by Leigh James
Good thing I was stoic. And stubborn as hell.
"We met at a cocktail party for one of your new technology launches, remember?" she asked. "I worked at a design firm that helped with your branding. We started talking and haven't been apart since that night."
I squeezed her thigh again, deciding to just go with it. "How long ago was that?"
"Six months," Blake said smoothly. "And now we've decided to make it official."
"I know my sister will be researching you online as soon as we've paid the check tonight. What's she going to find?" Elena had assured me she'd taken care of every detail with respect to Blake's identity, but as we got closer to the restaurant, my nerves began to hack into my overall system.
"Elena put up a fake website for the design firm with my profile on it—it has my picture and everything, including my fake degree." Blake whipped out her phone and pulled up the site. "See? The company is fictitious, but it looks completely legit. It says I'm currently on a leave of absence to plan my wedding. And there's no other trace of me online. AccommoDating has a members-only, secure website. All of my information's been taken down, and she had our tech guy make sure you couldn't find residual links online anywhere."
"Well… good." I scrubbed my free hand across my face, imagining other areas of vulnerability where my sister might strike. "What's the story with your family?"
Blake didn't miss a beat. "My mom died of cancer. My parents divorced when I was very small, and I never knew my father. And I'm an only child, so that's it. Just me, and no aunts or uncles to speak of, either."
"No mother-in-law, hmmm? You really might be the perfect woman," I teased. She just smiled and went back to stroking my arm.
I went back to talking my erection down.
La Ciel was elegant and crowded, but my surroundings barely registered with me as I gripped Blake's hand and headed for the table where my family was already assembled and waiting. It figured. They probably had a pregame strategy session. "Are you ready?" I asked Blake lowly.
She smiled and nodded. "No," she said, under her breath. "But I'm already pretending."
"I like it." We reached the table, and my sister's eyes almost popped out of her head at the site of the tall, beautiful woman at my side. "Good evening. Serena, Father, Elizabeth." I nodded at them all politely. "This is my fiancée, Blake Maxwell. Blake, this is my family." I pulled out the chair for her, and she descended onto it slowly, like a queen.
They positively gawked at her.
I took the opportunity to inspect them. My father looked fit and tan, as though he'd just played eighteen holes, which he probably had. Elizabeth, my stepmother, looked as though she'd had some work done recently. Her skin was pulled more tautly than usual, and her eyes slanted upward almost painfully. She was still attractive, but now her face had an unnatural, feline-like appearance underneath her auburn waves. Serena glared at me from beneath her dark tumble of curls. Her perfectly painted red lips contrasted with the light tan she'd acquired during some fundraising weekend on Nantucket.
She hadn't told me she'd gone, because I hadn't asked her. I'd seen the picture in the society pages and flipped past them quickly, tired of her endless photo opportunities, her unyielding desire to the center of attention.
"I'm Franklin Ford. It's lovely to meet you," my father said, a bit too enthusiastically. He shoved his hand at Blake across the table and shook hers animatedly. "I’m so thrilled that you and my son are getting married! Wow. Just look at you." He proceeded to do just that, his eyes sparkling as they roamed her body.
Then he leaned underneath the table to check out her legs.
I cleared my throat and shot a knowing look at Elizabeth, who was turning a dull, scary shade of red. "That's enough, Dad. I appreciate you being friendly and all—but you don't need to be quite so enthusiastic."
My father popped back up and gave me a sour look. "Jesus, Lucas. You haven’t even been here for a minute. Say hello to the family and have some wine before you start complaining." He turned to Blake. "I apologize for my son. He can be a little crass."
"I hadn't noticed." She smiled at my father.
"I'm sorry." I interrupted what was clearly my father’s preamble before he started telling Blake all about my flaws. "I know you're just excited for me, Dad." I turned to the ladies. "We're all just excited. Right, Elizabeth? Serena?"
"Absolutely," said Elizabeth, her eyes raking over every visible inch of Blake. "It's nice to see that you're finally going to settle down after all this time." Her smug tone was unmistakable: after all this time without me, it insinuated.
