Page 38 of Bedding The Best Man (Bedding the Bachelors)

“And why is that?”

“I can only imagine how overwhelmed you are, with everything that needs to be done for an event this big, and such a short amount of time in which to do it all. You have to be pulling your hair out.”

“Not at all,” Brianne replied. “In fact, I’ve solidified my vendors. We’re a go.”

“A go?” Leland looked surprised.

“What, Leland? Have you been doing a little more checking in on the competition than you’re willing to let on?” Brianne shook her head, frowning. “That isn’t fair. I wouldn’t want to find out you’ve been wasting your precious time calling around to see who I’ve booked.”

“Who said I had?”

“No one. I would just hate to hear it. Like you said, there’s so much to be done, and no time to waste.” She smiled sweetly, wanting nothing more than to claw her nails down his unnaturally smooth skin. She wondered if there were scales beneath it.

He smiled tightly in reply. “I’m glad to see you have things so well in hand, dear. I look forward to seeing what you come up with.”

“And I, you,” Brianne assured him. She waited until Evie escorted him out of the office before throwing her mug across the room. At least it was empty, she thought, as it broke against the wall.

“Damn,” Evie said, shaking her head when she saw the mess. “I was gonna do that.”

“What are we going to do?” Brianne asked, throwing her hands up in the air. “He’s on to us.”

“How much would you be willing to bet he held back the news about Jane dropping out of the contest, just to give himself the edge?”

Brianne’s eyes widened at Evie’s theory. “Of course he did, that snake! He probably knew for days before coming to me! Jane probably didn’t announce it to the magazine before then, but he knew. He had to know. He’s got spies everywhere, the creep.” She looked at Evie, feeling her spine strengthen as she did. “We have to win this. I’m more determined than ever to wipe the floor with that pig.”

Evie smiled. “Atta girl.”

Chapter Sixteen

Later that evening, Brianne went home—only for a change of venue, however. She planned to work on the event long into the night.

She’d already made one phone call she’d been loathe to make: Gabe’s office. And just as she’d thought she might be, she’d been redirected to an assistant. She didn’t think he’d want to speak to her, and she shared the sentiment.

What hurt the most was the feeling that another man had let her down.

First Callum, then Eric. Now Gabe. Whenever she thought she’d found happiness, something got in the way. There had to be something wrong with her.

Focus on your work, she told herself. The work was the one thing she knew she was good at. Then again, was she? Her company was on the verge of failure, and if this contest didn’t go in her favor, she’d be starting from scratch somewhere else.

She’d worked too damned hard to let that happen.

Sipping her wine, she looked at the plans on her laptop, perched precariously on her knees since there was no room anywhere else. Maybe the ashtray thing had gone a little too far, but there was no way she’d give up a single one. Jamie had once joked that she needed offsite storage space. She’d wrapped one of them up for his birthday gift and when he’d opened it, she told him she’d taken his advice and was finding places to store them.

Then she’d taken it back when he wasn’t looking.

Her phone rang, causing a lot of scrambling on her part.

I really need to clear some space, she thought, reaching over her laptop to grab for the phone.

It was her mother.

“Mom,” she said, trying to sound pleased. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to hear from her mom, but when she was in the flow it was hard to give a damn about one society scandal or another. And there was one topic of conversation she definitely didn’t want to discuss.

Which, of course, was exactly what her mother had in mind. “How are you, sweetheart? Have you heard from him?”

He-who-must-not-be-named, Brianne thought.

“No, Mom. I would have told you if I had.”

---