by Nikki Duncan
When it comes to programmed assumptions, the heart is definitely not an easy hack.
Tulle and Tulips, Book 4
At work, Darci Drummond, aka The Bunny of Bling, shines as bright as her trademark tie-shaped diamond necklace. Her dating life is a bit more tarnished. After getting hurt by a string of boyfriends, she takes solace in helping other women shine on their special day.
She wouldn’t complain if she found someone to give her a few simple pleasures—and zero strings. Just not that nerdy computer programmer working upstairs.
Victor Green’s idea of a great Saturday night—any night, really—is a Starbucks and a code-filled computer screen. Yet somehow, at the relentless begging of his baby sister, he finds himself walking the runway at a bridal show where he meets a stunner sporting a tie-shaped necklace. The next thing he knows, he’s thrust into a matchmaking scheme with wedding bells in the background.
Tricked into a date with Victor, Darci finds herself embroiled in an affair with a man who’s nothing like he seemed. And as her resistance crumbles, she wonders if it’s time to let someone get closer than skin deep…
Warning: If you’re opposed to a man who forgets to clean and a woman willing to tolerate his quirks… Wait, isn’t that real life?
Debauched in Diamonds
Nikki Duncan
Dedication
To CIS.
Chapter One
Victor Green crossed the threshold into a foreign realm filled with demons ready to rip unsuspecting souls to shreds should they dare make a wrong move. Okay, so it was a convention center filled with bridezillas at an annual bridal show, but to a man who didn’t care about the difference between silk and satin the danger was very real.
“Welcome to the Great Bridal Expo.” A perky redhead greeted him with a thin-lipped, wide-mouthed smile. “Do you have a ticket?”
“No.” Victor straightened the tie he’d spent too much time attempting to get right. He’d only succeeded at mangling the knot. “My… I wasn’t planning on attending. This was sort of last minute.”
“Oh. No worries.” Her smile brightened as she nodded toward the registration booth. “Follow me and we’ll get you set right up.”
He followed the girl to the booth, watching the madness of brides that surrounded him. Aisles of booths separated into varying sizes by white cloth draped from metal pipes invited brides, grooms and their families and friends by the masses.
“I’m Amber, by the way. What brings you to the show?”
“Payback.”
She froze except for her blinking eyes. “Pardon me?”
“I’ve been roped into doing a runway show.”
“Oh! So you’re an employee of a vendor for the day?”
“I guess, sort of.”
“Your admission fee is covered.” With a pink tinge to her cheeks, she handed him a map of the expo hall and a laminated badge with a clip.
“I don’t mind paying the fee.”
“No. Just look at you.” She winked and rested her fingers on his longer than socially normal. “I should have known you’re a model.”
“Thank you.” He smiled while casually pulling his hand away. He may be single, and his sister may be after him to date more, but a bridal show where no woman saw beyond the sparkle of her perfect day was not where he wanted to meet someone new.
“Don’t work too hard,” he offered while turning away.
“Have a good time, and let me know if you need anything else. Maybe I’ll come see you on my break.”
Have a good time. His idea of a good time on Saturday night was locking the front door, closing the blinds and settling in with Groot snoring at his feet, a Starbucks in his hand and his computer screens scrolling with code.
The world made the most sense within the interplay between text and code. If a code acted up, the problem could be resolved with some tweaking. Life would be easier if people were as predictably simple.
Brides and grooms argued over china patterns or song choices or color schemes. Vendors vied for the attention of passersby, eager to gain new customers. To Victor, it was all noise he could happily do without.
“Oooh.” A woman in front of him shrieked and stopped suddenly, which had him stopping abruptly.
A woman rounding the corner near him slammed into his side. Electricity jolted through him, like he’d failed to ground himself before grabbing two circuits. He stumbled back. She dropped a box of shiny baubles. The lid popped off, spilling the contents.
“Damn it.” The image of elegance in brown slacks, an ivory corset top and a diamond, tie-shaped necklace that pointed to the V of her cleavage, she dropped to her knees and began picking up the jewelry. Her dark hair was twisted into an elaborate something-or-other knot that lay glossy and smooth against her tan complexion. Her ivory shoes had five-inch heels covered with chocolate-colored stones that perfectly matched her slim-fitting slacks.
“Are you okay?” Victor asked, joining her on the floor and reaching for some jewelry.
She dropped a handful of bling into the felt-lined box with a busted side and reached for more. “I’d be better if I wasn’t crawling around on the floor right now.”
He added his handful before looking around to make sure they were getting it all. She lifted the skirt of a nearby table while he rescued a ring a man almost stepped on.
“I don’t see anything else,” he said, offering her the ring.
“Me either.” She looked around. “But I don’t have time to worry about it now.”
He held her elbow, again experiencing a shock of electricity, and helped her up. “I take it they’re fake?”
“The real stuff only comes out at the office.” She secured the lid on the box and smiled up at him. Her gaze was kind and grateful, though rushed. More than anything it was compelling with its dark intensity. “Thanks for the help.” With a smile, she nodded at his tie. “You may as well untie the tie. Unbutton the top button. It would look sexier.”
