Make Me Yours: A BWWM Billionaire Love Story (20 page)

“
Will do,” Bain
said quietly and she walked away. Meaghan hit him on the arm
immediately.

“
What was that?”
she demanded of him.

“
I was just trying to
talk you up,” Bain protested and Daniel snorted a laugh. Both
of them turned to glare at him and he put his hands up in surrender.

“
I didn’t even know
you knew Poppy like that,” Meaghan said with a furrow of her
brow.

“
Our mothers are in the
DAR together. Dean and I kind of had to tolerate each other from a
very early age,” Bain said grudgingly.

“
Well….I’m
glad your mutual antagonism isn’t all on my account. But
seriously Bain, what was that?” Meaghan said refusing to be
sidetracked.

“
Look, Poppy came over
here to ask me to speak to you about leaving her son alone because
she’d heard we were friends. I, in turn, countered with how
about she gave you a chance to show you how awesome you are? That’s
when you came over,” Bain said.

Meaghan’s heart had dropped right into her
shoes; some days, like this one, she despaired of ever getting
through to Dean’s mother. And if she couldn’t do that
then…

“
Hey, don’t look
like that,” Daniel said reaching across the table for her
hand.  He was dressed all in white, his suit was terribly
fitting; it hugged him everywhere and put every inch of his marvelous
body on display. Nevertheless it was tastefully made and clearly
expensive, and Daniel was a god; so he got away with it.
Meaghan
tried to smile at him, watching his blonde hair glinting in the light
from the overhead lamps but didn’t quite manage it.

“
Meaghan! Fancy meeting
you here,” a male voice said from behind her and she
metaphorically girded her loins to deal with this new threat. She
turned around not knowing what to expect, to see Conrad Shelley
smiling down at her. He had a buxom red head on his arm; she looked
kind of bored but determined to see this through. Meaghan envied her,
her motivation – whatever it was.

“
Conrad! This is a
surprise,” she said standing up to greet him. He gave her the
up and down look and smiled.

“
You clean up good,”
he said and she smiled.

“
Thanks. You too.”
His black and white suit did indeed look extremely good on his six
foot one athletic frame. The white side burns in his jet black hair
added an air of sophistication that was sure to turn every head in
the room. Meaghan wondered how it was that she was
surrounded
by all these good looking men.

“
I didn’t know you
ran in these circles,” he said inclining his head in inquiry.

“
Dean,” she said in
explanation.

“
Ah, the boyfriend. Where
is he?” Conrad asked.

Meaghan looked around wondering the same thing
herself but shrugged her shoulders at Conrad. “I have no idea,”
she said. Conrad turned to greet Bain and Daniel seemingly more
familiar with them than Meaghan realized.

“
I didn’t know
you’d met Daniel,” she said to him.

“
Oh he came down to the
site with Bain one time while we were there. He brought sandwiches
that he’d made. They were delicious,” Conrad informed her
with a smile.

“
Site?” Meaghan
asked curiously.

“
Yeah you know, the site
for the recreation center your boyfriend’s foundation is
building for us silly,” Conrad said clearly expecting that
Meaghan knew exactly what he was talking about. She raised her
eyebrows so high they were almost touching her hair.

“
My boyfriend what?”
she asked and then Bain pulled her aside, suddenly claiming that he
needed her to remove something from his eye…urgently.

“
Dean is funding the
recreation center y’all are building on Hallet’s Point.
We’ll talk about it tomorrow,” he whispered and then she
blew enthusiastically into his eye for effect and they went back to
the conversation with Conrad.

The band began a new song, an upbeat samba beat
and Conrad asked her if she’d like to dance.

“
Sure. Dancing with one’s
boss; not awkward at all,” she murmured. Conrad laughed and
swept her into his arm, leading her onto the dance floor while doing
the steps. She couldn’t help smiling her enjoyment and tossed
all her worries away as she enjoyed the music.

