Get Bunny Love (27 page)

Thurston shook the olive from the bottom of his glass. “Is it McNulty policy for Nathan to make early morning house calls to his staff?” His silver brows met in a vee. “Or do you think they were up all night planning parties?”

The meddlesome man stepped away before Martha could respond. She felt as though she’d been slapped. Had Nathan spent the night with Beatrice Love? Impossible. Unthinkable.
Unacceptable
.

He’d agreed to marry Melanie, damn it. She’d raised him to know better than to sleep with some free-spirited New Age spouting sprite. What had happened to his control?

Miss Love had to go, and she had to go now. The heat of Martha’s anger singed her cheeks. She loved Nate too much to watch him suffer his father’s fate. She could only hope that someday his heart would recover, and he’d understand.

o0o

Nate watched proudly as Bunny effortlessly worked the room. She’d repositioned the appetizers higher than every pooch in attendance and now mingled like a pro. Hiring her had been anything but a mistake. She fit—in his company and his life.

He leaned against a support column, brushing away the filmy material Bunny had insisted on. Something about softening the negative energy of the edges. He chuckled. She might be a fruitcake, but she sure was a sexy fruitcake.

Bunny’s laugh rang out above the crowd, strong and vital. Nate longed to have her all to himself. He didn’t want to share her with a bunch of canines and their owners. He wanted to touch her. Make love to her. Over and over, and over again.

His body responded and he realized he had to focus. And not on Bunny’s shapely curves. Control, Nate.
Control
. Tonight he needed tunnel vision. The target—a successful Worthington Cup. He’d drop dead before he let Aunt Martha turn the firm over to Armand. Delivering a world-class weekend would ensure that didn’t happen.

“I’ve been trying to find you all day.” Melanie’s voice interrupted his thoughts. Her curve-hugging, eyeball-popping cobalt blue dress shattered them.

“Wow.” He mentally chastised himself. Way to be nonchalant, McNulty.

Melanie’s features warmed into a dazzling smile. “It’s not too much?” A shadow of doubt flickered across her smile and he caught himself.

“I’m just not used to seeing you like this.” He rocked back on his heels, a chuckle slipping from his lips. “Hell, Mel. That’s some dress.”

A worried furrow pinched the skin between her brows.

He squeezed her hand. “You’re a knockout.”

Melanie beamed. “It’s the new me.”

Nate allowed himself a measured gaze. Stunning. Something had changed, though, and it wasn’t just the dress. Melanie had a new energy. Dare he use that term? Lord, Bunny really had rubbed off on him, but it was true. Melanie oozed life.

“You’re alive,” Nate murmured.

Melanie placed her palm on Nate’s chest. Warmth seeped through the jacket of his suit.

“I feel alive.” She glanced around the room. “I owe it to Bunny.”

“Bunny?” Nate’s voice cracked. A puzzled look washed across Melanie’s features. Guilt rippled straight from her touch to Nate’s cheating groin. He fought the urge to close his eyes and moan. How could he have slept with Bunny before he came clean with Melanie? She deserved better.

“I’m leaving,” she said softly.

“The party?”

“The state.”

“What?” Her words jolted him back into focus.

“I hope you’ll find a way to understand.” She paused, pulling herself taller, straighter. “I’ve decided to explore my options.”

“I’m a little confused.”
Confused
? Between her scrap of a dress and the new alter ego, his brain hurt.

“You and I both know we were getting married because our families wanted us to.”

So far, so good. Nate nodded.

“So you agree?” Her crystal clear blue eyes widened expectantly. “You’re not upset about this?”

He shook his head
Stunned
. But not upset. Maybe some things were meant to be. In the case of a marriage between he and Melanie, some things weren’t. Nate felt lighter suddenly, as though a weight had been hoisted from his back.

“Come on.” He held out his arm. “Let’s go toast the new you.”

o0o

Bunny watched the pair from behind the punch bowl. Nate and Melanie seemed cozy.
Too
cozy. She tamped down her jealousy. She’d feel a whole lot better if she could hear what they were saying. She measured the distance from the plant corner to where they stood.
Perfect.

“Bunny, darling.”

Kitty
. Bunny flinched. Who’d eaten, peed or trampled what now? Chablis and Chardonnay stood on either side of Kitty’s ankles, little evil noses sniffing for trouble.

