Shopping for a CEO (Shopping for a Billionaire Series Book 7) (40 page)

Andrew has his arm around me, helping to keep the blanket about my shoulders, and he leans in and says, “They’re headed to Vegas for a quickie wedding. This is delicious to watch. Marie is about to get five lifetimes of karma.”

All I can do is lean against his shoulder and rest.

And cringe.

Declan boards first, the wind picking up his kilt and oh, sweet creator, he most certainly is commando. I thought Shannon was exaggerating when she talked about the size of Declan’s, ah...ego, but she was telling the truth. 

The whole truth.

The whole long, thick truth.

I reach over for Andrew’s thigh and slide my hand up, meeting the soft flesh of, um, confirmation that he, too, went authentic. Truthiness never felt so... 

“Is that an offer?” he shouts, his hand slipping to my ribs as I scramble to grab the sliding blanket. Immediately, he rights it, wrapping me protectively in the only item that keeps me from reliving my public nakedness. I give his thigh a squeeze and he kisses my temple, his cheek resting against me, his body relaxing into mine. 

“Mr. President!” Marie screams, waving her tartan fan.

Behind us, I see Jason ambling on the grass toward Marie, walking with the steady, strong steps of a warrior, Chuckles in his arms. 

Shannon climbs into the helicopter and what happens next is so fast it will take me a solid month to reconstruct it properly.

The helicopter begins to lift, Shannon’s train hanging down just a few feet from the open door to the passenger area. Declan bends down to grab it and Marie takes off at a little jog, her high heels making that difficult.

The helicopter lifts five feet. Then ten feet, and stops, hovering for seconds.

“Where are you going, Mr. President?” she screams, her jog turning into a canter I haven’t seen since I learned horsemanship at Girl Scout camp in fourth grade.

I bury my face in Andrew’s chest.

“This is painful to watch!” I shout.

“She deserves it,” Andrew shouts back.

I turn back. It’s like rubbernecking. I know I shouldn’t look, but curiosity gets the better of me. Besides, I’m going to hear about this for the rest of my life. Might as well actually witness it so I can know the truth before it gets wildly distorted.

The helicopter lurches up, about two more feet, as Marie reaches the spot where it just was, her shoes in the deep grooves in the green grass where the landing gear just rested. 

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” she screams. “WHERE IS THE PRESIDENT?”

Declan gives Marie a handsome, victorious grin and waves like he’s the Prince of Wales. Shannon’s head peeks out behind him and she shouts, “I love you!”

“What?” Marie shouts. “Where is the president? I have a seat for him down here, right next to me!”

And then Shannon answers with one word.

One simple, earth-shattering word.

“ELOPE!” she screams as the helicopter lifts, up, up, up, with Marie staring into the sky, her face a mask of dawning horror.

My heart ripples with Marie’s pain.

Until I look back and see Jessica Coffin, her head bent down with text neck, typing away furiously on her phone, grinning like the Joker.

“WHERE ARE YOU GOING!” Marie shouts, jumping up in the sky as if she could grab the bottom edge of the helicopter. “GET BACK HERE!”

As the chopper gains height and starts to move forward, away to the west, Jason reaches Marie. He watches the helicopter, his hand shielding his eyes, then looks at Marie, who is shaking her fist in the air. 

The blades no longer producing overwhelming noise, it’s possible to hear her.

“ELOPE? THEY CAN’T ELOPE! GET THEM BACK HERE, JASON! THEY ARE RUINING MY WEDDING!”

Jason is very clearly trying to reconcile what he just saw with the reality of his wife’s Momzilla tantrum.

“This is better than cheesy reality television,” Andrew whispers.

“Did you know,” my mother says, her voice carrying on the wind as if she were addressing someone near her. I turn around to see her talking to Carol, Terry and James. “Did you know that people who elope are more than twelve times as likely to divorce versus those who marry with a wedding of two hundred or more guests?” 

“I eloped,” Carol snaps.

“Elena and I had more than two hundred guests at our wedding and were happily married for more than twenty years,” James says with a wistful sigh.

“I eloped,” my mom admits, giving me a nervous look. “And we know how that turned out.”