*****

“
Why is that man dancing
with my girlfriend?” Dean said and was surprised when Daniel
answered him. He hadn’t been aware he was speaking out loud.

“
Oh Dean lighten up; he’s
her boss and it's always a good thing to be friendly with your boss,”
Daniel said.

Dean turned to look at him.
“Are
you
friendly with
your
boss?” he asked snarkily.

“
I’m an independent
contractor,” Daniel said impassively.

“
Oh right”, Dean
said nodding. “So really, why are they dancing?”

Meaghan and Conrad were cutting a swath across the
dance floor. Her flowered purple dress was perfect for this dance;
she seemed to have been born to dance the Samba. She and Conrad
looked like they were in perfect sync as he tossed her this way and
that, bending her over his arm in the classic pose. For one horrified
second Dean was afraid he was going to kiss her. But he just flipped
her back up and twirled her around as she laughed delightedly. Dean
took a step toward them even before he was aware he’d decided
to cut in but Daniel’s hand closed tightly on his arm.

“
It’s just a dance
Dean,” he said. “Let’s not make it more than that.”

Dean continued to glare at the couple.

“
Hey Dean, meet Daneel;
she’s Conrad’s date,” Daniel said tugging him
around to introduce him to a buxom red head standing nearby. She
turned to greet him with a shy smile and then looked back at the
dance floor. They were not the only ones watching the dancing couple.
At least half the room had an eye on them.

“
Your so-called
girlfriend is making a spectacle of herself,” a smug voice said
from his other side as Samantha slipped into the spot next to him. He
ignored her but she continued to speak to him.

“
I really seriously don’t
know what you see in that attention whore. Obviously she’ll
slut it out for anyone who’ll give her a leg up,” she
said. Dean wanted to reach a hand out and sock her in the jaw.
Instead he ground his teeth and moved to the other side of the table
putting Daniel between them. Bain stood up from where he was sitting
and went to stand beside Samantha.

“
Can I help you with
something?” he asked her. She sneered at him.

“
Oh look who it is; the
attention whore’s fag pimp”, she said.

Bain smiled. “Happy now? Or haven’t
you used up your quota of offensive words yet?”

Samantha glared at him and then stalked off
leaving the three men with the unwelcome feeling of presenting a
united front. Unwelcome at least for Dean and Bain. Daniel liked
everybody.

The dance came to an end. Spontaneous applause
from the watching crowd for Conrad and Meaghan and they took a bow
before heading back to Bain’s table. Meaghan was smiling at
Dean, glad to have located him at last and Conrad was watching her
smile at him with a slight furrow to his brow but a smile playing
around his lips as well.

“
Hey you,” Meaghan
said coming up to Dean and taking his hands delightedly.

“
Hey,” Dean replied
pulling her until she was flush against him. “I didn’t
know you could samba like that.”

“
Viva Brazil,” she
said grinning at him. “Where were you? I couldn’t find
you anywhere.”

“
Is that why you decided
to ditch me for the doc there?”

“
Nah, that was actually
to distract me from the mean girls I met in the ladies’
followed by the impromptu mediation session Bain tried to hold with
your mother right after.”

“
What?” Dean asked
in puzzlement.

“
Long story. Tell you
later?” she said.

“
Okay,” Dean said
holding her even closer if that was possible.

“
And then you can tell me
all about this project for Conrad’s foundation that you’re
funding.”

Dean stiffened. “Who told you?” he
asked shooting a glare at Bain.

“
Conrad. He seemed to be
under the impression that I already knew,” Meaghan said.
Suddenly
she
stiffened
and moved away from him. “Wait. Is that why he gave me that
evaluation?” she asked staring suspiciously at him.

Dean sighed. “Megs…really? You really
think I would do that?”

Meaghan stared at him a bit more. “I…guess
not,” she said quietly though she didn’t sound a hundred
per cent sure.

“
I wouldn’t,”
he clarified forcefully.

