I stepped up to him and trailed my nails along the bare skin on his neck, right above the collar of his suit.
“You are the sexiest, most handsome man I have ever seen,” I whispered in my best approximation of a sex-kitten purr, making sure my breath tickled his ear. “And yes, I was looking at that sexy, muscular body that I just wanted to push me back against the bed and fuck me until I screamed.”
“Holy shit,” Evan murmured. I stepped back, satisfied to see his eyes looking slightly dilated. “Holy hell.”
“Now who has the filthy mouth?”
“You should see what I can do with it,” he said, his smile promising… well, something that I wasn’t going to acknowledge.
“Chop chop,” I told him, clapping my hands. “Go save the day before Imogen starts throwing food.”
Evan turned on his heel and walked to the door. My stomach sank.
“Wait! Where are you going?” I asked, hurrying after him, trying to keep up with his long strides. “You’re just leaving? I should have known not to trust you, you lying sack of—”
Evan flung the ornate double doors open. “Come on in ladies!” he announced, welcoming a stream of well-dressed, beautiful women into the room.
Imogen, who had been screaming at the hotel staff member cleaning up the glass she’d thrown, immediately stopped her tirade. “Friends of yours, Evan?” she called hopefully.
“Of course, Imogen, from the magazine. You don’t mind that I invited them, do you? I was thinking of having them write a piece on the event.”
“Not at all!” she gushed.
“Don’t tell Imogen,” Evan whispered in my ear, his breath hot on my neck. “But they’re actually seat fillers. Expensive ones, of course—can’t bring just anyone in here. I instructed them to all say they worked for me if asked though.”
The women all went up to congratulate Imogen and compliment her on a wonderful party. Some of them even had gifts. I felt a wave of relief then anger.
“You had them here the whole time!” I hissed at Evan. He grabbed my wrists before I could sock him in the chest.
“Of course I did!” he said with a laugh. “You didn’t think I was seriously going to let my sister take the heat, did you?”
I sputtered. “You lied to me!”
“But I think you weren’t lying to me. Did you seriously sneak a peek, Ivy?”
“I did, and it was not anything to write home about,” I said.
Evan grinned. “Now I think you’re the one who’s lying.”
I threw off his hands and shoved him.
“Don’t touch my future husband!”
I turned. Following the last of the stream of pretty young women was Camilla. And she looked furious.
“He’s mine!” she snarled at me. “Evan is my future husband, and you’re just the wedding planner.”
I took three steps back from Evan. “We were just discussing the event program, as he is Imogen’s new man of honor.” I smiled at her brightly. “Please grab a drink and take a seat. Thank you for coming to the bridal tea.”
“Of course I’m coming,” Camilla said with a toss of her bouncy hair. She grabbed a glass of champagne off of a tray one of the servers was carrying.
“I’m Teddy’s best girl!”
12
Evan
“What the fuck?”
“Oh, I do love it when you talk dirty, Evan,” Camilla purred. It wasn’t as sexy as when Ivy had done the same thing.
“You can’t be in this wedding,” I said.
“Teddy is my cousin. Of course I’m in the wedding party!”
“Cammie!”
“Immie!” The two women hugged each other.
“Since you’re the man of honor,” Imogen told me, “we needed to have a balance in the wedding party. So Cammie’s going to be Teddy’s best girl. Don’t you think that will help balance things out, Ivy?”
“I, uh, well yes, I suppose.”
“Who knows, Evan”—Imogen winked at me—“they do say sparks can fly when two people are in close proximity to each other for an extended period of time.”
Don’t look at Ivy. Don’t look at Ivy.
I looked. Our eyes met, then she glanced away. Camilla noticed and glared at me.
The woman giving the tea lecture came up to ask Ivy a question, and she left, giving me a slightly worried look. Or maybe it was my imagination. Camilla didn’t waste the opportunity. She grabbed me by the tie and dragged me out of the room.
“I missed you so much, baby!” she cried, throwing herself on me and kissing me.
I pushed her off. “Camilla, we’re done. You can even keep the engagement ring. I have no use for it. But clear out of my condo. I’m selling it.”
“But it’s our home, darling!” my ex-fiancée protested, throwing herself back into my arms.
“I’m not marrying a cheater,” I said, pushing her off of me. “If it wasn’t for the fact that my sister was getting married, I would walk right the fuck out of here.”
“You’re just tense—that stupid wedding planner ruined our big day, and you didn’t get to have your wedding night,” she purred. “The room down the hall is empty. Come on, we can have a quickie—”
“The thought of sex with you is revolting,” I hissed at her.
Camilla slapped me in the face.
I grabbed her wrist, and she moaned.
“Yes, you know you want it!”
I threw her off of me.
“I can’t believe you.”
“And I c
an’t believe you,” she spat. “You’re asking my dad to help you on some big-boy business deal. He was only going to give you that property if you married me. So if you don’t want the Svenssons to tear you up into itty-bitty pieces, I suggest you forgive and forget.”
“Ahem, excuse me,” Ivy said.
Compared to the super-short, flouncy floral dress and bouncy hair Camilla had, Ivy, with her form-fitting, long-sleeved black dress, classic black pumps, and neat bun, was elegant and authoritative.
“Camilla, if you don’t mind, the flower arranging is starting. Imogen would like all the ladies present for pictures.”
“My fiancé and I are talking,” Camilla said, looking down her nose at Ivy.
Ivy’s professional smile curled slightly. “I’m sure he’ll still be here after the pictures.”
There was a standoff. Camilla glared at Ivy. Ivy didn’t even blink. Camilla finally huffed and flounced off, tottering on her bright-pink platform heels.
“Are you all right?” Ivy asked me in concern after Camilla slammed the doors behind her.
“What? Oh, yeah.”
Ivy gingerly stroked the side of my face that Camilla had hit. Her hand was soft and cool.
“Do you need me to get you anything?”
“She doesn’t hit that hard; it will fade.” I shrugged.
“Has she hit you before?” Ivy asked, voice dangerous.
I shrugged again.
“Fucking bitch,” Ivy said under her breath.
“Aw, don’t tell me you’re actually starting to care,” I said, her anger making me feel slightly off-kilter.
“I’m not,” Ivy said lightly. “But if people are going to be getting hit in the face around here, it should be the person who cheated.”
“I’m not hitting a girl. Well”—I smirked at her—“not unless she really wants me to.”
Ivy narrowed her eyes at me. “Don’t get any ideas.”
“You’re the one who was putting ideas in my head,” I reminded her.
“Because you twisted my arm,” she replied, poking me in the chest.
I grabbed her hand. “You know, Camilla did have one interesting thing to say.”
