Rosalind sucked in her bottom lip and looked to Xavier, but he was focused on Jack, who was taking his turn at the mic. “The fourteenth at four.”
“Great, I’ll be there,” Carmen assured her. “But I don’t think it’s eloping if you plan the date and time you’re going to take off for Vegas a week in advance. I’ve always been led to believe it’s supposed to be a spur of the moment type of thing.”
“We’re far too busy a couple to be spur-of-the-moment.” A smile hiding a deeper meaning crept across her face. Rosalind’s eyes scanned her fiancé’s backside. “Well, about anything we do in public during business hours, anyways.”
Carmen flinched. “TMI, Rose. TMI. Now, let’s get this press conference wrapped up so we can get you to your next appointment on time.”
Rosalind jumped inside her skin. “Oh, I almost forgot about that. Is the present in the car?”
“Yes, I had it brought from your flat this afternoon. Kamakshi’s going to love it. The baby will look adorable.”
With that, Rosalind took to the mic and opened the floor for questions. Xavier fell in line beside her, snaking his pinky around hers. The giddiness that soared within her from a simple, innocent act astonished her each time, and not because of the physical sensation it caused to emanate through her. Though Xavier, it had turned out, was expert in causing physical sensations. It was because she realized, no matter the crazy way it had all come about, she had exactly what she’d set out to have. Not only a partner in life, she and Xavier would be partners in business too, building together a future they could both share. A future she knew would have its dark moments, but in which they’d both be with the person with whom they truly belonged.
And in another week, married.
Assuming she could reschedule the six o’clock sales meeting she’d just remembered she had scheduled on the fourteenth.
About the Author
Killian McRae would tell you that she is a rather boring lass, an authoress whose characters’ lives are so much more exciting than her own. She would be right. Sadly, this sarcastic lexophile leads a rather mundane existence in the San Francisco Bay Area. She once dreamed of being the female Indiana Jones, and to that end she earned a degree in Middle Eastern History from the University of Michigan. However, when she learned that real archaeologist spend more time lovingly removing dust with toothbrushes from shards of pottery than outrunning intriguing villains with exotic accents, she decided to become a writer instead. She writes across many genres, including science fiction, fantasy, romance, and historical fiction.
You can learn more about Killian at her website: www.killianmcrae.com, or by following her on twitter: @killianmcrae.
Other titles:
The Pure Souls Series
Book One: Pure & Sinful
Book Two: Once You Go Demon
A Love by Any Measure
12.21.12
Acknowledgements
Always and firstly: to Mary Ellen. I would be nothing without her.
To my kids: for their patience with me, and their ability to make the simple, simpler.
To the Fraternity of Pi, for encouragement and, where needed, well deserved ass kickings.
To Angie Stanton and Nichole Chase, for reading Gown in its earlier stages and telling me she had good bones.
To Sarah Hansen and Okay Creations: For dealing with a socially-awkard author and still giving her a banging cover.
To Andrea Kuduk: For assisting me to better understand Indian weddings.
Contents
Dedicated
The Deal
Left Column, Right Column
The Hunt
Dinner & a Date
The Onus of Crazy
Copycat Sydrome
Black & White
Would That It Were
A Passing Bug
Breweing Up Trouble
Bait & Switch
Projected Revenues
Binders Full of Men
A Selection of Tea
Can I Make A Substitution?
Referrals
The Mile Sly Club
Lobbyist
Strange Bedfellows
A Marked Woman
Assumptions
The Descent
Folding
Red-Handed
Uniquely Qualified
Matrimony & Mergers
Reclassification
Epilogue: Cordially Invited
About the Author
Acknowledgements
Have Gown, Will Wed Page 21
