This was going to more fun than he’d expected.
Chapter Nine
Lanie couldn’t believe her cousin hadn’t walked over and wrung her neck.
This was her own fault for drinking so much wine, but at least it had worked—she didn’t have to worry about hiding her jealousy anymore. Her embarrassing entrance and the subsequent maiming had taken care of that.
But even worse was that she was now partnered with the man who had inspired some very vivid daydreams, and from the mischievous look on his face, she was about to become even more uncomfortable. He was definitely sticking close.
“Okay,” Holly said. “Let’s get everyone standing underneath the giant shuttlecock.”
“That’s something you don’t hear every day,” Randy’s brother joked.
The phone vibrated in Lanie’s hand, and she saw a text from Stephanie.
I can’t find the invoices for the display shelves. We ordered them, right?
She typed out a quick message. Yes, but we couldn’t order those electronically. I think the invoice is in the file cabinet.
“Lanie!” Brittany called out. “Please tell me that’s not work.”
Lanie gave her an innocent look, and Britt shook her head, but at least she was smiling.
Holly and the photographer started to position everyone in some complicated staging, and Lanie realized Tyler wasn’t next to her; he was headed toward the street.
“Lanie,” Holly said. “Over here.”
She started to mention Tyler’s escape, but Holly was looking over her chart. “We’ll get Tyler situated after you’re in place.”
No reason to call attention to the fact that she’d chased off one of Randy’s groomsmen.
Holly and the photographer looked at their chart and had her stand in the place they wanted her, then Holly said, “Okay, Tyler. You stand behind her.”
Tyler walked around the two women and stood in front of her with her shoes hanging from his fingertips.
How had she forgotten those damn shoes?
He handed her the shoes and flashed another mischievous grin. “You’ll be wanting your weapons.”
The group laughed, and she couldn’t help grinning as she dropped them to the ground. Tyler took her arm and steadied her as she stepped into them.
“And put your phone away,” Brittany said.
“Unless you want to Photoshop that out too,” Celesta said with a smirk.
Lanie looked down at the phone, hesitating. She knew she couldn’t hold it during the photos, but if she put it in her purse, Brittany would give her grief for checking it. What if Stephanie had more questions?
“I’ll take it,” Tyler said, holding out his hand. Then he lowered his voice. “That way I can let you know if you get a call or message.”
Lanie narrowed her eyes as she studied his face. Was this some kind of trick to pay her back for injuring him? More like his way of trying to hit on her. But he seemed genuine, so she handed him the phone, chiding herself on her paranoia.
She’d been in the dog-eat-dog corporate world too long. There was always someone out to one up her or thwart her—her new VP and the stupid injunction were just one of a long string of issues she’d had to deal with. She’d become jaded. Too jaded. The world was not out to get her. She needed to start trusting people more. And as stupid as it sounded, handing her most prized possession to a man she barely knew was taking a step in that direction.
His solemn expression as he slid her phone into a pocket inside his jacket suggested he realized the significance of what she’d done.
“Your tie,” Lanie said. “It’s undone.” She started to reach up to tie it but quickly dropped her hands.
What was wrong with her? Helping a guy fix his tie was no big deal. What was it about this man that got under her skin?
She told herself that Brittany and Randy were the problem. This whole wedding had made her question everything in her life, but if she was honest with herself, she knew she’d felt unsettled for months. She could admit that she was ready for a change in her career, but was she ready for a real relationship too? In the past, all she had to do was think about her parents’ relationship and any thought of something serious flew out the window, but now she was considering rethinking her stance against a real relationship.
And that scared the crap out of her.
Still, Tyler was no threat. She knew his type. She’d attracted them for years. There was nothing more appealing to a no-strings guy than a woman who came with no expectations of her own.
