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His eyes lit up. “I am. Vermillion is my favorite shade of green.”
“Red.”
“Wait, red lace? For the bridesmaid dresses?” He wrinkled his nose. “That’s fucking…”
I rolled my lips together and stared at him.
“Fucking delightful!” he managed. “What a, um… beautiful vision that will be! Unique.”
“Hmph.” I turned to face forward and slid the car into Drive once more. “Don’t make me regret allowing this. Remember, you’re a silent partner, Champion. Emphasis on the silent.”
He mimed zipping his lips and tossing the key out onto the side of the highway…
But I should have known the control freak fiancé I wasn’t in a relationship with couldn’t stay silent for long.
“Quinn and Percy!” Marissa cried in delight as she threw open the door to the Drakeses’ palatial home. Her long brown hair hung in loose waves from a high ponytail, which skimmed the boat neck of her cashmere sweater dress. “My favorite wedding-planning buddies.” She threw her arms around each of us in turn.
I glanced at Champ, who seemed a little taken aback. Presumably, most of his missions didn’t involve getting squeezed to death by enthusiastic former debutantes.
I gave him a look that said, “Sorry, not sorry. You asked for this, fucker.”
His return glance said something like “Watch and learn,” which was a little concerning, honestly.
“Marissa!” he exclaimed warmly, setting down the cardboard box of supplies he’d carried so he could step into her embrace. “Great to see you. I felt so terrible that I had to leave yesterday, but I—”
“But you were overwhelmed, like you said,” she supplied, her big eyes filled with sympathy. “I get it. Wedding planning is such an emotional thing. You know, I was thinking about you two a lot last night, and I decided I really want today to be about both of us, you know? You guys and me and Trey. Because I know you love your job, Quinn, but I don’t want you to spend so much time on me that you’re ignoring your sweet Percy.” She wagged a playful finger at me.
I stifled a snort. “Oh, nothing could be more important than our relationship. Isn’t that right, Butternut?” I leaned toward Marissa confidingly. “Words of affirmation are his love language.” To Champ, I added, “You’re doing great, baby. Awesome job carrying that box.”
Marissa beamed as she led us into the large marble foyer. “So sweet.”
“Hey, Rissy? Where’d you want me to put these—oh.” A tall, heavily muscled young man with dark hair falling over one eye strolled out of a room to the left of the doorway and paused when he saw us. “You’re late.”
“We are. Traffic was terrible,” I said apologetically. I shot a fulminating look at Champ. “Pedestrian on the highway.”
The guy made a disbelieving noise.
“Just leave the folders on the table,” Marissa told him. Then she drew her arm through his and steered him toward us. “Levi, this is Quinn, my wedding planner.” She smiled at me. “And that is his fiancé, Percy. Guys, this is my friend Levi. We kind of grew up together.”
Levi gave me a chin-lift, but when his gaze landed on Champ, he turned speculative. “I’m not just a friend. I’m an employee,” he corrected in a no-nonsense voice. “I work for Christianson Protective Services, and we handle security for Mr. Drakes.” He gave Champ an up-down. “You know all about security, don’t you, Mr. Champion?”
I felt a second of pure shocked panic. We’ve been made! He had a bug in our car! Abort, abort!
But Champ returned his icy look with a goofy, affable smile I’d never seen before. “Sure do! I own a security company too. Champion’s not nearly as big as Christianson Protective, of course,” he said admiringly. He rocked back and forth on his feet in a way I’d never seen him do either. “But at Champion Security, we’re all former military. Oooh-rah, you know? You serve, Levi?”
Levi shook his head reluctantly. “My dad did.”
“Ahhh.” Champ nodded as though this explained many things. “Well, we do okay for ourselves. You been to the new mall out in Hemlock Valley? The Swan’s Crossing? One of our contracts,” he said proudly. “And we’ve installed alarm systems for a bunch of folks. You heard of HOG Corporate?”
Levi’s eyes narrowed, and my palms began to sweat.
“Oh my God, Levi, chill with the death glare.” Marissa rolled her eyes and smacked his abs with the back of her hand. “Who cares about boring old mall security? Champ is helping Quinn plan their wedding, and you’d best make him feel at home, understand? Lord knows Trey doesn’t have an opinion on anything. It’s nice that some fiancés do.”
“Truth,” Champ agreed. “My Little Stink Bug here has been dying to get me more involved.” He nudged me in the side, then yanked me against him when I stumbled. “I usually don’t make time, but last night Quinn begged me—”
