Hot Commodity (Banks / Kincaid Family #1)(17)

He looked so insulted Olivia grinned. "She sees you as a quick-minded, prospering millionaire whose wealth keeps growing exponentially."

"So?" he asked, appearing even more baffled by her description.

"So…you’re just the type of person she wants in her back pocket. In her mind, anyway," Olivia was quick to add. She didn’t want Banks thinking any of this was her philosophy. God, she hoped he caught that. "Plus, she thinks any son-in-law of hers is going to want to merge his business with Helbrock Enterprise."

Her new husband lifted an intrigued eyebrow. "Oh, she does, does

she?"

Olivia smiled weakly. "I’m telling you, Vivian isn’t right in the brain."

Cameron eyed her intently as if to say, neither is Vivian’s daughter.

At the moment, she had to agree.

"So." He cleared his throat. "She was counting on you to come in, totally sweep me off my feet, and keep me so blind in love—or lust, or whatever the hell you do—that I’d just hand over all my money to her?" He snorted. "Right. I so buy that story."

Olivia couldn’t help herself. She laughed. "You know, she really sounds like a presumptuous bitch when you put it that way. Oh, wait. She is." She chuckled even more. She knew she was turning hysterical. She could actually feel her head go faint and realized hyperventilating wasn’t far behind. She wanted to stop. But she couldn’t seem to make her body obey. It, along with everything else, had slipped from her control. Tears seeped from between her eyelashes she giggled so hard.

Running a hand through his hair, Cameron whipped the marriage certificate off the bed where he’d dropped it earlier. He frowned as he studied it. Then he glanced up. "This is really real, isn’t it?"

She nodded and continued to laugh. There was nothing funny to snigger about, but laughter seemed like the only thing she had left to hold herself together. Or maybe it was a sign she was falling apart.

Cameron muttered under his breath as he bent down and picked up his pants from the night before. When he shook out a cell phone and flipped it open, panic halted Olivia’s laughter, choking it off abruptly.

Oh, God, he was going to call the police and have her arrested. She licked her lips. "What—what’re you doing?"

"I’m calling my lawyer."

Her eyes went wide. "You’re going to sue me?"

He paused to send her a dry glower. "I’m going to get this—" he shook their marriage certificate—"annulled."

"Oh." Her shoulders slumped. "Good idea."

"You think?" He rolled his eyes and pushed a button before pressing the phone to his ear. After waiting only a few seconds, his face relaxed. "Boston! Thank God I caught you." He paused a moment, listening and then answered, "No, uh, actually I didn’t make the dinner. I—" He winced and pulled the receiver a few inches from his ear. Scratching his chin he finally added, "I kind of, ah, got myself into a pickle here in Vegas…No, I’m not in jail. I sort of, um, accidentally got married."

This time, when he held the phone from his ear, even Olivia could hear Boston-whoever-he-was, exclaim, "You what! How in the holy hell did you do that?"

"I’ll explain everything when I get home...What’s that?...Did we what?...Oh."

Cameron glanced toward Olivia. His eyes roamed her figure letting her know exactly what he’d been asked.

Oh, yeah. They’d definitely done that.

He spun away, turning his back to her and more quietly said, "Maybe. Does that really matter?"

Olivia watched the muscles in his back tense as he listened intently to Boston.

After a few more yeses and uh-huhs, a no, and one "yeah, there was alcohol," he quietly said, "shit," and glanced at her worriedly.

Olivia sat up in alarm. Just what was this Boston guy telling him?

"Okay," Cameron said and nodded in understanding. "Fine. We’ll work it out when I get back. Thanks, Bos."

He hung up. When he turned to Olivia, she braced herself to hear the bad news. "Well?"

He shrugged as if nothing was wrong. "Well, we can get an annulment because of the alcohol, which is the good news. But since all government offices are closed for the weekend and I have to be home by Sunday for an important meeting first thing Monday, we’ll have to make this a complaint annulment instead of a joint petition, which will take six to twelve weeks to file."

"Okay," Olivia answered, holding her breath for the worst part she was sure would come next. "So…?" she pressed when he didn’t speak.

He frowned. "So, we’ll have to wait at least six weeks before we get this straightened out," he repeated.

Olivia blinked, still waiting for him to drop the big bomb. When he said nothing else, she asked, "Why did you say shit?"

"Because," he growled. "We can’t get it done today, or even Monday."

"And?" she prompted.

He shook his head. "And what? There’s nothing else. We’ll have to wait."

Olivia frowned. "Is that all?" she demanded.

His frown turned annoyed. "What do you mean, ‘is that all’? It’ll take time. There’s paperwork, and handling fees, and waiting periods."