Читать книгу Proposal For The Wedding Planner - Sophie Pembroke, Sophie Pembroke - Страница 9

CHAPTER TWO

LAUREL BLINKED AT HIM. Then she blinked a few more times for good measure.

‘Are you...?’ Pretend. He’d said pretend boyfriend. ‘Are you fake asking me out?’

Dan laughed. ‘If you like.’

‘Why?’

Because he felt sorry for her—that much was clear. How pathetic must she look to elicit the promise of a fake relationship? Really, there was pity dating and then there was this. How low had she sunk? Not this low, that was for sure.

‘Because it feels wrong to let your ex wander around the wedding of the year like he won,’ Dan replied with a shrug. ‘Besides, I’m here on my own—and, to be honest, it would be nice to have a friend at my side when I have to deal with my family, too.’

His words were casual enough, but Laurel couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something else under them. Something she was missing. But what?

‘So it’s not just a “Poor, sad Laurel, can’t even get a date to the celebrity wedding of the year” thing?’ she asked, cautiously.

Dan gave her a quick grin. ‘I’m not even sure I know what one of those would look like. No, I just figured...we’re both dateless, we both have to spend the week with some of our less than favourite people, we’re both non-Hollywood stars in the middle of a celebrity extravaganza...why not team up?’

Who were his ‘less than favourite’ people? she wondered. Who was he avoiding, and why?

Suddenly the whole suggestion sounded a little bit dodgy. Especially since...

‘Aren’t you a stuntman?’ Laurel narrowed her eyes. ‘Doesn’t that count as a Hollywood star?’

‘Definitely not,’ Dan said firmly. ‘In fact it probably makes me the exact opposite. Put it this way: if I wasn’t related to the groom by blood there’s not a chance I’d have been invited to this wedding.’

‘Same here,’ Laurel admitted.

One thing they had in common. That, plus the whole far-more-famous-sibling thing they both had going for them. Maybe—just maybe—this was a genuine offer.

Leaning back against the car seat, she considered his proposition. On the one hand, the idea of having someone there to back her up, to be on her side for once...well, that sounded pretty good. Especially when she had to face down Benjamin for the first time since that really awkward morning in the coffee shop, half an hour after she’d walked in on him in bed with her replacement.

‘You understand, don’t you, Laurel? When it’s true love...you just can’t deny that kind of feeling.’

She hadn’t thrown her coffee cup at his head. She still felt vaguely proud of that level of restraint. And just a little bit regretful... Breaking china on his skull would have been a reassuring memory to get her through the weeks that had followed—breaking the news to her family, cancelling the save-the-date card order, dealing with all the pitying looks from friends... And Melissa’s amusement as she’d said, ‘Really, Laurel, couldn’t you even satisfy old Benjy? I thought he’d have done anything to marry into this family.’

Her mouth tightened at the memory, and she fought to dispel it from her brain. Back to the problem at hand. A fake relationship? Really?

As nice as it would be not to have to face this week alone, who was she kidding? She wasn’t the actress in the family. She couldn’t pull this off. Even if Dan played the part to perfection she’d screw it up somehow—and that was only if they got past the initial hurdle. The one that she was almost certain she’d fall at.

They’d have to convince Melissa that they were in love.

Melissa and Laurel might not have spent much time together for half-sisters—they hadn’t grown up in the same house, hadn’t spent holidays together, celebrated Christmas together, fought over toys or any of that other stuff siblings were supposed to do. Laurel hadn’t even known Melissa existed until she was sixteen. But none of that changed the fact that Melissa had known about Laurel’s existence her whole life—and as far as she was concerned that meant she knew everything there was to know about her half-sister.

And Melissa would never believe a guy like Dan would fall for Laurel.

Fair enough—she was right. But it still didn’t make Laurel feel any more kindly towards her sister.

Laurel shook her head. ‘They’ll never fall for it. Trust me—I’m an awful actress. They’ll see right through it.’

