Hitched!
Release Date: 2013
Here comes …
Planning the most talked about wedding of the year is enough to make engineer Frith Taylor break out in a cold sweat. She’s used to construction sites, not wedding fairs! But estate manager George Challoner’s offer of help is too good to resist.
… the unsuspecting bride!
George may be the rebel of the prestigious Challoner family, but his insanely good looks are giving Frith wedding fever! Charm personified, he’s making her feel things she hasn’t dared feel before. Maybe her little sister’s wedding won’t be the only one Frith’s planning ….
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Excerpt
I made the coffee and plonked his mug in front of him before taking mine round to my own seat. It felt easier with the desk between us.
It was a delicious sandwich, I had to admit, and my enjoyment was spoiled only by the fact that when George had finished his, he tipped back in his chair a dangerous angle so that he could put his feet up on my desk.
‘Do you mind?’ I said pointedly.
‘What’s the problem?’
‘Your dirty socks are the problem! Could you please take them off my desk and stop tilting that chair like that. It’s making me nervous. I don’t care if you break your neck, but I’ve got a health and safety record to think about.’
George sighed and swung his feet down. ‘It seems to me health and safety regulations were invented just to stop the rest of us having fun.’
‘It’s perfectly possible to have fun without risking injury,’ I said primly, and then wished I hadn’t because George leant forward and waggled his eyebrows at her suggestively.
‘How do you have fun, Frith? Do you have a five year plan for that too?’
I pressed my lips together and glared at him, almost glad when my mobile went off and spared me the need to reply.
I use the words ‘went off’ advisedly. I leapt in my seat as a maniacal cackling and quacking filled the room. ‘You’re not leaving here until you’ve changed this,’ I said to George who was grinning, idiot that he was.
Snatching up the phone, I answered it just to shut up the noise. ‘Hello,’ I snapped.
‘Frith, it’s me.’
‘Oh … Saffron.’
Please God, let it not be another forty five minutes on whether the guests would think £3000 a bottle too mean, which pair of Jimmy Choos would go best with Saffron’s dress, or the exact shade of the specially woven silk coverings for the chairs.
Evidently prepared for a long wait, George tipped back in his chair and put his feet back on table.
‘I’m doing the seating plan,’ moaned Saffron. ‘It’s so difficult.’
‘It must be,’ I said, not really listening. I pointed at George’s feet and mouthed Down!
Needless to say, he just smiled blandly back at me. It wasn’t a challenge I was about to resist. Saffron wittered on in my ear as I went round and tried to lift George’s legs onto the floor. I was hampered by the fact that one hand was holding the phone, but even so, he was incredibly strong.
Refusing to give up, I wrestled one-armed with his legs while he just leant back in his chair and smiled at my puny efforts. It was only when I could feel my face turning red with effort that I realised how absurd I was being, and I started to giggle silently. George was smothering his own laughter and in the end I had to press the phone against my shoulder so that Saffron wouldn’t realise just how little attention she was getting.
‘You can see what a problem it is,’ Saffron was saying as I admitted defeat and perched on the edge of the desk next to George’s feet while I recovered.
‘Absolutely.’
‘So I’ll sort out a date for you then?’
Any lingering desire to giggle vanished as the smile was wiped off my face. ‘What?’ I said, startled. ‘What for?’
‘I’ve just been explaining!’ Saffron heaved a martyred sigh. ‘A singleton looks so odd on the top table. I could ask Daddy not to bring his new girlfriend, but she’s such an attention seeker, she’d probably make a fuss. Anyone would think she was the only supermodel on the planet!’
It was the first I had heard about my father’s latest girlfriend. He had never remarried after Saffron’s mother had left, but was careful to be seen with a string of spectacular beauties, none of whom had gone down well with Saffron. If there was any attention-seeking going on, Saffron liked to be the one who was doing it, and she had no time for any attempts to outshine her.
I guessed that a supermodel sitting next to you on the top table wasn’t any bride’s dream but if Saffron loved anyone, it was her adoring father, and if he wanted his girlfriend there, Saffron would put up with it for his sake.
‘Of course, if I explained about the odd numbers, I’m sure he’d understand,’ said Saffron hopefully.
Tell my father that he would have to leave his gorgeous girlfriend behind so that he could sit next to his ugly duckling daughter, too boring to be able to get a boyfriend of her own? I didn’t think so.
‘Don’t involve Dad,’ I told Saffron quickly.
‘I’ll ask Piers then. His girlfriend will be on a shoot at the wedding, and I’m sure he wouldn’t mind being your date for the wedding.’
Without wanting to, I found myself looking at George, who could obviously hear every word. He smirked at me and gave me the thumbs up.
I smiled back at him, sweetly. ‘Don’t worry about a date for me,’ I told Saffron without stopping to let myself think. ‘I’m bringing my boyfriend.’
‘You’ve got a boyfriend?’ Saffron sounded surprised, as well she might.
‘Didn’t I tell you?’ I said. ‘It’s George.’
George’s chair tipped forward abruptly, and his feet crashed to the floor.
Result.
© Jessica Hart 2012