Before he could say more, she was moving smoothly through the throng of people with her head high. Amber had been cute, but uninteresting. The brides and wedding party members he’d passed were cliché. The jewelry-spilling woman who’d barely spared him a glance in her rush was exotic. Intriguing.
He untied the knot he’d only mangled, loosened the top button on his shirt and felt himself smiling as he neared the back runway. The encounter, oddly, improved his mood enough that he stopped dreading, as much, the next few hours. When he stepped behind the curtain that created a backstage area for the fashion show, the chaos from the expo seemed sedate.
There were women in all states of dress, men in tuxedos, gowns upon gowns upon gowns on racks and clouds of hairspray and smears of makeup and powder. He expected to see a wizard standing in the middle of it all holding a clipboard and calling the shots while waving a wand. Lori Mullins, the owner of Tulle and Tulips Designer Weddings and his boss’s girlfriend, was there, but she wasn’t the only one directing people. There were several other women hustling about with headsets on.
The woman he’d met over spilled bling stood before a slender brunette in a white strapless dress that flared wide in the back with a stripe of red for the train. The bride held herself regally still while the other woman, who was speaking into her own headset, secured a tiara to the bride’s upswept hair.
When the woman turned toward another bride, reaching into her box of bling as she moved, the bride turned. Victor’s breath lodged in his lungs and tears threatened.
“You’re here!” Lindy squealed. “You look less cranky than I expected, though you still can’t tie a tie.”
“You…” He moved to his sister and took her hands in his, spreading them wide to get a good look. Setting her
up with Lori at Tulle and Tulips, letting her think she’d won a contest he entered her in to have their planning services covered, was one of the best things he’d ever done for her.
She stopped talking, a rare occurrence, and turned a little from side to side, showing off the dress. “Do you like it?”
“I’ve never seen you look more stunning, Lindy.”
Her cheeks brightened and her eyes welled. “You really like it?”
He nodded. “Is this the one you’re wanting?”
She nodded. “I can’t afford it, but yeah.”
“I could help you.”
Lindy shook her head, denying his offer yet again. She and Jeffrey, her fiancé, wanted to pay for their wedding on their own, which Victor respected. Lindy had been sixteen when their parents were killed in a mugging. Victor had made sure she had the things she needed since. Now he wanted to make sure she had the things she wanted.
Why else would he be wearing a monkey suit at a bridal show on a Saturday night?
Lindy placed her hands on his shoulders and pulled up to kiss his cheek. “I love you.”
“Honey, I adore you.” He eased back and tugged at his tie. “Proving it with every breath tonight.”
She laughed. “How is it I’m the one who knows how to tie a tie?”
“Because you’re marrying a man who wears them and I’m not?”
“I always knew the rumors weren’t true.” She adjusted his collar and tie. “A gay man would know how to tie better than this and he wouldn’t be as uncomfortable as you are around all these pretty things.”
He grinned as he watched Lindy’s fingers expertly button his top button and maneuver his tie into a thin knot. “It’s a good thing I love you, because you’re a brat.”
“And you’d be a shut-in without me.” She slipped the knot up and made sure it was straight.
“Groot did call me Rocket Raccoon last night.”
Lindy rolled her eyes. “We’ve got to get you a life beyond computers and comic books before you try to code yourself a mate.”
“If I ever did you could bet the woman would be as pure as code.”
“Lindy.” The woman with the jewelry stood a couple feet away. “We’re ready for you.”
“Oh, Darci.” Lindy stepped aside and motioned to Victor to move forward. “I want you to meet my brother, Victor. He’s one of your models for the day. Victor, this is Darci, the Bunny of Bling.”
Darci. Even her name was intriguing. Curious about the sparks he’d felt earlier, he extended a hand. Darci smiled pleasantly, slipping her palm against his. A burst of electricity ran across his skin and up his arm.
Her dark gaze, kind despite the urgency lingering beneath the surface, widened. She cleared her throat and said, “We met. Sort of.”
He squeezed her hand the tiniest bit before releasing her. “Have you found anything missing?”
Her eyes lingered a moment on his tie before she sighed and said, “Not so far. And thank you for helping us out tonight. I’m sure you have better things to be doing.”
“Not really.” It wasn’t a complete lie. There were things he’d rather be doing, but that didn’t make them better than talking to a gorgeous woman.
Ignoring Lindy’s suspicious stare, he smiled at Darci. “Where do you want us?”
As quickly as she’d taken off after picking up the jewelry, she shifted back into work gear. “This way.” She gave him instructions as they walked toward a gathering of models being lined up by another headset-wearing woman. “The brides will walk out on their own so people can envision themselves in the dresses. You and the other guys we have will escort the girls from the bridal party down the runway and back, just like you would in a wedding.”
“Sounds easy enough.”
“It should be.” Darci directed Lindy toward Lori, who thankfully pretended not to know him as she lined brides up.
“Victor,” Darci said, leading him to the bridesmaids. “When you come off the stage, you’ll go stand by the next girl without an escort. Just keep the rotation going.”
“No problem.” He did a quick count. Twenty brides, forty bridesmaids and four men to play escort. The show wasn’t going to be a quick one, but he didn’t mind. More accurately, he didn’t mind the chance to learn more about Darci, because their sparks suggested she was different.