“
Then why keep the
project a secret?” she asked.

“
Can we talk about this
later?” he asked trying to pull her nearer again.

Meaghan studied him. “Sure but at this rate
we’re going to have to make a to-do list of Things to Discuss
Later.”

Dean smiled. “I’ll get right on that,”
he said and then his face got serious. “I promise Megs as soon
as we get home, we’ll talk about this. This just isn’t
the right time or place.”

“
Okay,” Meaghan
said moving back into his arms. She was perturbed by all this secrecy
but acknowledged that now wasn’t the time to hash it out.

“
My mother didn’t
say anything to you, did she?” he asked her.

“
Nah. Bain was too busy
talking me up for her to get a word in edgewise. I got the feeling
she would have liked to though,” she said.

“
That’s too bad. I
was hoping she was coming around. She’s been much happier since
the whole improved ability to converse with dad now. In spite of the
fact that it was your idea.”

Meaghan smiled. “Let’s not push it too
hard. Whatever is going on with her, she needs to work it out for
herself.”

 
Dean looked down at her
and smiled. “Do you want to dance?” he asked.

“
Thought you’d
never ask,” Meaghan replied.

*****

Adriana sat by Jan feeling a little disappointed
in how the evening had turned out. Rumor had it that Dean Wesson was
single and she’d been hoping to take their budding business
relationship to a whole other personal level starting with the killer
red dress she was wearing tonight that outlined her every curve and
caused her dusky complexion to shine. Her long legs encased in black
Jimmy Choos with the red bottoms were the most ‘fuck-me’
shoes she’d ever seen but Dean had hardly spared her so much as
a glance. All of his attention was for the purple clad black woman
he’d come with. She was shorter than Adriana though not by much
and her body was curvier but in the looks stakes, Adriana would
definitely bet on herself being hotter than that nappy haired dark
skinned…girl. Sure her skin was clear and unblemished and she
had some real moves on the dance floor. She knew how to move her body
to definite advantage and even Adriana could admit that ass she had
on her was just perfect.

Still, all things considered, Adriana did not
understand what it was that this woman had that she didn’t. She
sauntered casually up to the blonde that she’d seen the girl
exchanging words with earlier and smiled at her, holding out her hand
to be shook.

“
Adriana Stuijt,”
she said cordially.

“
Samantha Crawford,”
the blonde replied shaking her hand a bit grumpily.

“
Would you mind if I ask
you something?” she asked.

“
Shoot,” Samantha
said.

“
The girl in the purple
dress…” Adriana began. Samantha made an annoyed sound.

“
Not you too,” she
complained.

“
Not me too…what?”
Adriana inclined her head forward to inquire.

“
Don’t tell me
you’re one of her legion of fans,” Samantha said.

“
Not really. I just
wondered what her relationship was to Dean Wesson,” Adriana
said.

“
Tuh,” Samantha
exhaled her face reddening. “Relationship indeed,” she
said bitterly.

Adriana just looked at her; she knew that the best
way to get information out of people was to keep silent and let them
fill it.

“
She’s an attention
whore who stole my boyfriend,” Samantha said. “She
seduced him with her differences and turned his head, taking
advantage of the fact that he was freaking out about taking the helm
at the family firm.”

Adriana thought it sounded very much like a story
Samantha told herself to soothe her wounded ego but she wasn’t
about to say so. She looked thoughtfully at Dean; so he liked that
dark meat did he? That  might work to her advantage. She was
here for the long game and once he tired of his little rebellion with
lil miss sunshine over there…

“
That’s too bad,”
she said in encouragement.

“
I can’t wait for
the day he comes crawling back,” Samantha said smugly. “He’ll
have to really work for my forgiveness.”

Adriana wanted to ask her if she really thought
Dean would be coming back. Judging by the way he was wrapped around
the new girl; he didn’t seem to be missing her at all. She
didn’t think pointing that out would earn her any brownie
points so she kept her mouth shut.