As if on cue, he turned and looked at her. She raised a brow and with just a look, hoped she got the message across to him. What are you doing?!
He winked at her and turned back to watch Jim stumble all over himself. She turned her attention back to the front of the room as well.
“That is the presentation we have prepared for you today. I hope you are pleased with the product.”
The room fell silent. Brandon stood and stepped to the front of the table. “I can tell by your expressions that you aren’t quite pleased.”
Cambria turned to look at the executives nodding their heads.
“We thought we would have something that would be a little better suited for our company. That didn’t promote our new line at all,” a woman in a tailored black suit complained.
“Okay, that is fair. Lucky for you we’ve come with options. Jim presented the first option. Cambria?” Her head shot up. She nailed him with a long, warning gaze. “Would you come up here, sweetheart?”
Sweetheart! She couldn’t believe he was talking like this in front of clients. She slid out from the table and joined him at the front.
“Yes?” She cleared her throat, knowing her voice sounded shaky.
“This is Cambria Loman, a marketing executive, a very talented woman, and also my beautiful girlfriend.” She turned to look at him as he looked back at her with pride shining in his eyes. “Miss Loman constructed a beautiful presentation that took my breath away and I assume it will knock your socks off as well.” He opened his folder, and before her was her presentation in vivid color along with handouts. He clicked his laptop and a new slide show presentation came up, showcasing all of her hard work. “Please take one and pass this around,” he said to the person sitting to his right.
“When did you do this?” she whispered for only him to hear.
“I didn’t do anything, babe. You did it all.”
“But the handouts… The slide presentation.”
He took her hand and squeezed it. “The presentation was all your hard work, baby, I just tweaked it to present today. Would you like to speak?”
“No!” she answered quickly. “I didn’t know you were going to do this. I’m not prepared.”
“Okay, well can you stand by me and look beautiful? And pipe in if I missed any of your vision for this project.”
Her face heated, or more like blazed. “Stop it. Yes, I’ll stand up here with you.”
“After we knock this out of the park, will you go into business with me?”
She eyed him, looking at the group behind her waiting patiently. “Yes,” she said quietly. “Brandon, what are you doing? Now is not the time for—”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a black velvet box and flipped it open. “Since you are saying ‘yes’ to all the rest of my questions…”
She put a hand to her mouth, already feeling tears forming. “Oh my God, Brandon.” She watched him kneel on one knee in front of a room full of people. Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.
“Cambria Loman, you are the most beautiful and most talented person I know. I’ve been in love with you for a long time. I just finally got the nerve to say it. When I saw you on New Year’s, all the feelings I had for you in college just flooded back. I don’t want you to drift out of my life again. I want to be with you the rest of my life. I love you. Will you marry me?”
“I…” She looked down into his gorgeous eyes and handsome face, completely in love with this man. Everything he said was the same way she felt for him. She wiped at a pesky tear that broke free. “I love you, too, Brandon,” she was finally able to say. “Yes, I will marry you.”
He stood and slid the ring on her finger. The large solitaire diamond winked back at her.
“This is beautiful,” she whispered as he closed his arms around her.
“No, you are beautiful, the ring pales in comparison.” He kissed her lightly on the lips. She closed her eyes, lost in the scent of him.
“Aww.” A collective sentiment went up from the group of people in the room.
“Oh shoot, we just did all of this in front of a room full of people and clients.” She covered her face. Then pulled herself together and looked out at the room of people, none of which appeared shocked. Kimi beamed. “Wait a minute.” She turned back to look at him. “You planned this whole thing, didn’t you?!” She stuck an accusatory finger in his chest.
“Well, I had a little help from my friend.” He pointed at Kimi, who dramatically stood up and took a bow.
“The account?”
“Your project was sent over to the client,” Jeff piped up. “This whole thing was all just a plan to help Brandon out.”
“The Virgin Islands?”
“A nice add-on bonus. We didn’t know you would be so angry you would quit after learning the client wanted us to work with your firm, so Jeff came up with the vacation at the last minute. I didn’t know he was going to send you out of town! But at least it was a chance for us to get away together,” Brandon answered.
