Modern Arrangements: Complete Trilogy (Modern Arrangements #1-3) (42 page)

"There you are," he slid one
arm around my waist.

"Here I am...in mingling
hell," I whispered.

"I know. It doesn't get any better
either." He looked apologetic.

"Think of the children," Viola
chimed in on the other side of my head. I took a deep breath and forged through
the rest of the crowd.

We came across a familiar person, Doctor
Johnson.

"Lilli, you know Dr. Johnson, the
Iverson family doctor." I nodded and shook his hand.

"It's good to see the both of
you." Doctor Johnson smiled warmly. "This is my daughter,
Becca."

"It's nice to meet you," I
shook her hand. "Do I know you from somewhere? You look really familiar."
I felt Aidan stiffen and then Becca's face turned white. I was highly confused.

"No, I don't think that we've
met." She smiled warmly.

"Oh, okay." We moved on to
another group.

This time we came upon a group with
members of the board.

"Lilli, this is Gideon. Gideon,
this is—."

"The new Mrs. Iverson," he
bent and kissed my knuckles. "This is my daughter, Loreley," he
motioned to the very tiny, light brown haired girl next to him.

"Hello, nice to meet you." I
tried to be genuine. I saw that Gideon and Aidan had gotten into a private
conversation.

"So, I see you just met the
Johnson's?" I nodded. "They are a close family friend to the
Iverson's. Hell, Aidan Sr. practically put the doctor through college. His
daughter, Becca, as well."

I nodded and tried to keep a normal
conversation.

"What is it that Becca does?"

Loreley smirked.

"Oh, she is a pharmacist." She
chuckled. "You could say that they have their own doctor and pharmacist on
hand. And, of course they would do anything the Iverson's ask of them."

Before I could ask anything else, Aidan
excused us and we moved on to the next group of people. We were just about
finished with the mingling when a familiar face appeared in front of me.

"Lilli," he smiled smoothly
and took my hand, raising my knuckles to his lips.

"Demitri?" I said in a very
hushed tone, smiling politely. I heard Aidan growl next to me.

His lips had barely brushed my knuckles
when Aidan's hand appeared on my wrist pulling my hand back to him and away
from Demitri.

"This is my husband, Aidan," I
introduced them.

Demitri stuck out his hand.

"It's good to meet the man who was
able to convince Lilli to marry him."

Aidan grabbed his hand, it was obvious
that they were playing a testosterone driven battle of grips.

"Okay, boys, can we stop with the
ridiculousness?" I rolled my eyes and pulled their hands apart.

Aidan pulled me tighter to his side and
I wanted to smack him in the back of the head for being so possessive.

"So, Aidan, this is your
foundation?" Demitri took a sip of the drink he was holding. I knew that
it was a vodka tonic from experience.

"Technically, it’s Lilli's,"
he said with a smile and a closer tug to his side.

Demitri looked at me with surprise.

"You planned this event?"

"I helped his aunt organize the
event. She is truly the brains behind the operation," I laughed out.

"Nonsense, Lilli," I turned to
see Viola. "Don't let her fool you, she is brilliant and as much a part of
this as me, if not more." She smiled at me warmly.

"I wouldn't doubt Lilli's
brilliance for anything," Demitri said with a sly smirk. I swallowed hard.
Was he trying to create a more uncomfortable situation?

Thankfully an announcement was made for
everyone to take their seats. I sighed in relief and excused us as Aidan led us
to our table.

"What is he doing here?" Aidan
hissed into my ear as he pulled my chair out for me.

"Apparently he's here for the
foundation, Aidan." I hissed back.

"So, you didn't personally invite
him?" I turned to look at him astounded.

"Just stop."

He looked angry.

"So you did?"

"Damn it, Aidan, do not do this
here. I sighed. "If you must know, no, I did not. But so what if I had? Do
you think that I would just push him onto a table and fuck him here in front of
everyone? Is that what you think of me?" I was beyond irate, my tone was
starting to rise so I excused myself.

"Where are you—?"

"Away from you," I hissed.
"I'll be back," I growled out and headed towards the ladies room.

Leaning on the sink top in the ladies
room, the door opened behind me.

"Are you okay?" Celia entered
with Phoebe behind her.

I nodded.

"You didn't look okay when you left
the room." Phoebe slipped her mask off and so did Celia.

"Demitri is here and Aidan isn't
thrilled about it." I rolled my eyes. "He's being ridiculous." I
growled.

"Tell us what happened." Celia
sat down in one of the plush chairs and Phoebe put her arm around my shoulders.
I told them the whole occurrence.

"What a dick!" Celia said
bluntly and I laughed.

"So, I'm not overreacting?" I
asked unsure of myself.

"Hell no," Phoebe concluded.
"He is being jealous, and not a good jealous." She squeezed me
tightly.

I took a deep breath.

"Thank you, I feel better."
They both smiled at me widely and we group hugged. "We should probably get
back before Dixon eats your entire meal," I half giggled toward Celia.

Phoebe and Celia laughed as we exited.
Aidan was standing against the wall, waiting. Phoebe and Celia both squeezed my
arm once more before walking away toward the ballroom.

I stood with my arms crossed over my
chest.

"Lilli—" he was about to run his
hand through his hair. I grabbed his wrist, stopping him from messing up his
hair so early in the night. That movement had his arms around my waist.

"I’m sorry for being jealous,
insanely jealous, of your...friend." The word friend came out in disgust.

"Aidan, I’m not going behind your
back. I can barely think past my daily schedule for you to worry about me being
with someone else. Besides, I would never do that to you and have never given
you a reason to believe that I would."

