“Good. Because I need a favor, a really big one for this party to run smoothly.”
“I’m your girl. Tell me what you need.”
Her dusky whisper could be his undoing. Still he had no other option until he could get Anders’ to see reason on the wife issue. Cameron swallowed his pride.
“I need you.”
Lauren’s breath caught in her throat and she could have sworn her heart stopped for a full three seconds. “You need me?”
“You’ve worked for Sonja Anders before. You know how…” He pressed his lips together and pondered the ceiling as if looking for the right word to describe the force of nature that was Mrs. Anders. “How determined she can be.”
“Yes, I’ve noticed.” Lauren grinned and stared up at him. His eyes had a glassy shine to them, making them even more dynamic.
“Sonja’s decided I need a wife. Came prepared tonight with a list of potential brides.” He shook his head like he couldn’t believe this was happening. That made two of them. “With this new promotion, the move, and starting the alternative energy fund, I don’t have the time to devote to a relationship, even if I wanted one.”
“Which you don’t. Want a relationship, I mean.” Too bad.
“Not now, no. But I don’t want to get into it with her tonight. If everyone’s first impression of me is that I’m feuding with the Anders’, it will be an uphill battle to win their trust.”
“And how do I factor into this?”
Cameron rubbed the back of his neck. “I need you to pretend we’re together.”
Lauren blinked, positive her heart really did stop this time. “Come again?”
“Just for tonight. I’ll set Anders straight tomorrow when his wife isn’t in tow. Help me get through the evening, and I’ll…I’ll…”
“You’ll what?” She bit her lip, wondering what he might offer.
“I’m trying to think of something you would want. Offering you money seems insulting—”
“It is.”
“I know.” He winced, his naturally down-turned mouth forming a frown. “There has to be something you want from me. Anything.”
Lauren bit her cheek to try and dislodge the erotic image dancing before her eyes. That was nothing but the fast track to disappointment. He didn’t do relationships, and she didn’t have sex outside of them. But she never turned her back on the opportunity to have a little fun, either.
“I understand this is crazy, Lauren. If it weren’t my introduction to the firm, I wouldn’t be asking. Usually, I set them straight the second they start in, but they assumed something was going on before I could explain, and I need tonight to go well.”
Lauren looked him over again. His hair was expertly cut, a little too short, but stylish. The long straight nose, prominent high cheekbones and chiseled chin set an almost arrogant tone to his expression. The clothes he wore were expensive, tailored, and classic. His shoes Italian, probably handmade. But his hands gave her pause. Long fingers and blunt cut nails, almost as if they’d been manicured. Maybe her instincts about him were wrong.
“Are you gay? Are you asking me to be your beard?”
“What? No.” His hands clenched into fists at his sides. “Why would you even ask me that?”
Lauren studied him, still wondering why he felt the need to put on a charade when any woman off the street would agree to date him. “Your hands are very clean.”
“I showered before dinner.” He held up his hands, studying the fronts and backs. “Hands can’t be gay, I don’t think. My cousin is gay and he’s a landscaper. Filthy fingernails, but he always has a boyfriend.”
“Then why not simply ask someone out?”
“Because.” Cameron took a deep breath and huffed it out. “You ask a woman to do things for you, and she expects you to reciprocate. I don’t have time for that. I can’t be focused on my job and give a new relationship what it deserves. Using a woman for her party skills could end badly if she thought there was more to it. This is convenient because you are a caterer, and business, so no disappointments.”
Lauren couldn’t help but smile. She’d been in the situation he described too many times. Had romantic opportunities fall by the wayside because she’d been too busy trying to get Come For Dinner off the ground. She’d disappointed a few men along the way. At least he knew better than to waste someone’s time.
She’d catch hell for this from her friends, but part of her wanted to feel what her parties were like from the other side. And what could it hurt, really?
“An exclusive agreement.”
“Excuse me?”
