Read A Friendly Engagement Online
Authors: Christine Warner
A Friendly Engagement
What’s a little engagement between friends?
Omar Esterly is married to his job. But when Omar sets his sights on a potential, family-oriented client, his confirmed bachelorhood becomes a problem. Fortunately, his friend and employee, Devi Boss, has the perfect plan…
Okay, so it wasn’t
exactly
Devi’s plan to become her friend’s fake fiancée. Lies aren’t her style. However, Omar offers her a big, beautiful raise—enough to track down the missing father she’s never known—and Devi reluctantly agrees to the whole engagement hoax…
This was supposed to be a no-strings-attached win-win for both Devi and Omar, but when they cross the line between friendship and…well, something more, Devi realizes she’s made a huge mistake that just might cost her both job and friend—falling for her fiancé.
Table of Contents
Bachelor’s Special
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2015 by Christine Warner. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact the Publisher.
Entangled Publishing, LLC
2614 South Timberline Road
Suite 109
Fort Collins, CO 80525
Visit our website at
www.entangledpublishing.com
.
Select Contemporary is an imprint of Entangled Publishing, LLC.
Edited by Karen Grove
Cover design by Kelley York
Cover art from Shutterstock and Big Stock Photo
ISBN 978-1-63375-288-7
Manufactured in the United States of America
First Edition June 2015
To my very special niece and nephew who have given me many smiles through the years as I’ve watched them grow into the amazing people they are today.
My beautiful niece, Cassandra Devi Rianna Singh-Suwal, who has the strength to do things her own way, and my awe-inspiring nephew, Cristendra Raj Singh-Suwal, who has the biggest heart of anyone I know.
I love you both.
Chapter One
Omar Esterly stared out the bank of windows in the downstairs lobby of his office building. He took a large bite of the loaded hot dog he’d bought moments ago from the nearby vendor and chewed slowly as a throng of rowdy tourists overtook the sidewalk outside. Although he had no reason to stress, or complain for that matter, his insides were tied in knots. Since he’d taken over the company from his father six years ago, the financial planning firm had more than doubled in size. Clients were coming out of the woodwork in droves, but the one contract he’d worked toward for the last three years still eluded him. He’d kept his work on this contract under wraps from everyone but his assistant, hoping to surprise his father by securing the larger-than-life client on his own merit, making it his final goal in earning the old man’s respect. Unfortunately, Leland Esterly had other plans. Affording to retire at an early age hadn’t benefited him one bit. All the years he’d worked inhumane hours, indulged in greasy foods, and constantly toked on his beloved Cubans had taken their toll on his heart. He’d died before Omar could prove himself with the deal of the decade. Hard to believe almost a year had passed since they’d buried him.
He closed his eyes and tried to ease the tension knotted between his shoulders by rolling his head from side to side. If only he could figure out a way to score an invite to William Bartow’s weeklong meet and greet that didn’t include the man’s main requirement.
Why had Bartow decided the next firm he worked with would be family oriented? What the hell did having a family have to do with business anyway?
Omar looked up through the open atrium of the building, past the numerous offices that were housed on the outer walls of the building, until he could see the evening sky littered with thousands of stars. He sent a silent salute to his idol. Alone, his old man had built Esterly Financial more than thirty years ago from hard work, determination, and sweat. He’d groomed Omar from birth to take over everything. His father had been the smartest man alive, and Omar missed strategizing with him. If anyone could’ve come up with an idea to help Omar get invited to the billionaire’s oceanfront retreat, it’d have been his old man. Once there, Omar only had to show the man his plan and win the damn contract. But in order to do that, he first had to get an invite.
He rubbed the muscles banded along his neck and jumped when someone touched his arm. He turned to meet the piercing gray-blue eyes of his assistant, Devi. Their light color and unfailing concentration always gave him the eerie feeling she knew what he thought. Sometimes before he did.
She smiled as she brushed her fingers through her dark brown-black hair. The soft jingle of her bracelets dragged him away from his thoughts.
“Quitting time, Omar. I thought you’d already left so I locked up the office airtight.”
“What are you still doing here?” He hadn’t noticed her at the desk when he’d come down earlier, but then his mind had been on Bartow.
“More than likely the same thing you are. Working,” she said in a deadpan voice, tilting her head to the side and tucking a strand of her shiny hair behind one ear.
Omar couldn’t stop the smile spreading across his face. There were so many times he envied Devi. She had no inhibitions and always spoke her mind, even if she was talking to the boss. She’d taught him to speak his mind as well—at least when he was with her.
If only he could be more like her. Learn how to blend his personal life with his professional life. Over the years he’d lost some of his identity. All because he didn’t dare show certain aspects of his personality—especially humor. His father had considered it a character flaw, a weakness.
But with Devi he had an outlet. She not only brought out his humor, but she never judged, no matter if it was good, bad, funny, or not so funny.
Devi peeled back a section of her own hot dog wrapper and took a healthy bite. She closed her eyes, her head swaying from side to side as she chewed.
“Extra mustard?” he asked.
“You know it. I don’t know what drug Mack puts in these dogs, but they’re the only vice I have outside of my organic diet.”
Omar grinned. Devi liked healthy foods, mostly veggies and fruits with a few nuts tossed in, but she allowed herself one of Mack’s hot dogs each week. Usually Friday night.
“Having his stand inside our office building instead of out in the land of the tourists keeps him one of North Carolina’s best hidden secrets. Didn’t you have plans tonight?” Omar asked.
“I do. Want to tag along? I’m fun, you know.” She winked.
He shook his head. “Not tonight.”
“Don’t you want to help me celebrate?” She spoke around another bite of her hot dog, flicking her tongue along the corner of her mouth and catching a drop of mustard.
“What are you celebrating this time? Life in general?” As if she needed an excuse. Devi probably had one of the most interesting lives of anyone he knew, mainly because she took chances, made friends wherever she went, and jumped before she second-guessed herself. There didn’t seem to be anything she refused to try.
If only I…
Her laughter brought him back to the moment. Straight from the heart, loud, and husky, the sound always shook his senses.
“Um, who bought that sign on my desk? The one that clearly states ‘Until Further Notice Celebrate Everything.’”
“That’d be me. What was I thinking? Like you’d need a sign to remind you.”
“I should’ve gotten you a sign reminding you of our five-year anniversary. Cause enough for celebrating?” One fine brow lifted to taunt him.
“Already?”
“Already. Another year has come and gone and you still can’t remember my hire date. I might have to think about tattooing it on my forehead,” she said dryly, shaking her head in mock annoyance. Her long silver earrings—a cascade of moons and stars—brushed against her neck. He had an urge to reach out and touch them, but instead shoved his hands deep into his trouser pockets.
Hard to believe she’d been with him that long. The main reason he’d hired her all those years ago was because she’d been everything he wasn’t—and she’d made him laugh. The moment she’d walked into their interview with several bracelets lacing the length of her arm, her flowing skirt swirling around her legs, and her long, wavy hair streaming down her back, he’d been intrigued. He’d never met anyone like her.
Still hadn’t. She had a style all her own—from her bohemian fashion sense to her throaty laugh, and a smile that could turn any bad day around.
But when she’d started their interview by sharing a knock-knock joke to alleviate some of the tension, he’d instantly made his decision to offer her the position. He needed that kind of energy in his firm.
As opposite as they were, he liked her on the spot, and more than anything he’d wished for some of her carefree attitude. She had business smarts, but in the same breath she’d conquered living her life to the fullest. His personal life and his work life were so intertwined they’d become one.
