Propositioned By The Tycoon: Mr Strictly Business / Bought: His Temporary Fiancée / A Win-Win Proposition

Satisfied that the guests were thoroughly enjoying their small taste of Venice, she turned her attention to the buffet station set up on one side of the sweeping lawn. The caterers she’d chosen specialized in authentic Italian cuisine and had gone all out for the evening’s festivities. Graceful tents of silk and tulle surrounded the groaning tables. With a stiff breeze blowing from off the lake, the tents served the duel function of protecting the food and keeping the fuel canisters beneath the hot dishes from blowing out. Adjacent to the tents, linen draped tables dotted the area, the silver cutlery and crystal glassware gleaming softly beneath the lighting.

Catherine gave the area one final check, and was on the verge of returning to the kitchen when she caught sight of Roxanne. The woman stood chatting with Natalie, while her gaze roamed the crowds, clearly searching for someone. Catherine could make three big, fat guesses who that someone might be and they would all center on the man standing beside her.

“I didn’t realize you brought your assistant with you,” she said to Gabe.

He followed her gaze and shrugged. “I didn’t. I believe she’s a friend of Natalie’s daughter.”

As though aware of the scrutiny, Roxanne homed in on Catherine…and Gabe. And then her lips curved in a killer smile, a horribly familiar one that, in the past, warned of coming trouble. Offering her hostess a quick air kiss, she excused herself and made her way toward them, undulating across the grass with her distinctive catwalk stride.

She looked fabulous, Catherine reluctantly conceded, dressed in traffic-stopping red. The bodice of her skintight dress bared a path of bronzed skin straight to her equator while her skirt barely covered the assets composing her southern hemispheres. She shot Catherine a challenging look, before wrapping herself around Gabe.

“Since we’re not on duty…” She moistened her lips before planting a lingering kiss on his mouth. Then she pulled back and laughed up at him. “See what you’ve been missing? I did tell you.”

He regarded his assistant with indulgent amusement. “A shame I have that rule about not mixing business with pleasure,” he replied easily. “Otherwise, you’d be in serious trouble.”

“Some rules are made to be broken. And in case you didn’t notice, I excel at trouble.” Her dark eyes sparkled. “Don’t you agree?”

“That you excel at trouble?” He inclined his head. “Absolutely. Unfortunately, my rules are written in concrete. I never break them, no matter how tempting the offer.”

It was a gently administered rebuff and maybe if they’d been alone, Roxanne would have taken it better. Unfortunately, Catherine’s presence heaped humiliation on top of embarrassment. Deciding it was time to make a tactful retreat, Catherine offered the two her most professional smile.

“If you’ll excuse me,” she murmured, “I’ll leave you to enjoy the party while I get back to work. If there’s anything I can do to make your evening more pleasant, please don’t hesitate to let me know.”

With that, she made a beeline for the kitchen. Damn it. Roxanne would not appreciate her witnessing that little scene with Gabe. She could only hope that by making a swift departure, she dodged any sort of bullet fired off as retribution. She couldn’t afford for anything to go wrong tonight. If Gabe’s precious assistant decided to even the score a little, it could cause serious trouble for Elegant Events. Catherine managed a full dozen steps before she was caught by the arm and swung around.

“You don’t want to leave now,” Roxanne insisted in an undertone, anchoring her in place. “The party’s just about to get interesting.”

Catherine’s eyes narrowed. “What are you talking about?” she demanded.

Roxanne simply smiled. “Wait for it…Ah, right on cue.”

The roar of multiple engines echoed from across the lake and a pair of bullet-shaped motorboats bore down on the area reserved for the gondolas.

Chapter Three (#ulink_bd7e493d-3d50-5e0a-858a-7d37b8ab8407)

Catherine stared in horror. “Oh, no. No, no, no.”

“Now, that doesn’t look good,” Roxanne observed with a well satisfied smile. “Maybe this part of the lake wasn’t the best place to put your little boats.”

At the last possible instant, the invading crafts cut their engines, sending huge swells careening among the gondolas, overturning three of them and swamping most of the others. Shrieks of panic echoed across the lake as guests, dressed in their party finery, tumbled into water that still clung to its springtime chill.

While Roxanne sauntered back toward the house, Catherine yanked her walkie-talkie from a holster clipped to the belt at her waist and depressed the mike. “I need everyone out to the lake. Now.” She ran toward the shoreline, even as she barked orders. Off to her left, she saw Gabe flying across the lawn toward the water, as well as several of the other men present. “There’s been an accident with the gondolas. There are guests in the water. Everyone drop what you’re doing and help. Davis…call marine patrol and have them dispatch emergency vehicles immediately.”

Within minutes, guests and staff alike were pulling people from the water. “I want the gondoliers locating those guests who were in their individual boat,” Catherine called out. Comprehension was instantaneous and the gondoliers immediately started rounding up and organizing their passengers to confirm that everyone who went into the lake had come safely out of it. “Make sure every guest is accounted for. Report to me as soon as you’ve counted heads.”

Natalie appeared at her side. A combination of tears and fury burned in her eyes. “How could you let this happen?” she demanded. “My father-in-law is out there. My grandchildren are out there.”

“Try and stay calm, Natalie. I’ll have everyone accounted for in just a few minutes,” Catherine attempted to reassure her.

“Calm! Don’t tell me to be calm.” She hovered along the edge of the grass, desperately scanning the crowd of soaked guests for family members. Tears fell as she spotted them. “If anything happens to my family or friends as a result of this, I will sue you six ways to Sunday!”