‘Why?’ Dan asked, eyebrows raised. ‘Do you only date A-List celebs like your sister?’

Laurel snorted. ‘Hardly. It’s the other way round. Melissa would never believe that you’d fall for me. Besides, when are we supposed to have got together? We’ve never even met before today!’

‘They don’t know that,’ Dan pointed out. ‘It’s not like my family keeps a particularly tight check on my calendar, and Melissa and Riley have been in LA the whole time. I could have been over in London for work some time in the last six months. Obviously we’d been emailing about the wedding arrangements, so I suggested we meet up while I was in town. One thing led to another...’ He shrugged. ‘Easy.’

‘Is that my virtue or the lie?’ Laurel asked drily.

He made it sound so simple, so obvious. Did everyone else live their lives this way? Telling the story that made them look better or stopped them feeling guilty? Her dad certainly had. So had Benjamin. Could she do the same? Did she even want to?

‘The story,’ Dan answered. ‘And as for no one believing it...’

He reached out and took her hand in his, the rough pad of his thumb rubbing across the back of her hand, making the skin there tingle. His gaze met hers and held it, blue eyes bright under his close-cropped hair.

‘Trust me. No one is going to have any trouble at all believing that I want you.’

His words were low and rough, and her eyes widened as she saw the truth of them in his gaze. They might have only just met, but the pull of attraction she’d felt at the first sight of him apparently hadn’t only been one-sided. But attraction...attraction was easy. A relationship—even a fake one—was not.

Laurel had far too much experience of her world being tipped upside down by men—from the day her father had declared that he’d been keeping another family across town for most of her life and was leaving to live with them to the most recent upheaval of finding Benjamin naked on top of Coral.

But maybe that was the advantage of a pretend boyfriend. She got to set the rules in advance and, because she had no expectations of for ever or fidelity, or anything at all beyond a kind of friendship, she couldn’t be let down. Her world would remain resolutely the right way up.

Something that, after a week filled with Melissa’s last-minute mind-changes and the vagaries of celebrities, sounded reassuringly certain. She eyed Dan’s broad shoulders, strong stubbled jaw and wide chest. Solid, safe and secure. He looked like the human embodiment of his company brochure—which she’d studied when she’d been memorising the guest list. Black Ops Stunts promised safety, professionalism and reliability. Just what she needed to help her get through the week ahead.

Maybe—just maybe—this wasn’t a completely crazy idea after all.

‘Basically, it comes down to this,’ Dan said, breaking eye contact at last as he let go of her hand. ‘I have a feeling this is going to be the week from hell for both of us. Wedding of the year or not, I can think of a million places I’d rather be—and I’m sure you can too. But we’re both stuck at Morwen Hall until New Year’s Day, along with our families and all their friends.’

Laurel pulled a face. She’d been trying very hard not to think too much about how much she wasn’t looking forward to that. But when Dan laid it out flat like that she knew he was right. It really was going to be the week from hell.

‘So I guess you need to decide something before we get there,’ Dan went on. ‘Do you want to go through that alone, or do you want a friend on your side? Someone you can rant to when people are awful and who understands exactly what you’re going through?’

He was pushing it, she realised. This wasn’t just for her, or just to make the week less awful. There was some other reason he wanted this—and it wasn’t because he was attracted to her. The minute he’d dropped her hand she’d seen his control slide back into place, noted the way his expression settled into that same blankness she’d seen when she’d first got into the car.

Dan Black was after something, and Laurel wasn’t sure she wanted to know what it was.

She shook her head. ‘No. Sorry. It just won’t work.’

‘Your choice,’ Dan said, with a no-skin-off-my-nose shrug.

Laurel frowned. Maybe she’d been wrong after all. It wasn’t as if she was the best at reading people.

‘I mean, we can still help each other through this week as friends,’ she added quickly. ‘Just...I’m no good at faking it—sorry. I’d mess it up.’

