Leaning forward in her seat, Emma spoke barely above a whisper. “You do have a plan, right?”
Fear of Trinity’s creepy bat-like hearing, Briley dropped her voice as well. “We promised not to bid on any of the men up for auction, but we never said anything about Hunt.”
“Hunt?” Emma looked over at their friend, laughing and joking with the crowd and the bachelor in the bright spot light. “Are you sure?”
“Oh yeah, she hasn’t been able to take her eyes off him the entire time I’ve been with her.”
“But they’re always fighting.”
“Exactly.” The sparks flew so fast and hot between the two, Briley wanted to smack her own head for not seeing the obvious before.
“Ohhh.” Comprehension dawned in Emma’s eyes as she wound a long strand of red gold curlyhair around her finger. A sure sign that her writer’s imagination had taken over and started to deviously plot Trinity’s downfall.
“We’ll wait for Olivia and Recee then get the ball rolling.”
“She’ll never bid on him,” Emma warned.
Briley shrugged, not too concerned with the details. “Not to worry, Em. Between the four of us, we’ll fix Trinity’s little red wagon. Before we’re done she won’t know what hit her. Hunt either.”
“You ladies are scaring the natives.” Brock leaned over Emma’s back to speak to both of them.
Concerned, Briley looked around, but could see no one paying any attention to them. “Brock, no one looks scared.”
“Then you haven’t been looking at me. When you women plot, I suddenly feel my balls draw up in fear.” The way he said it with a perfectly straight face while in black tie made Briley wanted to burst out laughing. Shoving the desire down, she nodded and turned back to the show.
Chapter Twelve
“I can’t do it, Olivia.”
“Carter, what part of the plan were you unsure of?” Her quiet voice scared him more than a thousand screaming females.
He looked at her—Olivia soon-to-be-Newton, former supermodel turned club owner–and felt sweat start to slide down his back. She looked so sexy yet regal in her purple silvery costume or dress or whatever in the hell women called it. With her black hair upswept and those enigmatic deep green eyes, she should have held him spellbound with desire. The only emotion rolling out of him landed him firmly on the opposite side of lust. Fear had a nasty stench and he knew his body blasted the scent.
Still, he tried to explain. “Olivia, I really appreciate you taking this chance for me. I love Briley, I really do, but I don’t think I can go out there in front of all those people.”
Shock widened her eyes as small lines appeared between her trim black brows. “This is stage fright?”
“Of course, what else would it be?”
She gave an elegant shrug. “I thought you were trying to get out of making up with Briley.”
Carter nodded over her shoulder. “What would you give my chances of survival if I tried to make a break for it?”
Turning, Olivia smiled then faced him again, but Carter kept darting looks over her shoulder. Recee, Ethan and the mountain of a bouncer M stood there, looking about as friendly as hungry crocodiles.
“Don’t worry about them. As long as you plan to do right by Bri, they won’t lay a finger on you,” she assured him with a quick pat on his head.
“Olivia, tell me something.” He waited until he could look her in the eye before continuing. “How will making a fool of myself change things? Briley knows how I feel about her. I’ve never tried to hide my intentions. She ran out on me yet I seem to always be the one chasing her.”
Warmth softened her gaze. “Carter, if I didn’t think Briley would respond, then there’s no way I’d put you through this. She’s had plenty of time to think, pout and ponder. You’ve done exactly what I told you and she’d been after you nonstop, right?”
The plan Ethan and Brock had come to explain hadn’t been their plan at all, more like Olivia’s words pouring from their lips. At the time, Carter didn’t think there’d be a chance in hell Briley would attempt to contact him, but still he promised not to answer or return any attempts at communication. Sure enough, within a week, Briley had been by his shop, his home, and her number had been on his caller ID more than once.
So okay, everything Olivia had said so far had come true, he’d give her that. “Yeah.”
“So shut up and grow a pair,” Recee grumbled from her position behind the curtain. “It’s your turn up to bat, and this is your last chance to keep your favourite body part from being pureed.”
“Emma bought those damn blenders, didn’t she?” Ethan looked accusingly at this bride to be.
Olivia looked unconcerned. “I can’t stop her from buying anything she wants to. Besides, she said we might not need them with Carter but she’d have them on hand if we ever needed them again.”
M and Ethan groaned, clutching themselves in sympathy for mankind everywhere.
“Oh goodie it’s time to get the show on the road, Mr. Moore. Better make it good or I’ll make sure Emma and her blenders are here before you get off the stage,” Recee threatened, all the while batting her long lashes at him in mock innocence.
“I got it.” With shaking legs, Carter stood and waited for his cue. “If she rejects me again,” he turned to warn the women, “I’ll make sure every hacker in the world knows who the four of you are.”
With his death speech out of the way, Carter straightened to his full height and stepped out under the bright light and scorching heat.
“Ladies and gentlemen, our last man up for bid is a bit of a change in our programme. Instead of bids placed on him, our last bachelor wishes to buy a romantic weekend with one of our lovely sponsors.” Hunt spoke into the microphone, gaining the room’s attention with his words.
“What on earth is Hunt doing?” Briley asked the table at large, but no one looked at her or responded. They attention centred on the tall man blinking his way down the stage.
“Carter,” she breathed as her heart raced at the sight of him. Everything in her cried out that she go to him, before he changed his mind and left. Fear held her stiff and rigid.
