you,” Lacey murmured the words before he could say anything that would add to his terribly inconvenient charm. “She has a tendency to throw pwetty flowers into toilets.”
He leaned in, his lips getting dangerously close to brushing her updo. “And here I was thinking the bonus was going to be the wedding planner losing her mind when she realizes one missing flower is ruining the military symmetry in the photos.”
She couldn’t stop the smile that stole across her lips even as she shuffled along the car to create some space. “I’m sure Meredith wouldn’t consider this appropriate collegial distance, Mr. Carlisle.”
“We’re not colleagues quite yet, O’Connor. Besides …” Victor stepped back and made no attempt to hide his gaze traveling down her body. “I think I’ll take my chances. I’m pretty sure even you couldn’t hide a gun in that dress.”
Something in Victor had recognized Lacey as soon as he’d walked out of the church. The sweep of her neck, the tilt of her hip. But he’d shaken it off, convinced he had to be hallucinating. There was no way the woman who had wedged herself firmly under his skin in less than a week could be Emelia’s cousin. He could not have missed a piece of information of that magnitude.
“You’ve kept your Pied Piper skills very quiet.” Emelia leaned against the wall next to him, champagne glass in one hand, the train of her gown in the other.
Victor shifted a sleeping William in his arms. For reasons he couldn’t fathom, the small boy had taken a shining to him. Small snores now emanated from the blond head resting on his shoulder.
“You never mentioned your cousin works at Langham & Co.”
Emelia arched an eyebrow. “So?”
Victor shrugged trying to look nonchalant. “I thought you might have mentioned it, given our companies are merging.”
“Huh.” Emelia wasn’t looking at him. Her gaze was across the floor, to where Lacey was being chatted up by one of Peter’s teammates. Just one in a long list of men who had been desperate to make her acquaintance ever since she’d appeared at the end of the aisle. “Sorry. I must have missed that. Between all the wedding planning and her job, we haven’t talked as much lately as we usually do. Lacey mentioned a merger, but I didn’t know it was with Wyndham.”
She looked at him then back across the dance floor. He could practically hear the cogs turning in her brain. “That merger team-building thing she was on last month. Were you on that too?”
“Yes.”
“Victor.” An edge of steel laced the two syllables.
He turned. “Yes?”
Emelia pinned him with a knowing gaze. “Lacey’s my person.”
“I know.” Well, he hadn’t known Lacey was Emelia’s person, but he’d known her cousin was.
Emelia shook her head, loose curls bouncing. “I don’t think you do.”
He waited. The small relaxed body draped across his body reminded him that right now, at least, one person in the world trusted him.
Emelia jutted out her jaw. “I don’t want you chasing my cousin. She’s not another conquest. She’s the only friend I had some years. Of all the women in the world, I need you to stay away from her.”
Her words slapped him in the chest. It didn’t matter that he hadn’t touched a drink in years. Hadn’t been on a date in just as long. His past was a large ink blot on his character that nothing would ever be able to remove.
Even Emelia, for all she’d done to try and mend bridges between him and Peter, still saw him as the man he used to be. Or she suspected the old him was lurking in the background, destined to reappear sooner or later.
Victor tightened his hold on William. “Look, I may not know Lacey as well as you, but I know she will never be anyone’s conquest. And if there was ever a woman worth chasing, it’s her. But you don’t need to worry. She’s entirely focused on the promotion she deserves. I’m just one more person in the way.”
Emelia’s shoulders sagged with something that looked a whole lot like relief.
His sister-in-law would rather her cousin end up with any other man in the world than him. He steeled himself against the hurt coiling through his body.
A high-pitched laugh cut through the moment, and they both turned toward where Carolina was practically draping herself over Lord Busby. Her swaying posture suggested she’d had more of the wedding champagne than was wise.
Emelia’s face blanched.
“I’ve got it.” Her father certainly wasn’t going to intervene.