I clenched my hands into fists under the table. Blake must have felt me tense because she started to rub my back soothingly. "It's really nice to finally meet you all," she said, her tone friendly and naïve. "Lucas has spoken of his family so highly."
Serena raised a meticulously waxed eyebrow at Blake. "Really? You're going to pull an 'aw-shucks' routine on us? With a body like that?"
"Huh?" Blake blinked at my sister, her eyes widening. "I'm being polite. Because we're just meeting, and because this is a happy occasion."
"Don't bother with the manners." Serena rolled her eyes. She was wearing a tight black dress that showed off her surgically enhanced breasts. An enormous gold Rolex watch glinted against her wrist.
"Oh, Serena, what's the matter?" I asked. "Feeling outfoxed?"
"Hardly." She scowled at me. "It's more that I'm suspicious. I haven't seen you all year. None of us have. And then, three weeks before I'm set to inherit the trust, you spring this on us?" She pointed at Blake, as if my fiancée was something ugly and dangerous that had slunk out of a sewer pipe to join us for dinner.
I leaned across the table toward my sister. "Are you sad that you're only going to be inheriting half of the family fortune now?” I whispered, conspiratorially. “Or just that Blake's naturally gorgeous and much nicer than you?"
"I don't know what you're talking about. There's no such thing as a real blonde." Serena sniffed, eyeing Blake's roots. "And as for the money—you're only getting it after you've been married for a year—and if this is actually real, not some sort of sad attempt at fraud." She turned back to Blake. "So, speaking of fraud, how exactly did you meet my brother?" I winced at how shrill she sounded. Mother would have hated to see her like this.
I looked around the table, from my father to my hired bride-to-be. Mother would probably have hated to see all of us like this.
Blake smiled bravely at Serena. "I worked at a design firm that helped Lucas with his branding. We met at a launch party. I'd like to say it was love at first sight, but that… just sounds so cheesy." She sounded demure, but as she continued rubbing my back, her hand started to go lower, skimming my belt.
I shifted in my seat. What is she playing at?
I gave her a quizzical look, but she ignored me, continuing to trace her fingers along my lower back. "I don't think it sounds cheesy," I said. "In fact, that's exactly how I felt." I gestured to my father, who was staring at Blake as if she were an ice-cold drink in the middle of the Sahara Desert that he wanted to guzzle. "I'm just lucky she felt the same way about me."
"I'll say," my father exclaimed. Then he cursed as Elizabeth sharply elbowed him.
"We started dating, and Blake moved in with me shortly after that," I explained. "Since I'm not getting any younger, and we decided we'd like to start a family—"
"Oh, will you stop with your bullshit?" Serena looked as if she might lunge across the table at me. "You do not want a family. You can't even stand to be in the same room with children! This is all for show. There was no insta-love, and this woman is not really your girlfriend."
Blake stubbornly held up her left hand and pointed at her ring. She looked as if she were about to burst into tears. "His fiancée," she reminded Serena, her voice swollen with hurt. Her lip quivered.
My father leaned across Elizabeth in order to better glare at my sister. "Stop making our guest upset," he commanded. "It's nice to see you
r brother finally happy. Maybe you could start working on that."
"Maybe you should mind your own business," Serena snapped.
"You need to back off," Elizabeth said, coming in between them, her tone nasty.
"Don't start that step-monster routine with me," Serena threatened.
Blake shot me a surreptitious look, as if to ask, are they always this bad?
I nodded at her, drained my glass, and motioned for the waiter. "Keep it coming," I said, pointing to the empty bottle of wine. Then I froze.
Blake's hand was trailing to the waistband of my pants again, skimming the top of my ass. "Can I have some more, babe?" she cooed when the waiter brought the bottle back. Her sexy voice made my cock jump to attention. I grabbed the wine out of the waiter's hands and poured it for her myself.