“It’s time for my remarks,” Kitty said. “You’ll watch the girls?”

Yeah. Like that had gone well previously. “I don’t-”

“Armand always watched the girls during my remarks.” Kitty arched one brow expectantly.

“
Fine
.” Bunny shot a warning look at
the girls
. They snarled in return. Not a good start. “Where are their leashes?”

“Oh.” Kitty waved a hand in the air as she walked away. “They graduated summa cum laude from the obedience academy. They don’t need leashes.”

“That’s what you think,” Bunny muttered under her breath.

She scrutinized the dynamic duo. They stared back. “Ladies, we’re headed for the plant corner. Can you handle that?”

She stepped casually across the room, angling closer to where Nate stood deep in conversation with Melanie. Bunny realized her jealousy was ridiculous, but, come on. Even in her dreams, she couldn’t make sequins bounce like Melanie did.

Chablis and Chardonnay trotted happily at her heels. Maybe Kitty was right about the leashes after all.

She shuffled behind a large potted fern, hoping her basic black would blend into the greenery. “Psst.” The poodles’ fuzzy heads snapped in her direction. She jerked her chin and the two fur balls came running. “Do whatever you want,” she whispered. “Just stay close and stay quiet. Aunt Bunny has some eavesdropping to do.”

Two pairs of shiny black, beady eyes blinked attentively. At least she hoped it was attentively.

Bunny stepped deeper into the grouping of pots, stubbing her toe on a heavy ceramic container. She bit back a yelp just as Nate’s words reached her.

“I never noticed what vivid blue eyes you have, Mel.”

His silky smooth voice was unmistakable.
Mel
? Since when did Mr. Prim and Proper call anyone Mel?

“How’s my energy?” Melanie’s usually gentle voice sounded downright sexy.

“Sizzling.” Nate laughed, rich and full.

Bunny twisted up her face so severely, it hurt.
Sizzling
? This did not sound like a kiss-off conversation. More like a kiss
on
.

Nausea clawed its way up Bunny’s esophagus. Maybe Nate had never intended to break things off with Melanie. After all, he’d never actually said as much. Had he? Bunny assumed his passionate lovemaking signaled the imminent demise of the McNulty-Brittingham merger, but perhaps she’d been nothing more than a momentary diversion.

No
. She didn’t really believe that. Did she?

Someone—or
something
—let out a blood-curdling scream.

Bunny searched the area around her feet, but Chablis and Chardonnay were nowhere in sight. “Damn it,” she mumbled. “Demon dogs.”

She unfurled herself from behind the greenery and froze, her worst fears realized. Chardonnay had launched a flank attack on a Saint Bernard. Holy cow. Chablis already hung, fang deep, from the massive dog’s kicking paw. These poodles had serious size issues.

She scrambled to the scene just as Chablis flew through the air. She landed on the hard floor with a muffled cry. Bunny winced, but the fur ball shook it off, unscathed, racing back for a counterattack.

“Heel!” Bunny screamed.

Too late
. The Saint Bernard had decided he wasn’t taking any more abuse. He shook his massive body, sending both poodles scampering for cover. The giant’s less than dainty physique clipped a candelabrum sending two freesia tapers tumbling to the floor.

That would have been bad enough, but one candle rolled, still burning, straight for a decorated column. Bunny watched in stunned amazement as the ivory tulle burst into a ribbon of orange flame, licking its way up the pillar.

Dogs and party guests scrambled, shrieks and barks filling the air. Chablis and Chardonnay dashed for the plant corner. Jimmy Monroe ripped the burning tulle from the pillar, stomping the stubborn flames beneath his biker boots.

Bunny did what any practical event planner would do. She upended a giant martini water station sending a torrent of water across the tiled floor. The inferno sputtered out, sending up one last plume of angry smoke.

“Is it out?” She uttered the words in one fearful breath.

Jimmy nodded. “Too much yang. Amateur mistake.”

Bunny bit her lip. Everyone was a critic.

She cast a quick glance around the room. The guests had scattered. Nate stood where he had been, one arm wrapped protectively around Melanie’s shoulders. Bunny’s stomach clenched with dread.

Martha McNulty stood open-mouthed, all color blanched from her cheeks. Thurston Monroe smugly shook his head, no doubt planning the next tenant for Bunny’s apartment. Kitty Worthington lay flat out on stage. Tilly gave Bunny the thumbs up in between her attempts to revive Kitty with cheek pats. Bert leaned against the stage, head hanging, shoulders shaking.

