A Camden Family Wedding

by Victoria Pade

  Driven by the need for more of the feel of skin to skin, she tugged his shirttails free of his slacks and found the hot silk of flesh over honed muscle.

  It had an impact because the kissing went up another notch to erotic and that hand at her thigh climbed just a little higher, turning Vonni on that much more before he eased it over her skirt and up to her breast.

  This time it was Vonni who contributed a hint more fervor to the kissing as her own hands took firmer hold of his back and the faintest sigh came out just short of a moan.

  She hadn’t planned the wrap dress for this but she was only too happy when it accommodated his hand slipping inside to the lacy demi-cup of her bra.

  Now, if only the bra would disappear....

  It didn’t actually have to, though, because Dane was dexterous and insinuated his hand between lace and breast, taking the breast into his palm where her nipple became a tiny pebble to let him know how good it felt.

  And then how much better when he began that same massage he’d done at her thigh.

  It felt so good that Vonni’s spine arched, giving him more access and a freer rein. One hand came out from under his shirt—also to open the way—but when she rested it on his upper thigh she realized only belatedly that it was perilously close to a bulge in his lap.

  Close enough to feel him growing against the back of her thumb.

  She could have moved her hand. But instead she raised her bare thigh to rest it on top of his and her mind began to strip him out of those clothes he had on and picture him naked....

  Naked...

  While a portion of her mind imagined the glory of that, another portion began to wonder about other things.

  Like what she was doing!

  They weren’t in dating mode—they weren’t dating! She’d just been thinking earlier about how that was a good thing. But how did they keep ending up kissing?

  It certainly didn’t go along with being her client.

  It didn’t go along with her being on hiatus from the husband hunt.

  It didn’t go along with him being antimarriage and not wanting a family for himself.

  So what was she doing? she asked herself.

  And she wasn’t even only kissing him!

  Oh, but it felt so good....

  He was flicking her nipple with a feathery fingertip, then squeezing it just gently. Squeezing and rolling and then kneading her entire breast again, and it was all just about driving her out of her mind....

  But not so far out of her mind—yet—that rational thought didn’t intrude and remind her that she needed to put a stop to this because of the client/husband-hunting-hiatus/no-marriage-ever things.

  In just a minute...

  No, now! That rational thought shouted at her because even just a minute more and that part of her knew she was going to be lost.

  So she did draw the hand in his lap away. She did pull out her other hand from inside of Dane’s shirt, and she put them both on his chest again, leveraging herself backward, away from him. From that kiss. And from that so, so talented hand that fell away from her breast....

  “Probably not the best idea....” she said in a voice that was ragged and rueful enough to convey how much she didn’t want to stop.

  He nodded without agreeing and tugged the edge of her dress back into place with his index and middle finger.

  Vonni sat up straighter and did a better job of it, also closing the split in her skirt while he said, “There’s just something about—”

  “I know,” she confirmed, not knowing how he was going to finish the sentence but understanding that there was just something about the two of them together that led to things going where they had no business going.

  Then she decided that business was the best refuge so she stood and said, “I have an 11:00 a.m. wedding tomorrow with a lunch reception. Once that’s going on its own speed I’ll leave and come to your grandmother’s house. We couldn’t set up in the kitchen today because of tonight’s dinner, and there’s more that needs to be done out on the patio, so those will be where we concentrate our efforts before the ceremony. But everything should be up and running by the time the judge has done the honors and you’re all ready to receive guests.”

  He’d walked her to the door by then, and she took the envelopes as he said, “I’m sure you’ve got everything under control.”

  Everything but what was still charging through her that made her want to kiss him again.

  And put his hand back on her breasts.

  And rip those clothes off him after all....

  But she reined in those thoughts, those inclinations, and pretended she wasn’t having them at all as he walked her out to her car.

  Only there—once she’d unlocked and opened her door—he pulled her into his arms and kissed her again very soundly, as if to let her know he hadn’t forgotten about any of what had just happened even if she was pretending she had.

  Then he let go of her, grasped the top of her door in one hand and laid the other on the roof of her sedan while she got behind the wheel.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said then.

  “Tomorrow afternoon,” she added just before he closed her door.

  But as she drove off, stealing glances of him watching her go in her rearview mirror, she had the distinct impression that she’d left him in the same frame of mind and body that she was in.

  And there was nothing at all final about it.

  Instead, she just wanted him even more than she had before....

  Chapter Nine

  “Dane Camden, this is Chrystal Burke.”

  Vonni performed the introduction her friend asked her to make when Chrystal arrived half an hour after the Camden wedding reception began.

  Chrystal had already introduced herself to the bride and groom, and as usual was acting as if she’d had something to do with the wedding itself. Now Vonni, Chrystal and Dane were in the dining room where Vonni had just made sure the hors d’oeuvre trays were being taken out by the waitstaff to be offered to the guests.

  Vonni looked on as Dane made small talk with Chrystal and pointedly told her how much he and his family appreciated all that Vonni had done and the great lengths Vonni had gone to in order to have this wedding on short notice.