Not to mention the fact that Melissa would have an absolute fit if Laurel showed up with a new boyfriend at the last moment—especially Riley’s brother. That was the sort of thing that might draw their father’s attention away from Melissa, after all. And Melissa did not like people stealing her thunder.

Frankly, it wasn’t worth the risk.

Besides, she could handle Benjamin. It had been six months. She was over it. Over men. And far too busy focussing on her career to let him get to her at all.

It would all be fine.

‘Friends would be good,’ Dan said with a small smile. ‘And if you change your mind...’

‘I’ll know where to find you,’ Laurel said, relieved. ‘After all, I’m organising this party. Remember?’

* * *

Well, there went the easy option. Still, friends was good, Dan decided. He’d just have to make sure to stick close enough to Laurel to get the information he needed on her sister. Maybe he might even manage to get Melissa alone, for a little brotherly chat. The sort that started, If you hurt my brother I’ll destroy your career.

See? He could do friendly.

Besides, Dan had been the rebound guy far too often to believe that it ever ended well. Laurel was looking for a prince, and he was anything but. A fake relationship was one thing, but a woman with a broken heart could be unpredictable—and Dan didn’t have space in his life for that kind of drama.

One thing his marriage to Cassie had taught him was that giving up control was a bad idea. He’d never concede control of a stunt to anyone else, so why give up control of his heart, or his day-to-day life? Love was off the table, and so were complicated relationships. His was a simple, easy life. Complicated only by his family and by potential heart-breaking film stars who wanted to marry his brother.

‘So, tell me more about this wedding, then,’ he said, figuring he might as well ease Laurel into talking about her sister now, while he had her undivided attention. ‘What’s the plan? I mean, who takes a whole week to get married?’

‘Celebrities, apparently,’ Laurel said drily, and he knew without asking that she was quoting Melissa there.

‘And you said something about a...?’ He tried to remember the term she’d used. ‘A Frost Fair? What on earth is one of those?’

Laurel grinned. ‘Only my favourite part of the whole week! They used to hold them on the Thames when it froze over, back in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It’s like a country fair, I guess, with food stalls and entertainment and all sorts. It’s going to be brilliant!’

‘It sounds like a health and safety nightmare waiting to happen,’ Dan replied, wondering when he’d become the sort of person who noticed those things. Probably when he starting risking life and limb for a living.

‘We’re not actually holding it on the river. It’s probably not frozen over, for a start. We’ll just be on the banks. But I’ve got an acting troupe lined up to perform, and a lute player, and a hog roast...’

Her enthusiasm was infectious, and Dan couldn’t help but smile. ‘It sounds great. I bet Melissa was really pleased when you came up with that one.’

Laurel’s smile faltered, just a little. ‘Well, I think she’ll like it when she sees it,’ she said diplomatically, but Dan got the subtext.

Melissa, he suspected, hadn’t been actively pleased with anything Laurel had done.

He decided to play a hunch. ‘Oh, well. A job’s a job, right? And this one must be paying pretty well, at least?’

It was crass to talk about money, his mother had always told him that, but if her answer was the one he expected then it would be a clear indication that Melissa was the user he suspected her to be.

The answer was clear on Laurel’s face as her smile disappeared altogether. ‘It’s great experience. And an opportunity to get my company name in the world’s media.’

Translation: Melissa wasn’t paying her anything, and Dan knew for sure that she and Riley could afford it.

‘Right,’ he said, ignoring the burning sense of unfairness in his chest. Laurel didn’t deserve this—any of this. Not her ex at the wedding, not her sister taking advantage—not even him, using her to suss out the truth of his brother’s relationship with Melissa.

It was a good job he’d decided that Laurel was off limits, because Dan had always had a soft spot for a damsel in distress, and a habit of rooting for the underdog. As a friend, he could help her out. But he couldn’t let himself even consider anything more.