"Thanks." She gave me a fuck-me look then leaned over and kissed me, with tongue, causing the muscles all over my body to shiver in response.
My cock jolted again and as we parted, I noticed that all three of our dining companions had stopped arguing and were staring at us, open-mouthed.
"You're blushing," Serena said to me, sounding disgusted.
I jerked my thumb in Blake's direction. "It's her fault. She does that to me."
My father looked positively ribald as he bit into his salad. "You don't say, son," he mumbled through his Bibb lettuce.
Seemingly satisfied with my physical reaction, Blake refocused her attention on Serena. "Now, back to what you were saying about us not being in love—why would you say that? I don't understand."
Serena's head looked as if it were about to pop off. "Since you refuse to stop pretending—even though you're both seriously terrible at it—I'll break it down for you. I'm sure you know that Lucas is on the verge of inheriting lots of money—"
Blake pulled her shoulders back, bristling. "That might be true, but he makes lots of money, anyway. Because he works very, very hard."
"Thank you, baby." I threw my arm around her and pulled her against me. Now that she'd practically grabbed my ass and stuck her tongue in my mouth, the physical lines I'd drawn around us seemed penetrable.
Penetrable. Huh. I was really going to need to work on my inner word choice.
"It's so nice to finally have someone in my corner." I squeezed her against me as I looked pointedly at the faces across the table from us.
Serena drained her wine glass, looking simultaneously frustrated and disgusted. She ignored me and spoke directly to Blake. "He only gets the money if he's married by the time he's thirty-five and if it lasts for a year. But it has to be real. He can't just be doing it for the money. You, either."
Blake ran her fingertips over the rim of her wine glass. "No offense, but how would you verify that? That someone's marriage is real?"
Serena arched an eyebrow, one of her signature, snotty moves. "I have my ways."
"Maybe I should go back and question Robert," I said, referring to her ex-husband. "And ask him how real your relationship was."
A glimmer of something, possibly the real human emotion of hurt, flashed in Serena's eyes for a moment. But it disappeared so fast, I assumed I'd imagined it. "You go right ahead. What Robert and I had was real, no matter how disappointing he turned out to be." Serena had packed her husband off when he began suggesting, on a regular basis, that she quit the Boston social scene and either focus on a career or on having a family. Or both. I'd always liked Robert, but he'd pushed my sister too far.
Serena sat back in her seat, taking us both in. "Let's get back to you two because you're the ones on the hot seat. Not me. I paid my dues and complied with the terms and spirit of the trust. The only way that you're getting that money is if you do the same. I can and will run a background check on you, Blake. You're too stunning to never have graced a society party before. I can check to see if you've received any money or property in exchange for marrying my brother. I'll see if any legal documents have been filed at the Registry of Deeds—if Lucas has gifted you any property, for instance. I could also check to see if any large sums of money have been transferred from his accounts."
I leaned forward, wanting to smack the smug look off of her face. "You'd need a subpoena to check my accounts, and you know it. Good luck getting one."
"I don't need luck," Serena said. "I have a team of top-notch attorneys that I'm going to put on this. They'll find a way."
I sat back in my chair and put my arm around Blake. "I wouldn't spend all that money on legal fees, seeing as you're only getting half of the inheritance you've been expecting."
A pulsing vein appeared on my sister's forehead, and I wished it would pop. "Don't you start threatening me—"
"Not only are you being rude, you're jumping the gun a little bit, my dear," my father told Serena, interrupting her. "They haven't even gotten married and hit the one-year mark yet. No one gets the money until then. Not even you."
"Except I would be inheriting the money in three weeks if he wasn't pulling this," Serena said, indignant.
The server brought our entrees, but none of us ate. We all just pushed our food around angrily, the atmosphere crackling with tension.
"We're getting married next weekend," I finally said, breaking the awkward silence. "You're all invited, of course."
"Great," my father said. His eyes sparkled as he looked at Blake, probably imagining dancing with her. I was so not letting that happen.