Chapter Two
Fourteen hours had passed since Darci Drummond slipped her feet into her heels and stepped out of her apartment. She and Lori Mullins had spent the day setting up for and then working the fashion show while the rest of their team worked the day’s weddings and the expo booth.
Darci loved her job and the brides, the shows and the crowds, but what she really loved were the calm and quiet moments when she could stop pretending to be the life of the party. When she could just be.
The closest she came to that during bridal shows was at the end of the day while she worked with Lori and the team to clean up the show’s leftover chaos. For the first time, her mind didn’t settle during the clean up. Neither had it settled in the quiet moments between outfit changes during the show. In those moments, Lindy’s brother pushed to the forefront of her mind.
The tuxedo transformed a handsome man into a sexy one, though she’d still rather see him untied and unbuttoned. His smiles, the way his gaze found her across the room every time he came off the stage, his touch that zapped her with life when his skin brushed hers. It added up, making him a man who awakened hibernating butterflies. And that made him dangerous.
Darci hadn’t been on a date in several months, but that didn’t make her a stranger to the game. It took more than a handsome face and a few touches to change her personal rules. She was out of the game, no longer willing to put her heart at risk.
“Man, what I wouldn’t give for some coffee.”
Lori zipped a clear bag on a wedding dress and stretched her neck. “I could call Trevor and beg for a delivery.”
“As if he’d make you beg.”
“He might. He says he has fun seeing me be the one to beg on occasion.”
Darci chuckled as she laid the jewelry out in her boxes. “Please, he will always give you everything you want. It’s how he was bred.”
“He’s worth loving. Speaking of worthy men…” Lori hooked a hanger holding a dress on the nearby rack and turned to Darci. “Lindy’s brother seems pretty great.”
“It was an easy job.”
“That’s not what I mean.” Lori slipped a bag over another dress. “He approached me after the show about buying Lindy’s dress.”
Darci glanced to Lori, curious, but continued laying jewelry into her boxes, doubling up since the box she’d forgotten was now broken. “I heard her tell him she couldn’t afford it, but that she didn’t want his help.”
“As far as she knows she’ll be getting a discount as thanks for finding us another escort at the last minute. Of course, she also thinks she won a contest to pay our planning fees.”
“He’s the one paying?” Darci met Lori’s gaze, but refused to acknowledge her unspoken questions.
“He is. He’s also the one who put her through college,” Lori continued. “Well, the portion not covered by scholarships.”
Every time Lori, blissfully committed, Misty, blissfully married, or Leigh, blissfully engaged, mentioned a man it was with matchmaking in mind. Their hints weren’t even subtle anymore.
“I didn’t know that.” Darci dodged Lori’s latest attempt and stacked the jewelry boxes on the bottom of a rolling dress rack. “Are you any closer to accepting Trevor’s proposals?”
“Closer. I’m pretty sure when I do he’ll try to drag me to the nearest courthouse the next day.”
Trevor might ask Lori for a fast wedding, but he would never ask her to sacrifice a day she’d been planning since she was rescued from captivity and the covert, and apparently corrupt, agency she’d worked for had been shut down. “Trevor has a reputation for being impatient and unforgiving. Except when it comes to
you.”
“I had a reputation for being cruel and uncaring.”
“Until you met Trevor.” Darci shook her head and laughed. Her friend had been a spy, and supposedly a good one, but she could never have been truly cruel and uncaring. “Most men are turned off when a woman tries to kill them.”
“I didn’t… It wasn’t like that,” Lori defended.
“I know, but that’s just one reason your story isn’t going to be anyone else’s.” A covert operative on assignment when she met her now significant other—it was a one of a kind meeting. Though Lori never said as much, Darci suspected the reason for Lori’s hesitation to accept Trevor’s marriage proposal was rooted in guilt.
Lori watched her closely as she grabbed another plastic bag for a dress. “You say that like you never expect to fall in love.”
“Been there. Done that. Don’t give a damn about the T-shirt.”
“You still believe in love.”
“Believe in it, yes. Looking for it, no.”
“Then it’s a good thing you have friends looking out for you, because I think you should ask Victor out.”
“Who?” Darci knew exactly who Victor was, and she even understood why Lori would suggest dating him. Too many rounds with Mr. Wrong had left her heart scarred, though.
“Lindy’s brother. Our most popular male model today.”
“We don’t date clients.”
“He’s not your client,” Lori argued.
“I’m not asking him out, Lori.”
“He’s a hunk. And he’s nice.”
“I’m happy for him, and Lindy’s lucky to have a brother like him, but I’m not interested.”
Lori sighed as she dropped the subject and continued covering the dresses for storage until tomorrow’s show. Her plea didn’t fade away, though. It just joined the loop of thoughts about Victor.
Seventeen hours after leaving her apartment, Darci stepped into her home and slipped her feet out of her high heels. The silence she’d waited for all day enshrouded her, but unexpectedly it wasn’t what she’d hoped for. This silence was heavy with thoughts of an intriguing man who held the power to haunt her.