“That’s what I want from you. If you, or Anders & Norton, throw a party, Come For Dinner gets to cater it. For, let’s say, the next three months.”
“Done. You make sure all my parties are as well set-up as this one, and I’ll make sure you have as much business as you can handle.”
Damn. She should have asked for six months. “Well, okay then.” She offered her hand. He took it with a smile, his firm handshake making her tingle from fingertips to shoulder.
“Sonja thought it was too soon for us to be serious enough for her to call off her wife hunt, so I led her to believe we met a while back at one of their parties.”
“A bi-coastal relationship. Interesting.” Lauren smoothed her hands against the skirt of her dress and looked down at her feet. “Oh no.”
“What?”
“I don’t have any shoes. I can’t go out there barefoot.”
“What happened to your shoes?” Cameron tilted his head to the side.
“An unfortunate incident with the soup. Hence the dress.” What could she do? She’d seen the guest list for this party. Half the crowd were also her clients. She couldn’t serve them dinner with her rainy day red toenail polish on display.
“I’m not following you.”
“Picture an avocado facial for my uniform and my shoes. I picked up my dry cleaning this afternoon on my way here and this dress was in the bag. Lucky thing, or else I’d be in the kitchen in my gym clothes.”
“So tell everyone you spilled soup on them.”
“I can’t. No kitchen disasters can ever overshadow a party.” The doorbell chimed again, making them both tense. “We’ll tell them I broke a heel, and had no time to go home and get a new pair.”
“Brilliant. Let’s go.”
Lauren swallowed hard. Diego had been after her for months to run a party on his own. And she trusted him. Well, she could trust him. Except with avocado soup. Everything was planned from service to tear down. He could do this, if she could only let go.
“I’ll clue the kitchen in on what’s going on and then be right out.”
“You can’t tell them.” He shook his head frantically.
“I have to tell them something, Cameron. Go, greet your guests, have a drink. I’ll be right there.”
“Thank you, Lauren.”
“Please.” She waved her hand through the air. “There are a hundred women who’d have dinner with you for free.”
“Maybe, but they’d expect me to call the next day.”
“Oh, you’ll call. Exclusivity for three months, remember?”
He smiled and turned, and she watched those long legs stride confidently down the hall. Still unsure what her cover story would be to her team, Lauren returned to the kitchen. Diego eyed her as he whisked the vinaigrette. She stepped to him, keeping her shoulders back and her chin up.
“Diego, I need for you to run the dinner tonight.”
“You feeling alright?”
“Yes, Cameron has asked me to join him for dinner.” She ignored the eyebrow Diego arched and turned to the team, all staring at her wide-eyed. “Anne, can you please arrange another place setting at the table? Ricky, I need you to mock up another salad.”
“Hey, I’m running things.” Diego nudged her with his muscled arm. “Go, enjoy your date with Mr. TDH. What does that mean anyway?”
“Tall, dark, and handsome,” Anne filled i
n.
Diego shook his head. “I’ve got this covered.”
She stuck out her tongue at him and wiggled her fingers at the whispering peanut gallery as she exited the kitchen. Let them think it was a date. They’d all teased her for not dating enough anyway. For a few hours of her time, she’d see a party from the other side of the kitchen, land a fat new account, and get her friends off her back for a few months. All for honeying up to Cameron Price.
…
“Nobody’s talking.” Standing at the wet bar across from the dining room, Cameron handed Lauren a martini as bright red as her toenail polish and picked up his scotch. His second of the night. He hoped it might calm his nerves, but tension ate at him.
“Yes, everyone does seem to be rather socially stunted.” She stretched her neck from one side to the other and took a sip of her drink. “Is this usually how it works? You stare at each other and nod?”
“Usually there is business to discuss. But this is just everyone looking at me.” He looked over at the living room where everyone congregated. They all stood expectantly, as if he were supposed to put on a show.
“Well, then it’s time you flexed your flirt muscle a bit.” Lauren leaned closer as she spoke, her finger running up and down his arm. “You want them to like you. Court them.”
