Saving His Blackmailed Lover - Maureen Child Mills & Boon M&B

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of his hand with her thumb in the slow, lazy circles guaranteed to drive him wild and get her exactly what she wanted. “Come with me. Please.”

      Jaw tight, his gaze dropped to his hand. With a soft shake of his head, he sighed. “Okay, you win. When is this engagement party?”

      “Tomorrow night. Seven o’clock. Will that work for you?”

      Deacon nodded. “I suppose. Will I get some sort of special reward for being your escort for the evening?” he asked with a grin lighting his eyes.

      “You absolutely will,” she promised. “Do you have anything in mind?”

      “I do.” Deacon took her hand and scooped it up in his own. He pressed his fingertips into the palm of her hand and stroked gently but firmly, turning her own trick on her. It was easy to imagine those hands on her body, those fingers stroking the fires that burned deep inside her. “What are you doing after work today?” he asked.

      Her gaze met his, a small smile curling her lips even as he continued to tease her with his fingertips. “Nothing much,” she said coyly. “What do you plan to do tonight?”

      Deacon leaned into her, burying his fingers in the loose hair at the nape of her neck and bringing her lips a fraction of an inch from his own. She wanted to close the gap between them and lose herself in his kiss. It was all she wanted, all she could think of when they were this close. She could feel the warmth of his breath on her lips. Her tongue snaked across her bottom lip to wet it in anticipation of his kiss.

      Instead he smiled and let his fingers trace along the line of her jaw. “Why, I plan to be doing you, Miss Morgan.”

       Seven

      “So, are you friends with Wes or Isabelle?” Deacon asked as they slipped into the crowd mingling at the clubhouse.

      Cecelia twisted her lips as she tried to come up with a good answer. “Neither, really. Wes and I are business rivals. We dated a while back, but that’s it. I don’t really know Isabelle that well, either.”

      “Why would he invite his ex to his engagement party?”

      That was a good question, considering she was also the reason he’d gone years without knowing he had a daughter. She still felt bad about misjudging that whole situation. She’d helped to correct it in the end, but Wes would never get that time back, and that was her fault. “Well, in a roundabout way, I did help bring him and Isabelle back together after they broke up a few years ago.”

      “How’s that?”

      She shook her head and reached out for a flute of champagne being passed on a tray by a waiter in the standard black-and-white uniform of the club. Cecelia hesitated to tell Deacon what she’d done. He still saw her as the sweet girl he’d dated in school, and she didn’t want him to see her any differently. “You don’t want to know.”

      “Not good?” Deacon asked.

      She shrugged. “Let’s just say it wasn’t my finest moment. But it all turned out well in the end, and since Isabelle invited me despite it all, I knew I needed to come and work on mending those bridges.” Leaning into him, she spoke quieter so others nearby couldn’t hear her. “I fear that before too long, I’ll need all the friends I can get.”

      Deacon slipped a protective arm around her waist. “If anyone so much as says an ugly word to you tonight, I’ll punch them in the jaw.”

      Cecelia smiled and leaned into his embrace. She wouldn’t mind seeing Chip sprawled across the worn hardwood floor of the club, but that would cause more trouble than it was worth. And she probably deserved some of those ugly words. “That won’t be necessary, but thank you.”

      As they turned back toward the crowd, the people parted and Isabelle rushed forward to give Cecelia a hug. She looked radiant tonight in a shimmering bronze cocktail dress that brought out the copper in her hazel eyes. “Cecelia, you made it! I’m so glad.”

      Cecelia accepted the hug and smiled as warmly as she could. Once she realized she’d been wrong about Isabelle’s gold-digging ways, she found she really did like her. Now she just had to fight off the pangs of envy where Wes’s fiancée was concerned. Soon, Isabelle would have the family that Cecelia had always wanted. She shouldn’t hold that against her, though. It was a long time coming, raising Caroline as a single mother, in part because of Cecelia’s meddling.

      Turning to her date, Cecelia introduced them. “Isabelle, this is Deacon Chase. He’s building The Bellamy with Shane Delgado.”

      Isabelle smiled and shook his hand. “I’m so excited for the hotel to open. It looks amazing from the outside.”

      Cecelia could tell Deacon was nervous, but he was handling it well. “Thank you,” he said politely. “It looks amazing on the inside, too, thanks to Cecelia’s great designs. Congratulations on your engagement.”

      “Thank you.”

      “It looks like a great turnout,” Cecelia noted. “Even Teddy Bradford is here.” That was a surprise to everyone, she was certain. She knew the CEO of Playco had been in merger negotiations with Wes before Maverick outed him as a deadbeat dad. Teddy espoused family values and had dropped Wes’s Texas Toy Company like a rock when he found out about Isabelle and Caroline.

      “I actually invited him,” Isabelle confided. “I haven’t given up on the Playco merger, even if Wes thinks all is lost. I’m hoping that when he sees us together he’ll reconsider the deal.”

      Cecelia could only nod blankly at Isabelle’s machinations. The merger of Playco and Texas Toy Company wouldn’t be good news for To the Moon and its bottom line, which is why Cecelia had kept her mouth shut where that was concerned. Wes was her biggest business rival. However, the success of Luna Fine Furnishings would make her untouchable if she could compete in both the adult and child luxury design markets. At the moment, things were going well enough that she didn’t care if Teddy took Wes back.

      “Good luck with that,” she managed politely. “And congratulations on the engagement.”

      Isabelle crossed her fingers and said her goodbyes, slipping away to find Wes in the crowd. Once she was gone, Cecelia and Deacon continued to make their way through the room, saying hello and mingling appropriately. When they found the food, they each made a small plate and had a seat among some of the other guests. A long buffet had been set up for the party, with the centerpiece being a cake shaped like two hearts side by side with a third, smaller heart piped in pastel pink icing on top to represent their daughter. It was sweet.

      They were perhaps an hour into the party, with no sign of Chip, and Cecelia was finally starting to relax. Maybe this event wouldn’t be such a nightmare. Being there with Deacon had changed everything. She felt confident on his arm, which was a far cry from the times she’d gone to events with Chip. She was always on edge with him, wondering if she looked good enough, if she was saying the right thing... Now that it was over, she couldn’t imagine a lifetime of being his wife. All she would have ever been was a prop he’d haul out at campaign rallies and fund-raisers. A Stepford wife in a tasteful linen suit with helmet hair and a single strand of pearls.

      No way. Those days were behind her, and she’d never make that mistake again.

      “I would like to propose a toast,” Teddy Bradford said as he took position center stage with the microphone to draw everyone’s attention. Cecelia noted that the boisterous old man was wearing his best bolo tie for the occasion. The crowd gathered around the stage to hear what he had to say. “Wesley, Isabelle, get on up here!”

      The happy couple walked hand in hand to the stage and to stand beside Teddy.

      “No one here is happier to see these two lovebirds tie the knot than I am. To me, and to the employees of Playco, family is everything. I had thought that perhaps Wesley felt differently, but I’m pleased—for once—to be proven wrong. Not only do I want to

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