She watched him knot his tie, then turned away as her fingers itched to reach up and straighten it for him. He was a temptation, and that wasn’t such a bad thing. But she wasn’t sure how Brittany and Randy would feel about her having a casual fling with their friend. Still, they couldn’t be that close. He said he’d only known her cousin about a year.
“So what’s your connection to Britt and Randy?” she asked, trying not to think about what else he could do with his nimble fingers.
“Friend of the groom.” He finished the tie and glanced up at her. “How’s it look?”
Her mouth twisted into a grin. “It’s crooked.” She reached up to straighten it at his neck, spending more time than she’d intended, but his eyes had captured hers and she felt like she was going to combust. Maybe they could make it a secret fling. What Britt didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her, right?
She ran her fingers down the length of the tie, making sure it was straight, but she stopped where it tucked into his jacket, even though her imagination ran wild thinking about where it led.
“Penny for your thoughts,” he said in a husky tone, but there was a teasing glint in his eyes.
She couldn’t very well tell him the truth, so she said the first thing her mind latched onto. “I still have your jacket. From yesterday.” Then she glanced around to see to see if anyone had heard her.
Everyone was watching an animated Celesta try to convince Holly that she had a better idea for a pose.
But Tyler kept his amused gaze on Lanie. “You can bring it to me next time.”
A wave of lust washed through her. Would he be open to a secret fling?
For the next twenty minutes, Holly and the photographer positioned them in various traditional poses, and the entire time Tyler chatted with Lanie and the rest of the wedding party and remained on his best behavior. But several times she caught him staring at her, and the look in his eyes heated her blood.
The sun had set behind the trees, casting a soft glow over them. Lanie knew Britt had chosen this time of day specifically for the lighting, but she couldn’t help worrying about Stephanie tackling the financial reporting all on her own. She cast a nervous glance at Tyler’s jacket, where she knew he’d tucked her phone. Could she get away with checking it without hurting her cousin’s feelings?
Tyler moved to her side, blocking Britt’s view of her as he reached into his jacket, then handed her the phone. “Go ahead and check it while Celesta tries to pretend she’s in charge.”
“Am I that easy to read?”
“Like a book.”
She glanced up at him with a grin. “Do you even read?”
He laughed. “I’ve been known to read a book or two.”
She started to scroll through her texts from Stephanie, but her stomach twisted into knots at the last text Stephanie had sent.
CALL ME STAT!
Oh, shit.
She was about to send her a text when her phone vibrated with a call from Stephanie.
“Go ahead and answer it,” Tyler said, glancing over his shoulder. “Holly looks like she’s about to strangle Celesta, and you’ll lose all hope of a distraction if she takes her out.”
Lanie forced a smile, but she was trying not to panic when she answered, “I’m making this call in secret, so we have to do this quickly.”
“I lost it all.” Stephanie sounded like she was about to cry.
Lanie covered her other ear with her hand so she co
uld hear better. “When you say you lost it all…”
“The file. The program crashed. And when I reopened it, half my work was gone.”
Her stomach dropped to her toes. “Okay, don’t panic.”
“How can I not panic? Hours of work are gone. I’ll never finish in time.”
Lanie glanced over at her cousin, who was still distracted. “It should have an auto-recovery file, but the computer might have stored it in a different folder. You pulled it out of the cloud, right? Check your documents and desktop. Or better yet, do a search of your entire computer with the first part of the name of the file. Maybe that will pull it up.”
“Good idea.”
“That’s why I get paid the big bucks,” she teased, although she was secretly flipping out. If the file was really gone, she would either have to accept that the report wouldn’t be turned in on time or tell Britt she had to leave so she could help Stephanie. A voice in her head told her there was no shame if they couldn’t get the report done on time. It was an unreasonable request, purposely set up to test Lanie. But she was too stubborn to let Eve win, even though Stephanie was paying the price.
“Steph,” she said, trying to keep the defeat out of her voice. “It’s okay. Eve purposely set us up to fail, so maybe we should just throw in the towel. At least we tried.”