“I want them to respect me.”
“Sure, but that will come later. Now, you need to kiss a little proactive ass.”
“I don’t kiss anyone’s ass.”
“Then you need to learn how, sugar. I know just the thing.” Lauren linked her arm in his and led him into the lion’s den.
His lips curled in distaste, but he followed her anyway. What conversation there was halted as they entered the room. His gaze cut from side to side, recognizing few of the faces. Plastering on the mask of confidence he’d perfected, Cameron greeted his guests and introduced Lauren.
“You know what might be fun?” Lauren slipped away from him and perched on the arm of the couch. “You’re all here to get to know Cameron, so how about if everyone asks him a question?”
“You mean like how he takes his coffee?” The woman seated next to her asked. “Or should we be asking you?”
“Cream, no sugar.” Cameron supplied to the woman who looked like she lost a fight with the cosmetics counter.
Lauren sighed and winked at him, crossing her shapely legs and leaning toward the catty woman. “I’m working on that. He has no idea what good coffee is.”
The crowd laughed and Cameron felt a bit of the tension ease. His favorite book, Dickens’s Great Expectations, drew a few nods. As did his growing up in New York City. Lauren played her role so well even he had to remind himself her coy glances and furtive touches were an act.
When someone asked about his education he formed some camaraderie with the controller who, like him, earned her undergraduate degree at NYU. When he spoke of his time earning his MBA at Harvard, two of the account managers warmed to him in a sense of brotherhood.
At some point Lauren snuck away, but he didn’t notice until she slipped a fresh drink into his hand and suggested they all sit down to dinner. Which he probably should have been the one to do. Maybe Lauren would give him some lessons on how to host a dinner party.
She did a wonderful job of it. Dinner table conversation flowed like a history lesson of Seattle. They discussed all the happenings of the city—buildings, politics, sports, environmental concerns, and cultural events. He learned more than he had on the internet, and actually got a lead on where he might find a decent bagel, instead of the fluffy white bread thing the girl at the coffee shop tried to pass off this morning.
When people suggested restaurants for him and Lauren to try she never batted an eye, listing places she planned to show him now that they had more time together. The look she gave him across the table convinced him their relationship smoldered with passion, and he knew it was an act. He’d need more than an exclusive catering contract to thank her for this.
Dessert was fabulous. A dense chocolate slice of heaven that was more fudge than cake. It was the only thing he ate. He’d spent the other courses chatting up someone at the table, it wasn’t until dessert that he’d spoken to them all.
After dessert, Lauren ushered everyone into the living room. A waiter arrived with a tray of champagne flutes, red raspberries bubbling at the bottom of every glass.
She’d tied everything together. Raspberries in the martinis, salad, dessert, and now the champagne. No wonder Sonja had recommended her so highly.
Handing her a flute she smiled up at him, lacing their hands together and standing much too close. Cameron smiled and looked away, needing to remind himself of reality.
All he really needed from the girlfriend the Anders’ insisted on was a caterer who liked to throw great parties. Maybe she’d be willing to help him again. She’d make sure his parties went off without a hitch, and he’d make sure she had more business than she could handle. Easy enough.
“Cameron,” Bob Anders asked. “If I may?” Anders raised his glass and Cameron nodded and smiled, thankful for the save.
“I think we should all raise our glasses to the lady of the evening. Lauren, you’ve done a wonderful job with the dinner, like always. But more than that, the house looks beautiful, and you’ve filled in a missing piece of the puzzle for me. Let’s all toast to Cameron and Lauren, and their long-distance relationship becoming more permanent now that they live in the same town.”
Chapter Three
“This was supposed to be a one-time thing.” Lauren kept her voice low enough so the guests couldn’t hear, but she knew Cameron had by the way he flinched. She beamed up at him as if the announcement pleased her, but she laced her whisper with venom. Being in on a charade for an evening was one thing, playing the part long-term, quite another. Whatever game he wanted to play, it was past time she cashed in her chips.
