Marrying Mr. Darcy (Love Manor #2) - Kate O'Keeffe Page 0,71
dripping wet shirt.”
“I cannot tell you how much I love the idea of being treated as a sex symbol,” he replies with enough sarcasm to fill the room.
“If it’ll mean we get to do the show?” I lead.
“And you’ll be in it with me,” he adds, smiling at me.
I smile back at him. “Exactly.”
Heather claps her hands together. “It sounds like we might have a deal.”
“We’ll need to have say over which contestants come back here,” Sebastian warns.
“Oh, definitely,” I say. “Kennedy for sure and Reggie and Phoebe, if she can fit it into her new married life.”
“And Camille,” Heather interjects. “She makes for great TV. Viewers love to hate her, let me tell you.”
Camille? No. Freaking. Way. That woman made the characters on Mean Girls look like genuinely best friends.
Sebastian shakes his head. “We draw the line at Camille. And anyway, I very much doubt she’d want to be on the show, considering I rejected her publicly in the finale.”
Heather’s lips curl into a smile. “All the better.”
Sebastian shakes his head. “No Camille.”
She exhales, clearly annoyed. “All right. No Camille. What about Hayley?”
I shudder at the thought of Camille’s BFF and fellow Mean Girl. “Wasn’t she kicked off the show because she was married?”
“True, but she was a perfect villain. We need someone the public can love to hate.”
“Do we though?” Sebastian questions. “I thought this show was meant to be about saving my family home.”
“Oh, we can iron out the details,” Heather says as she pulls a notepad and pen out of her purse and scribbles something on it. “For now, this is what we’ll offer you to do the show.” She hands the piece of paper to Sebastian, and I lean in to read the figure.
My eyes pop at the number of zeros, and my excitement begins to rise. This has got to be more than enough to save the house and then some! I nudge Sebastian in the ribs, and he shoots me a look that says “OMG!” Well, in Sebastian speak it’s probably more like “Goodness me, this is a jolly lovely sum of money, eh what?” but you get the idea. This sum is way too good to pass up.
“We will discuss it and come back to you. I’ll see you out,” he says.
I stand. “Heather, can I ask you something?”
“Of course.”
“What made you change your mind about me? You weren’t my biggest fan.”
“In this business, sometimes you’ve got to take what you can get. After seeing the footage of Sebastian in that pond, I knew I wanted him back in front of the cameras, and Saving Pemberley was the perfect vehicle. You come with all that.”
I try not to be offended. “So, I’m collateral damage.”
“Who knows? You might end up being the star of the show,” she replies, avoiding answering my question.
“I’m sure she will,” Sebastian says. “I’ll see you out, Heather.”
A moment later, Sebastian strides back into the room and collects me in a hug. “I’m so sorry about how she treats you. We don’t need to do this show.”
“Hello? Did you not see how much they’re offering? I can take being collateral damage if it means Martinston is safe.”
He kisses me on the lips. “It will be safe, thanks to the show. And to you. You’re amazing, did you know that?”
“Keep talking, mister.”
He chuckles. “My own harem here at Martinston. What the heck was she thinking?”
My giggle ends in a snort. “I don’t know. You’d make a good sultan. I can see you in a kaftan with the headgear.”
He pulls me in for a kiss. “Can you now?” he asks with a suggestive lilt. “Does that mean you’ll dress as a belly dancer and do a little dance for me?”
“Whatever the sultan wants,” I reply as I run my fingers through his hair.
We kiss, and I forget about Heather and the TV show.
“I wish we could do this all day, and more, but I really do need to get going,” I say in between kisses. “And Kennedy will be waiting.”
“Can’t we skip it?” he asks as he runs his hands down my back.
“Skip your best friend’s wedding in which you’re the best man and I’m a bridesmaid?”
“Well, not when you put it that way…” He kisses me some more. “But don’t you agree this does feel spectacularly good?”
With every ounce of self-control I can muster, I pull away from him and literally hold him at arm’s length. It’s the only way I can keep my head straight, what with all the