Which was where that iron-clad control he’d spent so long developing came in.

The car took a sharp turn and Dan turned away to peer out of the window. As they broke through the tree cover—when had they left the city? How had he missed that?—a large, Gothic-looking building loomed into sight, all high-peaked arches and cold, forbidding stone.

That just had to be Morwen Hall. It looked as if Dracula wouldn’t feel out of place there, and as far as Dan could tell Melissa was the nearest thing the modern world had to a vampire, so that was about right.

‘I think we’re here,’ he said.

Laurel leant across the empty seat between them, stretching her seatbelt tight as she tried to look out of his window. ‘You’re right. I’m sorry, I’ve spent the whole journey talking about me! We’re supposed to be being friends, and I still don’t know anything about you!’

Dan shrugged. ‘I’m a simple guy. There’s not much to know.’

She sighed. ‘I was hoping I could pick your brains about your family. Get a feel for who everyone is before tonight’s welcome drinks.’

Thinking back to all the highly detailed emails she’d sent him during the wedding planning process, Dan laughed. ‘Come on—don’t try and tell me you haven’t got the guest list memorised, alphabetically and backwards probably, along with pertinent details on everyone attending. You probably know my family better than I do at this point.’

It wasn’t even a lie. He hadn’t stayed in close touch with any of them these last few years. When it came to their jobs, their hobbies, their movements, Laurel probably did know more than him.

She smiled down at her hands. ‘Well, maybe. I like to do a thorough job.’

There was no hint of innuendo in the words, but something about them shot straight to Dan’s libido as she looked up at him through her lashes. Laurel, with her attention to detail, her perfectionism...everything he’d seen through her emails as she’d been planning the wedding...maybe he knew her better than she thought, too. And he couldn’t help but imagine what all that detail orientated focus would feel like when turned to their mutual pleasure.

Not that he would have a chance to find out. Seducing Laurel Sommers was not an option—not when she might still be harbouring feelings for her ex, and not when she was holding out for a prince. Which was a pity...

He shook the thought away as the car came to a stop directly outside the Gothic monstrosity that was Morwen Hall.

‘We’re here,’ Laurel said, and bit her lip.

He flashed Laurel a smile. ‘Time to face the mob.’

* * *

The mob. Her family, his family, her ex...most of the Hollywood elite and a delegation from Star! magazine.

All the people she’d least like to see. Hooray.

Laurel’s knees wobbled as she stepped out of the car, but in an instant Dan was there, offering her his hand as she descended. A friendly hand, she reminded herself as he smiled at her. She wasn’t going to waste time pretending that there could be anything more between them. Apart from anything else, if there was a chance of that he wouldn’t have offered to be her fake boyfriend, would he?

Besides, she was waiting for the real thing—the right person, the right time, the right place. And Dan, at Melissa’s wedding, surrounded by their families, while Laurel was working every second to make the week perfect and magazine-worthy, was definitely not any of those things.

She looked up to thank Dan for his assistance when something else caught her eye. A too-flashy car, pulling up beside theirs on the driveway. A shiny silver convertible, the sort that Benjamin had liked to drive...

Oh. Perfect. There he was, her cheating rat of an ex, all ready to make her miserable week just a little bit more unbearable.

Her feelings must have shown in her face, because as Benjamin shut off the engine Dan bent his head so his mouth was by her ear and whispered, ‘This is the ex?’

Laurel nodded, unable to keep her eyes off the car. She couldn’t look at Benjamin, of course. And she couldn’t look at Dan or he’d know how truly pathetic she was. And she definitely couldn’t stare at the tall, leggy blonde that Benjamin was helping out of the car, even if she did look a bit like Melissa. The car seemed by far the safest bet.

Cars didn’t betray a person, or break her heart. Cars were safe.

Far safer than love.

Love, in Laurel’s experience, went hand in hand with trust and hope. None of which had ever worked out all that well for her.