“I’m sorry, Natalie. Truly, I am. We’ve called the King County Marine Unit. They’re on their way. The area is posted. I had boats anchored just outside the warning buoys to help direct lake traffic away from this section, but they simply drove straight through.” She gestured toward the motorboats responsible. “If the marine unit catches these guys before they disappear, they’ll take the appropriate action. In the meantime, all my staff is down there helping people ashore. We’re going to need towels, if you have them.”

“Of course I have towels,” she snapped. “But that doesn’t change what’s happened. This is an unmitigated disaster. I was warned not to hire you, Catherine. But I liked you. You told me you could do the job and do it perfectly. You knew how important this was to me—”

Catherine never heard the rest of Natalie’s comment, perhaps because it ended in a shriek as water seemed to explode around them. Sprinkler heads popped up across the lawn and shot drenching sprays over the guests, the tables and the food. Within seconds, those who hadn’t been thrown in the lake were as thoroughly soaked as those who had been.

People fled in all directions. Natalie’s daughter tripped over a peg anchoring one of the tents and knocked a billowing section into the hot dishes. The flame from the fuel canisters leapt onto the material and raced hungrily across the silk and tulle. If it hadn’t been for the sprinklers, the entire area would have turned into an inferno.

Catherine ran to the tent, yanking at the burning section in an attempt to pull it to the grass and extinguish what flames the sprinklers weren’t reaching. She felt the scorching heat lick at her hands. She’d barely managed to knock the awning to the ground, where the flames subsided with a smoky hiss, when an arm locked around her waist and swept her clear of the area. The next thing she knew she was tumbled to the grass and rolled repeatedly. She struggled against her attacker, even managing to connect with a fist to an iron-hard jaw before his hold loosened. Shoving her sopping hair from her face, she found herself pinned to the ground, nose-to-nose with Gabe.

Catherine fought for air while tears of outrage welled up in her eyes. “What the hell are you doing? Why did you tackle me?” She couldn’t seem to make sense of what was happening. “I was trying to put out the flames.”

“So was I. You were on fire, Catherine.” He snagged the sleeve of her dress and showed her the scorch marks. Then he ripped the seam of her sleeve from wrist to shoulder and checked her skin for burns. He didn’t find any, and an expression of undisguised relief flashed across his face. “Looks like I caught it in time. Another minute and you’d have been on your way to the hospital.”

“I…I thought I was being attacked.”

“So I gathered.” He waggled his jaw from side to side. “That’s one hell of a right hook you have, by the way.”

She buried her head against his shoulder and fought for control. Everything had happened so fast, she couldn’t make sense of it all. “I don’t understand any of this, Gabe. The fire…Dear God, the tent went up so fast. If anyone had been nearby—”

He wrapped her in a tight embrace. “Easy, honey. Everyone’s safe. And everyone made it out of the water without injury. Best of all, the marine unit has the boaters corralled.”

She could feel her emotions slipping and struggled to hang on. Hysterics wouldn’t help. Not here. Not now. She needed to keep a level head until she could get home and crawl into some dark hole. “Who were they?” She forced herself to pull free of Gabe’s protective hold even though it would have been so much easier to cling. She fought her way to her knees. “And how did the sprinklers turn on? I checked them myself. They’re not scheduled to start up until morning.”

“I don’t know.” He soothed with both voice and touch. “Let’s take everything one step at a time, sweetheart. I know it looks bad, but we’ll figure out what happened and why.”

She knelt there, soaked and shivering, as she scanned the area. Tables were overturned, chairs upended. Shards of shattered crystal and china glittered under the outdoor lights. The other tents had also been knocked askew by fleeing guests, though miracle of miracles, they hadn’t caught fire as this one had. But the buffet tables had all tipped. Food littered the grass in soggy heaps. Along the outskirts of the property, people were milling, looking shell-shocked.

Dear heaven. Catherine bowed her head, defeat weighing heavy. “I guess I won’t need your help saving my business, considering that my career is now officially over.”

“Not necessarily.” Compassion rippled through his voice. “I’ve turned around companies in worse predicaments.”

For a split second she felt a resurgence of hope. She lifted her head to look at him. “Do you really think Elegant Events can recover from this?”

“We’ll never know until we try.”

Catherine took a deep breath. “In that case…” It would seem she only had one remaining option. “I don’t suppose your offer from this morning is still on the table?”

Not a scrap of triumph showed in his voice or expression. “It was never off.”

Early morning sunshine flooded Dina’s kitchen and turned the glass insets of her cabinets into polished mirrors. “You don’t have to do this, Catherine,” Dina protested. “You don’t have to acquiesce to whatever terms Gabriel foisted on you during a critical moment. Considering the circumstances—”

“Considering the circumstances, yes, I do,” Catherine insisted. “I’ve always been a woman of my word, and that’s not going to change just because I was under pressure last night. If anyone can salvage something from the Marconi disaster, it’s Gabe. Trust me, we need someone of his caliber if we’re going to keep Elegant Events from becoming known as Deadly Disasters.”

Catherine leaned a hip against the countertop and tried not to think about the previous evening. It was bad enough that she’d spent the entire night with various highlights rampaging through her head. It was time to focus on solutions for the future, instead of dwelling on unalterable past events. But she couldn’t seem to help herself. In the wee hours of the morning she’d reached a few unpleasant conclusions. Though she refused to accept blame for the boaters—that she could lay firmly at Roxanne’s doorstep—the other incidents were the ones that troubled her the most.

It had been her initials on the checklist beside the detail that read “change the time on the automated sprinklers.” She distinctly remembered doing so. In fact, she’d checked the digital read-out a second time before the party started, just to be certain. She tapped her fingers on the countertop. Maybe she’d made a mistake. Maybe she’d pushed p.m. instead of a.m., even though at the time she’d been very careful to avoid just such a mistake.