  Vonni knew that his efforts on her behalf were wasted on Chrystal, but she appreciated them nonetheless and merely stood by and enjoyed the sight of him.

  For the wedding he was dressed in an almost-black suit. Under the coat he was wearing a white shirt striped with silver-white lines, and a matching white silk tie with those barely-visible white lines on the diagonal in the tie.

  She’d never seen clothes fit any man better than these fit him, and her first glimpse of him coming out of the den after the wedding ceremony had nearly made her jaw drop. Add to it his clean-shaven chiseled features and the artfully careless hair and he was the biggest distraction she’d ever experienced at a wedding.

  But she still needed to do her job, she reminded herself.

  “I should check and make sure dinner is going to be on time,” she said in the midst of Chrystal flirting with Dane. “But, Chrystal, could we find a minute later to talk?”

  “You know what?” Dane said as if she’d given him an opening. “I’m going to leave you ladies to talk right now because I can see one of my brothers needing to be rescued. If you two will excuse me.” Then he grasped Vonni’s elbow lightly, leaned close to her ear and said, “I’ll catch up with you later,” and left.

  “Ooh...” Chrystal said in a singsong once he was gone. “That looked interesting. Is something going on between you after all?”

  “We just did the wedding together,” Vonni answered, not wanting to admit to her friend what she didn’t want to admit to herself—that yes, something was go
ing on no matter how she fought it, and that she didn’t know exactly what it was.

  But she really had wanted to talk to Chrystal, so now that she had the opportunity she got to the point. “I never heard back from you about having lunch with your dad.”

  Chrystal made a face of dread. “He can’t have lunch. He’s involved with some big merger. He wouldn’t even have dinner with me until last night. But...I do need to talk to you.... It’s the main reason I came today.”

  There was nothing positive in Chrystal’s tone and it wasn’t like her to stammer, so Vonni had to assume that her friend wasn’t eager to say what she had to say. “He’s putting off the partnership again,” Vonni guessed.

  “I’m sorry, Vonni,” Chrystal said, sounding genuinely remorseful. “I tried. I really did. But that’s not the worst of it....”

  “There’s something worse?”

  “You know Daddy’s new girlfriend—Gina?” Chrystal said the name with scorn. “Well, now she’s his fiancée.... They’re getting married. She’s already moved into the house and...she wants to work at Burke’s Weddings.”

  “Doing what?” Vonni asked cautiously, trying not to jump to any ominous conclusions.

  “Daddy wants you to show her the ropes so she can do everything you do and be a-a second coordinator....”

  “A second coordinator,” Vonni repeated. “So she won’t be working for me—for us,” she amended in order to maintain the illusion that Chrystal had any real part in the shop. “She’ll be equal?”

  Chrystal shrugged and actually looked a little beaten. “Equal for now....”

  “Are you telling me she’s going to take over? I’m supposed to teach someone how to do everything I do so she can take my job?”

  “Daddy is marrying her, Vonni, and you know how it is.... Burke’s Weddings is technically Daddy’s business, so he’s really the one who has the say in what goes on—”

  “And he’s going to take away your graduation gift and make it a wedding gift for his new bride?”

  Chrystal shrugged again and didn’t look any too happy. “He told me this over dinner the other night and it actually got kind of...unpleasant. I said we didn’t need anyone else to work at Burke’s Weddings and he made fun of my saying we. He made a really ugly remark about it, and said if he’d given me a car I didn’t drive he’d have the right to take that back, too, and that Gina is so wonderful and so stylish and has such good taste—”

  Chrystal’s voice cracked and Vonni saw tears well in her friend’s eyes. But she was so mired in her own shock and worry that she didn’t know what to say and merely reached out and rubbed Chrystal’s arm comfortingly.

  “He said that right now there’s no Burke in Burke’s Weddings and that’s my fault. That when Gina becomes Mrs. Burke there will be. It was all just so...ugly.... He thinks the sun rises and sets on Gina—it’s like she has him brainwashed—and I’m just... I don’t know, nothing good. I don’t work, I wasted his money on a college education, I left my graduation-gift business to be run by you while I just have my hair and nails done and shop all the time—that’s what he said. I had no idea he thought I was so useless, but he even said that....”

  Vonni swallowed back her own anxiety when Chrystal turned away to face the dining room table rather than the guests and dabbed an index finger under her eye to catch the tear that fell before it could harm her makeup.

  “I’m sorry, Chrystal.”

  “I’m sorry, too. I know what you’ve put into Burke’s Weddings and now Daddy could let Gina just swoop in and take it away from both of us.”

  But despite the fact that it might be a personal blow to Chrystal, it wouldn’t change anything for her. For Vonni the world seemed to be suddenly spinning out of control.

  “I suppose we can hope that Gina will be like me,” Chrystal said then. “Maybe she’ll work for a while then just want to spend more time being a wife and things will go back to being the way they are....”

  Even if that happened—and Vonni knew she couldn’t bank on it—Vonni still wouldn’t be a partner.

