Free The Tycoon's Socialite Bride (Entangled Indulgence) by Tracey Livesay Page B

over his shoulder and saw that Carter had stopped. Laughing, he jogged back to where Carter stood hunched over, his hands on his knees.
    “You can’t stop now, we’ve got two more miles to go.”
    “Screw you. I’m done.”
    Marcus slapped Carter’s back. “Come on, it wasn’t that bad.”
    Carter peered at him out of the corner of an eye. “Runner’s high, right? That’s just a nice way of saying crazy.”
    “Stop whining.”
    “Let’s see who’s whining when I get you on the tennis court.”
    Since he couldn’t play tennis and Carter had been the number two seed on his college team, Marcus let the competition go and changed the subject. “How was your weekend?”
    “Three words: blond, nurse, double-jointed.”
    “Isn’t that four words?”
    “Hyphenated. So where are we on the Pearson-Harrington merry-go-round?” Carter asked.
    “We’re back on.” Marcus bent his left leg at the knee, grabbed his ankle, and stretched his quad.
    “Everything went well at the country club yesterday?”
    “As well as it could, under these circumstances. She moved into a suite at the Four Seasons. This isn’t turning out the way I expected.” He let go of his ankle and performed the same stretch on his right leg.
    “You’re really surprised that your proposal of convenience is anything but?”
    “It was a good plan that could get us both what we wanted. But now she’s feuding with her father, who doesn’t approve of this marriage, which means he may bad-mouth me around town. She says he won’t, but I can’t be sure of that.”
    Carter straightened. “Can you blame him? What father wouldn’t have been concerned to learn his daughter was marrying a man he didn’t know?”
    The man may have a point, but Marcus didn’t like admitting it. “I have no choice but to go forward with our plan,” he said. “Her entire social circle, which means Holcombe’s social circle, knows about the engagement and that we’ve filed for a license. Starting over with a new fiancée would ruin any credibility I’ve managed to acquire. We’ll have to make this work.”
    “Yes, making it work with Pamela. An extremely hard task.”
    Marcus heard the interest in Carter’s voice and frowned. “Pretend fiancée or not, hands off.”
    “You better get used to it. She’s a beautiful woman.”
    “And she’ll look beautiful on my arm at the District’s Real Estate Investment & Development dinner at the St. Regis on Thursday.”
    “Look at that,” Carter teased. “She’s already classing you up.”
    “We ran into her ex, Wentworth, at the country club.”
    “What was he like?”
    “Stuck-up prick.”
    Wentworth had an air of entitlement, as though he’d been denied nothing in his privileged upbringing. Marcus didn’t like him, but he couldn’t deny Devin and Pamela had made a striking couple. They looked right together, like two interlocking puzzle pieces. And they had history. It had pissed him off.
    “She traded up with you, man.”
    “Thanks.”
    “No one would ever call you stuck-up.”
    Marcus maneuvered Pamela around the small dance floor of the Astor Ballroom at the St. Regis hotel. Four large crystal chandeliers hung from the ballroom’s eighteen-foot ceilings, bathing the room in soft light. On one wall, floor-to-ceiling windows revealed the twinkling lights from the adjoining Astor Terrace, bright against the clear night sky. This was an important outing for him. Executives from some of the top real estate companies in the city were in this room. It was a great networking opportunity, and the event had been on his calendar for weeks. Now he had the added bonus of having Pamela on his arm. It increased his status and added credibility to their relationship.
    “Did you pick up the marriage license?” he asked.
    “It’s on my schedule for tomorrow. I love this song.” Her body vibrated as she hummed a few notes. “I think it’s Norah Jones.”
    “It is. She’s good.”
    “Doesn’t seem like