Chapter Eleven
There were a thousand and one event organizers in New York city alone, yet the one Evelyn finally decided upon and hired was none other than Olivia Garcia.
The fates were truly testing me.
We all gathered in the drawing room at the back of the house. The room offered no reprieve from the humid August heat. Evelyn sat by my side, our knees a whisper breath away from touching, while Olivia, the picture of professionalism, sat across from us with her pen tapping against an open notebook.
And then there was that ridiculous cat.
It—she was unable to be swayed from missing the meeting and plonked herself on Evelyn’s lap.
“Again, I want to say thank you for agreeing to see us last minute.” Evelyn smiled. “Given your busy schedule, I appreciate that this is a little unorthodox. Then again, this whole scenario is quite peculiar.”
Olivia’s gaze traveled between me and the woman at my side. “It’s my pleasure. Though, I’m not going to deny that I am a bit confused as to why you called me.”
Dark loose curls, a heart-shaped face, and a pair of eyes that rivaled a wild tiger, Olivia was the spitting image of her mother. Her mother, Sophia, still to this day was one of the most stunning women, in looks and soul. Sophia was a model, and though much more active in her earlier years, she still continued to take on some work. Many speculated that as Olivia’s natural beauty broke through, she would also end up doing the same work as her mother.
Instead, she opted to pursue her career in event organizing. Many told her she was a fool for not following her mother in the modeling world, stating she was wasting her natural born good looks.
Olivia proved them all wrong with her own success.
“You were rather vague on the phone,” Olivia continued. “You said something about an event, but I didn’t quite grasp what the event is for.”
Evelyn shifted, the slit in her silk black and white skirt raising with the motion and revealing the perfect blossom-tinted skin of her thigh. A surge of blood rushed through me as I pictured the skirt riding up further, revealing her bare and ready.
Or maybe she was wearing some of the lingerie she charged to my card.
My knuckles blanched as I tried to control myself.
“Well, I was hoping that you would be able to organize an event for us. A celebration for all our friends, family, and business associates to let them know our wonderful news.” Her hand rested on my knee, and I tried to fight against the blood surging straight to my crotch. “My dad wants to throw a party to celebrate our marriage.”
Olivia stopped tapping the top of her pen against paper. “The two of you got married.” It was a statement, not a question. “And now, you wish to celebrate it? Why not do what every other person does and have an actual wedding?”
Evelyn’s fingers twitched on my knee.
“This all seems odd,” Olivia said. “I can’t say I am not surprised. I don’t remember reading anywhere about your engagement, let alone the fact you were dating.”
“Um, yeah, like I said, I know it’s peculiar...”
Olivia cut her off. “Weren’t you engaged to Laurence Larkin a couple months ago?”
“We eloped,” I said, encasing Evelyn’s hand with my own. Being this close to her, caused her intoxicating and demanding sweet scent to embed itself into my nostrils. I tried to ignore the way my body jolted to life when she pressed her hand into mine. “It was a last-minute decision.”
Evelyn chuckled weakly. “It’s been a bit of a whirlwind romance.”
Olivia frowned, her feline eyes scrutinizing Evelyn. “You two both realize how this looks?”
Evelyn shook her head.
“People in our world use their weddings as a way to flaunt their wealth.” Olivia closed her notebook. “It’s another excuse to showcase what they’ve achieved. A big venue. An expensive white wedding dress. Selective invite list. It’s the norm. It’s the status quo.” Her shoulders snapped back. “The two of you are jewelry royalty. Why would the two of you not wish to do what every other person does in your circle and have an actual wedding? It would have been one of the hottest events of the year.”
“We just didn’t,” I ground out. “We wanted it just to be the two of us.”
“Jaxon,” Olivia sighed. A whisper of a shudder ran down my spine, the flicker of a forgotten memory of my name on her lips. “What you two have done, it sort of—no, it does look like the two of you are hiding something.”
“We have nothing to hide.” I squeezed Evelyn’s hand, whatever it took to stop her fingers from twitching. Fuck, she would be shit in a poker game. “Like I said, we wanted the wedding ceremony to be special. For that one thing to just be about us.”
Olivia’s eyes narrowed. “One of America and Canada’s most eligible bachelors, who has been quoted saying time and time again that he has no interest in marriage, suddenly is married. You see how that might look?”
My back teeth sang in pain. “Enlighten me, Olivia. How does it look?”
“That she’s pregnant,” Olivia said bluntly. “The two of you are trying to hide it by getting married quickly and blurring timelines so that it all looks legit.”
I laughed, causing Evelyn and her little gray-fluffy demon to jump. “Vous devez vous moquer de moi.”
“I’m not pregnant. Why does everyone keep saying that?” Evelyn asked, her bare leg brushing my knuckles. “I can go and pee on a damn stick if you want the proof, but I can assure you that I wouldn’t marry someone just because I got pregnant.”
Olivia was unconvinced. “Then it will appear that you are rebounding after the loss of your last engagement.”
Her slender throat bobbed. “I don’t give a damn how it looks. We got married in secret because of my dad. I never told him that I was seeing Jaxon, because like you said, we’re competitors, and my dad’s history surrounding competitors speaks volumes.”
It spoke more than volumes.
He destroyed my father’s business, leaving him without a single penny to his name. Our family’s business was nothing compared to the empire Lexington built, a blip in his radar that he could have easily ignored. He and my father were once partners with plans to take over the world, but Lexington had other ideas.
Ideas that didn’t involve sharing.
Bitter ash coated my mouth. The memory of the family falling apart and the sun shining less bright as we found our maman dead.
Lexington did that.