"Wonderful," Elizabeth said, sounding as if she were enjoying the latest family scandal. She was probably relieved there was finally some bigger news than her leaving me to marry my dad.
"Why bother inviting us?" Serena asked. She stood up and angrily shoved her chair against the table.
"Because I, unlike you, care about this family. And I would like your blessing." I wasn't sure how I managed to keep a straight face, but I did. It was almost impossible for me to care about the family since my mother had died and everyone had shown their true colors. But my sister's blessing, or at least her belief in the truth of the marriage, was exactly what I wanted. What I needed. "I'll send you an invite, anyway. Do what you want with it."
I wanted to add that she was more than welcome to shove it, but since I needed her approval or at least the absence of her disapproval, that seemed ill-advised.
"Well, I'll be there for everything. Every last moment. Because I'm going to catch you in the act, little brother." She tossed her curls over her shoulder dramatically and turned to Blake. "Good night. I'd say it was a pleasure, but you actually just gave me a headache."
Blake didn't miss a beat. "It was nice to meet you, too."
After Serena rage-grimaced one last time and hustled out of the restaurant, we engaged in awkward small talk with my father and Elizabeth until the check blissfully arrived. "I've got it," I said, waving them off. "And I'll be in touch soon with the wedding details."
Before they left, my father hugged Blake more than necessary, and Elizabeth's complexion went molten again. When they finally walked out, I drained my wine glass in a silent, thankful gulp. When we were finally alone, I turned to Blake. "See what I mean?"
She nodded. "They're tough."
"Why were you putting your hand down my pants, anyway?" I raised an eyebrow at her.
She shrugged demurely. "I wanted you to stay alert. And to seem like you're into me." She looked up at me through her lashes. "You don't mind, do you?"
I shook my head. "It worked."
"Good." Blake smiled. "We need to stay on our toes. Speaking of which, dinner made me think about what you said about the wedding."
"Which thing?"
She bit her lip, looking guilty. "That your family would hate the idea of a Vegas wedding."
I grinned at her. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
She nodded, her eyes sparkling.
"They deserve a spectacle." I filled our glasses with the rest of the wine and raised mine in a toast. "To Vegas, baby."
She clinked her glass against mine. "To Vegas."
Chapter Eight
Blake
Lucas was quiet on the ride home. "That must have been stressful for you," I said, trying to draw him out. He needed an ally against his family, and it looked as though I was all he had.
He shrugged, looking out the window. "I wasn't expecting anything different."
"Have they always been so…" I searched for a word that was fitting but not too insulting. "Dysfunctional?"
He shot me a look. "Yes." He was quiet for a moment. "No. I don't know."
I waited to see if he would go on.
Lucas scrubbed his hands over his face. "They were all better-behaved before my mother died. Elizabeth at least had the decency to wait to jump ship to my father's bed a respectable few months after that."
"Oh. Wow."
He chuckled darkly. "She's a piece of work, all right. But my sister… she was still married when my mother died. Robert was a nice guy."
"So why does Serena seem to…" I didn't want to finish the question.
"Hate me?" Lucas's eyes twinkled in the dim interior of the SUV. "Because she said that I was our mother's favorite. And once Mom was gone, there was no one to keep her in line. My father was too busy sticking it to my ex to notice that Serena had gone off the deep end. She got her boobs done this year. She does Botox all the time. She's thirty-seven, for Christ's sake. Too young to be doing that, and too old to be out partying like she is."
"That's too bad. So she's… jealous? It just seems so petty."
"Why did your sister go after your boyfriend?" he asked gently.
I arched an eyebrow at him. I really wished we were back playing pretend in front of his family so I could run my hands down his backside and put him in his place—under my spell. "Are you analyzing me?"
Lucas's gaze held mine. "Aren't you analyzing me?"
I shrugged. "Maybe."
"So, back to your sister. Her motivation was?"
"Chelsea. Her name's Chelsea." I swallowed hard. "She's pretty easy to analyze. If I had a toy, she always wanted to take it. When it came to Vince, things were no different."