“Briley Evans, of Evan’s Travel, has generously donated her time and several wonderful trips that many of you have bid on tonight. In an incredibly generous gesture, Carter Moore, owner of Moore’s Computer and Repair, has offered twenty-five thousand dollars for the pleasure of Briley’s company. Let’s give this beautiful lady a round of applause along with Mr. Moore for his kind donation.”
The clapping started out slowly, but before long, cheers rang out through the room. Emma jabbed her elbow into Briley’s ribs and hissed. “Get off your ass. “
Confused, Briley looked at her friend. “What?”
“Don’t make him have to come after you. The man is practically shaking in his shoes up there and you’re only making it worse on him.”
In a fog, Briley felt someone grasp her arm and pull her to her feet. “Smile.” Ethan leant down to whisper in her ear. “The man’s head over heels in love with you. He wouldn’t be here if he didn’t love you. He’s shaking in his designer shoes.”
Briley looked at Carter, really looked at him, and saw Ethan had been right. Sweat beaded Carter’s brow and upper lip while his hands clenched and unclenched with nerves.
“Why is he doing this?” she asked as she walked to the stage, mindlessly nodding and smiling at various people.
“You’re not stupid, Briley. Why else would a man make such a public fool of himself?”
“Oh God,” she whispered as tears flooded her eyes. “He really loves me.”
They reached the stage and Carter stood there, his hand outstretched and his heart in his beautiful green eyes. “Will you be me date, Briley Evans?”
Knowing he asked so much more than that, Briley still placed her hand in his, swallowing around the lump in her throat. “I will.”
Her words broke through his reserve. Carter jerked her in
to his arms and his mouth came crashing down on hers. His hands slid to her ass, drawing her closer, and she felt the proof of his desire.
Her breath caught. She tore her lips free and said in a voice gone hoarse, “Carter, we’re on a stage.”
“Fuck ‘em. Let me get their own women.”
His mouth took hers in a voracious, hungry kiss that made her inhibitions scatter. At the same time, he lifted her in his arms and carried her away. She didn’t care where they went so long as they were alone together.
Pulling back, Carter looked into her eyes. “Nothing’s changed, Briley.” he said, breathing hard, while need and desire darkened his eyes. “I still love you. I want you in my life, my bed for the rest of our lives.”
He looked at her with such love and passion she felt her fears melt in the face of his honesty. “I love you too, Carter. I have since the first night we met, but I was too afraid to admit it to myself much less you. I want it all.” She let everything she felt rise up and out of her. “I want to marry you, have your children and grow old together. I want all my tomorrows to belong to you just as yours will belong only to me.”
Their gazes locked.
She was so turned on, she shook all over. So that was what being in love was all about. It made everything more—more special, more important, just more.
In between heated kisses to her cheek, her ear and throat, he whispered of his feelings and plans. “Don’t leave me again, Briley. I don’t think I can make it through.”
Puzzled, she leant away from his tempting mouth. “Then why have you been avoiding my calls and dodging me every time I showed up at the shop?”
His swollen lips quirked in a half nervous smile. “Because Olivia and Recee made me promise not to have any contact with you until tonight. They said something about making you own up.”
Dirty rotten smart bitches. She sent up a quick prayer for being blessed with such amazing friends. Then went back to kissing Carter, grateful for the small curtained nook that gave them a small illusion of privacy.
Sometime later, they were interrupted by Recee’s sweet enquiry. “Geez, my eyes my eyes. I think he’s blinded me,” she screeched putting both hands over her face to block out the sight of Carter’s partially nude body.
“Shut up, Recee, and turn around,” Briley ordered, trying to adjust her own clothes to their proper place.
“And to think I came back here to do a good deed,” the other woman grumbled.
That got her attention. “What good deed and what’s it going to cost me?” Having been friends with Recee for years, she knew better than to judge this book by its cover, nothing came free with Recee.
“Hey, I’m only the messenger. Apparently, the plan was all yours. Brilliant, by the way.”
For a moment, Briley couldn’t think of what Recee meant until her early conversation with Emma came back to her. “Trinity and Olivia did it?”
Recee nodded her head. “Yep, should be wrapped up any minute now.”
“It’s safe to turn around now,” Carter said, coming up to Briley’s side, placing a tender kiss on her neck. “What have you done now?”
“Us?”
“Moi?”
Carter laughed, laced his fingers with Briley’s before following Recee to the main room. “Well, at least life with you won’t ever be boring.”
“I can promise you’ll never suffer from that.” Briley winked then smiled as an angry female scream rent through the air, loud enough to be heard over the band.
“Briley Evans, I’m going to kill you.”
And Briley laughed, holding tight to the man of her dreams. The one man who accepted her and her friends just the way they were, and loved her anyway.
About the Author
I’ve been lucky enough to travel all over the world as a child. I experienced life through many different cultures and countries. No matter where I went stories would pop up in my mind. It took a while for me to figure out exactly what those tales were trying to tell me, but eventually I understood. Five years later I’m happily typing away to the tune of the voices in my head.
I’m addicted to anything to do with mythology, regardless of culture. I can be bribed with good coffee or Diet Coke. I will bore strangers to tears with pictures and stories of my fabulous nephews and nieces. Nothing like kids to keep you humble and honest, especially when they consider the plumber to have a cooler and more glamorous career than their aunt, the writer.
Have a question, an addiction you want to share? Please shoot me an e-mail. I love to hear from readers.
Email: [email protected]
Allie loves to hear from readers. You can find her contact information, website and author biography at http://www.total-e-bound.com.
Also by Allie Standifer
Club Botticelli: Ordering Olivia
Club Botticelli: Enticing Emma
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Beguiling Briley Page 10