“I found it!” Stephanie squealed in her ear. “It was on my desktop.”
“Oh, thank God.” Lanie sighed and rested her forehead on Tyler’s chest. “But that doesn’t change what I said earlier. She can’t assume we don’t have a life and assign unrealistic deadlines.”
“But we don’t have a life,” Stephanie said in a much more chipper tone than before. The two of them had joked endlessly about the fact that their career was their life, but tonight it seemed totally pathetic.
“Maybe it’s time we did.”
“Lanie!” Brittany called out, and Tyler grabbed her arm.
She glanced up, realizing that not only had she rested her head against his chest, but the rest of her body was pressed against him.
“I’ll come by the office when I’m done,” she said as she hung up
Lanie spun around to face her irate cousin.
“Seriously, Lanie. It’s a Saturday night. Can’t you let your job go for just one night?”
“It’s my fault,” Tyler said, taking the phone from Lanie and putting it back into his pocket as he walked toward Britt. “I asked her to make a call for me.”
Brittany put her hands on her hips and gave him a pointed look, clearly not buying it. “Right…” She turned to Lanie. “Who did you call?”
“Um…” Who did she call? “Are you really going to invade Tyler’s privacy like that?”
“Lanie.”
Lanie cast a glance at Tyler, who made a gesture to his head. But she blurted out, “I was calling his date.”
“What?” Brittany asked in shock.
Tyler’s eyes widened, and Celesta looked upset. That was interesting.
“Yeah. I was calling his date…because of his head. He can’t meet her at the bar for drinks because he has to go get stitches.”
Tyler looked like he was enjoying this too much.
Brittany’s eyes narrowed. “So why did you call her?”
Lanie glanced over at Tyler, then her cousin. “He said she’d never believe him if he called, so since I was the one to maim him, I thought that I should call and cover his ass.”
“And did it work?”
Lanie released a short laugh. “What do you think? She thinks he’s spending the night with me and trying to get out of their date.”
Britt swung her gaze from Lanie to Tyler, then back again. “I don’t believe it for a second. You’re having Lanie cancel the first date you’ve had since April?” she asked in disbelief.
And that was even more interesting. One, how was Britt so familiar with Tyler’s dating life? And two, Lanie had seriously misread Tyler as a womanizer. No self-respecting player would have gone five months without sleeping with a woman, let alone a date.
“Britt,” Tyler said in a tight voice. “Believe it or not, I don’t clear my social life with you.”
Britt wasn’t buying it. She turned back to Lanie. “What was her name? Both of you say it at the same time.”
This was ridiculous. Lanie was a grown woman. Why was she having to justify a freaking phone call? But damned if she didn’t still want to salvage this.
Tyler stood behind Britt and he mouthed something she couldn’t make out. Something with an M, and then drawn out. Marshmallow?
Seriously? He was naming his fake girlfriend Marshmallow?
“Marshmallow,” Lanie said.
“Marsha,” Tyler said.
Oh, crap.
Brittany narrowed her gaze. “You called his girlfriend Marshmallow?”
Lanie waved her hand in dismissal. “It’s a long, painful story I was forced to listen to while you were hamming it up with your fiancé.”
Celesta shot her a look of disbelief. “It’s the least you could do, after scarring him for life.”
“I didn’t scar him for life!” Lanie shouted, clenching her fists at her sides, starting to get ticked off. She was already dealing with her bitchy boss, and now she was having to defend a phone call that could have saved her job, temporarily at least. But she was also wrestling with the guilt that she likely had scarred Tyler for life.
Tyler stepped between them, holding up his hands. “Ladies, ladies. I’m fine. It’s not that bad, and even if it does scar, it will only add to my rugged charm.”
Celesta stared up at him like he was a martyr calmly accepting his fate of being burned at the stake.
Lanie just rolled her eyes. “We’d probably better finish this up. You’re losing the light.”