Every time she’d had hope for the future that relied on another person, and every time she’d trusted a person she loved, she’d been let down. More than that—she’d been left abandoned, feeling worthless and hopeless.

Which was why, these days, she was putting all her faith, hope and trust in herself and in her business. That way at least if she got hurt it was her own stupid fault. One day her prince would come—and he’d be the kind of equal opportunities prince who loved it that she had a successful career, and thought she was brilliant just the way she was. In the meantime, she would never, ever feel that worthless again.

‘Laurel!’ Benjamin called out, a wide smile on his face as the blonde stepped out of the car, high heels sinking in the gravel of the driveway. ‘How lovely to see you! Quite the venue you’ve picked here.’ He shot a glance over at Morwen Hall and winced. ‘It doesn’t exactly scream romance, I have to say, but I’m sure you know what you’re doing.’

Always that slight dig—that slight suggestion that she was doing something wrong. Never enough for her to call him on it—he’d just put his hands up and laugh, saying she was being over-sensitive. But just enough to leave her in no doubt that he knew better than she did. She wasn’t quite good enough.

Well, the biggest advantage of not being in love with him any more was that she didn’t have to care what he thought.

‘Giving my sister the wedding of her dreams!’ she said, smiling as sweetly as she could as she held a hand out to the blonde, for all the world as if she was meeting her for the first time and hadn’t found her naked in her own bed six months previously. Because she was a professional, dammit, and she would prove it. ‘Hi, I’m Laurel Sommers. The wedding planner.’

The blonde’s smile barely reached her cheeks, let alone her eyes. ‘Coral. Ben’s fiancée,’ she added, obviously wanting to make her status absolutely clear. As if Laurel didn’t already know the whole sordid history of their relationship.

‘Lovely to meet you, Coral,’ Laurel lied. She glanced down at Coral’s left hand, unable to help herself. There it was: a beautiful diamond, oversized and ostentatious and... Hang on.

That was her engagement ring. The one she’d given him back that morning in the coffee shop because she couldn’t bear to look at the damn thing a moment longer and, besides, it was an expensive ring and she hadn’t felt right keeping it.

She’d expected Benjamin to return it or sell it or something.

Not to give it to the woman he’d cheated on her with.

A strange, shaky feeling rose up in her—something between fury and confusion. How could he? Wasn’t it humiliating enough that he was here at all? And now this woman was wearing her ring? How much embarrassment was she supposed to take? How little had she mattered—to Benjamin, to Melissa, to her own father—that she found herself in this position? Alone and humiliated and...

Wait. Not alone. Not quite.

Laurel took a deep breath. And then she made a decision.

Reaching behind her, she grabbed Dan’s hand and pulled him forward, keeping a tight grip on his fingers as he stood beside her. ‘Benjamin, this is Dan. My date for the wedding.’

Until that moment Dan had stayed quiet and still just behind her, not drawing any attention to himself, and it seemed that Benjamin and Coral had barely even registered his presence. Which, now she thought about it, was quite a trick. Maybe that was what you had to do as a stuntman—be mostly invisible or at least easily mistaken for the person you were standing in for. But since Dan had to be over six foot, and solid with it, disappearing in the pale sunlight of an English winter day was a real achievement.

Now he squeezed her fingers back, as if asking, Are you sure?

She wasn’t. Not at all. But it seemed she was doing it anyway.

‘Dan...’ Benjamin echoed, holding out a hand, suspicion already in his gaze.

Laurel resisted the urge to roll her eyes as Dan dropped her fingers to grip Benjamin’s hand hard enough that he winced slightly.

‘That’s right. I’m Laurel’s new boyfriend,’ Dan explained, with a sharp smile.

Laurel bit back her own grin as Benjamin’s expression froze. Yeah, that was why she’d changed her mind about this crazy scheme. That look, right there. That look that said, Really? Are you sure?

