Page 52 of Bedding The Best Man (Bedding the Bachelors)

“Gabe,” she whispered, her voice full of emotion, her eyes filling with tears again. God, first she’d cried with Eric, and now she was about to cry in front of Gabe. It was just that she felt so emotional. Hopeful and scared at the same time. “I talked to Eric.”

“So did I.” He smiled tenderly and tipped her chin up, then kissed her lips softly, and it felt like the most natural thing in the world. “Come on, baby. Let’s have a dance before the musicians get tired.”

Taking her hand, Gabe led her to the dance floor. She would have gone anywhere with him, but especially so if it meant being in his arms.

She searched his face, wondering if it was the right time, knowing it was in her heart. “I love you.”

A smile broke over his face. “I love you.”

They kissed gently as music floated through the air, then the sound of a small explosion rang through the air. Brianne’s eyes flew open to see Gabe smiling, then the second firework went off. She looked up, marveling at them.

“Who did this?” she asked, watching the pink, gold and green flashes light up the sky.

“Who do you think?” Gabe wrapped his arms around her.

She leaned her head against his chest. “You don’t have any more surprises for me, do you?”

He chuckled. “I don’t know about surprises, but I do plan on more fireworks. But that’s only because I—”

“Stop this farce!”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Brianne and Gabe both gasped, and turned toward the sound of the shouting. The other guests did as well, the beautiful explosions of color forgotten.

Gabe heard Brianne mutter something fiercely, but he couldn’t hear her over the whispers and murmurs from the guests.

There was a man standing on the stage—he’d sneaked up there while everyone was busy looking at the sky. Gabe didn’t recognize him, but Bri clearly did.

“That son of a bitch,” she said.

“You’re all here under false pretenses,” the man on stage said. He was extremely theatrical, waving his arms around. He had perfectly styled blonde hair and was very well dressed. Gabe instantly hated him. There was something about him that seemed extremely studied and false.

“What do you mean?” Brianne called out. “They’re here for the contest, just as they were for your event.”

The guests were looking at each other, still murmuring. Gabe knew this would all be seen as highly improper by the Beverly Hills bluebloods.

“He’s the other planner?” Gabe whispered in Bri’s ear, and she nodded before moving toward the stage. Gabe let her go, but stayed close behind. He saw Evie, Brianne’s assistant walking up as well.

“I felt it my duty to come here and inform you all that this event wasn’t planned solely by Lavish Events. Most of it was planned and secured by another company, completely unrelated to event planning. This hardly falls under the rules of the contest.”

Gabe could nearly feel the heat radiating from Brianne’s body. She was trembling from head to toe, but Gabe knew her well enough to know it was rage she was barely holding back.

“Another companywasused in a subcontractor capacity, Leland; everything the company provided was approved by me. They performed just as any other subcontractor would,” Brianne called out.

“Any other subcontractor?” Leland’s eyes narrowed dangerously. Gabe knew with a sick pit in his stomach what he was going to say a split second before the words came out of his mouth. “Let’s see the invoices, then.”

Bri’s eyes widened as it obviously dawned on her there were no invoices. Because while she’d insisted on paying him, Gabe had wanted to help her free and clear. Only in trying to help her, he might have ruined things.

As he watched, Brianne’s shoulders slumped, but then she straightened. Glancing at Gabe, she smiled and mouthed, “It’s okay,” trying to reassure him. As always, she was grace under pressure, but Gabe wasn’t going to let her go down without a fight.

“I’m the president of Nolan Adventure Stores. Ms. Whitcomb and I are friends. I did the work for the sake of the charity involved.” Another round of murmurs from the crowd. “It was a donation,” Gabe continued.

Leland shrugged. “Well, ladies and gentlemen, you’ve heard it yourselves. The bulk of the work was done by this man’s company and his vendors. I leave it to you to decide whether that was unethical or not.”

“You’re a snake!” Evie shouted.

Gabe expected Bri to protest, to beg Evie to stop, but she didn’t. She stood there, hands on hips, nodding her head to every word. He figured if that’s how they were playing it, that’s how it was going to be.

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