He hugged me tighter.

"Forgive me? Please?" It was
such a pleading question. I didn't understand why he was so desperate for me to
forgive him.

"Of course I will, but just stop, okay?"

He nodded. As I pulled away I saw him
quickly wipe his cheek.

"Aidan?"

"It's nothing," he mumbled.

"But—?"

Before I could finish my sentence, his
lips were on mine. He pulled away from me and looked into my eyes.

"I don't want you to be upset with
me. When you left me at the table, it killed me. I don’t want to hurt,
especially by making you think that you would—"

I kissed him.

After returning to the table and going
through the multiple course meal, the entertainment began. First, would be the
speeches. Then, the children's choir would perform, followed by the auction and
ending with the orchestra.

Aidan and Viola made their way to the
stage. They both took turns discussing the foundation. It was going really
well, until...

"I would like for my wife to join
us on stage this evening," Aidan announced.

I shook my head.

"Lilli, go," Maggie whisper
shouted. I looked at her and shook my head. She grabbed my arm and walked me
onto the stage.

I smiled nervously and leaned into Aidan
as he pulled me tightly to his side.

"You are so going to pay for
this." I whispered.

"Ooh...promise?" He whispered
back and when I looked at him, he was sporting his crooked grin. The hot
bastard!

He took a step toward the podium after
Viola talked about the foundation, the children's homes, thanked the
contributors and announced my involvement.

"Lilli is the newest addition to
the Isobel's Heart Foundation. I find it a little ironic that the foundation
will now be jointly run by another strong woman with a similar passion to my
grandmother, Mrs. Isobel Iverson."

At first I was taken aback that he had
announced my 'joint’ involvement. Viola was beaming next to him as they both
turned to look at me. Viola quickly hugged me and Aidan kissed my cheek,
pushing me toward the podium.

"I didn't plan to speak," I
hissed to Aidan.

"Just speak from your heart, Lilli.
You will do fine." He kissed me chastely, standing close to me as I turned
to the podium and looked out over the audience.

I smiled broadly, terrified.

"I, uh, hadn't planned on speaking
tonight. I would like to thank you all for coming and for helping the
foundation." All of a sudden I found a groove and went with it. "The
children that we are helping tonight are not only beautiful and brilliant, they
are also strong in their own special ways. Tonight you should congratulate
yourself in making a difference for them. Thank you."

I stepped away and Viola was first to my
ear.

"You are amazing, dear. That was
perfect."

"I'm going to kill your nephew when
we get home, by the way." I whispered into her ear and she hid her giggle
in my shoulder.

Aidan finished speaking and announced
the children's choir from one of the children's homes performing for us
tonight. We stayed off stage as they sang multiple songs. Once they were
finished, I hugged each one of them, as did Viola, before we returned to our
table.

The auctioneer took the stage. I almost
did laughing when he announced the first item up for bid.

"Our first item for bid
tonight...is a dance with Mr. Iverson, himself." The auctioneer turned to
Aidan and motioned for him to take the center stage. Aidan looked nervous. I couldn’t
help the laughter that bubbled from within my chest.

I turned to Viola.

"Did you do this?" I whispered
across the table.

She winked.

"He likes making you unexpectedly
nervous, let's see how he does."

Maggie and I giggled ferociously.

"Remind me to never anger
you." Jason mumbled to Maggie. We laughed harder.

"That would be wise, big man,"
Maggie flicked his nose playfully and then kissed his cheek. They were adorable
together.

"So, do I hear one thousand dollars?"
The auctioneer started. "Mrs. Iverson?" He looked directly at me.

I tapped my chin.

"I don't know..." the crowd
laughed "Is there anyone else back there? You know, like Brad Pitt
or..?"

Aidan scowled at me playfully and I
laughed hard.

"One thousand dollars!" I
turned to see a tall, voluptuous red-head in the middle of the room.

I looked at Aidan who was fixated on my
reaction. I shrugged and giggled.

"Two-thousand dollars!" Now it
was Aidan's Aunt Anne bidding.

"Three-thousand," Viola shrugged
and then whispered to me, "Might as well try to get as much for him as
possible."

I laughed.

"Four-thousand," I announced
and raised my glass to Aidan, who looked relieved.

"Ten-thousand," Again, it was
the red-head.

The auctioneer looked at me and I
laughed because he thought he needed my approval. I stood up and headed to the
podium.

"Excuse me," I grabbed the
gavel and looked out at the sea of worried expressions.

"Sold! For ten-thousand dollars to
the beautiful red-head in the back!" I laughed and the crowd laughed with
me. "Oh, but can you return him before the end of the night? He has the
keys to the house." I patted down my dress. "No pockets." Shrugging,
I kissed Aidan on the cheek.

"Thanks a lot for pimping me
out," he laughed, then kissed my lips.

"Hey, it's for the kids," I
tweaked his nose and headed back to the table with him. "I can't believe
someone paid ten-thousand to dance with you."

"Why is that?" He inquired.

"Oh, honey, you aren't that
good." I giggled.

He tapped my butt and I squealed.

Once the auction was complete, the
orchestra got set up and began to play. The red head made her appearance at our
table. I ushered a hesitant Aidan up from his seat.

"Have fun," I waved and
smirked as he headed to the floor with the woman.

"Are you sure this is a good
idea?" Celia appeared next to me.

I shrugged.

"Why not?"

"Maybe because she is clearly
interested in him and you just fed him to her." Phoebe appeared on my
other side.