Sophie Pembroke - Wedding Promises

‘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?’