Because of course Benjamin wouldn’t expect her to have a new man already, given how crushed she’d been by their break-up. And even if she had he wouldn’t expect it to be someone like Dan—someone big and muscly and gorgeous and just a little bit rough compared to Benjamin’s urbane polish.

Sometimes it was nice to surprise a person. Besides, knowing that Dan was clearly not her type—and that she was almost certainly not his either—helped to keep it clear to both of them that this was just a game. A game that they’d need to discuss the rules of, she supposed, but how hard could that be? The charade would be over the minute the wedding guests departed anyway.

But until then...it would be kind of fun.

Coral was looking at Dan with far more interest than her fiancé, and Benjamin retrieved his hand and quickly took Coral’s instead. Staking his claim, Laurel realised, just as he’d always done with her—holding her hand, or placing a proprietorial hand at her waist whenever she spoke to another man. Something else she really didn’t miss.

Benjamin’s gaze flipped from Dan back to Laurel, and she stopped reflecting on the past in order to concentrate on fooling her ex in the present. Dan slipped a hand around her waist, which helped. Somehow it felt totally different from the way Benjamin had used to touch her there. Less possessive, more a gentle reminder that she wasn’t alone.

She liked that, too.

‘Actually, Laurel, it’s handy we’ve bumped into you. Could you spare a moment? I have something I want to talk to you about...’

Laurel ran down her mental checklist of any outstanding Benjamin issues and came up with nothing. She’d already given back his ring—as evidenced by the fact that it was sparkling on Coral’s left hand right now. He had no stuff left at her flat—mostly because he’d never left anything there longer than overnight if he could help it anyway. He’d kept all their mutual friends in the break-up, since they’d all been his to start with, and she was sort of relieved to have more time for her old uni friends instead of having to hang out with his society people.

What else could there possibly be for them to talk about?

‘I should really get back to work,’ she said, wishing she could sound more definite, more confident in her denial. Why couldn’t she just say, There is nothing left I want you to say to me?

‘It’ll only take a moment,’ Benjamin pressed, moving a step towards her.

Laurel stepped back and found herself pressed up against Dan’s side. He really was very solid. Warm and solid and reassuring.

She could get used to having that sort of certainty at her back.

‘Sorry, but the lady has a prior engagement,’ Dan said.

Laurel knew she should be cross with him for speaking for her, but given that she couldn’t say the words herself she was finding it hard to care. Besides, he was supposed to be her boyfriend. It was all just part of the act.

‘I’ve had a very long journey, and Laurel promised to show me to my room the moment we arrived. Didn’t you, honey?’

The warm look he gave her, the innuendo clear in his gaze, made her feel as if her blood was heating her up from the inside.

Just an act, she reminded herself. But, given the way Benjamin stepped back again, and Coral pulled him close, it was an act that was working.

‘Sorry,’ she lied, flashing the other couple a short, sharp smile. ‘Maybe later.’ Then she gave Dan a longer, warmer, more loving smile. ‘Come on, then, you. I can’t wait to give you a thorough tour of your room.’

Turning away, she led Dan up the stone steps and through the front door of Morwen Hall, victory humming through her body.

Maybe Melissa wasn’t the only actress in the family after all.

‘What an idiot,’ Dan whispered as they moved out of earshot, leaving Benjamin supervising the retrieval of his bags and handing his keys over to the valet. ‘What did you see in him?’

‘I have no idea,’ Laurel said, honestly.

‘So—we’re doing this, then? I thought it was a terrible idea.’

But he’d gone along with her lies the minute she’d told them, she realised. Even though she’d insisted not half an hour ago that they couldn’t do it. A person who could keep up with her whims was a very useful friend to have, she decided.

‘It probably still is.’ Laurel flashed him a smile. ‘But...it could be fun, don’t you think?’

‘Oh, definitely,’ Dan replied, and the secret half-smile he gave her felt even warmer than the victory over Benjamin.