  But she wouldn’t contribute to her friend’s misery by venting her own anger and frustration, so she didn’t say that.

  “In the meantime,” she said instead, “when is Gina coming into the picture?”

  “Monday.”

  “Monday. This Monday? The day after tomorrow?”

  Chrystal nodded.

  “So not a lot of warning,” Vonni muttered.

  “He said poor Gina is bored because he’s so busy with the merger and he wants her to get started so she has something to do. I fought for us, Vonni. For both of us. I said he’s been promising you the partnership for years and now instead of that he’s giving you Gina, but there’s no getting through to him.”

  Vonni nodded, not doubting that Chrystal had gone to bat for her to whatever degree she could.

  “Well...” she said, trying to gather her wits. “I’m in the middle of a wedding and there’s nothing I can do about this right now.”

  “I’m not going to stay,” Chrystal said. “I just wanted to meet the Camdens and see the inside of the house, and tell you what’s happened....” Chrystal nodded in the direction of Dane then and said, “I hope something is going on with him—you deserve that, at least. I’ll come in Monday to introduce you to Gina.” Then, looking forlorn and dejected, she added, “I’m so sorry, Vonni.”

  Vonni merely nodded and watched Chrystal make her way past the guests before being stopped by someone who knew her on her way to the front door.

  There were things that Vonni needed to check on, but at that moment all she could do was stand there, stunned.

  No partnership. After eight years of building Burke’s Weddings, she was still nothing more than an employee and never would be....

  This was no better than the failed relationships she’d let herself be strung along through, hoping that what she wanted would manifest itself naturally, that if she worked hard enough and wanted it enough and proved herself, it would surely come to her....

  Except that no marriage proposal ever had.

  And now neither had her partnership....

  “Hey! You look like something hit you. Are you okay?”

  Dane.

  Vonni had been so lost in her own thoughts that she hadn’t even seen him coming.

  “I looked up from hearing about weather patterns in Northbridge,” he was saying, “and you were just standing here with the color gone from your face.”

  Vonni blinked as if she was coming out of a coma, took a deep breath and said, “I think maybe we should talk about the job you offered me.”

  “Okay. Great,” Dane said with confusion in his voice. “Now isn’t the best time, though. How about after the wedding? We’ll go back to my place, I’ll pour you a stiff drink—because you look like you could use one—and we can talk all you want about it.”

  Vonni nodded, still too shocked to worry about the logistics of his suggestion or whether or not she should go to his condo again, especially after last night.

  “Can I take over whatever you need to do here, now?” he offered. “Maybe you can go outside and get some air?”

  Vonni laughed, thinking that apparently everyone thought what she did was easy. But she knew he was just trying to help. The way he had numerous times since they’d met. And she appreciated that.

  “No, I’m okay. I’ll take care of everything. I want this to be nice for your grandmother.”

  “And then we’ll talk when it’s over,” he reiterated reassuringly.

  “Good. Yeah. We’ll talk later,” she said quietly, thinking that this was probably how her grandfather had felt when he’d gone to his safe and found the formulas for his makeup missing.

  And how ironic it was that now she was looking to a Camden to solve her p
roblem....

  * * *

  “I keep asking myself if this is sleeping with the enemy.... Well, you know, not sleeping but consorting....”

  Vonni was still in somewhat of a daze even hours after Chrystal had dropped the bomb on her. She’d seen the Camden wedding reception through to the end, making sure the house was back in order, all the vendors had been paid, tipped and had left and that everything was prepped for the next day’s brunch, before she’d considered her job done. Then she had once again followed Dane back to his condominium, where she’d told him the news that had been delivered to her earlier.

  They were in his state-of-the-art kitchen where he’d poured them each a glass of the finest scotch Vonni had ever tasted.

  But that was basically the end of the line for her.

  After accepting the glass she’d wilted against the edge of one of the counters, stepping out of her shoes without really thinking about it. She’d been so absorbed in her problems that she’d barely noticed that the ice in her glass had caused some condensation to form, and a drop of moisture to fall onto the tight, short skirt of her sleeveless navy blue cowl-necked dress. She just didn’t care.

  Dane seemed to have realized she’d gone as far as she could go at that point because with his own glass in hand, he’d leaned against the opposite counter’s edge, facing her. And there they’d stayed, in the kitchen, talking thoroughly and more seriously than ever before about her going to work for Camden Superstores.

  “I promise you, I’m not the enemy,” he assured her.

  He also hadn’t said “I told you so” when she’d ranted about Chrystal’s father not only refusing her the partnership but having so little regard for her that he would expect her to teach his fiancée how to be a wedding planner so she could be handed the business Vonni had built. She appreciated that.

  “What we’re offering is better than a partnership in a small shop,” he said.

  “But I won’t be doing any actual weddings myself?”

  “Once everything is up and running, that will be up to you. If you want, your personal services and attention can be requested, and you can pick and choose which weddings you want to do yourself—that could even be what attracts high-society weddings to us rather than to shops like Burke’s Weddings.”