She stared at the three people; she thought were the Magna execs sitting at the head of the table. “Who are you?”
“We work with Brandon.”
“The real client received your plan three days ago while we were on vacation. They loved it and accepted.” Brandon smiled.
Kimi stood up and walked over to her. “Okay, so now that you want to kick all of our asses because we tricked you, just remember that you love us and now you are engaged to Brandon McKay. The man you have wanted for a really long time.”
“Okay, Kimi, hush! You’ve just put my business all out there.” She hissed at her friend.
Brandon grinned. “You wanted me, huh?”
“You can hush, too.” She poked a finger into his chest.
The room of people erupted into laughter.
“Ugh. Let’s get out of here.” She took his hand and dragged him from the room.
“When did you know you were going to do this?”
“When I saw the look on your face as you found out my firm was going in with you on this project. I couldn’t lose you, Cam. I saw the work you did. It was so much better than anything I would have done. You deserved to have this, and I wanted to make that happen for the woman I love. It took me two days to get to you because I was working with Kimi, Jeff, and Jim to turn the project in before I left.” His hand moved down her bare back as they lay together in bed later that night. She repositioned her body to look up in his eyes.
“Really?”
“Seeing you again…well, it just brought back everything I felt for you in college. We just fell back into the rhythm of us again.”
“Best friends?” she asked.
“More than that, now. My best friend, my lover—”
“Your business partner.” She laughed.
He tipped her chin up until her lips met his. “Soon to be my wife,” he whispered.
“Mmm, I like the way that sounds.” She welcomed his warm mouth again, sighing as his hands moved down her body. “Let’s work on the lover part right now.”
EPILOGUE
A fter spending most of the evening in every position possible, with her new fiancé, Cambria, woke the next morning and rolled to her side. Brandon slept soundly beside her and she smiled. She couldn’t wait to start planning their lives together. She rolled to the other side and checked the bedside table. It was already six a.m. They needed to get up and get ready for work. She knew he hated mornings so she’d let him sleep a little longer. She sat up and swung her legs to the side of the bed.
Her cell phone sat, charging on her side table and the notification light was blinking, indicating a new message. She picked up the device and slid a finger across the screen. The message was from Kimi.
Hey, Girl. I’m sure you are otherwise occupied with the sexy Mr. McKay. However, I have to tell you something when you get a minute. Give me a call.
Cambria quickly typed back. Hey, Love, yes I was a bit busy last night. What’s up
? Is everything okay?
She got up from the bed, placing her phone back on the table. She made it halfway across the room before her phone buzzed again.
Brandon stirred a bit at the sound. She quickly retrieved the phone and took it in the bathroom with her, as not to disturb him.
She looked at her phone at the new message. Yes, everything is fine. Just wanted to tell you about the new little dilemma I’m in.
Dilemma? Is this about a man?
You know me so well. Not one man, but two.
Oh my God, Kimi. It’s never a dull moment with you. Her mind went back to the conversation they had in her office about threesomes. Oh, Kimi, what did you do? She asked her best friend her favorite question, which fit her so well.
Not what, Cam. Who.
Okay, who did you do…?
Jeff and Jim.
T he End
F ind out exactly what happened between, Kimi, Jeff, and Jim while Cambria and Brandon were in the Virgin Islands. In the short sequel book 2 Carnal Desire.
Book 3 True Desire continues Brandon and Cambria’s story
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Hadley Raydeen lives in a suburb outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. By day, she works as a Human Resources professional. In her spare time, she loves to edit and write. Hadley has edited for a number of years as a content and line editor for three different publishing houses. She released a few books back in 2013 through epublishers and has come back and reestablished as an Indie Author writing as the Phoenix Pen.
Please visit and connect with Author Hadley Raydeen for updates on updates on New Releases and Monthly Games and Giveaways: https://forms.aweber.com/form/52/619309152.htm
https://www.facebook.com/Hadleywrites
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
18. Epilogue
19. About The Author
Rekindled Desire Page 9