you mind?” she asked.
“Not at all. In fact I know Tristan fairly well,” he said, taking Becca’s arm in his. He took a sip of his dirty martini and savored the salty taste.
“Do you need another drink?” he asked her.
“I’m good,” she said. “Thanks for doing this.”
“What?”
“Introducing me to Tristan,” she said, drawing to a stop. “You don’t have to.”
“I know. I want to,” he said. He’d let something slip away with Becca, and, to be honest, he regretted it. He hadn’t been ready for her love two years ago, and he didn’t know if he was now. But with his brothers settling down and Becca coming back into his life, he at least wanted to give it a chance.
He waved over Tristan, who was accompanied by his wife, Sheri. Cam made short work of the introductions.
“Becca is an interior designer,” Cam said.
“Enchanté, mademoiselle,” Tristan said.
“It’s a pleasure. I hope you don’t mind but I asked Cam to introduce us so I could give you my card. I’ve done a lot of work for nightclubs and hotels.”
“I don’t mind at all,” Tristan said. He took her card and pocketed it. “But I can’t talk business tonight or Sheri will likely kill me.” His French accent was very smooth and barely noticeable.
“I will,” his wife said. “He’s promised me a night out and I intend to hold him to it. We work together, so I hardly ever have a chance to just spend time with my husband that doesn’t involve work or family.”
“Then I’m sorry I brought it up.”
“Not at all. So how did you start your own business? My boss can be a bear … I might want to do the same.”
“You aren’t quitting, Sheri, and leaving me alone at the office.”
“Why not?” she asked her husband.
Tristan leaned down and whispered something in her ear that made her blush. Then she kissed him, and he put his arm around her. Cam wasn’t sure what had been said, but he knew that it was intimate.
And he wanted that. He had been alone for a long time and had grown used to it, but there were times, especially now that his brothers were both engaged, that he wanted something more.
He glanced down at Becca and noticed that she was watching the married couple, as well. He’d ruined things with her once by not … by what? They’d had an affair. Affairs don’t turn into love overnight. Cam Stern had always known he wasn’t the kind of guy that women fell easily in love with. He was arrogant and difficult. He might know his way around a bedroom, and he knew he was the kind of lover who ensured his partner’s pleasure, but a life together was about more than sex. He’d learned that the hard way.
The conversation at the dinner table was fun and lively, ranging from politics to economic trends to fashion. Becca wasn’t sure she was going to fit in with the billionaires, scandalous heiresses and socialites, but she was managing to hold her own.
Seated around the table for eight were Russell and his supermodel date; Becca and Cam; then next to Cam, Geoff Devonshire—a member of the British royal family—and his new wife, Amelia Munroe-Devonshire; next to them were Russell’s CFO, Marcus Willby, and his daughter Penny.
Despite the fact that she expected Cam to focus on doing his own thing he didn’t. He’d taken the seat right next to her at the table and introduced her to as many potential clients as he could. She wondered if he was trying to make up for breaking her heart all those years ago.
She was seated between Russell and Cam. The friendship between the two men was evident by the way they teased each other and joked around. She forgot about the fact that she intended to stay on her guard. To just get through this night as best she could. Until the topic turned to Luna Azul’s Tenth Anniversary celebration over the upcoming Memorial Day weekend. “Did you invite Becca?” Russell asked.
“I didn’t,” Cam said, turning to Becca. “Would you like to come to the party as my guest?”
“You always have time to party,” Amelia said with a smile.
Becca realized that she and Amelia lived in two totally different worlds. To a socialite, it was no big deal to jet down to a party in Miami. But to a working single mother, it was a huge affair. While she liked Amelia, Becca had a feeling she’d never be able to understand the way she lived.
“I own my own business so if I take too many days off, then I don’t get paid,” Becca said.
She wasn’t going to let a table full of socialites pressure her into something she wasn’t sure she wanted to do.
But Becca was curious. “Tell us more about the plans for the party.”
Cam smiled. “Nate is working the celebrity angle so we are going to have a room full of A-listers. Justin has smoothed over the tension we had in the local community and we will be combining the party with the groundbreaking for our new Mercado. That is the work I wanted to talk to you about,” he said.
“We should probably discuss it later,” she said, not wanting to talk business now.
“Definitely,” he said.
“We can all give you some business advice, Becca,” Russell said. “No sense letting you screw up the way I did early in my career.”
“I can’t imagine Russell making many mistakes,” Amelia Munroe-Devonshire said. She was the guest speaker tonight. There was a time when she’d been more infamous than famous as the heiress to the Munroe hotel chain. But then she had married Geoff Devonshire last year and had been in the spotlight lately for her humanitarian work instead of her scandals.
“I have made more than my share, Amelia. I just managed to keep them out of the headlines.”
“Touché! It’s remarkably easier to stay out of the tabloids these days than it used to be. I can’t believe it,” she said.
Becca smiled at the heiress. She was funny and very fashionable but also down-to-earth—something Becca hadn’t expected.
“That’s because I keep a firm hand on the situation,” Geoff said. Geoff was a minor member of the current royal family.
“I believe that,” Cam added. “Both of you are of course invited to the Tenth Anniversary Celebration in Miami.”
“We are scheduled to be in Berne for a special award that Geoff’s brother’s mother is receiving,” Amelia said.
“You must be proud of her,” Becca said. Like most people she knew that Geoff and his two brothers had the same father but different mothers. The scandal that had rocked the world in the ‘70s when they’d been born had followed the men into adulthood and only last year when Malcolm Devonshire had died had it seemed to be put to rest.
“We are. Steven asked us to attend and we can’t say no to family,” Geoff said.
