The Billionaire Bargain #1(24)

And with a dismissive sneer on her face, she swept past me before I could think of a single thing to say.

? ? ?

I don’t know how long I stumbled around the party, but I think I pulled myself together before any of the bigwigs we’d been networking with saw me.

I hope I did, anyway.

Once it hit me how bad I could screw everything up if people saw me getting all weepy and red-eyed when I was supposed to be vibrant and happy and over-the-moon in love, I beat a hasty retreat to the coat check, where I hid behind a rack of furs that could have clothed a thousand minks if they hadn’t been desperately needed by the upper crust to look as fabulous as possible.

I took deep breaths until my heart was thudding along at something resembling a normal speed, and I pulled out my compact to wipe my eyes and fix my makeup. Thank Heaven for waterproof mascara.

Most of all, I repeated this mantra to myself: It doesn’t matter. I don’t care. It doesn’t matter. I don’t care.

This was all an act. It didn’t matter what people thought, what Portia said, just as long as it got Jennings on our team and helped save the company.

Eventually, I got myself to the point where I believed it. I started to step out from behind the coat rack—and then I saw Portia.

I practically dove back into the safety of the sable and fox fur forest. Fingers trembling, I pulled my cell phone out of my clutch purse and hit the speed dial for the one person I could always count on to be in my corner.

“Laaaaaaaaaacey!” Kate shrieked the second she picked up the phone, only halfway through the first ring. “How’s it going? Tell me how it’s going! Is it going great? Or is it terrible? Tell me all the terrible things he’s done! Are they a little bit hilarious or really really hilarious? How does he look in a tuxedo? Does he look good enough to eat in a tuxedo? Lacey, tell me all the things! Why aren’t you telling me all the things?”

“I will if you stop for breath!” I said, laughing in spite of myself. “Um, it’s—well, he looks great, of course he f*cking looks great, and he’s been just great all night and it’s actually really weird and this thing just happened that—that—”

And then, like the calm and mature professional that I am, I burst into f*cking tears.

“Lacey! Lacey! Lacey!” Kate said, sounding more alarmed each time she said my name. “Are you okay? What’s wrong? Was he a dick? Did he hurt you? Do you want me to pick you up? I will get in my car and pick you up right this second if you say to.”

“No, no, nothing like that, don’t worry about that,” I said. I took a handful of blue-dyed bear fur in my hand and steadied myself against the rack. “He’s been a perfect gentleman. He’s…he’s been beyond great. But there are all these other people here, and they all know so much and they have so much more than me going for them …” I stopped, hearing myself whine. “Ugh, forget it. It’s okay, Katie, I’m okay—”

“No you are f*cking not,” she interrupted. “You are f*cking awesome. You are my best friend in the whole damn world. You give more of a f*ck about the real stuff than anyone else in this f*ck-head city, and you’re on f*cking fire, and I bet that scares the shit out of them. So what you are going to do—” and her voice went firm and sure as granite, brooking no argument—“is get out there and show them that nobody, not nobody, can make you feel like you deserve any less than the best.”

I took a deep breath. She was right. Fuck Portia. Fuck them all.

“Kate…have I ever told you you’re a genius?”

“Don’t tell me, girl,” she said. “Show me.”

So I squared my shoulders, put on my best game face, and marched back out into the battle.

? ? ?

“Ah Lacey, there you are, I’ve been looking for you,” Grant said pleasantly as I came up to his side. “Drink?”

Possibly I drained that glass of liquid courage a little too hastily, because he frowned slightly at me. “Are you all right?”

“Fine,” I said. “Absolutely fine.”

“Are you certain?” he asked. “If this is beginning to be a bit much for you, we could leave early. Everyone would understand.”

“Oh, I bet they would,” I muttered under my breath. Out loud I said: “Look, the sooner the night is over the better, but until then we have a job to do, so let’s just go out there and do it, okay?”

Grant surveyed me closely, his eyes picking at the cracks in my armor. “You’ve been crying.”

“What do you care?” I snapped. It wasn’t actually in the lovey-dovey script, but dammit, this had been a trying night and a girl could only make nice for so long.

Even with a gorgeous man staring right at her, deep into her soul, concern brimming and threatening to overflow his cobalt-blue eyes…

Concern for his company, not me. I had to remember that.

“Come with me,” he said, and started pulling me towards the staircase leading to the exit.

Wait, were we leaving after all? He was just making that decision unilaterally? I—okay, I was fine with that. It had been a hell of a night—and a heaven of a night, at least in the beginning, though in the end that only made everything more confusing.

And then, when we were halfway up the stairs, he gave my arm a yank, pulling me into his embrace, crushing me against his side. He buried his face in my hair for a second, his hot breath stirring my locks and making tingles race across my skin.