father. ‘Dan Black, sir,’ he said as they shook. Then he turned to offer his hand to Angela. ‘Riley’s older brother.’
Angela’s face tightened as her handshake turned weak and she tugged her fingers from his. ‘Riley’s brother.’ She turned to glare at Laurel. ‘Well. This is unexpected. Does Melissa know that you two are...?’ She waved a hand vaguely between them, as if articulating the relationship was too disgusting even to contemplate.
‘Not yet.’
Laurel’s words came out small, subdued, and Dan reached out to touch her again, to remind her that she wasn’t alone. Wasn’t that the whole point of this charade, anyway?
‘We thought we’d share our good news with her this evening,’ Dan said, trying to keep his tone bright and his expression oblivious to the glares Angela was spreading around their little group. ‘I’m sure she and Riley will be very happy for us.’
‘I’m sure they will,’ Laurel’s father said, apparently also immune to the glares. At least until Angela elbowed him in his soft middle. ‘Oh, but...perhaps tonight isn’t the night to tell them, darling,’ he added, having finally got a clue. ‘It’s a very big night for Melissa.’
‘It’s a very big week all round,’ Dan agreed. ‘But, really, I do always think that keeping love a secret sends the wrong message, don’t you? And I wouldn’t ever want Laurel to doubt my feelings about her.’
Maybe that was going a little far, judging by the way Angela’s face paled and Laurel’s father’s cheeks turned a rosy shade of red at the reminder of how she’d been his mistress for almost two decades. Dan tested his conscience and discovered he didn’t care. If they couldn’t take it, he decided, they really shouldn’t spread such poisonous looks and comments around in the first place.
‘Now, if you’ll excuse us a moment?’
He reached an arm around Laurel’s shoulders, trying hard only to touch the dress and not her bare skin—which, given the design, wasn’t easy. But he knew that if he placed his hands on that long, lean back he’d be done for. And he needed all his wits about him if they both wanted to make it through the evening intact.
‘You shouldn’t have said that,’ she whispered to him as they turned away.
‘Probably not,’ he agreed. ‘But you have to admit it was fun.’
The secret smile she gave him was reward enough.
‘Where are we going?’ she asked as he steered her across the room.
‘Ah.’ As much as he wished he could just lead her out of the bar, back through the endless hotel corridors to their room, he had promised his parents he was coming back. With her. ‘Well, if you consider your parents the frying pan...let’s just say our next stop could be thought of as the fire.’
Laurel groaned. ‘I’m going to need more champagne for this, aren’t I?’
‘Definitely,’ Dan said, and flagged down a passing waiter.
LAUREL’S MIND WAS still replaying the moment Dan had managed to insult and embarrass her father and stepmother all in the same moment, with just one passing comment, as he handed her a glass of champagne and they continued their journey across the huge hotel bar. She had a feeling she’d be reliving it all week, as an antidote to whatever repercussions Angela deemed appropriate for the injury. The thing was, of course, she couldn’t actually disagree with anything Dan had said. Just the implications, and the suggestion that he had every intention of sharing the news of their relationship with the bride that evening.
Melissa, Laurel knew, would be livid. The thing she hated most in the world was people stealing her thunder. And while at her own wedding that might be moderately understandable, the fact was it wouldn’t matter what the circumstances: Melissa hated anyone else getting any attention at all—especially if she felt it had been taken away from her.
Perhaps it was a hold-over from her childhood when, ignored by her own father for sixteen years, she’d had to try and win attention in other ways. Maybe that explained why she’d become not just an actress, but a celebrity, whose every move and look was pored over by the press and the public.
As far as Laurel was concerned it certainly explained why she’d become a stone-cold witch.
‘Brace yourself,’ Dan muttered as they approached another older couple—far more polished and professional-looking than her own father and stepmother, despite Melissa’s insistence on stylists for them both for the week.
‘This is the worst Meet the Parents evening ever,’ she murmured back, and Dan flashed her a quick smile.
‘And we’re only halfway there.’
Halfway. That was something. She’d survived her own parents—with Dan at her side had done more than just survive. She’d left on her own terms and with the upper hand—something she wasn’t sure had ever happened before in the history of her relationship with them.
Now she owed Dan the same.
‘Mother. Father.’ Dan gave Laurel the slightest push so she stood half in front of him. ‘I’d like you to meet my girlfriend—Laurel.’
There was no hesitation in his speech, no hitching of his voice over the lie. He seemed perfectly comfortable introducing an almost total stranger to his parents as his one and only love. Maybe she should be a little more concerned about sharing a bedroom—and a fake relationship—with such a consummate liar.
But Dan’s parents’ attention was entirely on her, and there was no more time to worry about it. It was time to put on the show.
‘Laurel, these are my parents—Wendell and Linda Black.’
‘It’s a pleasure to meet you both at last,’ Laurel said, pasting on her prettiest smile. ‘Dan’s told me so much about you, and of course we’ve been in touch over the wedding planning.’ She just hoped they didn’t ask exactly what he’d said about them, since the sum total of her knowledge of them was their names and what she’d scribbled down in her notebook when Melissa had been running through the guest list.
‘You’re the organiser woman,’ Wendell said, clicking his fingers. ‘Of course! All those detailed schedules and flight plan options. Well, Dan, I have to say, she’s not your usual type!’
‘Which can only be an advantage, I suppose,’ Linda added drily.
She scrutinised Laurel so closely that she felt almost as if she were on a doctor’s examination table.
‘So. You’re a wedding planner.’
‘She owns the business organising Riley and Melissa’s wedding,’ Dan corrected her, before Laurel could answer. ‘The biggest celebrity wedding of the year. Quite the coup, I’m sure you’ll agree.’
‘Unless your sister is the bride,’ Linda said, and Laurel gritted her teeth.
Melissa being her sister had only made this job harder, not easier, and the truth was she’d done