“She’s right,” the photographer said. “We have a half hour, tops.”
“Then let’s get started,” Holly said with a plastered-on smile. “We’re feeling good about the photos we’ve gotten and we’re ready to move on to some more fun shots.”
Tension hung in the air as Holly and the photographer started setting them up, but after a few photos, everyone seemed to relax, including Lanie. Some of the goofy ideas the women suggested were fun.
Holly instructed all the bridesmaids to stand in a line, then positioned the groomsmen behind them before she instructed each couple to hold a different pose.
“Tyler,” Holly said, standing in front of the pair, “I want you to put your hand on Lanie’s side. And Lanie, you lean your head to the opposite side, exposing the side of your neck, then Tyler, you lean in to her ear, like you’re whispering a secret.”
His hand settled on her hip in a possessive hold, and he pulled her back to his chest. “Like this?”
Lanie fought to catch her breath as an electric spark jolted through her body, a blaze of want following in its wake.
“Perfect,” Holly said, oblivious to Lanie’s dilemma. “But Laney, tilt your head and let Tyler tell you his secret.”
Lanie felt like a fool as she complied, both because she was sure she looked ridiculous, and she was insanely turned on by just his hand on her hip and his hard chest pressed against her back.
He lowered his mouth to her ear and whispered in a seductive voice, “You have a very sexy ass.”
His statement caught her off guard, and she whipped around to face him, but the back of her head hit him squarely in the chin.
He dropped his hold on her and put his hand to his chin, shaking his head cautiously as he stepped away from her.
“Oh my God! Are you okay?” she asked, trying to ignore the throbbing in the back of her head.
“Why is she paired with him?” Celesta demanded in outrage. “It’s like she has some personal vendetta against him! Put me with Tyler and I promise not to hurt him.”
Alvin shook his head frantically, his eyes round with fear. “No. I don’t want to be paired with her.”
But a slow smile spread across Rowdy’s
face. “I’d be willing to take on Black Widow.”
“Black Widow?” Lanie asked in disbelief.
Holly released a sigh of frustration. “You’re not switching!” She turned to Lanie. “Can you please try to stop disfiguring the groomsman? We need his pretty face for the photos.”
“Hey,” Tyler said, still rubbing his chin. “I object to the word disfigured.”
Lanie started to protest, but fell silent when Tyler’s arm slid around her waist and tugged her hip to his. “I committed to being Lanie’s partner ’til death do us part, or the wedding, whichever comes first. I’ll just brush up on some self-defense moves before our next session.” Then he winked and gave her a sexy grin. And damned if she didn’t melt a little.
“Okay,” Holly said. “I know we’re all hot and a little cranky, but we only have a few more photos and then we’re done. So just hang in there with me.” She glanced over at Tyler. “Tyler? You good?”
“Great,” he said without sarcasm, and Lanie had to wonder why he was taking all of this so well. She’d dated a couple of guys who would have lost their shit over the shoe incident.
Tyler leaned in to Lanie’s ear and whispered, “You’re cute when you get pissed.”
“I’m not cute,” she said. “Cute is for little girls, and I am definitely not a little girl.”
He stepped closer, close enough for her to see the red welt rising on his chin. “No,” he said in a husky tone, low enough so that only the two of them could hear. “You are definitely all woman.”
Lanie’s body flushed, and she stood frozen in place by his mesmerizing eyes. Crap, this man was dangerous.
He grabbed her waist and spun her around, steering her to their spot. “We need to practice our pose.”
Her heart rate sped up at his touch. “Aren’t you afraid of physical injury?”
His hand rested on her hip again, and his mouth lowered to her ear. “I’ll take my chances.”
His warm breath tickled her neck, and a shiver ran down her spine, and she felt her resolve weakening.
She was lost in the moment, about to do something stupid like kiss him, when she heard a shriek and jolted upright.
Celesta stomped her foot. “This is impossible!”
Until You Page 7