Escorting the Groom (The Escort Collection 4)

I shook my head. "It worked."

"Good." Blake smiled. "We need to stay on our toes. Speaking of which, dinner made me think about what you said about the wedding."

"Which thing?"

She bit her lip, looking guilty. "That your family would hate the idea of a Vegas wedding."

I grinned at her. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

She nodded, her eyes sparkling.

"They deserve a spectacle." I filled our glasses with the rest of the wine and raised mine in a toast. "To Vegas, baby."

She clinked her glass against mine. "To Vegas."

Chapter Eight

Blake

Lucas was quiet on the ride home. "That must have been stressful for you," I said, trying to draw him out. He needed an ally against his family, and it looked as though I was all he had.

He shrugged, looking out the window. "I wasn't expecting anything different."

"Have they always been so…" I searched for a word that was fitting but not too insulting. "Dysfunctional?"

He shot me a look. "Yes." He was quiet for a moment. "No. I don't know."

I waited to see if he would go on.

Lucas scrubbed his hands over his face. "They were all better-behaved before my mother died. Elizabeth at least had the decency to wait to jump ship to my father's bed a respectable few months after that."

"Oh. Wow."

He chuckled darkly. "She's a piece of work, all right. But my sister… she was still married when my mother died. Robert was a nice guy."

"So why does Serena seem to…" I didn't want to finish the question.

"Hate me?" Lucas's eyes twinkled in the dim interior of the SUV. "Because she said that I was our mother's favorite. And once Mom was gone, there was no one to keep her in line. My father was too busy sticking it to my ex to notice that Serena had gone off the deep end. She got her boobs done this year. She does Botox all the time. She's thirty-seven, for Christ's sake. Too young to be doing that, and too old to be out partying like she is."

"That's too bad. So she's… jealous? It just seems so petty."

"Why did your sister go after your boyfriend?" he asked gently.

I arched an eyebrow at him. I really wished we were back playing pretend in front of his family so I could run my hands down his backside and put him in his place—under my spell. "Are you analyzing me?"

Lucas's gaze held mine. "Aren't you analyzing me?"

I shrugged. "Maybe."

"So, back to your sister. Her motivation was?"

"Chelsea. Her name's Chelsea." I swallowed hard. "She's pretty easy to analyze. If I had a toy, she always wanted to take it. When it came to Vince, things were no different."

"Exactly." Lucas patted my hand. "It's because you're better than her and deep down, she knows it. Same thing with my sister. Serena doesn't want to see me inherit that money because she thinks I've led a charmed life and that I don't deserve any more than I've got. She doesn't understand why I work so hard when I already have so much."

"Why do you work so hard when you already have so much?" I blurted the question out and then I sat there, cheeks reddening, as Lucas gave me a long look.

"You're doing it again. Analyzing."