“Lauren, I—”
She placed her palm against his chest and stood on her tiptoes, placing a kiss against his cheek so she could whisper in his ear. “You need to thank your guests. I need to go finish my job.”
With a smile, Lauren excused herself from the well-wishers and their questions and retreated to the kitchen. She’d indulged her fantasy all evening, only to have her harmless night as Cameron Price’s girlfriend turn into a public announcement. Not that she would mind seeing more of Cameron, but she didn’t like the assumption. Not to mention the complications it might cause when the clients he entertained were also hers.
The second she walked into the kitchen, she wished she would have just left the property entirely.
“Congratulations,” Anne cackled. From the glowering look on Diego’s face, news of her “relationship” had already made it back to her crew. “When’s the wedding?”
“I’m not sure, but we’re not catering it.” Wedding indeed.
“Lauren?” Diego’s quizzical expression asked volumes of questions she didn’t have answers to. They’d been friends since the first day she tried her hand at culinary school. He knew her too well to even try to lie. So she simply looked away, helping to pack dishes back into their boxes.
“Come on, Lauren. How long have you been seeing him? You acted like you’d never met him. Spill a little,” Anne said with a nudge against her shoulder.
“I already spilled a lot. Avocado soup, remember?” She closed the lid on the box and looked about the kitchen. It was as clean as if she’d run the dinner herself. “If someone wants to grab my gym shoes out of my car, I’ll help load the van.”
“Ricky, get the shoes. The rest of you take a load to the van. No one comes back inside for two minutes. Vamanos.” Diego waved his hands through the air, but his eyes locked with Lauren’s, never breaking contact as the crew scurried about.
When the door closed Lauren took a deep breath. “You did a great job running the dinner tonight. Thank you.”
“Are you okay with what happened?”
“Absolutely. You’ve been telling me f
or a year you could run a job on your own. Now that I know you can, we’ll be able to double book small parties.”
“I mean with Price.” He leaned closer, narrowing his eyes. “What the hell?”
“It’s fine, Diego.” She smiled, forcing her cheeks to look high and happy. “Seriously, it’s not what it seems.”
“I guessed that much. So what is it?”
“Besides being none of your business?” Lauren gave him her most impish grin, but it didn’t crack his serious facade. “Would you believe I’m going for a gold medal in the dating Olympics? Hello to commitment in less than a day?” Still nothing. Boy needed to buy a sense of humor. “Don’t worry about it. I have it under control.” As if.
“You sure? Because if you need me to—”
“Diego, honestly. Things are fine. I’m okay, the party went great, and two of the guests tonight said they’d call for their next event. The whole night is a success.”
“Including your relationship with a complete stranger?” He shook his head and tried to hide his chuckle. Didn’t work.
“I could never be with someone who doesn’t eat. I swear, I think he had two bites all evening.” Though he didn’t hold back from the scotch. The scotch had seemed to help loosen his tongue, so she’d kept his drink full.
“Yes, a man’s appetite is always high on your list.” Diego shook his head and leaned against the spotless counter. “I don’t want to see you hurt, Lauren.”
She held up her hand. “I have no intention of being a skid mark on his dating resume. Really, I’m fine.”
“Okay. I trust you on this. But don’t do something crazy like tell Nyla and Christa. They’ll have you actually marrying him.”
Lauren laughed so hard she snorted at the mere idea of what her best friends would say about the evening’s events. They’d both applaud her decision to play the role for the night, but how would they react to realizing the favor for a cute guy she’d agreed to could be a professional disaster? Or was it? Maybe Cameron had been blindsided as well.
Damn. She had to stop making excuses for him. He wasn’t her boyfriend, just a soon-to-be frequent employer on whom she had a terrible crush. She pursed her lips. That wasn’t any better.
The Billionaire's Holiday Engagement (Invested in Love) Page 3