I watch the receding helicopter in the sky. Somehow, I don’t think this elopement meets any statistical category, though. Shannon and Declan are their own standard deviation. Or two. 

“ANDREW!” Marie’s voice splits the air like a cannonball. I’ve never seen her this angry. Not even that time in high school when we got sent home from high school for rearranging the letters on the school sign. Instead of “Congratulations Warriors Hockey” it said, “Congratulations Hairy Coworkers.” 

Andrew’s eyes fly open like he’s a human experimentation victim with lid retractors attached. “What? Why me?”

“YOU NEED TO GET ANTERDEC’S HELICOPTER NOW. NOW. NOW NOW NOW.”

“I’m sorry, Marie. The helicopter is being used right now in central America to help deliver medical supplies for a corporate humanitarian mission.”

“THAT IS NO EXCUSE. WE HAVE MORE IMPORTANT PROBLEMS HERE. CALL IT BACK.”

Marie has one volume right now.

“Honey,” Jason says, trying to soothe her. “We can’t do anything about this. Shannon and Declan decided they want to get away and—” 

“DON’T YOU DARE TELL ME THAT! I AM NOT MISSING WATCHING MY DAUGHTER GET MARRIED. I DID NOT SPEND THE LAST YEAR OF MY LIFE RESEARCHING TARTAN THONGS FOR THIS!”

Jason gives Marie’s ass an appraising look. “Tartan
thongs
?”

Andrew slides his hand on my butt. “Tartan thongs?” he whispers.

“We were forced to match.”

“Why not go commando like we kilt wearers?”

“We tried! Marie wouldn’t let us. Said if we didn’t have balls, we couldn’t go commando.” 

“
You
have balls,” Andrew says. “Bigger than most men’s.”

Can’t say I disagree.

“But not mine,” he adds. 

“JASON! CALL THE POLICE AND REPORT A KIDNAPPING!”

“Shannon hasn’t been kidnapped, Marie,” he says with a weary sigh.

“MY WEDDING HAS BEEN KIDNAPPED!”

“Oh, God.” Jason burrows his fingers into his sporran and pulls out a half-used roll of antacids. He carefully peels off the entire remainder of the wrapping and pops all of the pieces into his mouth at once.

See? Aerosolized Xanax would come in handy now, wouldn’t it?

“WHERE ARE THEY GOING?” Marie is screaming, enraged beyond the point of all reason, and I really do wish she’d hired that elephant and trainer after all, because an animal tranquilizer gun would come in handy right about now. 

James, my mom, and Jason all put up their hands in a gesture of ignorance.

Carol and Terry are drinking Champagne near the fountain. The caterers look like they’ve pretty much picked up on the fact that there won’t be an actual marriage ceremony given the sudden escape of the bride and groom, so they’re putting out food.

Hamish is standing next to Amy, his hot soccer player legs half-bare, kilt ending at the knees and Agnes is on the ground, bent down in—huh? Is she doing yoga? Why would a ninetysomething woman be doing yoga at a wedding, in a suit?

Her red hat slides under Hamish’s legs and she shoves her arm in the air, brushing against his kilt. Hamish looks down, one eyebrow flying high in consternation.

“He’s authentic, Corrine!” Agnes gives her old friend a thumbs’ up. Corrine hobbles over and smiles down at Agnes.

“I owe you ten bucks,” Agnes adds with a disagreeable sigh.

“Here. We’ll call it even,” Corrine says, fishing in her purse for a powder compact, her knees popping as she bends downs. “Take this, open the mirror, and angle it just so—”

“Americans are so weird,” Hamish grumbles. But he doesn’t move.

Andrew reaches around me, careful to preserve my modesty, as he leans in for a kiss, the touch and taste of him a reunion that fills my heart with—

“STOP THAT! YOU SHOULD BE ON THE PHONE ARRANGING THE CORPORATE JET FOR US!” Marie shouts at Andrew. Her hair flies around her face in a swirl of hairsprayed plates, like someone has molded her hairdo in a factory and clicked it together like Pergo flooring. Click. Click. Click.
 

And someone just unfastened it all.

“To go where?”
 

Marie zeroes in on me and Andrew, eyes like snake slits. “YOU TWO KNOW!”