Evelyn’s father did that to us.
She was the enemy’s daughter – my enemy’s daughter.
“We knew that he would never approve, that he’d do whatever it took to stop me falling in love with Jaxon.” The lies fell from her full lips easily. She didn’t skip a beat. “We got married, just the two of us, because we didn’t want anyone getting in our way.”
“Then why throw a party?” Olivia asked. “You’re married now. You could simply publish a press release with a couple of photos and announce it to the world that way.”
“Because, surprisingly, my dad showed that a parent’s love knows no bounds.” Evelyn smiled sadly. “He accepted what happened, and despite what I thought, he wants to be able to celebrate our love with us. Make no mistake, I’m more than happy to keep Jaxon and my… our love to ourselves. Throwing this event is for my dad.”
I was impressed with how real her words sounded.
Olivia’s phone ringing interrupted the conversation. She excused herself and disappeared out into the hall.
“Her bark is worse than her bite,” I said vaguely. “Don’t take it personally.”
Evelyn twisted the diamond and emerald engagement ring on her finger. I hated the sight of it. Not just because of what it represented, but it was too typical, too average for someone like her.
“Have you worked with her before?”
“Non, we’ve never worked together. Though, we are aware of each other in a different manner.”
Her head snapped up. “Oh, god. Please don’t tell me you slept with our event organizer.”
“She hasn’t agreed to be our event organizer yet.”
Her lips slammed into a tight thin line.
A smile crept onto my face as her shoulders tightened and her nostrils flared. “Are you jealous, douceur?”
“Don’t be absurd.” She refused to look at me, adjusting the slit in her skirt to hide her skin. “It seems only fitting that out of all the event organizers I contacted, the only one that was willing to discuss trying to throw a party in such a short frame of time was one of your ex-girlfriends.”
“Olivia and I never dated.”
It was the truth. Our relationship could have been categorized as nothing more than an almost moment. We never tried to rekindle that one time, neither of us were interested enough to see if the chemistry had been real or due to the heavy amounts of alcohol in our systems.
Though, watching the way Evelyn was reacting, it was enough of a reason not to disclose that little bit of information to her.
She rolled her eyes in disgust. “Ex-girlfriend, fuck-buddy, whatever you want to call it.”
She was jealous. Oh, how delightfully delicious.
A low chuckle rumbled in my chest. “Green is a magnifique color on you.”
Something bumped into my ankle, and a faint purring sound followed. Bell rubbed her head against my legs, covering me in even more hair than I already was.
How did such a little demon shed so much hair?
Evelyn sighed lightly. “She likes you.”
“You sound surprised.” I tried to shoo the cat away with my foot. It took that as an invite to jump up onto my lap.
“She usually doesn’t like strangers, especially men.” Evelyn scooped her away, nursing her like a baby before putting her back on the ground. “She still randomly attacks Flynn. One time, Flynn swears she waited all day under his bed for him. The second he fell asleep, she crawled out and latched herself onto his foot.” The corners of her eyes crinkled. Sheer joy, the type that lit up a room, beamed from her. It was hard not to bask in it. “He swears she bit off half his toe.”
Another reason the walking hair-ball wasn’t stepping one paw into my bedroom.
“Do you think Olivia will agree to help?”
“You do realize that if she does agree to throw this farce, everyone will see the truth about Reynolds.” I picked a strand of cat hair from my leg. “They’ll know how sick he really is.”
She shifted, pulling that fucking slit higher again. “I think you and I both know that my dad doesn’t plan on just celebrating our marriage at the party.”
“You think he’s going to announce his retirement.”
She dipped her chin. “He wants to invite everyone, shareholders, and investors, to the wedding party. I’m not an idiot. What better time to announce his departure and my takeover?”
It wasn’t a ridiculous plan. A clever way to shut down any nay-sayers, those who may cast any doubt about Evelyn’s competence of temporary takeover.
“What about Flynn?” The youngest Reynolds was as useful as a drought in a desert. A liability in all accounts. “He’s gathered a reputation. Do you truly think he’ll be ready to take over in a year?”
“He is to focus on graduating, that’s all I am asking of him right now. Graduate and try to keep his nose clean, then we will see what happens next.”
“And what do you expect from me, douceur?”
She finally met my gaze. Her bottom lip vanished between her teeth, and I couldn’t help but envy her own mouth. I wanted to take her lip between my teeth to see if she tasted how I imagined—sweeter than honey and fresher than raindrops.
She’d look even better with her lips swollen and bruised, with my cum leaking from the corners.
Fucking hell, what was wrong with me?
I needed some time with my own hand. Whatever it took to take the edge off.
“All I expect from you, Jaxon—” she breathed unevenly. “—is to do what I married you for. Stand by my side, and don’t let me ruin everything.”
Don’t worry my dear wife, it won’t be you who ruins it all.
“Sorry about that.” Olivia re-entered the room. “The last Saturday in August is a tight deadline for an event of the size you have in mind.” She uncapped her pen and opened her notebook. “I suggest that we make a start this afternoon. I’ll need a full guest list, color schemes, catering preferences, and your friend’s contact information for Nirvana Gallery.”
Evelyn’s entire body loosened, her lips breaking into an earth-shattering grin. “You are an actual life-saver. We appreciate it. Don’t we, Jaxon?”
“More than you’ll ever know,” I replied, retreating to my bedroom and leaving the two of them to plan. I sat on the edge of my bed, the quietness of the room washing over me.
A swirl of anticipation burst into existence.
I was only weeks away from getting my hands on everything in Reynolds’ company.
Everything we worked toward would all be over soon, and hopefully with it, I’d finally find some peace.