A faint siren wailed in the distance, growing steadily closer. A loan canine guest launched a mournful howl. A second dog joined him, then a third, and fourth.

Bunny’s intuition screamed job change. And it wasn’t talking promotion.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Thirty minutes later, the fire chief nodded in Nate’s direction. “All clear here.”

“Sorry for the inconvenience, Chief.” Nate shot an anxious glance to where Bunny stood. Her eyes flashed nervously as he caught her attention. She looked away, her expression pained and frightened.

He stood huddled with Aunt Martha who wanted Bunny’s head on a platter. For once, he agreed. The chaotic menace might have a firm grasp on his heart, but she’d probably cost the firm any future Worthington Cups and certainly any referrals.

A local news reporter interviewed several guests in a far corner of the hall, the camera bathing them in bright light.

“Nathan McNulty,” Aunt Martha snapped. “Look at me.”

As soon as he did, he wished he hadn’t. The fury in his aunt’s eyes was like nothing he’d ever seen.

“This evening has been an abomination,” she hissed. “If you don’t fire her, I will.”

He bristled. No one fired his staff. No one. “I’ll handle it.”

This time Bunny’s antics had gone too far. Accident or not, each piece of the evening’s puzzle traced back to her efforts at positive chi. Her creative efforts had resulted in the evening’s fiery conclusion.

Confusion tugged Nate’s heart down to his stomach. Could he fire Bunny? She had become the bright light pulling him out of his gray existence. She had also, however, become the grim reaper pulling him into the abyss of failed event planning.

Bunny might be the yang to his yin, but her chaos had destroyed his carefully orchestrated control.

His traitorous stomach tightened and twisted. Furious as he was, he couldn’t stop thinking about Bunny’s slipper-covered feet wrapped around his waist, or the way it had felt to be inside her. When she was near, control went out the window.

“Nathan! You’d better be fantasizing about ways to fire her.”

He swallowed, snapping himself out of his libido-induced trance. He nodded, resigned to the knowledge that his first mistake had been hiring Bunny for something as important as The Worthington Cup. His second had been falling for her.

“Fire her, or Armand Miller will be your boss by Monday.”

Ice seeped through his veins. “Over my dead body.”

“Then act like a McNulty.”

Nate watched Bunny smooth the front of her dress. His eyes locked instantly on her damned ruffle and all strength seeped from his muscles. This entire situation was his fault. He’d broken a cardinal rule, mixing business with pleasure.
Lack of control
. He’d shown nothing but since Bunny entered his world.

“I’ll do it now.” He set his features, hoping the doubt rattling around inside his brain didn’t shine through.

Bert stepped into his path halfway across the floor, his expression tense, his eyes pleading. “Don’t do this. This wasn’t her fault.”

Not her fault
? Anger bubbled from somewhere deep inside Nate. “Whose fault was it? The poodles? Granted, they’re demonic, but they’re dogs. Dogs Bunny failed to watch.”

Bert grabbed his arm. “Is this your decision? Or Martha’s?”

Nate didn’t appreciate his friend’s tone. “No one tells me how to run this firm. That includes Aunt Martha, Bunny and
you
.” He shook his arm free of Bert’s grip.

Color rose in Bert’s cheeks. Nate stepped around him, more determined than ever firing Bunny was his only choice. The survival of his father’s firm had to come before the needs of his heart.
It had to
.

Bunny stood waiting, her expression tremulous. She’d shoved her tangled hair behind her ears, achieving nothing more than drawing attention to the complete lack of color in her face. She touched Nate’s arm. “Can you forgive me?”

He lost himself momentarily in the depths of her frightened eyes. He wanted to throttle her. He wanted to console her. His emotions tugged and pulled, maneuvering for position. Duty. Bunny. Control. Chaos. Expectations. Love.

“You’re fired.”
And I think I’m in love with you
.

Tears shimmered in her eyes. “F...fired?”

Be strong. She’ll forgive you eventually. Think about the company
. “Does this surprise you, or do you set fire to most cocktail parties you attend?”

His harsh words caused her shoulders to slump, as if he’d sucked the air from her body. Bunny stammered wordlessly. Red splotches blossomed in her cheeks. “I thought...I thought.”