My heart pounds hard and suddenly, like someone is practicing handball in my chest.

Remember how I said Andrew has tells? Well, I do too, apparently. My eyes flicker over to Carol, who is loudly explaining to Jeffrey that just because I got to “swim” doesn’t mean he and Tyler can, too.

Marie follows my gaze and while she might not be the crispiest taco shell in the package, she gets my subconscious glance’s meaning instantly.

“Ohhhhhhh, noooooooo. Not Las Vegas! Not like Carol and Todd. Please tell me they didn’t just run off to Vegas,” she whimpers, her voice going soft, the volume change disconcerting. 

“They didn’t just run off to Vegas,” Andrew says in a robot voice, then takes my face in his hands and kisses me again, the touch of his mouth and the texture of his breath so delightful.
 

“ORDER THE CORPORATE JET TO TAKE US THERE.”
 

And she’s back.
 

“Where?” Andrew asks, his mouth still on mine. “And Marie? We’re kind of busy.”

Hysterical laughter ripples out of her like clowns pouring out of a car at a circus. “BUSY? BUSY? YOU ARE BUSY GROPING AMANDA AND I AM BUSY PICKING UP THE SHATTERED PIECES OF THIS—“

“We’re trying to make up!” Andrew grinds out, clearly upset at her interruption.
 

“MAKE UP IN VEGAS!” she screams back, reaching out to pluck a very wet, very angry Chuckles from Jason as she storms off, her tartan sash snagging on chair legs.
 

Andrew looks at me, eyebrows raised.

“Vegas? Why would
I
want to go to Vegas?”
 

“Make up sex in Vegas?” I ask.

He grabs his phone. “You have a way with words.”

THE END...until Vegas... 

And speaking of Vegas, wonder what’s happening in that helicopter as Declan and Shannon escape their own wedding?

* * *

Who needs a SWAT team to escape from their own wedding? Me.

My Momzilla turned us into hostages at our own ceremony, so Declan and I are getting married the good old-fashioned way, just like everybody else.

By calling in his private security team, stealing away before the ceremony by helicopter, connecting to his corporate jet and heading for Las Vegas.

The Boston wedding of the year is about to become a trashy Elvis drive-thru ceremony. 

Until the best man spills the beans and Mom, Dad, my sisters, his brothers, my maid of honor, my friend Josh, and even my cat, Chuckles, all come along for the ride.

I can’t win, can I?

Oh. Yeah. I already did.

Love conquers all.

Even my crazy family.

* * *

Shopping for a Billionaire’s Wife
is the 8th book in the New York Times and USA Today bestselling Shopping for a Billionaire series. After Declan convinces Shannon to escape from their own wedding minutes before the ceremony begins, the madcap adventures are just getting started. When the mother of the bride pries their location out of the tortured best man, the whole crazy crew follows the bride and groom to Las Vegas in this romantic comedy from Julia Kent.

Pre-order
Shopping for a Billionaire’s Wife
, book 8 in the Shopping series, now!

Watch my Facebook and newsletters for details on pre-order links.
 

* * *

Shopping for a Billionaire’s Wife
is coming in March 2016. Join my
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Facebook page
to stay tuned for release dates. 

If you haven’t read Declan and Shannon’s story in the
Shopping for a Billionaire Boxed Set,
go read it right now! This series began in May 2014 as a serial, and the boxed set has 670+ pages of their hilarious, hot, and crazy story. 

Read more now!

Shopping for a Billionaire Boxed Set
 

O
THER
B
OOKS BY
J
ULIA
K
ENT

Suggested Reading Order

Shopping for a Billionaire: The Collection (Parts 1-5 in one bundle, 670 pages!)

• Shopping for a Billionaire 1
  

• Shopping for a Billionaire 2
  

• Shopping for a Billionaire 3
  

• Shopping for a Billionaire 4
  

• Christmas Shopping for a Billionaire
  

Shopping for a Billionaire’s Fiancée

Shopping for a CEO

Before Her Billionaires

Her Billionaires: Boxed Set

• Her First Billionaire—FREE ebook 
  

• Her Second Billionaire
  

• Her Two Billionaires
  

• Her Two Billionaires and a Baby
  

It’s Complicated